The Icing On The Cake

LilBitOfThat Etsy Shop Open!

2013-08-04T15:26:00.001-04:00

I just opened my Etsy shop! Come and check it out, buy a bow or two for your little girl and help me get it up and running.

Here's my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LilBitOfThat

There's some very simple hair bows that are approximately 4 inches each. Here are a few:

And you've probably seen these adorable dinosaur hoodies on Pinterest: http://diyingtobedomestic.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/dinosaur-hoodie/

I decided to make one for my girl and found some extra hoodies. There's limited sizes right now. They are really adorable on!

Hope to see you all at my Etsy shop soon!

Mini Black Raspberry Cobblers

2013-06-23T15:04:00.002-04:00

We have a huge and I do mean HUGE black raspberry patch in our backyard. It's really one of the only good things about our yard from it's previous owners. I don't mean to sound harsh, but most people don't plant four plants within a foot cube space in the middle of the grass. It just doesn't work well. And it's ugly. We've pulled a ton of the crazy plant lady's plants out and have even thought about tearing out the berry patch because like everything else, it's just there in the middle of the grass.

This is the second summer we've been in our house and though we have fewer berries this year than last summer, they taste so much better than I remember. We had a colder spring than normal and the berries ripened much later than last year so today was the first day of berry picking this summer. I picked 3-4 cups of berries and decided I would make The Pioneer Woman's berry cobbler with some of them. It's a bit of an unconventional cobbler recipe but so delicious.

Here's where you can get the recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/08/the_great_cobbl/

Instead of one large cobbler, I made them into 24 mini (miniature cupcakes size) cobblers and 4 somewhat mini cobblers (regular cupcake size because I ran out of room).

I added about five berries to each cobbler and a small handful to the regular cupcake size cobblers. I sprinkled sugar on top of all of them with a spoon and baked at 350 for about 18-23 minutes.

You can use frozen berries, but wow, the fresh ones are so much better!

These will NOT last long in our house because they are so dang good. Good thing we have our own berry source! Enjoy!

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

2013-06-14T01:05:00.000-04:00

Hello Long Lost Blogger World,

Wow, do I stink at blogging or what. Obviously I have much to improve upon. Now to the important things: cupcakes.

Pink cupcakes!

So pretty and delicious.

My mom's birthday was in May. She moved across the country last summer and now lives a mere 10 minutes away from me. It's epic. And pretty awesome that we get to see her multiple times a week now instead of just a couple times a year. I was excited to spend my mom's birthday with her this year. My brother (who also recently moved across the country and now lives in town) and I made a big combined Mother's Day/Mom's birthday dinner to celebrate the two special days which are always just a couple days apart. My brother grilled some steaks and veggie kabobs, plus we had salad and pineapple. And we ended the evening with these pink champagne cupcakes. They were pretty AND delicious. It turned out to be a pretty good celebration.

Here's the recipe for the cupcakes:

Pink Champagne Cupcakes
http://reneequeen.blogspot.com/2012/01/pink-champagne-cupcakes.html

1 box white cake mix

3 egg whites

1 1/4 cup pink champagne

1/3 cup oil

3 or 4 drops red food coloring

Mix together and bake according to the directions on the box.

It's true, I cheated a little and went with an easy semi-homemade recipe. But I've got a toddler and need all the help I can get, so give me a break.

The frosting was a strawberry pink champagne frosting and oh-so-good. Here's that recipe:

Strawberry Pink Champagne Frosting

http://dailydishrecipes.com/pink-champagne-cupcakes-with-strawberry-champagne-frosting/

3 1/4 c. confectioners sugar

1 c butter, softened

3 T pink champagne

1/4-1/2 tsp. strawberry extract (to taste)

1/4 tsp. pink food coloring

Beat the butter for the icing until it’s creamy.

On low speed, use your mixer to slowly add the sifted confectioners’ sugar until well blended. Add the champagne and strawberry extract.

Switch your mixer to high and blend for 3 or 4 minutes. Fill a pastry bag with your icing and pipe onto cupcakes.

I had to alter this recipe for my cupcakes because I could not find strawberry extract anywhere. I had a package (probably about 8-12 ounces) of frozen strawberries in my freezer I decided to use. I puréed them and added them to the frosting instead of using the extract. Because of the extra liquid I then had to add quite a bit more sugar to thicken the frosting up. I probably used more like 5 or 6 cups total.

