baking: honey-coconut cupcakes

honey-coconut cupcakes

Ingredients...

• 1/2 cup softened butter (take butter out from fridge a couple hours before baking)
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1/3 cup of shredded coconut 
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2/3  cup of milk

How to...

1. first preheat oven to 350 (for any first time bakers, 350 is like the universal temp for most cakes).
2. beat together butter and sugar until creamy. add eggs one at a time. add vanilla, honey, and coconut.
3. now for the dry ingredients. it’s best to stir them all together in a separate bowl. add a bit at a time to the liquid mixture. half a cup at a time is what i do. then add milk.
4. place cupcake cups into cupcake/muffin tin. with an ice cream scooper or spoon, add mixture to cups. depending on how much you fill the cupcake the recipe should yield 10-12 cupcakes.
5. place in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes. a baker’s tip of mine that i learned years back was to place a pan of water in with the cupcakes to make sure they come out moist. also make sure to do the toothpick test (stick a tooth pick into a cupcake, if it comes out clean its done but if it comes out wet it needs more time.). oven temps tend to differ depending on oven so test!
6. let cool before placing on a cooling rank. cool awhile longer before frosting, i usually cool overnight because cold cupcakes are easiest to frost.
7. you can use store bought frosting or make your own. i’ve found that it’s easier just to buy it. i used store bought chocolate frosting and just used a disposable piping bag to frost. finally i topped with a raspberry and sprinkled red sprinkles on top.  
8. lastly, eat and enjoy!

***if anyone is counting points, one cupcake is 6 ppv (for a batch of 12) or 7 ppv (for a batch of 10). this is without frosting. frosting is usually about 3 points. i'm convinced that the flexible fun 49 points were invented for sweets and booze. so have one!***

stahp being an asshole and using the bible to preach hate

i was raised in a pretty conservative catholic family. i was baptized, did my first communion, and was confirmed. i had to learn bible verses during sunday schools (most of which i’ve forgotten cause my mind is filled with 27 alternative plot lines for how april and jackson will get back together on grey’s). there’s a lot of good in the bible. it essentially teaches people to be kind (ephesians 4:32) to love one another (1 peter 4:8), and to help one another (deuteronomy 15:11). for all the bad people use it for, its filled with good. so why are countless people all over the world using its worlds for hate? it beats me.

this mystery has been one of my biggest pet peeves. throughout the ongoing debate on marriage equality, the bible has been cited as evidence against it; that its adam and eve not adam and steve. really, ya’ll, really? have ya’ll read leviticus? it states that men shouldn’t shave and should let their hair grow (leviticus 19:27). now, how many of these men that site the bible against marriage equality are clean shaven? practically all. the mormon church who funded prop 8 and have led the efforts against marriage equality put an emphasis on being clean shaven. In fact missionaries and BYU students must be clean shaven. so basically they are blatantly ignoring the bible, which they work so hard to uphold when it comes prop 8. there are a whole bunch of these examples so eloquently displayed by this great man:

you can’t just say one thing and do the other when you’re being righteous because all it makes you look like is a hypocritical asshole. it’s annoying. times have changed, fashion trends have changed, so why are ya’ll holding onto something so dearly that ya’ll yourself have amended to fit the times? the bible was written 2000 years ago when stoning and cutting a thief’s hand was acceptable. let’s focus all this energy on the good that the bible has to offer. lets help the poor and sick by working on providing the necessary funds for  a proper universal health care in the states. lets help our students to better themselves and this country by providing grants for them to earn an education. lets love our sisters, mother, aunts, and friends enough to not take their rights away. lets go out into the world and do good, be good people, and respect each other.

lastly, to scotus who took oaths to adhere to the constitution, a fundamental frame of our lovely constitution is the separation of church and state. it stems from the first british settlers who left england because  of religious prosecution. so do your job and separate church and state. because from what i’ve seen the only argument against the marriage of two people who love one another and happen to be of the same sex is that its ‘against’ the bible. so why are you hearing arguments that site the bible?! scouts, your decision should be a no brainer.