Back to School Crayons

Made these for Ethan's class on the first day of school.  I decided to put them in the pencil case this year instead of wrap them individually. These are super easy to make but take time (if your using lots of different colors of chocolate.) Just break a pretzel rod in half and dip the ends in melted colored chocolate and then wrap them.

Got the idea from this website.You can also print the wrappers from here.


http://www.gourmetmomonthego.com/2008/08/runs-with-scissors-and-eats-crayons.html

This was how Shan did hers.  Super cute! I might have to copy that next year.

Happy 60th Rita!

I made these for sweet Rita's 60th birthday.
Strawberry:

Strawberry cake
1 box white cake mix (Duncan Hines)
1 small box strawberry jello
1/2 boiling water
3/4 cup oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup fresh mashed strawberries
Boil water in microwave. Add jello. Stir until dissolved. Add rest of ingredients. Mix few minutes on medium. Bake 350 for approx. 16 min.

Strawberry frosting

1 stick butter
16 oz. powdered sugar
1/4 cup mashed strawberries
6 ounces of cream cheese

1 tsp. of vanilla.

*this frosting is a little runny so it doesn't pipe anything fancy unless you add more powdered sugar which makes it more sweet.

Chocolate:

Too much Chocolate cake from Allrecipes.com

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
• 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Patti's Chocolate Frosting:

1/3 cup cocoa

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup softened butter

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 1/2 cup powdered sugar

I love the polka dot table cloth Rachel used.  She bought a few yards of fabric and used it as a runner.  What a cute idea!

Chocolate letters:
traced a 60 backwards onto wax paper so when I pulled it off the opposite side was smooth.

Happy Birthday Rita!

Back to school fun!

We made these for meet the teacher night.  Used Jill's sugar cookie recipe and my lemon cream cheese frosting.


We had to add a few bookworms to some of them. Thanks Jill and Shan for your help!  I always love our late nights together.

Elephant baby shower

I made these for Anna's twin baby shower.  She is decorating her nursery in elephants which made for a cute theme.

Too much Chocolate cake from Allrecipes.com

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
• 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter softened

1 tsp. vanilla

4  cups powdered sugar

Richann helped me make these cupcake toppers...

And this cute elephant decoration that we made to fit over the plate holder.

Elephant sugar cookies:

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup butter (creamed)

1 cup sour cream

Combine & beat until creamy. Add 61/2 cups flour and 2 tsp. baking soda, and 1 tsp. salt. Mix well. Roll out on floured counter 1/2 inch thick. Cut out with cutter. Place on greased sheet and Bake for 10 min. @ 350.

I have no idea why this didn't download straight but you get the idea of how I decorated them using the stripe and polka-dot theme.  This was a really cute shower that Rachel did.  I wish I took pictures of the adorable banner and food table but trust me it was super cute.

Turquoise and Orange Bridal Shower

Bridal shower for Caitlyn.  Her favorite colors are turquoise and orange so it was fun trying to find things to make this work. Thanks Sharon for your help!

I decided that turquoise frosting didn't sound appetizing so I went with orange and white frosting and used turquiose chocolate to make hearts and B's.  I used white almond bark and gel colors (blue and green) to get the color I wanted.  I printed out a B from the computer and traced it onto wax paper.  Once the hearts dried I used white frosting to write on them.

Summer fun

 Jared and I made these for a church social today. I wanted to do something summer-y. I found a few ideas on google and combined them all.

 My favorite was the beach chairs.  We folded fruit stripe gum into chairs. The sand is crushed graham crackers. Beach balls=bubble gum.

 More chairs...

 I tried to make swim shorts but it wasn't very cute.

 Can you tell that the corner one is a shark and the bear next to it got attacked?
 Ethan thought I needed blood to make it look more realistic.
*I used a fruit slice for the shark fin.

The beach swim rings are the collision gummy life savers.

Happy Summer!!

Jared's piece of heaven!

 Jared's birthday isn't for another week but we will be out of town.  The kids and I wanted to surprise him at school with these yummy cupcakes to enjoy with his buddies.
Jared's 2 favorite treats are Oreo's and Reese's peanut butter cups so when I found these on The Sweet Life I knew it was the perfect birthday treat for him.

 I changed a couple things from her recipe just to simplify.  I used this cake mix recipe(new favorite chocolate cake recipe) instead of doing homemade.
Chocolate Buttermilk cake
1 box devil's food cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines)
3 TBSP cocoa powder
1 1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Combine and mix for 2 minutes.
Put about 1 TBSP of cake batter to the bottom of a cupcake liner. The original recipe says to place the cookie on the bottom with no batter but my first batch burnt the cookie so adding the batter really helped.  Add 1 Oreo cookie on top of the batter. Then add a mini Reese's peanut butter cup on top of the cookie.  Add enough batter to cover the PB cup which should be 2/3 full. Bake 325 for about 17 minutes or until cake is done.

• Oreo Peanut Butter Buttercream
  Ingredients
  
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 2-3 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • 2-3 tablespoons milk
  • pinch of salt
  • 3 tablespoons oreo cookie crumbs
  Directions
  
  1. Separate ~8 oreo cookies and discard the cream filling.  In a food processor or plastic bag, crush the cookies into fine crumbs.
  2. In a large bowl, beat butter and shortening on high until fully combined.  Beat in peanut butter.
  3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add 2 cups of the confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, and a pinch of salt.  Start the mixer on slow, then eventually crank it up to high and beat for 2 minutes.  Add more confectioner’s sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, until you reach your desired consistency (more sugar = thicker buttercream).
  4. Add the cookie crumbs and beat on high for 2 minutes.
  

I had to pry this out of my son's hand to get a pic, hope this doesn't gross you out.
* Sorry for the bad pics.  I almost forgot to take them, thank goodness for phones these days!!