B R Valentine!

This is what John and the boys cooked up this morning - sweet! It's on my screen saver, too. They were giggling with excitement that they made a project this morning. John said he could only get Max to stand for his picture if the other boys did too...he's such a little parrot right now! Gabe went back later and added an exclamation point over top of the "e" - because he says school says it means you are excited!

Happy Valentine's Day, friends and family!

Snow day!

We had a couple of snowy (on and off) days here in Portland, and the boys have been so excited! When it started snowing on Sunday, they could not wait to get outside. They didn't even argue about bundling up for once, though we did have to confiscate Max's mittens once we were outside for a while, since they were soaked and he kept sucking dirty snow water from them. Our fin time in the snow actually ended when we couldn't convince Max that it's not a good idea to bend down and lick snow from the cul de sac street. Sigh....

Fortunately, Ben and Gabe were more interested in having a snowball fight than eating snow. In lieu of learning how to make a snowball, they alternated between shrieking, "Make me a snowball, Daddy!" and picking up chunks of snow and flinging them however they came off the ground. Sometimes they just picked up snowballs they'd already thrown and re-tossed them, since as neither 5 nor 3 year olds are known for their power pitches, most of the snowballs did not explode on impact. Here's Max with a "snowball":

After MUCH cajoling and bossing, eventually I was able to convince Gabe to make a snow angel. He was fairly skeptical, and he really didn't want to lay down in the wet snow until I got Ben to show him how...then Gabe made a bunch of them all over the cul de sac. Ben made one, then went back to trying to make a snowball.

 The boys even went up the hill to "help" the neighbor girls make a pile of snow for their snow fort. I'm not sure that even f the plowed the whole block they would have enough snow for the fort, but the boys were happy to throw their "snowballs" at the girls' snow pile instead of each other. 

Unfortunately, the snow would come down thick...then melt away a half hour later. Or luckily, depending on your point of view...since John had to work Sunday and Monday, perhaps he appreciated the transient nature of our snowy days.  I know I grew to appreciate it when we had to make an emergency trip to the doctor to have Ben's partially dislocated elbow popped back into place right before dinner time. It was nice that even though it was snowing heavily when we left Forest Grove (Happy Birthday, Penny!) that it was just raining and normal wet by the time we had to drive back up the big hill we live on. In the end, I think this was just enough snow for us! 

GF Chocolate Cupcakes

So before Max was obsessed with Day of the Diesels, he loved Elmo, which is why we planned the Elmo theme for his party. But when I trotted off to the party stores locally looking for Elmo swag for his party, the shelves were bare. Apparently you are supposed to plan ahead for parties and order stuff weeks in advance. I'm like - it's just a two year old birthday party, not a wedding dudes! So I grabbed the last couple packs of (overpriced) Elmo plates form the shelf and crafted a bunch of Elmo's using my Cricut. You can find more on the Elmo craft here at my Stamping Rules blog. What we really want to chat about here is cake!


We've experimented with a bunch of GF cupcake recipes in the last year. All have been...ok. The texture is...ok. The flavor is...ok. I wouldn't not eat them, but what we really missed was a yummy, chocolate-y cupcake. And now we have one. This is a cupcake I'd eat whether or not it's gluten free!


Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Creme Filling 
(Adapted from Cakes N Bakes)


Cupcakes:
1 cup GF Flour Mix (I used Gluten Free Mama's Almond Blend)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
3/4 cup Coconut sugar
1/3 cup melted Coconut oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Filling: 
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
1 small jar GF marshmallow fluff ( I said tasty and GF - not healthy)

For the cakes:
Preheat oven to 350°F and line a 12-tin muffin pan with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk together the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together buttermilk, coconut sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla for 1 minute on medium speed. Turning down to low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 separate additions, making sure the mixture is fully incorporated after each addition.

Fill muffin liners approximately 2/3 full with batter and bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes for 5 minutes in pan before transferring them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the filling:
In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Add in vanilla and salt. Mix in the marshmallow fluff, beating and scraping down mixture frequently until fully incorporated. Cover filling and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

I like the Pampered Chef Easy Accents Decorator for filling and frosting cupcakes. As a matter of fact, I plan to get a second one so that I don't have to clean it out between steps! Fill your pastry cone (or the Decorator) and pipe the filling into the cooled cupcakes. You want to be sure to get enough in there - the power of the Decorator makes that part easier). I like to look for the top of the cake to rise up a bit, and you should be able to see the filling at the top.

