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

Oh! What a (not so) Beautiful Morning...

I've been house-sitting for the past few days, and it's been really nice to have a place to myself, about an hour away from my folks' house. Well...that is until this morning. When I locked myself out of the house. In my nightgown.

I went out to give the doggies their breakfast, and apparently, the back door automatically locked behind me. Beautiful. Now I'm in my nightie, my phone is inside, and I don't know ANYONE in Fresno. So I did the only logical thing I could think of. I hopped the gate so I could be in the front yard. I waited until someone came jogging by, flagged him down, and asked if I could use his cell phone (now, if my life were a TV show, he would have been cute and in his mid-to-late twenties; but because this is my life and not Rachel Green's, he was in his 40s and kinda gross). Then I did what I always do in a crisis. I called my mommy since her's is one of the few numbers I actually have memorized...and she used to work with the mother/mother-in-law of the people whose dogs I'm watching. I asked her to call her friend to come rescue me somehow...

Then, I hopped the gate again and waited. And waited. And threw the ball around for the dogs. And waited. And then my beautiful sister (whom I love dearly) begrudgingly came by with the key so I could finally (after two and a half hours) get back in the house.

Does this stuff actually happen to other people? Or is it just me? Cause if it's just me, then other people are totally missing out on feeling like constant screw-ups!