Checking more things off my list!!
I made two varieties of cupcakes for the holiday potluck we went to. I actually had decided to make two flavors so that I could send some to some good friends in the Midwest that we miss hanging out with. I got rave reviews when I did that for some family member’s birthdays a couple months ago AND this will help me to start to mark another item off my list. One of the things on my list is to send baked goods to friends or family members at least three times in the next 6 months.
I did hear that everyone’s cupcakes stuck to the lid when they opened the jars. In an effort to fix that problem, I placed a piece of waxed paper between the frosting and the lid. I just used the lid as a stencil to cut the paper. I’m hoping that will help prevent the frosting from pulling half of the cupcake off when the lid is opened.
I sent them two of the chocolate peppermint cupcakes, and two spice cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. For the chocolate cupcakes, I decided that Swiss meringue buttercream probably wasn’t stable enough for traveling. I decided to use up the leftover white chocolate cream cheese frosting. I added some peppermint extract and again added red stripes. As you can see in the picture, the food coloring “sticks” to cream cheese frosting much better than it does to Swiss meringue buttercream. Of course that makes sense. The buttercream is very slippery. These stripes are very intense, but I like them!
1 Order Denver trip plane tix by 12/31 (finished 12/20)
2 Order Europe trip plane tix
3 Start kitchen remodel
4 Make creme brulee
5 Work out 3x/wk for 6 wks (one / two / three / four / five / six)
6 Eat no french fries for a month (and I LOVE french fries)
7 Read my D40 manual, and start applying what I’m learning from it – started
8 Finish the major craft project I started 2 years ago
9 Go to a dr about my wrist
10 Send baked goods to family/friends (one sent 12/27 / two / three) – started
11 Read 1 book/month (Jan / Feb / Mar / Apr / May / June)
12 Learn to ski
13 Plan/Host a girls night (in or out)
13.5 Send at least 5 birthday cards (one / two / three / four / five)
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Happy Birthday!!!!
I had one of those lists when i was 28 too, then i got pregnant. that was the only thing i got to cross off 🙂 Good luck with your list and enjoy your last year of your 20’s!! What a great way to gear up for 30!! And let me just say that 30 is great, i am having a blast!!!
I saw marshmallows on your list. I have a great recipe and they are seriously easy to make and so delicious that you will never want to eat store marshmallows again!
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/12/homemade_chocolate_dipped_mars.html
Happy Birthday! I’m starting to create a similar list… good luck accomplishing all of it!
Happy birthday!
I made a list before I turned 30 also. It is addictive so I keep an ongoing list. Then this year I did Mondo Beyondo and list got crazier!
On the chicken tikka front, Cook’s Illustrated did a recent chicken tikka and it is unbelievable! As close to the restaurant as you can get.
And for cooking classes, my husband and I took a knife skills class together in Chicago and it was THE BEST class I have ever taken. I can easily chop like the pros and it has saved us literally hundreds of hours in the kitchen.
Here’s my list for this year:
http://jonandlaura.blogspot.com/2010/03/36-wishes-for-upcoming-year.html
Happy Birthday!
I’ll be 29 in August, so I think I’m going to steal your idea and make a list of my own (probably with a lot of the same things you mentioned!)
Happy Birthday! Hope you have a fabulous day!
I’ve been reading your blog for a while but I think this is my first time commenting. I just wanted to say that I think it’s awesome that you have a list of goals to hit before you hit 30! I’m turning 30 myself in about a month and a half and I’m wondering where all the time went. Maybe I’ll set a couple goals to fulfill within the next several weeks. Happy birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!
These are really great goals. I haven’t been to the beach since moving to Boston 3 years ago either. Ridiculous. Must change this this summer 🙂
I’m turning 29 this year also (ahhhh!) and I love this idea. Good luck on your goals. And definitely keep us updated with your progress.
I really need to make a list like this too! That’s a lot to accomplish in a year, but I think you can do it!
Happy birthday!! 🙂
Sues
Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone. And thanks for the recipe links! If anyone has any others to share to help me get through my list, I’m all ears!
What a fantastic list!! I need to make one for 35 things to do before I’m 35 hmmm.
Good luck with getting through this list. It looks so fantastic.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Birthday!
This is a great idea – 30s are great – however I only have a couple years left of them.
Love your blog…
Hello and Happy Birthday to a fellow midwest transplant!! I’m from Greenville, OH (it’s 40 miles north and west of Dayton) and now live in Central Massachusetts! Your list is quite similar to mine…especially about keeping in touch and meeting friends babies back home!! It gets tough living so far away. Good luck with the list, and keep baking, I love your recipes!!
I’ve started to make baked donuts. I wish there were more recipes than just plain out there. http://americancupcakeinlondon.blogspot.com/2010/06/mini-cake-donuts.html
I just did a trial at a Bikram Yoga studio. It’s miserable doing it but I lost 1kg after only 4 classes!
I’m organizing a bloggers event but sadly it’s in London 🙁 It’s hard work. I’m trying to get a guest speaker but no one is interested as this is the first one.
Love the list! I just made baked doughnuts… they were beautiful… unfortunately they tasted nothing like doughnuts. Maybe there’s a better recipe out there for you! I’ll look forward to checking back to see if you have any success with those.
Happy Belated Birthday! I check out your blog often and love it! I love the list you got going- I think I need to start one up 🙂
We made bagels the other morning and they are surprisingly easy! If you wanna check them out :
http://sweetebakes.blogspot.com/2010/06/homemade-bagels.html
Happy belated birthday! I had problems accessing your blog for some reason on Thursday, but wanted to pass along well wishes and echo everyone’s thoughts on what a great idea your list is. Alas, similar to Roxan, I’m turning 30 in August but maybe I can set a few reasonable goals to achieve in that short time. 🙂
Great list. I think I’m going to do 1 for my b-day tomorrow. Of things I want to do this year.
First – happy belated birthday! Second – I love the list…what a great idea. I love the name of it too. I may borrow it for my 30 “while I’m in my” 30’s! To be honest though, 30 was a tough birthday, but I’ve never loved life more than I do now!
Hope to see you over at Sunny Bug sometime 🙂