Recent photos

Here are a few photos I had to submit for my new online photography class.  A head shot, partial body shot, and full body shot.  Last summer, I couldn't even put pigtails in her hair, she is growing up too fast.

My Girls

I haven't been sharing very much lately, especially photos.  I've been going through all my photos and it's a shame not to share all the cute ones of my own family.

This is from October, but I still love it and never shared it before, what a shame.

Chocolate Frosted Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Filling

Back in March, it occurred to me that I hadn't made cupcakes in months.  It was this blog that got me obsessed with cupcakes, and how magical they are.  I used to make cupcakes more than anything else, then I stopped.

My cousin sent me a message saying she missed reading about the cupcakes I was making and it really occurred to me how much I missed making the cupcakes.  I decided to recreate the first cupcake I ever made for this blog, which, in fact was the first filled cupcake I had ever made, and the last one I ever used a box mix with.

All this coincided with my photography club's presentation that I was giving about food photography, so I knew it was the perfect time to show how far I've come in three years with a photo of the same batch of cupcakes, not only with my photography skills, but my baking skills as well.
THEN:

NOW:

I wish I had time to post this before Mother's Day so my cousin could have made them for herself, but it's early enough in the day that if she wants, she can still make a batch.

Happy Mother's Day Em, thanks for inspiring me to make cupcakes again!

Oven: 350'

Yellow Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 TBSP unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg plus 2 yolks
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Marshmallow filling:
1/6 cup confectioner's sugar
3.5 oz marshmallow fluff (we made our own homemade-OMG wait for this recipe soon)
pinch salt
1/2 TBSP water
3-4 TBSP butter, room temp

Chocolate Frosting:
1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP dutch process cocoa powder
1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP boiling water
15 TBSP unsalted butter (she used a lot more, I don't like butter flavor frosting, so I modified)
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
pinch salt
16 oz semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled (use bars if you can, not chips)

Preheat the oven to 350'
1) For the cupcakes:  In the bowl of your mixer, using the paddle, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

2) Slice butter into 8 pieces and slowly add them to the flour mixture.  Add in sour cream, egg, yolks, and vanilla and beat on medium until smooth.  Scrape down bowl and mix again until all ingredients are incorporated.

3) Line muffin pan with paper liners.  Scoop batter into cup wells until 2/3 full.  This will make 12 cupcakes, so there should be just enough batter to fill one large muffin pan.

4) Bake in oven 20-24 minutes, rotating halfway through.  They are done when a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely on wire rack before filling or frosting.

5) For the filling:  With whisk attached to hand or stand mixer, beat butter and marshmallow fluff together.  Add in confectioner's sugar, salt, and water, beat until fluffy and combined.

6) Cut a small round cone out of the top of each cupcake, scoop a TBSP of filling into each cupcake.  Shave the cake off the bottom part of each cone and replace the top of the cupcake, once it has been filled.

7) For the frosting:  Break semi-sweet chocolate into pieces, put in microwave proof bowl and microwave for 20 second increments, stirring in between each time, until completely melted and smooth, set aside to cool.

8) In a medium bowl, whisk the cocoa powder and boiling water until cocoa dissolves.  Set aside.

9) In bowl of mixer (stand or hand), using whisk, beat the butter, confectioner's sugar, and salt on medium until light and fluffy.  Reduce mixer speed and add in the melted, cooled chocolate.  Beat until combined.  Scrape down sides and mix again.

10) Beat in the cocoa mixture until combined, scrape down sides and remix again.  Put frosting in bag with a piping tip and frost the cupcakes.

Source:  Cupcakes- Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, Frosting- Martha Stewart Cupcakes, Filling- Skip to my Lou blog

Fun with Photography

My photo club hosts a monthly challenge to help us pick up the camera every month and try something new. This month, the challenge was two photographers, one photo.  My friend and I got together a lot and had many ideas as to what we wanted to try.  In the end, we were inspired by a photo similar to the one below that we randomly found online.  We decided to recreate the photo ourselves, and this is what we came up with:

How fun is this?

