Birthday Brunch

I have pretty limited photos because we got distracted by the eating and gorgeous sunshine. However, it was a great example of how to host brunch and still sleep in. Since I was planning to go out dancing the night before, I wanted something really easy to make so that I could have a relaxing birthday morning. My roommate and other friend decided to go all out and do eggs Florentine (as pictured above--how cute are my heart-shaped egg poachers, huh?! I'm still obsessed) and we ended up with an amazing amount of bacon.
Someone else brought the best sausages (pictured above. I could eat all of those right now, oh man) I have ever had and there was lots of juice and champagne (of course). I made champagne cupcakes that can be found here. Those also look a lot prettier than mine...heh. BUT I had Disney Princess Sparkle Frosting. That's right, SPARKLY FROSTING. IT REALLY SPARKLED! It was awesome.
See the sparkles?? And yes, my cupcakes just might say "I win" on them...I also had decorating help. Sadly I forgot to take photos of my actual contribution to the meal and the point of this post. I've made it before in bailey's form like the original version but this one was better:

Boozy Berry Baked French Toast
as adapted from Smitten Kitchen's version

-1 loaf supermarket French or Italian bread (I used Fred Meyer's "Bakery French Loaf"--aka the cheapest one...*but not the baguette)
-3 C milk. I used 1% and it tasted magnificent and rich so I see no need for the whole milk she calls for. I also never have whole milk on hand.
-3 eggs
-2 T sugar
-pinch of salt
-frozen raspberries (maybe 1/2-1 C)
-frozen blackberries (1/4 C)
-raspberry liqueur of any kind. I believe I have a knock off of chambord or framboise but it tastes just as good. I have no idea how much I used but I will explain that in the directions below.

1. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with butter.
2. Cut about 3/4 of the bread into thick slices and smush them together in the pan to make a packed layer. Cut more bread as needed to fill the pan and cut on into smaller slices to fill the gaps.
3. Pack berries into the other gaps and sprinkle some on top for good measure.
4. Whisk milk, eggs, sugar, and salt together and pour over bread.
5. Drizzle raspberry liqueur over the bread. *Note: put some in a cup or spouted measuring cup so drizzling is easier. You don't want a ton of this stuff because it's so sweet. Think of it as the caramel ribbon in ice cream--it's not a layer of caramel, but almost every bite has a little. That's the best way I can think of to describe how much to use...
6. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
7. In the morning, preheat the oven to 425 and bake for about 30 min or until puffy and golden on top. Serve with maple syrup and gloat over how easy and delicious it is.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

For my friend and ex-co-worker's birthday I decided to visit and bring cupcake. A while ago she'd told me to make peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate frosting for a different event. I didn't because I wasn't sure I was as into the idea of peanut butter cake--that's for next time. This time I figured I'd stick w an awesome chocolate cupcake recipe I already had and see what I could do with peanut butter, powdered sugar, milk, cream cheese, and butter.
The result is awesomeness. Kind of the flavor of homemade Reese's (more peanut buttery and less sugary for those of you who have never had one) combined with the texture of thick butter cream. In other words, totally addictive.
Chocolate cupcakes! For once I managed not to overfill the cupcake liners so I made nice, even, non-gigantic cupcakes!
I had to make sure they were properly cooked...yes, they were.
I tried to frost them beautifully but they ended up looking a bit silly. The ones with the dot of chocolate on top looked cool but the attempt at lines majorly failed. Whatever, they were pretty phenomenal.

This is the recipe for the chocolate cupcakes.

This is the frosting, more or less. I say that because when it comes to making buttercream I cannot be bothered to actually measure things. I just taste as I go. The key to keeping it smooth and creamy is to add the powdered sugar a little at a time.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Butter Cream Frosting:
-1/4-1/2 C creamy peanut butter. I think I used the Trader Joe's creamy one.
-1/4-1/2 STICK of butter (not cup), softened.
-a large scoop of cream cheese (like with a spoon you eat cereal with. You could add more but I wanted this to be really peanut buttery, not cream cheesy with peanut butter flavor so I only used a little).
-powdered sugar.
-milk (I used 1%).

1. Start with a 1/4 c of the butter and a 1/4 c of powered sugar in a big bowl. Beat until incorporated and add more sugar. If it looks dry, add a splash of milk.
2. Add enough sugar so that it stops tasting like you're eating straight butter, but stop before it tastes like butter cream.
3. Add in the peanut butter and cream cheese. Keep adding sugar until the consistency and taste are to your liking. The end!