Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes with Pirouettes - Progressive Dinner

Welcome! Today we are so excited to be joining four other bloggers for something completely different - a progressive dinner - five bloggers, five homes, five courses!

First, here is the menu:

Didn't the main course over at Kelley Nan's look delicious?!?  Now it's time for dessert in our home. Come on in and make yourself comfortable. We are serving Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes with Pirouettes.

You can make them in a mini bundt pan like we did for this one:

Or in just a regular cupcake pan and then place them in some cute little wrappers or cups. We love the  flavor the hazelnut frosting adds and the pirouettes are a fun little touch that make a basic cupcake seem a little more "fancy". 

Personally, I love water with my dessert, by my husband often drinks coffee with his so we had both water goblets (with a pitcher of water on the side table next to the sofa) as well as coffee. 

Here is the recipe. It is nice and easy! 

Cupcakes:

For the cupcake just use your favorite cupcake mix and follow the directions. Once the cupcakes have cooled it's time for the frosting.

Frosting:

1 cup of butter, softened by not melted

1 cup hazelnut spread 

2 tsp. vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

2-4 tsp. heavy cream (if you don't have any you can use milk)

First beat the butter and hazelnut spread together then add vanilla. After that mix in powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add cream as necessary until you get the right consistency. Then we scooped the frosting into a pastry bag and starting frosting each cupcake. This is an old photo from a rosette cake post we did almost four years ago (ahhh - that seems crazy!) but we still use these exact same tools (although we've gone through several packages of pastry bags in the last several years and I have a couple of different tips I play around with). 

You can find the Tip Coupler here, the #1M tip here and the disposable bags here. 

Then just frost each cupcake. We added a few sprinkles. I used these Williams-Sonoma sprinkles that I just use when I am making stuff for special occasions. We have lots of other fun and more colorful (and much less expensive - ha!) sprinkles that the girls use when they are baking. 

Then we just topped them off with some of these hazelnut pirouettes to dress them up just a bit more. I cut each one in half and just used a half of one per cupcake.

And that's it! Nice and Easy!

Thank you so much for joining us! Now it is time to head on over for the last course - after dinner drinks on Sarah, from Our Vintage Farmhouse's, gorgeous porch! 

And if you missed any of the courses be sure to check them all out:

Appetizers with Randi Garrett Designs

Salad with Driven by Decor

Entree with Kelley Nan

Dessert  with Dear Lillie (Us)

After Dinner Drinks with Our Vintage Farmhouse

And here is the Source List for our room:

Wall Color - Midsummer Night in Matte by Benjamin Moore

Trim Color - Simply White in Semi-Gloss by Benjamin Moore

Door Color - Mopboard Black in Semi-Gloss by Benjamin Moore

Sofa - Barbara Hartmann Interiors

Pillows on Sofa - HomeGoods

Chairs - Birch Lane Solomon Chairs in Talc Basketweave

Chocolate Pillow on Chair - HomeGoods

Knit Pillow on Chair - Soft Surroundings

Ottoman - We Made It Using the Same Method as Here

Plaid Throw - HomeGoods

Gold Mirrored Tray - HomeGoods

Books Stacked Next to Chairs - Gifts from Family Members 

Mirror and demilune painting above Fireplace - passed down from family members

Grand Plaza Print - Arhaus

Gold Side Table - HomeGoods

Wood Side Table - Joss and Main

Books on Table - miscellaneous gifts

Trophy Urns - The Arrow's Nest

Little Tiny Vase on Table  - Was a candle from Target that we now use as a vase

Lamp on Table - HomeGoods

Golfer - HomeGoods

Gold Frame - Gift 

Standing Lamp - Consignment Shop Find years ago

Rug - Joss and Main/Wayfair

Drapery Panels - Ritva Panels from IKEA

Frames and Mirror on Gallery Wall - Michael's

Books on Shelves - Passed on down or gifted from family members

Large White Book - Blurb photo albums

Small White Books - Chatbook photo albums

Dog Bookends - Birch Lane

Airplane - Gift years ago 

And Source List for the Serving Pieces:

White Beaded Square Dishes - Milford Square Dishes from Birch Lane
Gold Plated Flatware - Wilmington Flatware from Birch Lane
Hobnail Detailed Water Goblets - O'Keefe Water Goblets from Birch Lane
Small Wood and Marble Cakestand - Russo Cake Stand from Birch Lane

Pitcher - Classic Glass Pitcher from Birch Lane

Small Beaded Plates - Pottery Barn Emma Collection

Chocolate Cups and Saucers - L.A. Burdick Chocolates

Marble Board - Sur La Table 

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Heading to Oz or Ossifying? The whirlwind of debate around Libraries

Doug Johnson and Joyce Valenza have written an article on School Library Journal that is tearing through the blogs of librarians and media specialists like wildfire this October. If you want to come to the cusp of the debates swirling around libraries and media centers like Dorothy's Cyclone that took her to Oz, this is the article to read because truly, the items here hit at the core of school change.

One piece particularly hit me as a teacher was the part on creative commons where Doug and Joyce say:

It is also time to share with teachers and learners the rationale for Creative Commons and other emerging concepts that are less restrictive than traditional copyright licensing.

1

Are we helping our students understand the issue of intellectual property from the point of view of the creator, not just the consumer? Librarians need to help students assign rights to their own creative works. They share information about a new world of sharing while respecting intellectual property.

Gosh.  We talk about creative commons but I'm not looking at them as Creators as I ought to!  I'm missing something here.  In the past, I've taught them how to pick the proper license but pretty much I sort of led the decision making for them -- I need to advise them and teach them to MAKE THEIR OWN DECISION.


If you read the article above and want to view the responses that are garnering the most attention, Doug writs over on his blog about "Practicing Visionaries" and the responses he has gotten as did Joyce in her forum post on her Teacher Libarian Ning.


I think what I like most about this conversation is how this is being hashed out in public with thoughts between librarians.  I think what I like least about this conversation is that truly public isn't public because it is on the Internet - on Doug's blog and Joyce's Ning and so many librarians, media specialists, and teacher librarians cannot access these things at school to be PART OF THE CONVERSATION.


Truly I feel that every librarian I know wants to do a good job and wants to improve their library but they just don't know how.  My favorite book I've read thus far is from David Loetschner The New Learning Commons: Where Learners Win because it just makes so much sense.  But again, I am NOT a librarian nor a media specialist and really can only reflect on what I see that I'm missing from my own teaching where it intersects with the teaching parts that are threaded throughout Doug's article.

So, pull the librarians and media specialists in and let them converse and not only let them converse but let them change. 

Wonder where this whirlwind will take things.  You know there is something to be said for talk, particularly among people who ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING as I believe so many of these are.  So, read up, learn, and decide which of these points apply to you and your organization and what you should do to improve your media center.

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