A Mommy and Me Date at the Malibu Getty

Last weekend my mom and I took a drive down the coast to explore the J. Paul Getty Museum: The Villa in Malibu, California.  We had found out about it a little over a year ago when we toured the other Getty Museum which is off the 405 in Southern Ca. 

This was an unforgettable experience, and one that I'd love to repeat.  The museum is full of ancient artifacts, some of which have survived THOUSANDS of years. These sculptures, bronzes, and mosaics have seen more of the human condition than any of us could ever hope to.  They have stood silent witness to the horrors of war and the joys of family and friends.  If they could speak, they would never shut up and still wouldn't be able to tell us everything.

We also ventured down the to Historic Santa Monica Pier and the end to the Route 66 (to get our kicks?). Neither of us had been there before and it was fun to munch on corn dogs and take in the sights.  People watching is never boring on a beach in Southern California. 

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day, I haven't uploaded the ones that are on my camera yet, but this is the iPhone collection. 

Enjoy! 

Cupcakepalooza and the Bing Wedding

The Newlyweds

 Last week the baby of our family, Brandyn, married the love of his life, the beautiful Miss Taylor. In celebration of this special day we had a big BBQ, and the bride requested some cupcakes for the event...roughly 100 of them.

 The request was for Chocolate Cake with Oreo Buttercream Frosting, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, and White Cake with a Strawberry Buttercream Frosting.  This time around I did not make the old family recipe for the carrot cake, it takes too long and I didn't have enough time to make it from scratch, I did however doctor a box cake and it tasted pretty amazing, I did use the frosting recipe that is on the link.

Additions to Duncan Hines Carrot Cake: roughly 1 cup of chopped nuts (I used pecans), 1 box of vanilla instant pudding, 1 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple (strained), used butter instead of oil, and milk instead of water.  It ended up being super moist and quite delicious.

It took roughly 3 hours to bake 125+ cupcakes at my aunt's house, thank goodness for double ovens, two kitchen aid mixers, and a talented chef of a boyfriend who volunteered to help.  We let them cool in the fridge over night and came back in the morning to decorate, where I enlisted the help of my guy and my cousin who had also gone to culinary school and was trained in the arts of decorating for the masses.

Real Men Frost Cupcakes

Devil's Food Cake with Oreo Buttercream

White Cake with Strawberry Buttercream 

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting 

Cupcake Display (created by Taylor)

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

I found a recipe online for raspberry buttercream frosting and used strawberries instead. The only problem was that the recipe was too runny to frost the cupcakes with so we had to double the butter and God only knows how much powdered sugar was added.  I'm going to post the recipe as I made it originally, but make sure you have extra sugar and butter so you can bring it to your desired stiffness.

Ingredients:

•  1 pound powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup pureed strawberries

Directions:

beat the ingredients together, adding sugar and butter until mixed well and you have your desired consistency.  The finished product tastes like a strawberry milkshake and is delicious whether its topping a cupcake or straight out of the batter bowl