Seven-Minute Frosting, Fun with Coconut and We have a Winner!

This has been a weird week. A lot of everything and whole lotta nothing going on all at the same time. Do you ever have days/weeks like that? Where you've got so much going on inside your head--things that need to be done, planning, plotting, CHARACTERS-- that it feels as though you've been going and going and going when you really haven't done much at all. That's the week I've had. And you know, I just don't like it. Yes, I ticked some administrative things off of my list, but it's still frustrating when you feel like you haven't accomplished a darn thing.

But enough about that. I'd rather talk about food.

So for Easter, I made these cute little cupcakes.

I love it when cute is easy.

I started with some strawberry cupcakes. Thought those would be nice and springy. Then I topped them with good old fashioned Seven-Minute Frosting.

What's that?

You've not had Seven-Minute Frosting?

It's this nice, fluffy, almost marshmallow-like frosting that takes, well, about seven minutes to make.

I don't have pix, but here it is in a nutshell.

You'll need:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon water

2 egg whites

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Dash of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine your sugar, water, egg whites, corn syrup and salt in the top of a double-boiler or do what I did and simply use a glass or metal bowl that will sit comfortably atop a pan of water. With a handheld electric mixer, beat for thirty seconds at low speed. Just enough to mix everything together.

Next, place the bowl atop the pan over boiling water and beat constantly on high for 7 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Cooking egg whites has never been so delicious.

Remove from heat. Add vanilla and beat 2 more minutes or until frosting is thick enough to spread.

That's all there is to it.

Now, if you're like my seventeen year old son, you're wondering, "Where did you get the green coconut?"

No, I did not have to visit some specialty store. I simply put some flaked coconut in a jar, added two drops of green food coloring, put the lid on and shook it until all of the coconut had turned green.

Don't' you love it when you can actually impress your family?

Speaking of impressive, we have a winner.

And that winner is....

JUST COMMONLY!!!

Woo-hoo! Yay!

Just Commonly has won a copy of Jill Kemerer's latest release, Small-Town Romance.

Congratulations!