Getting Ready for Halloween

Halloween has to be one of my favorite holidays.  We used to have an annual Halloween party, but the past few years for some reason or another (morning sickness and/or moving), it hasn't happened.  This year I'm determined to make Halloween fun again around here.

I have challenged myself to post one thing everyday for the month of October (the first is not included).  To start, I'd like to share some photos I've been taking of my kids to help inspire you.  It has been helping us get in the spirit and made me take out our boxes of decorations.

These are all taken at sunset or just past sunset.

 Trying to experiment with off camera flash (after the sun went down):

 Experimenting with trick photography:

How are you getting ready for Halloween?

Little Tap Dancer

Is it too early for Halloween?   The weather got cooler here this week, I'm getting in the fall spirit, so I dressed the baby in her big sister's old Halloween dress.

I've been getting together with a friend of mine discussing all things photography.  We are planning a lot of cool things.  In planning, it occurred to me that I have been so busy lately with my life, that I haven't stopped to take many pictures of my own kids.  They are growing and changing everyday- that makes me sad.

I got a new lens for my camera- I need to use it a lot.  I've been taking my camera everywhere.  It happened to be upstairs and I happened to hear a loud clanging noise.  I looked out to see this:

I got a little closer-found out what was making that sound

What a total little girl

I helped her put them on- she thought it was odd,

Until she walked and heard the clicks or was it that witch hat I put on her head?

In case you didn't know, Maeve has a favorite stuffed animal

We called it "horsie", until we realized all she could say was "Nannie",

It's true love

It doesn't have to be Halloween to dress your kids up or to take their picture.

First Day of School 2012

I can't believe it was already the first day of school.  It feels like summer break went by in the blink of an eye.  I took our traditional first day of school picture by our front door:

Sorry I haven't been around much lately, I've been busy cleaning and organizing my house- wait for a HUGE reveal soon!

I've been taking another photography class:

And doing lots of practice:
I've got a silly subject whenever I need-

Someone lost a tooth-

This little guy always has a smile on his face-

One of my favorite recent shots, my future model-

When Hazel got her new dance leotard, she and Addison about gave me their life savings to be able to get Maeve one of her own, and she is sooo cute in it-

AND, dad got a new bike or two...

School Year Memory

It's hard for me to believe school is out for summer.  As I started to do when we lived in Japan, I took a photo of the kids on the first and last day of school in the same spot.  Here's what I got this year:

 Even though the next picture was taken on the last day of school, the moods were totally different and no one really wanted their picture taken.

We now have a first grade, second grade, and fourth grader- where does the time go?

Photography Class

Those of you that know me, know I've taken an interest in photography the last few years.  Recently, I've been taking a course at a local community college about Digital Photography.  Thanks to my awesome totally knowledgeable teacher, I have learned many things, and seeing as Monday is my last day for this class, I figured I'd share the photos I've submitted for my homework.

If you have a local college nearby and you're interested in photography, you should take a class if you can.  I could have learned it all on my own (in all my free time)- but being in the class makes you do it and it is fun to see how other people have different perspectives on the assignment.

First class, getting a correct exposure:

Second class, learning about aperature.
Lowest f-stop number:

Highest f-stop number:

Third class, night time photo:

Fourth class, portrait:

Fifth class, still life:

Sixth class, Nature and action shots.
Monotonous content nature:

Macro nature:

Action:

Thanks for checking them out.  I can't wait to get my new camera and see what happens then!

Tuxedo Cake (take two)

Last year, before I moved from Japan, I made and posted about this triple layer chocolate Tuxedo cake from the Pastry Queen cookbook.  Well, the cake had tipped off the stand that was too small and I didn't know what I was doing with my camera, as far as lighting goes.  Seeing as I've come a bit further with my photo skills, I thought I'd remake the cake and use it as my subject for my still life assignment for my class.

Last night, Dave and I were having fun photographing the cake until 11 pm.  I'm teaching him everything I know so that when (and if) my new camera arrives, and I pass on my old one to him, he will be skilled.  I hope you like the new pictures as much as I do.

And, I just can't help but include this one- my daughter's ultimate favorite doll, sad baby- the other still life I submitted: