Accio Butterbeer (cupcakes)

With the final film coming out tonight at midnight (eek!), Harry Potter-mania has taken over yet again. I picked up the first book about 12 years ago in middle school and I was immediately sucked in to the magical universe J.K. Rowling geniusly created. My sister and I are re-reading our way through the books, and in an attempt to bring this whimsical world to life, I decided to whip up a batch of Butterbeer cupcakes from a recipe I found online (and modified slightly).

First I laid out all my ingredients:

Flour

Baking Powder

Baking Soda

Salt

Butter

White Sugar

Brown Sugar

Eggs

Vanilla

Buttermilk

Cream Soda

Then I mixed together all my dry ingredients (2 C flour; 1 1/2tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1/4 tsp salt)

Then, I creamed 1 stick butter; 1/2 cup white sugar & 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

Mixed in 3 eggs; 1/2 cup buttermilk; 1/2 cup cream soda; 1/2 tsp vanilla & all the dry ingredients

I filled my cupcake cups about 3/4 the way full, baked them for 15 minutes at 350 degrees...

...and let them cool over night before frosting

So...I forgot to take pictures of the frosting-making process, but I melted a bag of butterscotch chips with 1 tsp of butter and about half a cup of pre-made frosting (it is VERY sweet) and used that to top the cupcakes. I also added a shake or two of sprinkles for some extra sparkle!

(I used green, because that's what we had; not because I'm a Slytherin, 'cause I'm not. If anything, I'd probably be in Hufflepuff, but I digress...)

The finished product:

They are delicious, 'Honeydukes quality', if I do say so myself...

Now I'm going to take my nerd self, curl up in a chair with one of my confections, and finish reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

deviation

I'm going to take a break from the mug thing. Well, not really since I posted a mug today and will do so again tomorrow. But here is an extra little tid-bit of a post. More of a 'tweet' on steroids, but whatevs.
Anyway...here we go:
I need to finish reading Eat, Pray, Love. I have really enjoyed it, and I'm soclose to the end. But it's starting to get me depressed. Mostly because reading it has hit me with an incredible wanderlust that I can't give into because I'm poor and I have a job that I don't want to get fired from for just up and leaving. Also, I am noticing quite a few similarities between me and Liz. Well, I seem to share a lot of her 'downs' notsomuch with her 'ups' though. I have switched, for the time being, to re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It's the only HP book I haven't re-read yet. In part, I'm gearing up for the movie (though one could argue that E,P,L is already in theaters and HP won't be out until Nov 19, so I'm jumping the gun a little bit). But it's nice to read a book about a protagonist I have absolutely nothing in common with. Am I British? No! Am I a Wizard? No (although, it'd be cool if I were) Am I being pursued by the most evil being ever to exist who has split his soul into seven pieces and wants to kill me dead? No! (Thank God).
Sometimes getting lost in a work of fiction is just what the doctor ordered.
I would like to take this moment to invite reality to bite me.

Now, would you like a Bertie Bott's every flavored bean? Or perhaps, a butterbeer??

Nox.