Tables and Cupcakes

Tables and cupcakes. . . kind of a weird combo, I know.  What these two do have in common is that they were two of my projects this week so I decided to cover them both in the same post!

Last weekend we got together with some of our sweet friends for dinner and I decided to make dessert because I have been wanting to try a new summer recipe for Key Lime Cupcakes that I found in one of my magazines.  I tweaked the recipe a bit and used store bought icing to save a little time, but they turned out to be pretty tasty!



Key Lime Cupcakes (I used regular limes because my grocery store didn't have key limes)
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbls lime zest (I used a cheese grater to zest my lime into a small glass bowl)
3 eggs
11/4 cup flour
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tea baking powder
1/2 tea salt
1/4 cup half and half
2 tbls fresh lime juice

Filling
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 (10oz) jar lime curd  (I had never seen this before, but I found it on the baking isle with the pie fillings)

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line your muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2) In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar, and lime zest.  Beat at high speed with mixer until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3) In another bowl, whisk flour, cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt together.
4) In a small bowl whisk half and half and lime juice together.  Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternately with half and half mixture.  Spoon batter into muffin cups (about 2/3 full).  Bake for 16-20 minutes until done.  Let cool completely.
5) Use a melon baller and carefully remove a small ball shaped amount of cake from the center of each cupcake.  Spoon lime Filling into the center of each cupcake.  Finally frost your cupcakes with vanilla icing.  To spruce up the appearance, I sprinkled graham cracker crumbs over the icing, stuck a small slice of lime in the icing, and topped each cupcake with a toothpick umbrella! 

If you want to create a cute summer dessert, be sure to try out this yummy recipe! 

And now on to the tables.  Right after Daniel and I moved to Nashville, I found two matching side tables at Goodwill to use for our nightstands.  Yes, it has been 2 years, but I have been so busy refinishing furniture to sell that I haven't refinished our bedroom furniture.  On a recent trip to HomeGoods, I found an adorable lamp on clearance that I bought for my nightstand and I decided that everything would look much better together if I stripped and repainted our nightstands an antique white.  Below are the before photos of our nightstands.



Here is a shot of them right after my wonderful Hubs helped me sand them:

And here is the finished product after a coat of primer, two coats of paint, and one coat of clear protectant:

Thanks for reading!  Let me know if these recipes and ideas were helpful to you!  I am working on adding a suggestion box to my blog for you to leave ideas! 

Enjoy this beautiful Saturday the Lord has given us! 

Ashley :)