Pink and Swirly

For as long as I can remember, every year for my birthday my mom has made me this homemade strawberry cake with strawberry icing. This year I got her recipe and decided to give it a whirl. They were just as fantastic as I remembered. The icing can be a little tricky, you don't want to put too much juice from the strawberries or it will be runny...not enough it won't get that great strawberry flavor. These are my favorite cupcakes in the world!

And here is a good how-to on icing cupcakes that I found via Pinterest.

Here is the cake recipe:

Amy's Favorite Birthday Cake

1 box white cake mix

1 3 oz box strawberry jello

3 tbsp flour

½ cup water

¾ cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

½  cup frozen strawberries - thawed

Mix cake mix, dry jello and flour.  Add water.  Mix together, then add oil, eggs - 1 at a time. Add vanilla and strawberries.  Bake at 350.

Icing

1 stick butter

1 box powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

½  cup strawberries

Mix butter, sugar, add strawberries gradually (might not need entire ½ cup)

Option, coconut and chopped pecans can be added to icing.

Fun in Annapolis

We took a quick little afternoon trip down to Annapolis today and had more fun than expected. Living fairly close, we go down there pretty regularly but haven't had a chance to go into downtown in awhile. After an early dinner at Ram's Head Tavern we took a stroll down Main Street where I found two VERY Amy-tastic snack locations....The first was Nostalgia Cupcakes. I must say that I found these cupcakes to be much better than the ones I've had here in Baltimore at Charm City Cupcakes or Baltimore Cupcake. Perhaps it's a good thing I can't get a good cupcake very close to my house. Could be very dangerous.

Good things always come in boxes wrapped in bakers twine.

We got two of the Chocolate City, I got a red velvet, and Kirk got the peanut butter--to go.

For our more immediate after-dinner entertainment we went to Yofiore, a new fro-yo place in Annapolis. Of course it wasn't as good as the places I've been in NYC but still much better than the one fro-yo place located here in Baltimore.


I didn't take the photos below (you can find them here) but the store was very cute inside!