4th of July Cupcakes and a Genious Strawberry Tip!

I really wanted to make cupcakes with fruit so I figured I would do a red,white and blue theme.  With lots of different inspiration from other blogs, pinterest and the food networks I came up with an idea:

STRAWBERRY FILLED RED VELVET CUPCAKES WITH SWEET CREAM AND BERRIES....

OR

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY CUPCAKES

Inspiration - Lots

Recipe - By Me

Pictures - By Me

Time To Prepare - 15 minutes

Time To Bake - 16 minutes

Temperature - 325f

Makes - 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Your normal cupcake recipe OR 1 box of cake mix (any kind you want!) I used a red velvet recipe for the red,white and blue theme.

Punnet of Strawberries - enough for 1 per cupcake

1/2 pint whipping cream

2 tbsp icing (powdered) sugar

1 cap of vanilla essence

Rasberries and Blueberries to decorate.

Method:

1. Make your cupcake recipe as directed

2. Bake for 16 minutes at 325f.  I learned this from the Wilton's cake lady and the cupcakes come out perfectly moist every time!

3. Let the cupcakes cool

4. Make a hole in the middle of the cupcake, deep and wide enough to place your strawberry.  I just used a sharp knife, cut a circle in the top and the hollowed out a little piece of the middle.

5. Place the strawberry in the middle of each hollowed out cake

6. Make up the sweet cream recipe - whisk the cream, icing sugar and vanilla essence until thick.

7. Pipe the cream on top of the strawberry/cupcake.  I used a zip lock bag with a corner cut off because I don't have a piping bag.

8. Decorate with your berries or anything else you want - sprinkles, nuts etc...

9. Share and enjoy with others, and watch the surprise on their face when they discover the hidden strawberry.

I will be making these hidden strawberry cupcakes again!

Bonus Tip for Coring Strawberries:

I always used to just cut the top off of strawberries and get annoyed with how much good strawberry was wasted until I discovered this.

1 Take a plastic straw and place through the tip of the bottom of the strawberry like this:

2. Push the straw right through the strawberry until the leaf has come away from the strawberry like this:

3. Pull the strawberry down the straw to take it off and the remove the core of the strawberry from the top of the straw.  This will result in you having a perfectly cored strawberry with no waste.  Like this:

It takes one or two strawberries to practice with but after you get the hang of it it works every time and is so quick and less mess!  I'll always use this method now!











Fireworks - what fireworks?

With the 4th of July comes fireworks - lots of fireworks!!

I had wanted to go upto the Provo Temple and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks because I wasn't paying $60+ a ticket to be there! The temple is currently closed for maintenance and as it was so hot and we are without a car we both didn't fancy walking all the way up there to find the grounds were closed too so we decided to stay at home and watch the fireworks from NYC and Boston.  That was pretty fun too especially since Ben was surprised with just how many Patriotic songs I knew. Once the NYC fireworks ended we switched channels and watch the Boston fireworks and I sang the same songs over again much to Ben's delight!  I had to take some pictures of the fireworks so I took then from the TV because I'm that classy. Thank you NBC!

As I mentioned before I made some Patriotic treats and we had our own "firework" desserts. 

Ice Cream and Jelly (Jello!) - American Style!!  Then Ben said we should add some sparklers and this is what we got!  It was delicious but then I would eat Jelly every day if I could

Next Up - 4th of July Cupcakes



Happy Birthday America!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

I have to say that now I live here and to be honest I think the UK could learn a thing or two about patriotism from the USA.  Although I know since last year the UK have stepped it up and I think most people are loving their country again.  I'm sure we will see more of that with the Olympics in London later this month - I'm excited for that!

Anyway back onto July 4th!  Provo celebrate big style with their "Freedom Festival". It lasts for quite a few days over the first week in July, and from what I can make out they have events all year.  I've been told that the parade in Provo on the 4th is the biggest in Utah and since Ben and I live 3 blocks away from the parade route we were not missing out on this - plus this would be my first parade, well apart from the numerous parades that me and Marie have seen at Disney World on our travels.

About a week before the parade I was at the library and started to notice these little signs on the side of the road saying that you were not allowed to "stake out" out parade spot until 3pm on 3rd July.  I laughed at this because who would really stake out a spot 18 hours before a parade would start.  Little did I know that Utahn's, and no doubt most American's take this holiday very seriously as was evident on 3rd July.  I walked to the grocery store at 9am and there were sneaky people who had already "staked out" their spot.  They were sitting on chairs with blankets over them because it was already so hot.  Ben and I took a walk downtown later that day and the whole of University Avenue, on both side (around about 1.5 miles from where we walk from) were "staked out", and it was still 15 hours before the parade.  It looked like tent city... don't believe me? Check out these pictures...

Very few people were actually there at that time - the stipulation was at least one person had to be there the whole time.  The city even has active power points so people can run their fans, power their mobiles and of course go on facebook on their laptops as I witnessed. It was certainly interesting!!

Ben and I decided we were not going to be crazy and stay outside in the heat all night just to see a parade, it was 98f (35c) at 7pm, but that we would get up early and try and find a spot.  That night I was grateful for a bed and AC when I thought of all these crazy people sleeping outside in that heat.

After an eventful night which resulted in me not being able to take any more of the noise I got up at 4am and cleaned - I put that part in because the whole night people in cars honked their car horns, set off fireworks constantly and played really loud music coupled with really loud singing. I guess they were really getting into the holiday. Sometimes I hate living so close to BYU!

We got to the parade at 7.30am and managed to get a space right on the corner of our intersection which meant we were 3 blocks from the apartment - perfect!!  This was the scene in front of me - I kid not they had this couch out the night before too. I loved it! This bunch of people were super friendly and even loved the fact I was Scottish...phewww!

After waiting around an hour the pre parade happened - I didn't know this happened.  We figured these were the people who didn't quite cut the actual parade but in the spirit of Independence Day they let them go down the parade route.  It was fun.  I'm just going to overload you with pictures now BUT the highlight of the parade for me was seeing The Nielsons. I've followed Stephanie Nielson's blog for about 3 years now and she has an inspirational story and is an amazing example.  Her family were the Grand Marshalls for the parade.  You can read her blog at:  nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

Enjoy the photos!  We really did have a fun time, especially with the Slurpee drinking at 8.45am!