Nomming o' the Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

I love this holiday - I've got a little bit of everything in my blood and I know there's Irish in there somewhere, so I can celebrate this day for realsies!
Plus, green is one of my favorite colors.

And I like beer.

One of the best things about holidays is festive baking!! Cupcakes and cookies can get super adorable to the point where you don't even want to eat them.

For St. Paddy's Day 2015, I went for "End of the Rainbow" cupcakes.

I started with a yellow cake mix (it probably would have been better to go with white but honestly, I was making these late at night and I just didn't want to separate the egg whites from the yolks) and added a bit of mint extract and a few drops of green food coloring.

I also had about 1/3 of a bag of mini chocolate chips, so I threw those in as well.

I used a tablespoon to scoop the batter into the cupcake liners. I always put two tablespoons of batter into each cup. I find that it's the perfect amount - the cupcakes plump up over the liner just enough!

I baked the cupcakes for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

After they had cooled, I used a can of store-bought vanilla frosting (I know, homemade buttercream is so much better, but again..late at night and I work two jobs. Limited time, man) I had tinted green. Because I found that the cupcakes weren't very minty, I added a bit more flavoring to the frosting as well.

For the decorations, I bought a package of AirHeads Extremes - the rainbow kind - and some Rolos.

I cut the AirHeads into thirds.



I put a few spoonfuls of plain white, vanilla frosting into a plastic sandwich baggie, then cut a small hole in one corner. I piped two small "clouds" on each cupcake, then gently placed the ends of the rainbows in each cloud.

On one side of the rainbows, I placed a Rolo - the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!!!

They were super cute, super festive and, according to one of the grad students in the physics department, "f%&king amazing."

Welcome!

Greetings, friend!

Welcome to one of my few spots located here on the Interwebz. I have another blog for book reviews, located at Book Shop Girl, as well as a few pages that have been lost over the years.

If you're here than you're either a fellow knitter, a fellow baker, or you're a friend and I made you check it out! ;)

This is where I'm going to share some of my nerdy baking and knitting projects, as well as a few random ramblings when the mood strikes me.

It should get very interesting and super fun!

For those of you who don't know me personally, allow me to introduce myself! I'm from a small town in northern Maine, though I moved to the southern part of the state about three years ago. I've been married to my fellow nerdy husband for a little over a year now. No little ones yet, though we're starting to talk about it.

I currently work as a part-time secretary in a college physics department and as a part-time retail associate (I know its weird - I'm an English major but I work in the physics office. It was the first job I got when I moved downstate and nowhere else can beat the pay!! Plus, I've made some great friends there!). I'm waiting less than patiently to find out if I have been accepted into an English Literature Master's program. If so, I will be able to leave the retail job at the end of the summer!! If you have ever worked retail you know how awful it can be and I'm sure you understand why I want to get out as soon as possible.

I love to cook and bake lots of yummy things and give them to my friends and family. The smile on a loved one's face upon receiving a rubber ducky cupcake brings me immeasurable joy. I also enjoy knitting and while I still have a lot to learn in both the baking and knitting areas, I still have a blast trying new things and creating something wonderful from a few ingredients or skeins of yarn.

I'm a huge nerd so expect a lot of nerdy things to be posted here. I recently finished a pair of mittens with the Stark direwolf sigil from Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them before I gave them to a friend. Obviously, I just need to make another pair! One of my most recent epic knitting projects was the scarf belonging to the 4th incarnation of Doctor Who! Pictures have yet to be taken of this but will be added shortly!

I hope this will be a place for awesome, nerdy, crafty fun!

I look forward to sharing a bit of awesomeness with you!

<3,

D.