Enjoy!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

2012-04-24T13:54:00.000-04:00

These are the cupcakes I made for the humans at Luna's first birthday party. Not only did we need cupcakes for the wieners, but also for the humans. I decided on cookies and cream because it was something I hadn't tried before. I was pleased with how they turned out. My only mistake was I didn't crush the Oreos small enough for the frosting so I kept getting larger pieces of Oreo clogging my piping tip. Here's the recipes I used. Enjoy!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
(Adapted from: Cupcakes From The Cake Mix Doctor)
1 package plain white cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla
18 Oreos
Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners and set aside.
Place the Oreos in a large Ziploc bag and crush them by rolling over them with a rolling pin. Set crumbs aside.
Place the cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer until well incorporated. Add crushed Oreos just until incorporated.
Fill cupcake cups with liners 2/3 of the way full.
Bake until they are lightly golden, about 18-20 mins.

Cookies and Cream Frosting
(Source: Big Book of Cupcakes)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 16 oz package powdered sugar
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/8 t. salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
15 Oreo cookies, finely crushed

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Gradually add powdered sugar, alternately with cream, beating at low speed until blended. Add salt and vanilla, beating until blended. Stir in crushed cookies until combined. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes or until creamy. Makes 4 cups.

Luna's First Birthday Party

2012-04-08T22:47:00.001-04:00

Several months ago, I saw a recipe for a dog cake (as in a cake for dogs) and I've been wanting to make it ever since so I decided a dog birthday party was in order for our Luna's first birthday. Have you seen our Luna? Here she was as a puppy:

Here she is now:

The first thing we needed for a wiener dog party was wiener food for the dogs:

Next, we needed wiener food for the humans. We enjoyed hot dogs, little smokies, and smoked sausage.

A party isn't complete without cake! We had dog cupcakes for the wieners and cookies and cream cupcakes for the humans.

The dog cupcakes turned out awesome and were a lot of fun to make. I gave one to Luna to try the day before the party. She devoured it in 30 seconds and them spent 5 minutes licking her bowl. I would definitely recommend them.

Carrot Peanut Butter Dog Cake
http://andeverythingsweet.blogspot.com/2010/12/charlies-1st-birthday.html

1 cup white flour
1 top baking soda
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup shredded carrots
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
Mix flour and baking soda together and then add all other ingredients.
Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.
Frost with wiped non-fat cream cheese.
I doubled the recipe and made cupcakes out of the batter which made about 13 cupcakes. I baked them for about 20-25 mins. I only had enough whipped cream cheese for 9 of them with one package of cream cheese.
Here are the wieners eating their cupcakes:

Luna

Noodles

Axle

Luna helped Axle eat his cupcake

And of course, we had party treats for the wieners:

Next up, cookies and cream cupcakes!

Dr. Seuss Cake Pops

2012-01-25T13:00:00.002-05:00

Our nephew turned one in November and had a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party, which included Dr Seuss cake pops that I made. These were by far the most involved cake pops I've made. As I was eight months pregnant when I made them, I started the process a week before the party so I could do a little each day and not wear myself out. The first thing I did was make the cake (out of a box for ease), mix in the frosting, and shape the pops into the necessary shapes. My next step was to make fondant, something I had never done before. I used a basic marshmallow fondant recipe, made a massive mess, and ended up with successful fondant!

I used a small circle cookie cutter to cut the fondant for the front of my 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2' cake pops.

I bought a tube of blue frosting (which was easier than making it) and squeezed it into my own piping bag. I used a tip I had on hand to make the blue hair for 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2'

Next I made the ham from 'Green Eggs and Ham'. The white is a small fondant circle and the black is frosting I drew on with a very small tip and piping bag. Boy, did my hand hurt from drawing those tiny lines on!

Last was the hat from 'Cat in the Hat'. I thought this cake pop would be the simplest to make but it proved to be the most challenging. The white disk on the bottom is fondant cut with a cookie cutter. The red stripes are a fruit roll up. Ha! I tried many things here for the stripes but nothing worked very well and looked messy. The fruit roll up worked great and was pretty quick to do, though it wasn't the greatest tasting thing.

