Birthday Weekend

Jason's birthday weekend was a busy one.

The busyness began on Friday evening.

Jason has his CDL, so he was asked to drive a bus for Younglife.

They needed an extra driver to take some middle schoolers to a weekend camp.

We couldn't stay all weekend, so I followed him up to camp on Friday night, so we could come back. It was only about an hour and a half drive, but it felt further in the dark!

On Saturday, Jason had plans to help some friends move. 

I ended up helping too, but with some cleaning- not any actual moving!

Moving always takes longer than expected,but it's one of those things you have to get done. So I ended up not making cupcakes on Saturday,  and we postponed our dinner. We still had cookie cake with my parents, and Jason opened his gifts from them.

He got a gift card and some cedar planks for the grill.

On Sunday, we slept in a little bit. 

We had breakfast at Waffle House on the way to pick up the middle schoolers from camp!

After bringing the kids back, we headed to Jason's parent's house to celebrate with them. Jason's mom made his favorite meal- philly cheesesteak sandwiches. It was yummy, and we had coconut cake and cheesecake made by Jason's sister for dessert! Jason opened his gifts- he got a couple more gift cards and some new clothes.

I, of course, completely forgot to make any pictures...

When we got back home on Sunday night, I made the strawberry cupcakes for Monday.

Monday was Jason's actual birthday, so we went to Red Lobster for dinner. 

Jason opened his gifts from me, and we had strawberry cupcakes for dessert!

Strawberry Cupcakes!

I got Jason 2 video games he has been wanting- Batman and Call of Duty.

Reading my card

 Jason got new shoes too!

Happy Birthday Jason!

Strawberry Cupcakes

Last night we had our friends Rod and Pam over to celebrate Pam's birthday with a cookout dinner. Jason grilled steaks and shrimp, and I made potato wedges, green beans, and a salad. I also made strawberry cupcakes for dessert! They turned out so good :)


Pam wanted me to make her something out of the cupcake book I got as a wedding gift

After looking through it, I decided on the Strawberry Cupcakes.

The first step is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then line a 12 cup muffin pan with liners.

Next chop up the strawberries, the recipe calls for a 1/4 of a cup.

Then add 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam or preserves (I used Smuckers Simply Fruit Strawberry).

Mix the two together.

Next, the dry ingredients: Flour, baking powder, and salt

Whisk together 1 and 1/4 cups of flour, 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Then, beat 1/2 cup of room temperature unsalted butter and 3/4 cup of sugar together at medium to high speed with an electric mixer (I used my new Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer!)

Beat until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.

The next ingredients: 3 egg whites and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Add the egg whites and the vanilla extract to the sugar and butter mixture and beat until combined.

Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 1/3 cup of milk in 2 additions. Beat just until combined.

Fold in the strawberry mixture.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups.

Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for 25 minutes- until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for 5 minutes in the pan then allow them to finish cooling on a wire rack for about an hour.

Next is the frosting! I used a recipe for strawberry buttercream from a Southern Living Cookbook. This recipe usually frosts a three layer strawberry cake, so I halved the recipe. I still had some left over! You will need 1/2 cup of butter, softened, 1 16 ounce package of powdered sugar, and 1/2 cup of chopped fresh strawberries. Beat the butter on medium speed for 20 seconds until creamy. Then add the powdered sugar and strawberries. I put the strawberries in first, then added the sugar in small amounts.

Beat on a low speed until creamy.

Here is the finished product: Strawberry cupcakes with Strawberry buttercream icing!

These turned out really good. I definitely recommend the recipe. We all ate 2 cupcakes :)