AishaRawr

St. Patty’s Cupcakes!

DIY:Fun and Easy Wall Art!

As a sister of Delta Gamma sorority, I was able to finally find my perfect little (love ya nadine!) and make some crafts for her! I decided to make some fun wall art that could easily spruce up the decorations for big-little week and add lots of color. Here’s how I did it:

What you need:

• A canvas
• Construction paper
• A small bottle of Mod Podge
• 2 Flat brushes (sponge and regular)
• White paint
• Letter stickers (can be easily found at a crafts store)

1) Lay out the construction paper on the canvas and make sure it fits on the canvas. Take a quarter of a cup of the Mod Podge and coat the canvas with it (adjust measurement of Mod Podge according to your canvas). Place your construction paper on the Mod Podge and then coat the top of the construction paper with another quarter of the Mod Podge. It may look very wet, but once it dries your painting will turn out a lot better. Let dry completely (should end up being shiny and smooth). 

2) After the Mod Podge is dry, cut the letters and lay them out into the words that you like.

3) Peel and stick the letters onto the canvas.

4) Next, cover the whole canvas with the white paint. You could also use spray paint to make sure the canvas is covered completely. I used paint to make it look a little less perfect :)

5) After the paint has dried completely, peel the letters from the canvas. However, be careful not to pull too hard because your construction paper underneath may rip!

6) And AT LAST! Your painting is ready :) Feel free to embellish with sparkles, glitter glue, gem stones or anything your heart desires.

Banana Cream Cupcakes!

My absolute favorite thing to do in the world is BAKE CUPCAKES! I’ve always experimented and tried to combine different recipes to create my own. This past week I decided to try a cupcake with fruit, Banana Cream Cupcakes! Since I was baking these for my family, and we love our sweets, I made sure the filling was fluffy and scrumptious! Here is the recipe along with little notes to help any beginner baker create these delicious cups of joy.

Cupcakes:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1  tablespoon baking soda
• 1  teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
• 1  cup sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2  eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4  very ripe (yellow/brown) bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt
•  1 small packet of chopped walnuts

Filling:

• 1 package Jello instant vanilla pudding (dry mix)
  
• 4 cups of milk (3 for the pudding)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 container (8-ounce ) cool whip extra-creamy whipped topping
•  2 cups confectioners’ sugar

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Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F
   
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
   Tip: use a large sifter for this mix to ensure it is light since the bananas later will make the mix very thick
   
3. In another large bowl, with an electric mixer, mix the butter with white sugar and brown sugar until light. Add eggs, and then vanilla.
   
4. Mash the bananas in a separate bowl until they start to be liquidy.
   
5. Add flour mixture alternately with bananas and yogurt until the batter is moist. Batter will be lumpy because of the bananas try not to over mix.
   
6. Take the chopped walnuts and cut them further until the are small, light pieces-this will taste a lot better and add light crunch. Add them to the batter.
   
7. Fill each muffin cup about three-quarters full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until you can place a toothpick in the cupcake and it comes out clean without cupcake stuck to it.
   
8. Meanwhile, prepare the fluffy filling!  First, make the vanilla pudding according to the instructions on the box. After the pudding is ready, mix it with the extra cup of milk and vanilla extract. Fold in the cool whip and confectioners’ sugar until frosting is creamy. There should be a light and liquid feel to it.  Chill in the fridge until your cupcakes are ready.
   
9. Once cupcakes are cool for about 15 mins after taking them out of the oven, with a knife cut a small hole at the top center of the cupcake. The hole should reach about halfway down the cupcake and not too large where you would have to take out an enormous part of the cake.
   
10. Spoon the filling into a zip-loc plastic bag and cut off a small corner at the bottom allowing the filling to ooze out. Fill the cupcake holes with the filling and PRESTO! Delicious (and semi-healthy) cupcakes ready to eat! 
    

My cute 4 year old cousin Sophia decided to decorate these for me!

xox

Aisha