Frosting: Cakes N Bakes did a Hostess cupcakes style chocolate ganache for the topping, but around here we lean towards a cream cheese/buttercream combo frosting for pretty much anything that's not nailed Down. yum!

Our Favorite Frosting:

1 package cream cheese, room temp
1 stick of butter, room temp
2 1/2 cups Powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Beat butter and cream cheese together until lumps are gone. Add in powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy. Frost away!

Max's turns 2!

I can't believe it, but Max turned two on December 31st. He got to have cupcakes twice (which Gabe has already put in his demand request for two birthday parties this year) because we were lucky enough to have visiting Grandparents at his actual birthday but put off his kid party to a better weekend, since most folks aren't planning to attend a kid play date on New Year's Eve. As you can see, Max was down with that plan.

We got Max the Thomas the Tank Engine Dieselworks Take N Go Set for his birthday, and I'm not sure which child was the most excited about it. Max is completely obsessed with the newest Thomas movie "Day of the Diesels". It's a fairly new obsession, expressed in constant demands to see the movie and constant refrains of "Daaaaaay Diesels! Thomas! Percy! Daaaaaay Diesels!" pretty much most moments he's not watching the movie. Gabe claims he doesn't like that movie anymore because we watched it too much...yet every time it's on he sneaks in to watch surreptitiously from he sidelines. Max also got some really cool presents from his Grandparents and Cousin Dayna sent him some cool letter blocks that he likes to stack up and knock over with a train.

A week later we had a kiddie playdate party for him. with Elmo cupcakes and a gaggle of awesome kiddos running a muck. For some reason most of the pics I took came out super blurry - I don't know what happened! We made mini pizzas that the kids got to top themselves, and then we had the BEST GF chocolate cupcakes I've had to date. I'm gonna do a separate post on them, because that recipe was a keeper! 

Then all his friends helped Max open presents, mostly one handed since he got a small Diesel 10 train and pretty much hasn't stopped clutching it since Saturday. Gabe and Ben desperately want to play with it, but Max is fully defending his turf, and no one plays with Diesel 10 but Max. He may only be two, but he's got enough pluck for a pack of kiddos. Happy birthday, Max!

Christmas Photos

I know -  a little late, but I'm slowly catching up with everything I wanted to get done in December (including a last few Christmas packages to go out this week, fingers crossed). I threw my neck out of whack a couple weeks ago, and it's really slowing me down. In any case, here's a few peeks at the Christmas hoopla that went down at the Coffman homestead.

Here are the boys on Christmas eve, ready to go out and sprinkle the "reindeer food" Ben made a preschool out into the street. They were thrilled to be allowed out a) at night, and b) to thrown glitter on the street. Turns were taken nicely, and (other than a slightly icy wet patch) in the morning the reindeer food was magically gone!

 On Christmas eve the boys always get new jammies, and this year there was a super hero theme. It's a little blurry since it's hard for superheroes to hold still an pose! Gabe has been coveting the Captain America jammies for almost 4 months now, so to say he was excited about his Christmas eve gift is a bit of an understatement. And since Ben often wants whatever Gabe does at this point (it's all the same or complete opposites with those guys) there was general happiness all around. To infinity....and beyond!

Christmas morning we made gluten free chocolate donuts. Two boys are topless to make sure that they could still wear their jammies when we were opening presents - these were pretty messy. I wasn't super thrilled with them, but I swear you throw some chocolate icing and colored sprinkles on anything and these boys would chow it down. Soon we were opening presents, and it was just as loud, messy, and happy as you could hope for with three little whirlwinds. Max opened his stocking, grabbed the top item (a train) and disappeared to the boys' room to play. Gabe whipped through all his presents and tried to open some of the grownups...and help Max do half of his as well. Ben got a Lightning McQueen Guitar (his version of the Red Ryder Beebe Gun) and all was right with the world. Hope y'all had a wonderful holiday, too!