Six months ago, was the last time I bake cupcakes and it was a total DISASTER, so much that my little dachshund was the only one who ate them.

Since then, I avoided every oven because after being the star of the pastry, I felt very bad about my failure.

Until today, when my sister asked me to help her make cupcakes to her friends... aaah, it's Valentine's Day and I did not resist, so I said yes.

But surprise! We had everything but butter and it was 6 in the morning, where we would get something at that time?

I went online to search for a recipe that does not need butter, and I found one that suited to what we had in the cupboard. I wasn't totally convinced because I needed some ingredients that I had never used before, but in a moment of despair, there was no other option.

I made some changes to the ingredients and measures, and after a while, I got PERFECT cupcakes (seriously, perfect!), fluffy, sweet and very light, the best I've ever done.

I'm really happy with the result, so I decided to share my recipe with you.

Ingredients:

-1 1/4 cups of cake flour

-1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder

-1 / 2 teaspoon of baking soda

-1 / 2 teaspoon of salt

-2 eggs

-3 / 4 cup of sugar regulating

-4 Teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

-1 / 2 cup of vegetable oil canola

-1 / 2 cup of milk

-1 / 2 teaspoon of apple vinegar 

Instructions:

* Preheat oven to 350 ° F (180 ° C)

1. Add the vinegar to the milk, mix and set aside for 5 minutes before using.

2. In a bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with whisk, and set aside.

3. In other bowl add eggs and mix for 30 seconds, add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 more seconds. Add vanilla and oil, and mix again.

4. Slowly add flour about half of the mixture. Add half of the milk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk. Beat Until just combined. The batter will be thin, do not freak out.

5. Pour batter into a muffin pan with paper liners prepared. Fill liners about 2/3 full.

6. Bake cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes (insert a toothpick to check if they are thoroughly cooked and if the toothpick comes out clean, they're ready!)

7. Cool in pan for 2 minutes, and then carefully remove cupcakes from pan and finish cooling on a wire rack.

8. Frost as desired when they're fully cool and have fun decorating them as you like!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

♥

Yes, it is! My clever, beautiful dachshund is looking for a boyfriend (dogfriend?) because we want her to have puppies, so I made a quick ad to spread the word on the social networks, i hope soon we can find a handsome and kind teckel for her ♥

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

"Moikka" means "Hello" in finnish. 

I have a finnish friend, and the other day I was thinking about him, so I went to his Facebook profile and I was going to write a short message on his wall, but I decided to make it a little bit special, so since I know he likes nature and animals a lot, I made a doodle for him, a little creature smiling and sharing my greetings to him. It took me about 15 minutes to make this for him, and he really liked it when he saw it.

I believe that even the smallest details shows an special interest for the people we love, and they really appreciate it! Don't you think?

all-natural homemade icecream in ten minutes!

A couple of weeks ago, I found a tutorial where they told you how to make homemade ice cream in just 10 minutes. I did not think it was so simple, so although I always had everything I needed in my cupboard, it was until yesterday that I decided to try, and guess what... It's actually very easy and fast! GUARANTEED!

I made a water-based icecream with jamaica (a flower infusion, just as a tea) and it was very tasty.

It is very easy to do it, you should try!

What you need:

-The desired amount of fruit juice, flavored water, coffee, chocolate milk or any mix you want turn into icecream

-3 cups of ice cubes

-2 cups coarse salt (sea salt)

-1 small ziploc bag

-1 large plastic bag (preferably ziploc too)



What you have to do:

1. Simple, fill the small bag with the mix you want to turn into icecream. Seal it very well and be sure to remove all air.

2. Put the ice and the salt into the large bag and place the small bag over it. Close the bag with a tight knot.

3. Turn on some cool music and start dancing! You have to shake the ice very well to see how slowly the mixture is becoming solid. It took me about 7 minutes to get a good consistency, but that depends on each person. You can use a towel so it does not freeze your hands while you shake it!

4. Once you have the desired consistency, remove the small bag and rinse a bit to remove any traces of salt (I did not rinse it and I find a few salt grains into my ice cream! eewhk!)

5. Serve and share it with your friends! (or not, and just eat it all)

Remember that when the mixture is frozen, the flavor diminishes a bit, so I recommend you to use a concentrated and sweeter mixture to get a better ice cream!

VOILÀ, BON APPÉTIT! 

I woke up this morning wanting to experience something new: shrinking plastic.

I was not sure what I was doing, so I did only one test, just in case I ruined all ... but behold,  it was a great success!

I had no idea how much the material would shrink... now I know that it was a lot! the figure on the right was the original size and the left is how remained after baking.

I still thinking about all the things I'm going to do with this plastic!:) 

stay tuned!

♥

song of the day: Sweet & Low by Augustana

♥

Kirsty Stapleton

Dear Sherlock Holmes. I can't find Bluebell anywhere. Please, please, please can you help? I like to look at your stories and the stories that John Watson has put on here. Is he a real Dr? I know that you try and help people and try to find things that have got lost. Bluebell is not a person so it might not seem important but she is very important. Not like a person but a rabbit. I don't know what happened but it was funny. Bluebell started to glow at night time. Like a fairy. I went down to the garden and locked her hutch for the night, but when I got there the next morning before went to school she had gone. The hutch was still shut and locked up. Please, please, please say you'll help me. Lots of love Kirsty Stapleton aged 8.

THERE YOU ARE, BLUEBELL!

dinosaurs, dinosaurs everywhere...

i've been working on a new PaperDinosaur character, and here it is! our new cute friend: a dinosaur!

he'll be in charge of welcoming you to the facebook page. be kind to him and gives us a LIKE here >> PaperDinosaur Facebook