When fresh fruit and yogurt unite..into a delicious cupcake ^^

This one is from a while back, but so totally worth sharing!  My mom and I decided to change our eating lifestyle, and incorporated tons more fruits and veggies in our daily menu.  If you were to open our fridge, you'd definitely get an eye-full of different yogurt flavors, mixed berries and some other health dish of the week.  I do have to admit that as much as I have grown to LOVE yogurt, it quite frankly gets tiring after a while if you don't flare it up with some granola/cereal, fruits....or throw it in a cake recipe!
One afternoon my mom came home with a super easy Betty Crocker recipe that called for yogurt.  What a simple concept, yet it brings tremendous flavor to your regular cake recipe!  The first time I made this was for my best friend's baby shower.  I got super excited with frosting the cake that I put a little too much and when we cut into it frosting and strawberries started oozing out into a great mess.  Not a bad thing =) but I was looking forward to a professional-esque slice of cake.  Oh, well!  It was still a hit!
My remedy to the delicious mess was to scale it down to a couple dozen cupcakes, which ended up being a fantastic fix.  They looked so much cuter..topped with their own dollop of whipped vanilla frosting and fresh strawberry.  And since we had changed our eating habits, cupcakes were a great way to portion control =)

INGREDIENTS
CAKE
1 Box Moist White Cake Mix
3/4 Cup Water
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
3 Egg Whites
1 6oz Container Strawberry Yogurt (or any flavor your heart desires)

FROSTING
3/4 Container Whipped Vanilla Frosting
2 Tablespoons Whipping Cream
1 1/2 - 2 Cups Fresh Fruit, sliced

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients for the cake.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Drop cake batter into paper lined cupcake tin or a lightly greased cake pan.

3. Bake as directed on the box.  Then cool completely on wire rack.

4. To prepare the frosting, whip together whipping cream and frosting till smooth and fluffy.

5. Frost your cake or cupcakes and place fresh fruits on top.

Oh man...just thinking about these cupcakes really makes me want one!  I'm sure there's some yogurt lingering around in the fridge, just waiting... =)

Who needs lemonade when you can make lemon pound cake!

I've been trying to catch up with my blogging lately.  It's super hard when you have all these pictures to filter through, and some I haven't touched in so long I forgot where I put the recipe and what I changed in them =(.  If you ever plan on blogging - about anything - I would definitely suggest to have a designated place for your recipes and pictures...bookmarks, print outs, voice recordings.  Anything that will help you out if you have a busy and dynamic schedule.  Cause sometimes you just need to bake/cook and relax immediately after (with a glass of wine of course ;P)  Take it from someone who knows...I have tons of recipes (pictures actually) from last year that i just can't remember the ingredients for.  OK, I'm done venting!  Back to business..

If you're anything like me, you'll understand when I say that some days I love to get out of the house and relax somewhere else with a cup of tea or coffee and a great book.  At times like these, I often find myself at the local coffee shop sipping on my latte and munching on a pastry.  One time in particular, I remember eating an iced lemon pound cake and thought, "dang...if this becomes a habit, I'll be in debt before I know it."  Then, it hit me...why don't I just make my own!  Duh, right...seems to be a no-brainer.  So I scoured the internet looking at other blogger's renditions of their coffee shop favorites.  It's pretty ridiculous how easy these items we pay $3+ for are to make yourself.  Since my addiction at the time was Starbucks' Lemon Loaf, I found a great recipe online, and added a few modifications.

INGREDIENTS

POUND CAKE

1/2 Cup  Unsalted Butter, softened

1 Cup  Sugar

2  Eggs

1 tsp  Grated Lemon Peel

1 Tablespoon  Fresh Lemon Juice

1 1/2 Cups  All-purpose Flour

1 tsp  Baking Powder

1/2 Cup  Non-fat Milk (you may use any type of milk)

ICING

1/4 Cup  Lemon Curd

1/4 Cup  Powdered Sugar

1-2 Tablespoons  Lemon Juice

DIRECTIONS

1. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and lemon peel).  In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar till smooth.

2. Add eggs and 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and mix till incorporated.

3. Add dry ingredients and milk alternately (starting and ending with dry ingredients) till incorporated.

4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spray your loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and pour batter in.

5. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes then cool completely on a rack.

6. Once cooled, spread lemon curd over the top of the loaf.  Mix powdered sugar and remaining lemon juice and ice away =).

Now slice and be happy eating this knowing that you're saving tons of money =).