I think made three or four trips to Micheal's and Hobby Lobby for these pops. I bought several items as back up items in case some of my ideas didn't work and ended up being able to return several of them. These cake pops ended up being very labor intensive but where also a lot of fun to make! I will say, the next time I make cake pops that take this much time, it will be for my own kid!!

The finished product at the birthday party!

Whoa!

2012-01-24T20:55:00.001-05:00

Since my last post was in September, let me update you on what's been going on in my life.

1: I had a baby! Holy moly, I still can't believe it myself! Her name is Matilda (or Millie as we like to call her) and is just about the cutest little thing I've ever seen. Here she is:

She was born December 28th which means that she is almost a month old. Tomorrow actually marks four weeks since she was born. These past four weeks have been the fastest of my life. In a way, it feels like Millie was just born while at the same time, feels like we've found our rhythm and have been going at this whole "we have a baby" thing for a long time. While I miss having my freedom to run a few errends, stay up until 3am watching Netflix, or sleep in uninterrupted until 11am, I wouldn't change having this sweet little girl in my life for anything. I am sure there will be many more posts about our little one in the future!

2: We bought a house! We moved into our house in the middle of October. The house is older, built in 1950 and in great shape for it's age. It even includes an authentic (and totally creepy) fallout shelter in the basement! Since moving in, we have slowly been hard at work changing things and making them our own. I hope to post pictures and updates on some of the work we've been doing.

3: I made some pretty awesome (if I may say so!) Dr Seuss cake pops in November for our nephew's first birthday party. I'll post about them soon!

4: Speaking of baking, I've made three batches of cookies since Millie's been born. That's almost as much baking as I did the entire time I was pregnant. Pathetic. That being said, I felt like superwoman having the energy to bake while caring for a newborn. Hopefully, more baking will follow soon. I have a lot of recipes I've been wanting to try.

5: I think I need a new blog name as I know this blog will now include ramblings about being a new mom, babies, our house updates, as well as whatever baking I am able to do. So, does anybody have any suggestions?!

A Few Random Tidbits

2011-09-09T00:17:00.000-04:00

I've obviously have been slacking on this blog. Honestly, I have mostly forgotten about it, except for the occasional feeling of guilt for being such a slacker and never updating it. So, here are a few of my thoughts on life, baking and creating.

1) Since my last post was about our bun in the oven, I should tell you that bun is a girl! I am now 23 weeks and thankfully feeling much better than I was early in the pregnancy. Not a day goes by that I'm not very aware that I am growing a very tiny person inside of me, which is both awesome and totally weird. I am getting very excited to meet this tiny person in several months.

Baby Girl at 19 Weeks

2) I honestly haven't baked a single thing since April. It's crazy, I know! For a while it was because I was feeling so horrible with the pregnancy. But now, it's more because of a lack of motivation. Part of that is because I don't have my own kitchen. We are still living with my husband's family and though I am extremely grateful for the rent free living situation, things are just different for me when I don't have my own space. I love baking but it's just not as much fun in a kitchen that's not my own. My lack of baking will change soon as my husband has asked for key lime cake for his birthday in a couple of weeks!

3) With all that being said, the reason we are still living with my husband's family is because we have been saving and hoping to buy a house. The good news is that we found a house we like and are now under contract on that house! Hopefully all goes as planned and we will be in our own house mid-October which means there is still time to do some fall baking in my own kitchen!! I can't tell you how excited I am!

4) I always like having a creative outlet in my life. Baking has been that outlet but since I haven't been baking I've been feeling the need to create. So instead I've been knitting a lot. In the past few years, the only thing that I've knitted are dishcloths here and there to keep my mom and I supplied with the kind we like. With the baby coming, I thought it might be fun to try to knit a little hat. I found an awesome book with patterns at Michaels and have been knitting up a storm. So far I've made two hats and have slowed down a little with the third (mostly because I have now had to start over twice!).

Baby Beanie #1

Baby Beanie #2

And those are my thoughts at the moment. Maybe next time I won't wait months before the next post... but don't hold your breath.

I'm 'Baking' Something Special!

2011-07-08T13:08:00.000-04:00

I've been a very bad blogger lately. I swear I have a good reason. Here it is:

Ultrasound taken at 8 weeks

Yep, it's a baby! Or a gummy bear. Or an alien. I can't quite tell. Right now, we calling it our 'Gremlin'. You might find that offensive or odd, we find it rather fitting.

