Lovely Cakes: Strawberry Strawberry Cake

I must be on a baking kick. I blame it on the Rice Krispy Treats I made last week when I was looking for something sweet and found the ingredients in my pantry to fix them up. Which was followed by the cupcakes for last weekend's tailgate. Yesterday, I had a hankering for Strawberry Cake.

When J and I were in Dallas, J took me to get the most awesome strawberry cake from Celebrity Cafe and Bakery in Highland Park Village. So in an effort to recreate this delicious cake, I found a strawberry cake recipe and a strawberry frosting recipe and combined them. (I had to triple the frosting recipe to adequately cover the cake)

The result? Very close to the cake from Celebrity Cafe & Bakery. I think next time I'll add more pureed strawberries to both the cake and the frosting. You can never have enough strawberries!

Lovely Cakes: Chocolate Cupcakes

Today is the second to the last tailgate for the UH football season. This week, my J and I are responsible for bringing a dessert. I haven't baked in a very long time, partially because I've been lazy and partially because everytime I bake for no reason, we end up eating the goods which is not a good thing!

I've been searching for a good chocolate cupcake recipe for a while now and I think I've come across the perfect recipe! I came across Cake on the Brain, a blog by a Canadian who loves food and baking. She posted a recipe from Cooks Illustrated for Dark Chocolate Cupcakes and topped them off with Vanilla Swiss Buttercream Meringue Frosting by Martha Stewart. The cupcake recipe is a keeper...they are not super moist, but not dry and very tasty. I'm on the fence about the frosting though, because the buttercream is not very sweet and very buttery. I may try a different frosting the next time I make these cupcakes.

J said it reminds him of a Hostess Cupcake.

Lovely Eats: Greek Yogurt with Honey

Ever since I started exploring vegan foods, I started exploring the different types of yogurts.  Although the point was to experiment with non-dairy yogurts like coconut or soy yogurts, in the process I've realized that those ones taste like shit, and Greek yogurt is the bomb!  Non-fat greek yogurt, plain, with honey, to be specific.  Although some greek yogurt brands come with honey on the side, Yoplait is much cheaper, but their honey flavored yogurt seems to have the honey mixed in, which is a lot less fun than getting gobs of honey you can actually almost chew on.  So I just buy the plain Yoplait and add my own.  It's yummy, smooth, creamy, healthy (aside from the fact that honey is not used in moderation for this recipe, it's probably still better than the artificial sweeteners they use in other fat-free yogurts), and has tons of protein and calcium.  I've honestly never liked honey before, but now it seems I can't get enough of the stuff.  

Honey is my new obsession!

Lovely Designers: Lanvin for H&M

{Photos via Fashionista}

These are my faves from the Lanvin for H&M collection to come out November 23rd.  I wonder how fast they'll sell out-- like within hours? Or days? Or is it more like minutes? I usually don't succumb to fashion events like trunk shows, store openings, or even huge sales, because I hate crowds, and let's be honest, I'm really no "fashionista." But this one I might actually plan ahead for. M & R, you with me? I'm dying for that zebra trench and necklace as logical, useful, wearable, and therefore justifiable purchases. But the dresses are absolutely irresistible—the styles are fun and classy, and the detailing definitely shows the designer quality of the pieces.

Lovely Beauty: Birchbox

{www.birchbox.com}

I've been ordering makeup online at www.Sephora.com a lot lately, and I've been loving the samples I get with every order.  Every beauty product out there makes lofty claims and promises, but how many times have you purchased some well-reviewed name brand product only to find out it seems to work just as good as some generic product you already have at home, and for triple or quadruple the price?  So spending $50 on some moisturizer I've never tried is such a risky investment.  I've definitely discovered some great products through free samples, so Birchbox is sounding pretty appealing right now.  Every month, you pay $10 to receive a box of hand picked deluxe samples, along with instructions and tips on how to use the products.  They also apparently have informative articles and tutorials on their website on various products, which sounds like a great idea.  What good is a great beauty product when you're using it all wrong?

Seeing the products they have on their website currently is tempting me to join Birchbox...

Lovely Tunes: Katy Perry

CANDY LAND was my favorite game ever!  Princess Lolli and Queen Frostine were my favorite characters, I thought they were so pretty.  And I loved Gumdrop Mountains (and who wasn't excited to make it to the shortcut through the mountain pass?!)!  The game is so simple, and just like so many other board games, but the fact that there are different places for different types of candy with fun characters residing in them makes it such a likable game.  I never realized they changed the game every 10 years until I looked up the game just now--

I definitely had the 1980's version:

Katy Perry is awesome, and I just love this video!  The only thing I don't love about it is the fact that they're wearing whipped cream with cherry nipple bikini tops!