Of all the days to have a major flop, Sunday night was not the night for it to happen. You see today is a day that falls in the middle of three birthdays at work. And these aren’t any birthdays, these three people collectively put the ‘aholic in chocaholic.

We’re not talking “I enjoy chocolate chip cookies,” but “I eat chocolate chip cookies for breakfast before my chocolate cheese cake, chocolate french toast.”

I have this problem every time I make a cake that calls for both baking powder and baking soda. I think…I’m not going to over fill the tins this time and what happens. I over fill them. This sour cream chocolate recipe from Cupcakes by Elinor Kilvana made 18 cupcakes. I made 17 and plop; Big fat cupcake heads.

Cooking events. Do you participate in any of them? A lot of the blogs that I troll participate in a few different ones. Because my main addiction is baking (cupcakes), I see a lot of Daring Bakers out there. While I love LOVE seeing the creations, reading about the baker’s experience, I’m not too hip on participating myself.

I do like the idea however of monthly food events and I’ve found lately that the one’s that appeal to me most are the ones that toss out a general challenge of one theme or ingredient and I’m free to decide exactly how I’m going to tackle it.

A Fruit A Month (AFAM) falls into that category. Give me a general direction and let’s see what we come up with. This month’s challenge is Pomegranate hosted by When my soup came alive.

I’ve been going crazy this month with my homemade pomegranate grenadine, using it in almost anything that’ll stand still. I’ve mentioned previously that Cupcake Project posted a homemade grenadine recipe and I used it several times.

To make this grenadine it’s so simple and you can use any 100% juice. Boil it down to 50% of the original content, for 16 oz of boiled down product add 2 cups of sugar and allow to cool. If you want an thicker syrup, boil down a tad bit more and add the same amount of sugar.

Delux Lemon-Raspberry Cupcakes with Pomegranate

For the cupcake:

I went really simple on this one. I used a lemon cake mix I purchased at William & Sonoma from a LA based company called Sprinkles. It’s pricey at $12 a box, but as a splurge it was fine. If you’re familiar with chiffon cakes, the lemon recipe mimics that type of cake. Which means it’s best to eat the cake the day you make it.

For the pomegranate filling:

I used the homemade grenadine and mixed it with powered sugar. You’ll want to make it thick enough that it slowly falls off the back of your spoon. I used the stuffing tip on my mechanical pastry bag and it worked smashingly.

Yes. We are that cool and we more than once showed up at the office dressed exactly the same. Today at work we cleaned out some some old folders and it makes me happy everytime I see this photo. Can’t wait to see you in April!

Read more about Molly’s awesomeness at http://www.theadventuresofsuperwife.com

In a few months it’ll be 120 degrees in Phoenix, but for now it’s absolutely amazing and 70 degrees and sunny. It’s easy to get Spring fever right dab in the middle of February. I’ve already started planning out my Spring schedule with minor league baseball games, farmer’s markets and gardening.

It’s this time of year in Phoenix that the citrus trees ares are loaded with tangelos, oranges and lemons. People practically walk into the office with crates full of fruit to give away in hopes that it won’t all be wasted.

So, I’ve been toying around with what my Cupcake Hero entry should be for February’s theme of LIQUOR. First I started trolling mixology websites; B52s, Mint Julips, Purple Hooters were all options for a cupcake variation. Heck, I could go easy, make a chocolate cupcake with some Bailey’s frosting and call it a day. But that wasn’t really inspiring any creative juices in the kitchen.

Saturday morning came (only a few days till the deadline) and while I was making my grocery shopping list a little cookbook (drink book) caught my eye. Sangria: Fun and Festive Recipes. Rock on, right? It’s perfect. I’ve got tons of citrus that needed to be used and inspiration.

Here’s how it went:

For the cupcakes: I used an Orange Chiffon Cake recipe from the cookbook cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans. When I pulled them out of the oven, I brushed the tops of the cupcakes with Triple Sec an orange flavored liquor.

For the sangria inspiration: I used a mixology book called Sangria by Mittie Hellmich. I chose a white citrus sangria recipe that featured oranges and berries.

For the Frosting: I used a standard buttercream and added orange zest, homemade pomegranate grenadine and another 2 t. of Triple Sec.

Okay and one last close up simply because with produce this fresh and tasty, it deserves it.

Sweat equity. That’s how I’m approaching this next year with the Junior League. For those of you not so familiar with the JL, it’s a women’s volunteer group and our purpose is to engage in activities that help to build our community.

Activities can involve hands on volunteer hours, fundraising events and bonding with other women. This year, I’m going to try to dive in just a little deeper and work a little harder in the community.