I've been feeling pretty crappy the past few months. And the last thing I've wanted to do is be around food because either 1) I feel nauseous and nothing sounds good when I'm nauseous and therefore the last thing I want to do is bake/cook. Or 2) I'm actually feeling ok for a few minutes or hours and therefore I absolutely have to get stuff done that's been neglected because I feel nauseous most of the time.

Although I just entered the 2nd trimester, I'm still not feeling great. Sadly, food in general rarely sounds good (but at the moment, I really want a doughnut). Hopefully, that will change soon and I can get back to baking. In the meantime, I will continue 'baking' the Gremlin.

Rainbow Chip Cake Pops

2011-04-01T15:25:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, I need a change of scenery. So a month or two ago, a good friend that lives in the Seattle area and I decided we needed to go on an adventure. This past week, we met up in Charleston, SC where we stayed for about four days. Neither of us had much money to spend, so we planned our trip as cheaply as possible. We stayed at Charleston's Notso Hostel and bought all our meals either on Groupon.com or Restaurant.com. We brought a lot of snacks with us, ate the free breakfast at the Hostel each morning, and did all our sightseeing by walking around the city. Most days, we only spent about $10. It was very nice to get away and enjoy just be with a friend.

My friend's birthday was yesterday, the day after we got back from our trip, so I decided I wanted to make her some birthday cake pops for our trip. She decided she wanted rainbow chip cake--which I had been wanting to try as a cake pop for a while. Have you had rainbow chip cake? It's amazing. It's not that funfetti stuff--it's much better. Rainbow chip was always the cake I wanted my mom to make for my birthday growing up! So if you've never had it, go buy some and make it with rainbow chip frosting! Turns out, rainbow chip cake pops are pretty good, too!

Louisiana Chicken Pasta

2011-03-19T13:06:00.000-04:00

I'm always looking for my next good recipe. I got this recipe off of Annie's Eats, one of my go-to blogs for recipes and ideas. I'm really into spicy things lately--I'm loving anything with some spice and heat in it--though not too much spice because I am a little bit of a wimp. So this recipe sounded like a winner when I read it and saw pictures. And I'm happy to say that it's a keeper!

Louisiana Chicken Pasta
Source: adapted from Annie's Eats
Print Recipe Here

Ingredients:
For the Chicken:
1 pound large boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
Salt and pepper
Cajun seasoning

For the Pasta:
16 ounces bowtie pasta (I used penne)
salt

For the Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup yellow onion, chopped
3/4 teaspoon salt
black pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water

Directions:
To cook the chicken, heat a small amount of butter or olive oil and in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and a generous sprinkle of Cajun seasoning. Add to the skillet and cook until lightly browned and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain the cooked pasta and set aside.
Meanwhile, return the skillet to medium heat and heat butter and olive oil until butter has melted. Add the bell peppers and onion to the pan. Mix in the salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning and cayenne pepper. Cook until the vegetables are tender, about 6-8 minutes. Add the half-and-half and heavy cream to the pan and bring to a simmer. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water, and add to the skillet once the cream mixture has started to bubble. Allow to cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.
When the sauce has thickened, add the cooked pasta and chicken pieces to the pan. Stir well to combine and cook at medium-low heat just until the chicken is warmed through. Adjust the amount of Cajun seasoning if necessary to suit your taste. Top with additional Cajun seasoning if desired.

Amy's Notes:
I made this over two weeks ago. But now as I am writing this, I really want some again. This pasta is really good. It is spicy but not too spicy. It is great warm but could also be made ahead, chilled and served as a salad. You could also make it without the chicken for a pasta side dish. I will be making this recipe again soon!

St. Patty's Cake Pops

2011-03-17T13:22:00.000-04:00

Remember these green velvet cupcakes I posted yesterday? They were mini cupcakes and I made 24 of them. The other half of the cake I made as a nine inch round cake so I could use it for cake pops. The recipe I used makes more than a normal batch so my round cake was huge! I ended up making about 40 cake pops from it. With the cake part of the cake pop being green, I had to go with the theme and make St. Patty's cake pops!

Green Velvet Cupcakes

2011-03-16T18:03:00.000-04:00

What better way to celebrate St Patrick's Day than with green cake?!! How do you make green cake, you ask? Easy. Make red velvet cake, but add green food coloring instead of red food coloring. Or if you are not a red velvet fan, you might be able to make white cake and add green frosting, but I've never tried it.
Hope you all have a great St. Patty's Day tomorrow. And don't forget to wear green!

