Made in America

My family has always been moderately fanatic about the fourth of July. We don't really decorate much for it, but ever since I can remember every fourth (or some years the fifth) we've partaken in some sort of firework spectacular. Back in the day when we still had annual passes to Disney, we'd go to Epcot for the fourth, and I'd stand absolutely in awe of the artificial daylight that was created by the massive amount of explosions. I think I was a glorified pyromaniac by the time I was 8 years old. My family started our Independence Day tradition when I was probably 12 or 13, and I always got a kick out of getting to light off the mortars and see the pretty colors that would stretch across the sky as a result of the small fuse that I had lit. My older brother would always have friends over who would light the fireworks with us, and my little brother soon followed in our pyro ways. Below you can see a video of the sparkler bomb that Chris made. I recorded it, and Chris has since proudly displayed it on his facebook with the caption "Sparklers+Fire Crackers + water bottle+ a roll of electrical tape + 3 guys with nothing to do = KABOOM!" I unfortunately am not included in the 3 guy count but still greatly enjoyed watching it explode.

Obviously, such an amazing holiday with such great family participation would require a tremendous dessert. Last year I baked a watermelon cake (no, it was not watermelon flavored, BUT it was shaped like a watermelon...you can see a picture of it below), but this year cupcakes were the way to go. I had purchased mini cupcake liners in red and blue over a month back in preparation for making some patriotically themed cupcake for the fourth and was very excited to use them. ALSO Chris and I had gone to the outlets to meet up with our relatives who were visiting from Australia, and I was absolutely ecstatic to see that Calphalon (only my favorite store for all things cooking) was having a sale on their bake ware! I purchased a new mini muffin tin AND a jumbo muffin tin (the guy in the store said that you didn't need to use liners for any of them since they're non-stick, but I was definitely a non-believer until I baked the jumbo ones!).  I had picked out the type of cupcake I was going to make well in advance deciding on an Arnold Palmer Cupcake recipe that I found on the Food Network website (it was Paula Deen's recipe...I mean how can you say no to that??). Seeing as I very readily associate Arnold Palmers (named for the golfing great as it was his favorite type of drink...half iced tea half lemonade) with relaxing in the summer, I figured what better type of cupcake to make for the fourth.

Long story short, I had a scare in the process after adding the milk to the batter (you steep tea in warm milk to get the tea flavor which translates as more of a spiced flavor int he actual cupcake) when it appeared that the tea milk made the batter curdle, but it was all for naught when everything smoothed out with the addition of the flour (I had bought more all purpose flour so no need to substitute cake flour this time around). I put them in the oven and watched them closely. The last obstacle was definitely the icing. A typical butter cream icing consists primarily of butter (who woulda thunk haha) and confectioner's sugar. This recipe called for some added lemon juice AND the remained of the tea milk concoction. The added liquid resulted in my having to do some serious damage control (in the form of an extreme amount of additional powdered sugar) and some heavy improvising. In the end the icing turned out to be a delightful lemony flavored icing with just a hint of spice from the tea. My eight year old Australian cousin helped me ice some of them, but being the perfectionist that I am, I'm only showing you a select few that I thought I iced pretty well :) Below you can see the pictures of my watermelon cake from last year and this year's cupcakes!

Everyone seemed to enjoy the cupcakes (including my two young cousins...one of whom tried to conquer a jumbo cupcake on her own). I don't know how much justice, however, was done to the Arnold Palmer, but it definitely produced a yummy cupcake regardless. We ended up capping off our week of patriotism with me taking the day off from work and heading down to Cocoa Beach with Chris and the Australian relatives to watch the last shuttle launch. My family has always made a great effort to go to as many launches as we can since they're only an hour or so of a drive away from home so it only seemed fitting to be there for the last one. It was great even though the clouds prevented us from seeing the boosters fall off and from getting very many good pictures, but at least the memories will always be there! I promise there will be another post in the very near future so just keep checking back!!