A busy night

Yesterday was a very busy day.  After work for 10 hours, I escaped to the hot outdoors for my scheduled run with my buddy.

2mi @ easy, 2x{4mi @ MP +1mi @ T), 1 mi @ easy

The temperature was into the 70s by 6pm and so it was a hot run.  Usually for these after work long runs, I don't bring any water or nutrition.  I discussed with my running buddy and we agreed since it was going to be so warm out we would bring water and some food to keep us going.

I carried my handheld and actually wasn't bothered by it too much.  I ate GU chomps every ~2 miles after mile 5.  The workout was far from easy but I really think having the water and nutrition helped.  I honestly prefer to do any run under 13 miles without nutrition but with the heat, it actually worked out for the best.

Once we were finished, I headed straight home because I had to bake cupcakes for a cupcake bake-off challenge today.  3 hours and 100+ mini cupcakes later plus lots of buttercream icing and I was ready to finally get to bed.

In the morning at work, I quickly prepared the cupcakes.  I was filling them with a raspberry filling and then icing them before the competition.  It turned out to be a lot of work but they came out pretty nice.

I ended up taking 3rd place to some very good cupcakes.  It was a lot of work but a lot of fun and it was interesting to see what the other participants had come up with.  My work did this as a fundraiser for United Way - you paid a dollar and got to try every cupcake.  I tried all seven different types of cupcakes and now I feel like I am in a sugar coma!!

These cupcakes were actually not that hard to make.  Here is the recipe for the Perfect Cake Mix Cupcakes!!  And for the Raspberry Filling and Raspberry Buttercream!!

Raspberry Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream

Cupcake ingredients: 

1 Betty Crocker Yellow cake mix

½ cup butter

1 cup water

3 eggs

Raspberry Filling ingredients:

½ cup Raspberry jam

½ container Cool whip

Raspberry Buttercream Ingredients:

½ cup Crisco

½ cup Butter

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tbsp Skim milk

½ cup Raspberry jam

4 cups Confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

Mix together cake mix with butter, water and eggs and beat with electric mixer for about 2 minutes.  Start filling cupcake tins and then bake at 325F for 20 minutes.  Once all cupcake batter is used, mix buttercream ingredients into bowl and beat with electric mixer until smooth.  In another bowl, mix cool whip with raspberry jam.  Remove cupcakes from oven when finished baking and allow to cool.  When ready to fill cupcakes, use a knife or coring tool to remove a bit of the center of the cupcake.  Using a bag, pipe filling into cupcakes and then pipe frosting on top. 

Cupcake recipe from Tidy Mom

Buttercream recipe from Six Sisters' Stuff