This is Genius

2011-03-11T13:11:00.000-05:00

This is genius.

Sadly, 1) I didn't think of it first and 2) I don't have $200 to buy it. I guess I'll have to keep on using my cookie scoop.

Carrot Cupcakes

2011-03-09T16:39:00.000-05:00

I have so many recipes for cupcakes I've been wanting to try and this was one of them. I love carrot cake but you just don't see too many carrot cupcakes so I thought I should find a recipe and make some. I found this recipe on Martha Stewart's website which meant it had to be good!

Carrot Cupcakes
Source: Martha Stewart
Print Recipe Here

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, spoon and leveled
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons plain low-fat yogurt
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated carrots

Frosting:
1 package (8 Ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated orange zest

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper liners.
In large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg; set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, egg, yogurt, and vanilla. Stir in carrots. Gradually add dry ingredients to butter mixture until well combined. Divide among muffin tin. Bake 25-30 minutes.
Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
To make frosting, use an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar until smooth, beat in vanilla and orange zest.

Amy's Notes:
Note that this recipe is for 12 cupcakes. I ended up doubling it, but wasn't quite thinking and didn't have enough ingredients to double the frosting. So I improvised, but my frosting wasn't as good as it could have been if I would have followed the recipe. The cake of these cupcakes is very good. I love carrot cake but don't like all the chunks that some people put in it, so this recipe is great for me. Next time, I am going to spend the extra money and buy the bag of pre-grated carrots because, ugh, I hated grating them!

BBQ Jalapeno Poppers

2011-03-06T13:03:00.000-05:00

For Christmas, I got "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" cookbook, which is awesome and highly recommended. This is the first recipe in the book and I'd been trying to find a reason to make it ever since I saw it. The Super Bowl was my perfect reason (I know this post is a bit late!). These would be great party food and even can be prepared ahead of time!

BBQ Jalapeno Poppers
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks Cookbook
Print Recipe

Ingredients:
18 fresh jalapenos
1 8 ounce package cream cheese
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 green onion, chopped
18 slices thin bacon, cut into halves
bottled barbecue sauce
Toothpicks

Directions:
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Begin by cutting jalapenos in half lenghwise (you might want to wear rubber/latex gloves while doing this or be prepared to to deal with a little burn later from the jalapenos). Try to keep the stems intact.
With a spoon, scrape out the seeds and light-colored membranes. Remember: the heat comes from the seeds and membranes, so if you can handle the sizzle, leave some of them intact.
Now, in a bowl, combine the cream cheese, cheddar cheese and chopped green onion. Mix the ingredients together gently.
Stuff each hallowed half with the cheese mixture.
Wrap bacon slices around each half, covering as much of the surface as you can. Be careful not to stretch the bacon too tightly around the jalapeno, as the bacon will contract as it cooks.
Brush the surface of the bacon with your favorite barbecue sauce.
Secure the jalapeno with toothpicks and pop them in the oven for 1 hour, or until the bacon is sizzling.
Serve hot or at room temperature.

Amy's Notes:
The Pioneer Woman says that these can be made a day ahead of time and kept in the fridge before cooking. Or they can even be cooked ahead of time and frozen, then reheated in the oven. A full batch of these makes A LOT! I made them for the Super Bowl where we had about 6 people and with all our other food, we had a lot of these left over. I would probably make a half batch next time. I used thick bacon when making this and it took much longer to bake because of that so I will use thinner bacon next time.

Broccoli Salad

2011-03-04T14:06:00.000-05:00

The entire time I've known my husband, he's never like broccoli. Until about two months ago when he ordered steamed broccoli as a side at a restraunt. Since then, he says he likes broccoli and asked me to make this salad because he was 'craving' it. Ha! So, we made it together!

Broccoli Salad

Ingredients:

2 bunches broccoli

1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

1 cup red onion, chopped

1 pack bacon, cooked and crumbled

3/4-1 cup mayo (or Miracle Whip)

2/3 cup sugar

4 tablespoons (or more) vinegar

Directions:

Combine broccoli, cheese, onion, and bacon in bowl.

Mix mayo, sugar and vinegar in seperate bowl. Pour over broccoli mixture. Combine well and serve.

