Lemon-Honey Cupcakes...

I made Lemon-Honey Cupcakes for my Mother-in-Law's 60th Birthday celebration a few weekends ago. I'm pretty sure the cupcakes were a hit..or at least the family was kind enough to lie and say they were to avoid hurting my feelings! Either way, I'm going to share the recipe, because I, personally, thought they were super yummy! And that's gotta count for something because I don't really like lemon. Yeah...lemon, it's not my favorite flavor. But, I chose to make these because my Mother-in-Law loves lemon! Plus, I wanted to make the cute little bumble bee's that go on top! Lookin' at them just makes me happy! My Mom has a magazine rack in her guest bathroom and one day while...well, I'll skip that part of the story and just say, I found these cupcakes in one of the Woman's Day magazine's storied in that rack. So, thank you Woman's Day magazine and Mom for this happy~sunny~yummy cupcake recipe!!

*the following recipe is copied straight from the Women's Day website.

Lemon-Honey Frosting Lemon-Honey Cupcakes makes 24 Recipe Ingredients Cupcakes
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp each baking powder
3/4 baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 Tbsp grated lemon zest (*this took me 30 min.!  Hopefully, you have a good grater, unlike me! ) 4 Tbsp lemon juice
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 Tbsp grated lemon zest (*another 30 mins! ) 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
7 to 8 tsp lemon juice Few drops yellow food color (I think I did 4 drops and to me, the frosting still wasn't quite yellow enough. I think next time I will do about 6 drops. Yellow IS my favorite color though, so You might feel differently and want it lighter).

Bumblebee Tootsie Roll
Two pieces of string Yellow peanut M&M
Brown food marker Clear spice drop candies
Small cookie cutter

Recipe Preparation 1. Cupcakes: Heat oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sour cream, milk, lemon zest and juice in a small bowl until well mixed.

3. Beat butter, honey and sugar in large bowl with an electric mixer 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until blended.

4. With mixer on low speed, beat in half the flour mixture, then the sour cream mixture. Beat in remaining flour mixture until just combined.

5. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove cupcakes from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

6. Frosting: Beat butter, honey and lemon zest in large bowl with an electric mixer until creamed, about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in confectioners’ sugar until blended. Beat in lemon juice and a few drops food color until mixture is fluffy and pale yellow.

7. Spoon into a large ziptop freezer bag, snip off one corner and pipe onto cupcakes, or just spread frosting onto cupcakes. To make the bumblebee: Tear off a piece of a Tootsie Roll and roll between the palms of your hands to make a thin string. Wrap two pieces of string around a yellow Peanut M&M for body of bee (*I didn't do this - I just took the thinly rolled Tootsie roll and wrapped it around the M&M) . Using a brown food marker, draw two dots for eyes. To make wings, roll out clear spice drop candies and cut out a 1⁄2-in. circle using a small cookie cutter (I just used a knife and sliced off the bottom of the spice drops). Cut circle in half; attach each half by pressing into the front band of Tootsie Roll on the body of the bee.

 

See, doesn't this little creation make you feel happy??

 Minus the cupcake liner decor, this is how my Lemon-Honey Cupcakes turned out!

These cupcakes really are something to "buzz" about! So 'bee' sure to share their happy-sunny-yumminess!

Isn't She Lovely, Part II

We hope everyone had a really great 4 of July weekend! Ours was pretty good and we'll share it here with some pictures in a later post. Today, I want to write, as promised, about our celebration of Momma J's big 60th Birthday! As I mentioned before, Camille's 60th Birthday bash was at Crystal Lake the weekend of June 26-27. Actually, the fun started on Friday, June 25th, but Jack, Madi and I were not able to get there until Saturday. We arrived at Crystal Lake around 11:30am or so, just in time to join the family for lunch. Jack's brother, Taylor and sister-in-law, Lindsey, were there with Jackson (0ur nephew) as well. We hadn't seen them since Christmas so, it was wild seeing how much Jackson had grown! After lunch and while Camille ran errands, Lindsey and I got to work setting up for the Birthday dinner/party. First, we worked on decorating cupcakes! I made Lemon-honey cupcakes (I promise to share the recipe soon!) and lots of these little bumble bee's...

to go on top. Madi helped with these of course! And Lindsey made some really cute decorations to go around the cupcake liners. Once the decor was added, viola....

~Extreme cupcake cuteness! These guys are ready to buzz right into your hearts and stomachs, and thighs...Oh well!

While I took the cupcake pictures above, Madi and Lindsey began decorating the main room of the lake house. Meanwhile, Jack and Taylor (after several technical issues) got Camille's Birthday video to play on the main TV. This video was in our last post and was made up of pictures of Camille,her family, and friends throughout her life. A lot of time and energy went into it and we really wanted to show these special pictures to her and her guests. Thank goodness it worked out!

~Jack, Taylor, Lindsey and Madi previewing the video.

~Birthday banner made by Lindsey.

After getting the decorating going, it was time for some fun in the sun...inflatable pool style! Well, for Jackson at least. Camille and Johnny had gotten Jackson an inflatable wading pool WITH slide. So, we headed outside to snap a few hundred pictures of him playing on it for the first time. Having three camera's stuck in his face the whole time didn't deter him from having a good time. Madi wasn't gonna let him have all the fun though, and jumped right in with him...

~Jackson looks a little overwhelmed by all the wet, wild and inflatable awesomeness!

