Super Cute Cupcakes

At our school carnival last night, a PTO mom made these really cute cupcakes!  I'm sure you can "Google" them or look on Pinterest and find the recipes.  The left ones are Oreo, the middle - obviously an ice cream sundae, and the right ones are German chocolate - with German chocolate icing on the middle of the top.

These cupcakes were presented so cute!  I didn't take a good picture because the ribbon is in the back, but each little bag had a cupcake and was tied with pretty ribbon.  Simple, but very cute!  These were made by a big sister of a girl in elementary school.

Thank you to both of you for making "fun" items for our carnival concession stand!

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Fish, Buzzard, and High Heeled Shoe Cupcakes

Posted by Lori:

I bought the neatest cookbook at Sam's Club on Monday (not that I needed another one at all!).  It had all sorts of ideas for cupcakes, cookies, and rice krispie treats made into different things.  Here are a few my daughter made tonight.

Fish:  Red hot lips, M & M's for scales, and fruit roll ups for fins. Eyes were bought at a cake supply place (Michaels maybe?? Can't remember!)

Buzzard Cupcake:  Cupcake body with a small chocolate donut towards the front for the mid-body part.

Head is a round donut.  She used carrots for beak/feet, but the recipe said banana shaped yellow candies.  The eyes are the same mentioned above.

Now, these high heeled shoe cupcakes are really cute, but she needs to practice more and get the right consistency on the icing for the heel part.  She used a pretzel rod.  Recipe suggested a cinnamon stick.  After iced, roll in colored sugar to coat. (She didn't do because it was getting too late.)

The blue bow is gum!

Thanks, daughter!  Looking forward to seeing more of your creations using that new cookbook!

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TV Dinner Cupcakes

Posted by Lori:

A couple of nights ago during a basketball tournament, one of our school's academic clubs had a silent auction as a fund raiser.  Parents were asked to bring baked items for the fundraiser.  This TV Dinner was absolutely adorable!  I had never seen it before!

Below is a link about the cupcake book this TV Dinner "recipe" came from.  It isn't a Martha Stewart recipe, but Martha hosted the author of the cookbook.
http://www.marthastewart.com/260350/tv-dinner-cupcakes

The lady who made these recently moved to our small town.  I'm so thankful that she did!  Now we are being blessed by her talents and support for our school, and we appreciate it very much!
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Birthday Cake in a Jar

Posted by Lori:

I'm really excited about this recipe because the possibilities are endless!  These little individual jars would be cute decorated and given as birthday gifts or when someone has been sick.  They would be great for Christmas homemade gifts, school parties (when homemade goodies are allowed) and even fundraisers.

A couple of months ago, a family friend sent me a link for "Rainbow Cake in a Jar".  It was so cute and my plan was to make it some day.  However, I never had the time to do it, but kept thinking about the idea.  Since my son, Jacob, was having a birthday last week, and another son asked me to buy a Pillsbury "Funfetti" cake mix, I decided to make a Birthday Cake in a Jar and try it out for the birthday boy (it ended up being 'in addition to' his birthday cake - not 'in place of' his birthday cake!

Instead of pint jars as the rainbow cake had mentioned, I decided to get smaller 1/2 pint jars.  They are the perfect size for one serving.  To begin, remove the caps and rings from the jars.  Wash jars and dry them.

Place all 12 jars on a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix cake mix (desired flavor) per package directions.  Pour approx. 1/3 cup of mix into each jar.

Bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out mostly clean (a few crumbs is what I prefer so it's really moist).  Mine took 28 minutes.  Take cakes out and allow them to cool.  Now either top them with the caps and rings them until ready to use or freeze until ready to use.

Top with icing and sprinkles.  I used homemade butter cream.  Canned would work, too.  I used a 10 M Wilton tip to decorate the top with icing. Note: You could do a small amount of icing before putting the rings and lids on then they would be ready to give to someone.  The only thing is that the icing wouldn't be as generous of an amount as I've shown here.

This one is topped with squirt-type whipped cream and sprinkles.

Another friend mentioned making Neapolitan cakes using strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate cake mixes.  Wouldn't that be cute??!!  And, how about chocolate and strawberry making the very-popular pink/brown party ideas??  Of course, some may want to use the bigger pint jars for some of these other creations.  I definitely want to do the rainbow cake some time.  I may have to teach Noah in Bible class soon!  That would be so much fun for the story of the rainbow!

On this GRATITUESDAY, I am grateful for a friend telling me about cakes in jars.  It's such a fun idea for your own family, but also a great way to brighten up someone else's day!  I am grateful for new ways to have fun in the kitchen!

Let me know what creations you think of making!

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

And....join us for GRATITUESDAY at Heavenly Homemakers!

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Snow Ice Cream

With the abundance of snow we received, I decided to make snow ice cream.  I found a GREAT Paula Deen recipe.  It's delicious!  We added a little chocolate syrup to the top and mixed it up.  Sooooo good, and frugal, too!

Snow Ice Cream

8 cups of snow

1 can sweetened condensed milk (such as Eagle Brand)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients together in mixing bowl.   Serve and enjoy!

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Pizza

Posted by Lori:

I didn't take a picture of this cookie pizza as soon as we made it, but it's just the same as this Brownie Pizza picture, except the crust is chocolate chip cookie dough instead of brownie dough.

My son, Jacob, and I made this for one of his cake walk desserts.  His older brother, Zachary, was determined to win it at the cake walk at our school's annual carnival. And, he did!  They were both excited.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pizza

1 package chocolate chip refrigerated cookie dough (or use homemade)
Caramel ice cream topping
M & M's
Mini marshmallows
Chocolate syrup

Press cookie dough into pizza pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes or until lightly browned.  Pour caramel ice cream topping on crust and spread evenly.  Sprinkle mini marshmallows over caramel and crust.  Broil in oven until marshmallows start to brown (watch carefully!).  Remove cookie pizza from oven and sprinkle M & M's on top, followed by drizzled chocolate syrup.
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Sugar Cookie Fundraiser

Posted by Lori:

Last week our local 4-H club had a sugar cookie fundraiser.  Since I'm the leader, I volunteered to make the sugar cookies. 

Monday I baked and baked.  Tuesday I baked and baked.  Wednesday I should have baked and baked! All of the cookies were frozen until ready to decorate on Thursday.

Early Thursday morning I began decorating the cookies, and even though I had some orders turned in, most of them I didn't get until after school Thursday.  I pre-made 18 eight inch round cookies that were to be personalized and had approximately 150 Easter shaped smaller cookies ready, as well.  However, after tallying the orders, I needed 47 big round cookies and only half or less of the smaller ones!

So that night after softball and baseball games, I baked and baked and baked some more!  And decorated and decorated and decorated some more!

Sleep?  Who needs it?  Well, I did by 10:30 the next morning!  Thankfully an hour nap boosted me for the rest of the day.  The cookies were delivered on time.

The fundraiser was very successful and everyone seems to have enjoyed their Easter cookies.

Another 4-H mom helped me package the cookies.  And yet another 4-H mom and the elementary school secretary helped me distribute the cookies to the students.

Many people ask about the icing recipe.  It's just powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Color as desired with paste or gel food coloring.  Make it thick and then pipe around the cookies to outline. Allow to set. Thin icing with more milk and fill in the area.  On the larger round cookies, the decorated border is buttercream frosting (cake decorating-type).  The extra decorated sugar cookies made decorating the big ones extra easy and cute, too!

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