Amy's Notes:

This is one of those recipes that I ask my mom to make when I go home to visit my parents. I don't know why I don't make it more myself because it's not hard to make, just a little labor intensive because of all the chopping involved. It's also a salad that everyone has their own recipe--some people add raisins or sunflower seeeds with various ingredients as the dressing. But this is what I grew up with so it's the variation that I like the most!

Cake Pops For Sale, Part Two

2011-02-12T12:24:00.000-05:00

When I made my Valentine's Day cake pops, I sent a few of them in a box just like the one in the picture below to my family. I had several reasons why I did this. First, my dad mentions pretty regularly that if I have extra time that he would be willing to eat anything I bake and mail to him. And let's face it. I don't have a job so I have LOTS of extra time. Second, I have had a few people asking about buying cake pops but because most of the people asking are across the country, I need to figure out a way to mail cake pops quickly and safely, with minimal damage to the pops.

Well, the pops I mailed to my family arrived quickly and only a few had a couple cracks in them, so I would say the experiment was a success! Plus, my family loved the pops. My dad took one to his work to share with a coworker and she ended up asking if I could make more and mail her some. Two ladies ended up wanting to 'order' cake pops from me. I mailed each of them 12 cake pops in small flat rate boxes, which cost about $5 to send.

They wanted the same cake pops I made for my family, which was easy to duplicate since I had already made them once. Overall, the whole things turned out to be a success. So, if you want a few cake pops I might be willing to make some and mail them to you--for a small fee.

Football Cake Pops

2011-02-11T15:27:00.000-05:00

It only seemed appropriate that I make cake pops for the Super Bowl.

Pretty much the only reason I watch the Super Bowl is for the commercials and the food. Don't judge. A lot of other people have the same exact reason.

It only seemed appropriate to have cake pops in the shape of footballs for the Super Bowl. I hand shaped each one, dipped them in chocolate, and added a few sprinkles for the laces (I have no idea if that's even the right term...).

They definately look like footballs, but didn't turn out as great as I had hoped. Oh well, they were still delicious. Because I made these little suckers on Thursday, only one or two of them even lasted until Super Bowl Sunday!

Valentine's Rice Krispie Teats

2011-02-09T15:13:00.001-05:00

There is nothing particularly 'Valentines-y' about rice krispie treats. But I was at the grocery store and saw those boxes of pre-made rice krispie treats and really, really wanted some. Instead, I grabbed a box of rice krispies and a bag of pink, strawberry flavored, heart shaped marshmallows and put them in my buggy...err, I mean, grocery cart. I can't believe I've converted to calling them buggies... Anyway, I went home an made my pink rice krispie treats later that night. And they were delicious.

Rice Krispie Treats

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter

1 10 ounce package marshmallows

6 cups rice krispie cereal

Directions:

In microwave-safe bowl heat butter and marshmallows for intervals of 1 minute, stirring after each interval until melted and smooth.

Add rice krispie cereal. Stir until well coated.
Using buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into 9 x 13 pan coated with cooking spray. Cool and devour.

Amy's Notes:

I always use microwave directions when making rice krispie treats--it is much easier and faster! I used strawberry flavored marshmallows and so the rice krispies were festive and pink for Valentine's day. And the strawberry flavored marshmallows were good for something different! I also usually use more marshmallows than the recipe calls for--just about one cup or so more so they are a little easier to mix together.

Pink rice kirspie treats, though it's hard to tell they are pink in these pictures!

Valentine's Day Cake Pops

2011-01-31T14:10:00.000-05:00

So after I made my Valentine's Day cupcakes, I made Valentine's Day cake pops! I split my batter between 24 mini-cupcakes in my last post and one large 9 inch round cake that made about 30ish cake pops.

I had white, pink and red candy coating to use for these cake pops and a variety of Valentine's Day sprinkles to choose from that I've been snatching up at the grocery store when I see them. I chose to leave the pink ones un-sprinkled for a little contrast.

To form the heart shape, I used a cookie scoop to form a ball, rolled that into a tighter ball with my hand, which I pressed and fit into a small heart shape cookie cutter and then gently pressed out of the cookie cutter. It's quite a bit of extra work for the heart shape, but Valentine's isn't the same without heart shaped cake pops!

