True Blood Cupcakes

My vampire partner in crime (Brandon) and I decided to celebrate the third season premiere of what we consider to be the best show ever, True Blood. The vampires, the maynads, the shape-shifters, the telepaths, and now, the werewolves? We couldn't not celebrate! Our party was red-themed, because, well, vampires = a whole lot of blood! We had strawberries, watermelon, blood orange soda, red vampire pancakes (red food coloring with a dollop of raspberry jam in the middle of each cake = YUM), red eggs (food coloring and copious amounts of ketchup!), garlic bread with tomatoes, AND last but not least, RED CUPCAKES!!! These were dang tasty. While I did use a boxed white cake mix (whatever, they still taste wonderful!), I made homemade cream cheese frosting and it was to die for! (Or, to become a vampire for!) Add almost a whole bottle of red food coloring, and you've got some bona fide TRUE BLOOD CUPCAKES! I think everyone enjoyed them, because they were all gone by the end of the day and some people had two! (including myself).

1 white cake mix - I think I used Betty Crocker?

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 egg whites (I saved the yolks and made an omelette the next morning... success!)

LOTS OF RED FOOD COLORING! (as much as you want)

Frosting:

1 block of softened cream cheese

1 stick of sweet cream butter

Powdered sugar (as much as you want until you get the desired consistency/amount of sweetness)

red food coloring, lots of it.

Red sprinkles for decorating!

Make the cake mix and add the food coloring! Pour the batter into cupcake tins filled with paper liners. They say to fill the cups 2/3rds full, but I filled them up more because I wanted really big cupcakes.

Put them in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for about 18 minutes!

Let them cool completely before you frost them.

The Frosting

cream the butter and the cream cheese together until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and mix a little more. Add the drops of food coloring and mix with a wooden spoon until you reach the desired consistency. Spread generously on the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle the finished product with red sprinkles! Et VOILA! True Blood Cupcakes whenever you want them!

Epic Citrus Pie!

Today, my wonderful friend Lauren and I decided to make our own version of key lime pie! We drew our inspiration from Robin Miller of the Food Network. The ingredients are simple, and the results are deliciously epic. We went to the grocery store and we couldn't find key limes anywhere - so we used a mix of normal limes and lemons to make it our own! Lauren had the genius idea to mix lemon curd with the whipped cream for the pie topping. This lemon and lime dessert is SO GOOD. It's so light and refreshing, and the perfect way to welcome Spring! It's also super easy and FUN to make in your dorm room!

Ingredients:

1 pre-made graham cracker crust (you can make your own, but we don't have a pie plate so we just bought one!)

Filling:

1 8oz container of whipped topping (we used extra creamy Cool Whip!)

1 can of sweetened condensed milk (kinda weird stuff, but it totally works in this pie)

1/2 cup of lemon and lime juice mixed together (about 6 limes and 3 lemons... we added a little more juice later on to make the flavors really pop)

1 and a half teaspoons of vanilla extract (just an estimate)

Topping:

1/2 cup of whipped topping

about 3 tablespoons of good lemon curd (Trader Joe's has a really delicious one!)

2-3 limes, cut in pretty wedges

1 cup strawberries, sliced and arranged on the pie in a decorative way (any berry would probably be delicious here)

Directions:

First, squeeze the juice from the limes and lemons! We had fun fishing out all the seeds after. :) It helps if you firmly roll the fruit on a countertop beforehand to release more of the juices. Next, add the container of Cool Whip and the can of sweetened condensed milk together in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add the juice and the vanilla and mix it together so it's nice and smooth. The mixture thickens the more that you mix it and seems to resemble meringue. This is normal, don't worry! (we did a little). Carefully spoon the mixture onto the crust. Smooth the top with a knife or a spoon, and place it gently in the freezer. We let it set for about an hour and a half before we decorated it! For the topping, mix the Cool Whip and the lemon curd together. Remove the pie from the freezer and carefully spread on the topping. Have fun and be creative with your decorations - we lined the outside of the pie with lime wedges, and then filled the center with loads of strawberries. The most important thing is for it to taste good, and it will!

Cut a big piece and enjoy!

The perfect Spring dessert.