Shopkins party

It's Makyia's birthday and we got to be here for her party again. And the best part is I got to help with the treats.

We made Shopkin's themed cupcakes. To make the swirled frosting, add 3 different colors of frosting into a piping bag being careful not to mix them too much.

We also made popcorn cupcakes. Cut the top half of a mini marshmallow in an x shape using scissors. I grease my scissors first with Pam or butter. Once you have the mallows on the cupcake use a paint brush to brush yellow food coloring on.

My sister made this adorable piñata!

She also made this super fun photo booth! She has some serious talent!

Happy Birthday Makyia!

Class of 2016

I was asked to make mini cupcakes for a graduation party I attended. I decided to would be fun to display them this way. 

I made a white cake mix (adding an extra egg and 1 cup sour cream and using milk instead of water)

I made lemon cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cup butter softened

8 oz. cream cheese softened

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2-1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Zest from one lemon

3 to 31/2 cups powdered sugar

I topped the cupcakes with either raspberries or sprinkles. I really like this combo of lemon and raspberries. 

 

Teacher Appreciation Gifts 2016

This is what we did this year for our teacher appreciation.

We made raspberry brownie bites for the front offices at each of their schools.

Raspberry Brownie Bites:

Bake your favorite brownies in a small muffin/tart pan (sprayed generously with Bakers Joy) for 10-13 minutes. Let them cool then gently twist them out. In a large bowl  mix:  8 oz of softened cream cheese, and a jar of marshmallow cream. Once that is mixed, fold in an 8 oz. container of cool whip.  Place the mixture in a piping bag with Wilton Tip 1M and pipe a little on each brownie. Then top with a raspberry.

We did our favorite "fro yo" gift card with a treat for the kids' specials teachers. I think it's our favorite because it's simple and there aren't many people who don't like fro yo.

We filled the cups with white chocolate popcorn this year

 White chocolate popcorn: I used 2 bags of microwave popcorn(I prefer to use salt and butter flavor) with 2 or 3 squares of melted white almond bark. Mix in a big bowl and then spread on a big pan to dry.  

I printed the fro yo tag from here (girllovesglam.com)

Gift cards for the teachers

Going Away Party

I made this for a going away party for two amazing families who attend our church. We are going to miss them!

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 
• Bake in a jelly roll pan. 350 for 20ish minutes. Once cooled cut cake in half, pipe a damn around the edge of one half of the cake, add raspberry filling to the center and top with other half of cake, and pipe rosettes. Double the frosting recipe.

Raspberry filling
16 oz. frozen raspberries thawed
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Drain raspberries, reserving liquid. Add enough water to liquid to equal 1 1/4 cups. In large saucepan, combine liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice; mix well. Heat and stir until mixtures boils and thickens. Cool completely. Stir thawed raspberries into cool mixture.

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

Happy 12th Birthday Ethan!

Ethan had a simple party this year. The only thing he wanted to do was go paint balling with his friends.

Simple take home:

Anything that looked like a paintball,  jaw breaker (Amazon,) bubble gum, suckers, and Chewy lemonhead candies.

He wanted a donut cake!

The paintball crew!

Happy Birthday sweet Ethan!

Soccer snack

It was Wyatt's turn to do the soccer snack today. We didn't have a lot of time to do a creative snack so we made these little snack bags. I used my cricut to make the soccer balls. I randomly found the soccer ball chocolates at Easter time in a small bag with all the other Easter candy.

Hoppy Easter!

Jared and I made these for the kids this morning! I found the idea online and thought it was a simple fun way to celebrate this morning!

Jared made the pancakes. He is the pancake maker at our house. I don't know what it is but I am horrible at flipping pancakes. Jared is amazing and he doesn't mind doing it. 

I don't have a recipe to share since we are always trying new ones but our favorites always involve buttermilk. They go great with buttermilk syrup.

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 Tbsp. Karo syrup (optional)

1 cube butter

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter in medium saucepan. Add sugar and Karo syrup. Cook on low to medium heat for a few minutes. Add buttermilk and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla, turn off heat. Add baking soda, stir and enjoy. It is normal for it to separate once it has been sitting out for a little while so just give it another stir and enjoy it again and again.

Jared made a large pancake for the bunny bum and 2 small ones for his feet. I added a banana and chocolate chips or blueberries for his footprint. We used a can of whipped cream for the tail. Easy peasy and the kids loved them.

Hoppy Easter little cuties!