After each heart was dipped, sprinkled and dried, I packed each in a small plastic bag tied with pink ribbon. I ate one to test, mailed a package of 12 to my family in WA (which arrived very quickly with minimal damage!!) and gave the rest away to people here in town.

All in all, I was very happy how these little cuties turned out!

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

2011-01-30T17:49:00.000-05:00

I've been having fun with Valentine's Day goodies!

These babies are chocolate cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese buttercream frosting--a perfect combination for Valentine's Day!

The sweet raspberry frosting pairs well with the rich chocolatey cupcake.

For the frosting, I made my normal frosting recipe, but added about 5 tablespoons of raspberry puree plus additional powdered sugar to thicken up the frosting for piping.

I made 24 mini-cupcakes with this cake plus one large 9 inch round cake for cake pops, which I will post next!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

2011-01-22T12:55:00.000-05:00

Whoopie pies are the new cupcakes! What's a whoopie pie, you ask? It's two cakey cookies with frosting in between them, kind of like a moon pie. They are yummy, easy to pop into a lunch bag, and pretty easy to make. These would be perfect for a Valentine's day treat!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
Source: Bakerella
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
Cookies:
1 box German Chocolate cake mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 (1 ounce) red food color
1 tablespoon unsweetened baking cocoa
Cream Cheese Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheets generously with cooking spray (or use parchment paper).
In medium bowl, beat all cookie ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Onto cookie sheet, drop batter by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart.
Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until set. Cool 2 minutes before removing to cooling rack; cool completely.
In medium bowl, beat butter, the cream cheese and vanilla with electric mixer until blended. Gradually, add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating on low speed until smooth. For each sandwich cookie, spread 1 generous tablespoon of filling on bottom of 1 cookie. Top with second cookie, bottom side down; gently press together. Store covered in refrigerator.

Amy's Notes:
The last (and only) time I made whoopie pies, they were quite....fluffy. This time I sprayed a little non-stick spray on the back of a spoon and pressed down the batter before putting them into the oven. They baked out very nicely into a good consistent shape, thanks to my cookie scoop. I also used a piping bag to dispense the frosting evenly, but you definitely could just use a knife to spread it. I think these are perfect for Valentine's day--I've seen mixes being sold in stores! And you could even cut them into heart shapes!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

2011-01-21T14:00:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon the recipe several years ago while looking for a new cookie recipe to make for a work Christmas party. That year, I made several batches but haven't made them for at least two years. I whipped up a batch of these to take along when we went to visit my parents over Christmas. There is nothing particularly 'Christmas-y' about these cookies, yet I always seem to need them during Christmas time. Trust me, this recipe is a keeper!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Source: allrecipes.com
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
40 miniature covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped (Reese's)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside
Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and milk. Add the flour mixture, mix well.
Shape into 40 balls, either by hand or with a cookie scoop, and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
Bake for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.

Amy's Notes:
These are a little tricky to make, but totally worth the effort. Here are the things I've learned. Always make sure to unwrap the peanut butter cups before the time come to put them into the cookies. I say this because the first time I made them I thought I could just unwrap them as I went, but trust me, you just can't unwrap them fast enough when you need to. Also, after the peanut butter cups are in the cookies, I usually pop the whole pan into the freezer for a few minutes to solidify the melted peanut butter cup. It also helps to get the cookies out of the mini-muffin tin without mangling them.

Enchilada Grande Casserole

2011-01-20T14:00:00.002-05:00

I love Mexican food--both authentic and American. This is definately not authentic but still good. It's a very easy recipe to make and pretty quick also. It's not the most glamerous of meals, but casseroles never are!

Enchilada Grande Casserole
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 16 ounce can refried beans
1 15 ounce can no-salt added tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 envelope enchilada sauce mix
8 7-8 inch flour tortillas
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large skillet, cook ground beef until brown. Drain off fat. Stir in beans, tomato sauce, water and enchilada mix. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and let simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Arrange half of the tortillas in bottom of a greased 3 quart rectangular baking dish, trimming and overlapping as necessary to fit. Top with half of the meat mixture and half of the cheddar cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas and remaining meat mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake about 10 minutes more until heated through. Let stand 10 minutes. Serve with sour cream or guacamole.

Amy's Notes:
From beginning to end, this recipe take me about 1 hour to make--including baking time. I serve it with corn, because I like to mix it in when I eat it, tortilla chips, and any combination of salsa, guacamole and sour cream.