Green Velvet Cupcakes with Rum Spiked Frosting

Continuing with the Irish spirit, I decided to make some GREEN velvet cupcakes for Saint Patty's Day. Since half of the fun (or maybe 99% of the fun) on Saint Patrick's Day is the drinking, I spiked some cream cheese frosting with a little bit of rum. You only need a touch of imitation rum to get the right flavor, so if you're looking to recreate these don't go overboard or you'll end up feeling like you're eating a shot... not always so delicious. Enjoy!

Green Velvet Cupcakes with Rum Spiked Frosting
Makes: 18 cupcakes  Prep: 20 minutes Total: 40 minutes

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs green food coloring
12 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup butter
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp imitation rum

Directions
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix well until lumps are gone. Pour into paper-lined cupcake tins and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out dry. Let cool before icing.
To make frosting, combine softened butter and cream cheese in a mixer and beat on high for 2 minutes. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and rum and beat for another minute or until smooth.

Red Velvet Whole Wheat Greek Yogurt Pancakes with Strawberries

These pancakes are inspired by a post I discovered at the food blog Carnal Dish. The original post was for red velvet pancakes with a maple cream cheese glaze, and that's where my obsession started. I couldn't get the image of these pancakes out of my head and was dying to find my own spin on this idea. Since I'm doing the whole P90X thing these days, I couldn't very well eat a whole batch a cream-cheesey-chocolate-red-velvet goodness all by myself. So, if you check out my Current Obsessions page at the top, you'll understand how this idea came to be.

Red Velvet Whole Wheat Greek Yogurt Pancakes - as my roommate Kelsey said, "It's a mouthful!" (I quoted her to avoid feeling lame myself despite the fact that I secretly love lame things.) I've never made yogurt pancakes before, but they're so fluffy and delicious! I whipped up a very simple hot strawberry sauce to sweeten up this healthy attempt at pancakes. They might be pretty good for you, but they still taste like dessert to me. Mission accomplished. :)

Red Velvet Whole Wheat Greek Yogurt Pancakes with Strawberries
Makes: 1.5 dozen large pancakes  Prep: 15 minutes  Total: 45 minutes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa powder
4 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups vanilla greek yogurt
1 egg
3/4 cup almond milk
2 tsp red food coloring
2 cups strawberries
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
Whipped topping to garnish

Directions
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add yogurt, egg and milk and mix well. Add food coloring one tsp at a time, using more or less to achieve desired color. Cook pancakes on a skillet at medium-high heat, flipping until done.
To make strawberry sauce, boil sugar and water. Add halved strawberries and boil for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Lower heat and cook for another 15 minutes.