I’m falling in love with the idea of helping however I can with these Junior League programs:

Phoenix Day-Phoenix Day has grown into one of Arizona’s most innovative and progressive child learning centers, today providing low-cost child care and health services for 3,500 children and working families. By offering subsidized childcare and early education programs, as well as free health screenings, referrals and meals, Phoenix Day helps families better meet the challenges of daily life.

Girl Scouts First Saturday- First Saturdays targets girls ages 5-12 from economically challenged and ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the East Valley. What started as a pilot program at one location five years ago serving 295 girls has grown to four locations and serves 500 girls a year. Current program locations are Tempe, Chandler and Mesa.

 Journey of Me- The Junior League of Phoenix and Arizonans for Children have teamed up to capture and document the life history of foster children in Phoenix. These books often provide the only history of a foster child’s life. In addition to documenting their life history, Life Books help foster children to focus on the positive and establish goals.

If you want to find volunteer opportunities in your community try volunteermatch.com or if you’re a woman who lives in the Phoenix Valley and want to consider joining the Junior League leave me a note.

From Dad: It’s all about market research. Look around and see what people are buying, pay attention to see who stops at your table. Learn about your target demographic.

What I learned from my analysis; I’ve got the same tastes as an 11-year old girl.

The hottest selling item this weekend in Arizona was one of my favorite offerings, the Cupcake metal dog tags: You can get them either as a cupcake necklace or key chain/charm.

One of my other goals was to meet my neighbors at the marketplace and get tips/scoop/insight on how to be successful at one of these things.

Michelle at The Pink Armadillo is a busy bee and she creates beautiful jewelry out of metal and beads that she hand crochets. I had no idea you could crochet metal. Her store is still under construction, but you can order anything via email.

Lisa was the show stopper in our row and was always busy with her Cookie Lee jewelry counter.

Mike at mepavlik@yahoo.com builds lathart and shared a whole list of free festivals I could participate in around Arizona.

Capitol Hill is really on a hill. This was painfully obvious to us as we were running from 14th Street to First Street trying to make a 1PM appointment to meet with our Congressman for a Capitol tour.

There were points in our trek where my mom would stop and exclaim that:

1. We were trying to kill her
2. She would just keel over right now to get out of her misery
3. She would die and just be added to the monument tour in DC

But, I guess it’s really not all that unusual to see people running in DC. It is by the way one of the healthiest cities in the US.

Our agenda today could have been planned out a little better.  According to the TomTom (which was such a great help walking around touring) we clocked at least 4 miles just getting to Metro stops. This doesn’t count the steps and tours once we reached our destinations.

Part of my agenda was to find CakeLove and check out the baked goods for myself. There’s where we really packed on the miles (.8 miles from this picture above to the Metro) and then two train switches later another long trek to the cafe.

It was totally worth it…

I think the adventure getting to the CakeLove shop on U Street in DC was totally worth it. I had a chocolate cupcake with strawberry frosting, Liz had a chocolate dipped cupcake and not pictured is my dads chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting.

Yummm!

Hey Steph! Guess what…You’ve won your very own set of Cupcake Cabana Roswell Series stationary! Thank you all so much for your comments.

Steph hosts the blog Cupcake Project and if you haven’t had a chance to check it out…get over there! Her blog started off as a semi-challenge to help her friends find the perfect cupcake for their wedding. She baked and baked, each week taste testing for the perfect cake.

A year later, the perfect cupcakes were selected and now she’s decided to do it for yet ANOTHER friend. Man!

She also has products with a cute “Save the Cupcake” theme. I love the t-shirts.

I’m off to Washington DC this week. I’ve got the TomTom loaded with all the coolest cupcake bakeries and I can’t wait to report back on what I’ve found!

Anxiety. Have you ever hosted a party and been so nervous that nobody was going to show up? And when the doorbell rings and the first few people start to trickle through the door, that anxiousness melts away and you start to have fun.

That’s been me this week with CupcakeCabana.net. Anxious that while I think a lot of our designs are fun and knowing what’s in the pipeline, I was worried that I wouldn’t have anybody come to my party.

I’ve had my first customer since going live. A real customer that wasn’t my Dad or my friend over at DollarHotDog. I mean, I know the guy, but he did really buy something online all by himself.

Funny side notes: I don’t typically wear Hawaiian shirts to work and see the little piece of paper taped to the wall. That was a “Tidy Up” sign Superwife made and hang around the office. What a major contributor she was. A year later and the signs have lasted.

So, now I’ve got to *do* something with this order. Mail it out? Holy cow! I’ve got a real customer! What did he get? The Cupcakes, Yo! Magnet.

Just a note…I’m going to close submissions to the Roswell series drawing this evening. So, if you’ve been reading and not commenting…Go ahead and write something!