~I think the slide was his favorite part!

How...

Cute... are his facial expressions?! Pure joy!

~"Okay, so I'm 12 and still enjoy playing in an inflatable pool with a slide that's about 18" tall and has an inflated sun and little squirties coming out everywhere. On second thought, please don't show any of my friends this picture...puh-leeze?!"

I think Jackson really enjoyed his inflatable fun-land. I know Madison did...maybe just a little too much for a 12 year old!! Just kidding Madi, we know you did it so that Jackson had a play buddy! And this was your thanks... ~A hug. Cute. Then, it was time for Madi's favorite part of any Crystal Lake visit...tubing! ~Johnny Dad with the tube in tow.

~Jackson looking out at the boat. "Hmmm, maybe I'm ready for a ride? Or, maybe I could just chew on that big ring?" First up, Lindsey and Madi...

~ Aunt Lindsey and Madi-Kneivel, getting ready!

~I don't like Mommy being out there! And I don't like this life-jacket either! As the tube slides outside the wake the attitudes of the riders part ways. Lindsey: "Oh No, Not Good!" Madison: "Awesome!"

~Taylor and Jackson enjoying the boat ride.

~the always serious-about-his-job-driver. Next, Madi threw caution to the wind and went all...by... herself...

~Clearly doomed.

~Not worried about her impending demise...

~Hanging on for dear life...

~Just after landing a fakey triple-inverted poop shoot! Or, something like that... ~Wheee! This is fun...or, is it? I think I'd rather be back under the rainbow sitting next to the little inflated fake palm tree letting the luke-warm hose water sprinkle all around...

~I wonder if Jackson's on the little slide right now...

~Let me off this thing, man! I'm missing out on some inflatable pool squirty-time action!

HA!Believe it or not, she actually got over the whole baby pool thing and had a great time.

~I love this one! She's one happy water bug! ~She had a blast! Can't you tell? That's what summer is all about!

~rear view mirror shot of Johnny Dad and Madi.

Later that evening, we officially celebrated Camille's 60th Birthday!!

~ Johnny Dad bringing out the Birthday cake while we all sang Happy Birthday!!

~The Birthday girl!

~This is the only picture I got of the cake. I didn't have time after I made it to take pictures and by the time it traveled almost three hours in the car with us, I didn't want to...it didn't look so great after that.

~The family, just before she blew out the candles.

~we hope you get your every wish! ~Jackson taking a bite of Aunt Livvie's cupcake, which he promptly spit out. And I'm sure if he could've said the word YUCK, he would've! Just kiddin', I think he liked it alright.

Lindsey asked that I take a picture of her, Taylor and Jackson. I did and I took advantage of the opportunity to get a picture of them for myself... ~what a good lookin' family. And color coordinated too! I can't be sure but, something tells me that this may have been carefully orchestrated.

And I asked them to take a picture of our family.. ~first with Jackson. *Doesn't our family look great with a little one??

~then one of just us...maybe we can have a baby of our own in our pictures some day soon! As for our color coordination...geez, you would've thougth someone died. And that was most definitely NOT planned!

After dinner and dessert the family gathered together to watch the video I put together for Camille. Thank you Uncle Dennis, Aunt Carol, Uncle Bill, Johnny and everyone else who helped pull all the photos together to make the video a success!

~Uncle Dennis, Aunt Susan, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Max, Aunt Evie and Cousin John.

~Aunt Evie, Cousin John, (standing) Aunt Suzzane, Cousin Conner, (sitting in back) Uncle Bill, Camille (who you can't really see), Aunt Carol (with her head turned) and Madi. ~the whole gang waiting for the video to start.

~I think she liked it and it was great to hear the family share memories about where the pictures were taken, who was there and laugh about how young they all were!

We had a really good time with the family and I think Camille enjoyed her special day!

Around 6:30 the next morning (Sunday), Jack went fishin' with his Dad... and Camille and I took a walk around the property. I took my camera along with me, but unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures and the ones I did get aren't very good. Camille saw some deer and pointed them out, but they were too far away and the trees were in the way, so sharing those are a no-go!

Madi was awakened by someone's alarm (sorry Madi!) and joined us halfway through our walk...

Camille also pointed out a really cool, really huge spider web. As she said, it would've been an awesome picture with the morning sunlight shining through the web, but I didn't get the right angle and the pictures I took flopped! Darn it! But, I did get a few picture's here and there before we left...

~I took this picture on Saturday sometime.

~Dragonflies were everywhere, thus all the pictures of dragonflies! ~John Dromgoole was right, the Crape Myrtle Trees are doing awesome this year!

~both of these pictures are of the flowers that decorated the tables inside the lakehouse. ~This poor dragonfly was trapped in a spider web. I rescued him/her and happily watched it fly away...

~unfortunely, there was nothing I could do for this one. The poor thing was dead. :( But, I was able to get some extreme close-ups, like this one... Looks like he's hugging himself, doesn't it?

A view from the boat dock across the old swimming area towards the spring house.

Another view from the boat dock back towards the spring house and club house at the top of the hill. The Crape Myrtles were literally buzzing with bees!

Crystal Lake is a place where Jack's family has made lots of memories over many, many years. It's a special place. So, it's only fitting that we celebrated a special lady, Momma J, here, on her special day! I'd say we made some pretty wonderful memories once again!