Tequila Sunrise Cupcakes

Now that my sister is home from college, I've been looking at recipes for more baking with alcohol. I still prefer the "sweet, girly stuff," as she put it the one time we went to a bar. While searching Pinterest, I decided that the Tequila Sunrise Cupcakes from thecakeblog looked sweet and girly enough for me.

When actually making them, I learned two things. First, I love the smell of grenadine. Second, that the first three times I made frosting didn't lie, I really am terrible at it. It tasted really good, but it only reached a halfway-solid consistency after I got my dad to help me.

The good news about this - there's leftover tequila-spiked frosting, and we always have cake mix in the cupboard. I'm going to see what other cakes like this frosting.

The cake itself was a little too tough, but I might have baked the cupcakes for too long. They tasted fine, but the frosting was what got the recipe a spot in my personal cookbook.

Quick Orange Chicken

Since I took over meal planning at my house, I've been more interested in cookbooks than websites. I found a few recipes that were good without editing, but here's one that my dad and I played with while we were making it.

RECIPE:

- 24 ounces chicken breast, cut into cubes
- 2/3 cup orange juice
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- Cut up broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots

Stir fry vegetables in a wok until they're the right level of crisp.

Stir orange juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and cornstarch in a bowl.

Pour some oil in the wok and cook the chicken until no longer pink.

Push chicken from center of wok and pour in the sauce.

Cook until the sauce is thickened.

Return the vegetables to the wok and coat all ingredients with the sauce.

Stir for another minute.

Serve with rice.

I wasn't that fond of this recipe, but my dad said he wanted to make it himself. I decided to post it in case anyone else wanted to see.