A Smurftastic Birthday

Scooby Dooby Doo!

Scooby Doo lover's 3rd birthday cake.

Pretty as a Princess

100 Calorie Cupcake

The 100 Calorie Cupcake!

My little family was invited to a friend's house for dinner a few weeks ago.  We had the most moist, delicious, low calorie cake ever.  When I heard the recipe I couldn't believe how easy and quick it was, so naturally, I had to try it out in cupcake form.  Totally delish and worth every calorie!

Cake

Mix 1 box cake mix (just the mix, do NOT add water, eggs or oil) with 1 can diet soda

(*Pictured: white cake mix with Diet Sierra Mist)

Frosting/Topping

Mix 1 small tub of lite whipped topping with 1 small container of yogurt

(*Picutred: whipped topping with strawberry yogurt)

See...super easy!  Go ahead and give it a whirl.  No one will believe that each cupake is only 100 calories.  And at that count you can eat two!

Ra, Ra, Let's Go!

Sleeping Beauty

 My 4 year old daughter is obsessed with Sleeping Beauty.  Funny thing is, she had never seen the actual film before- until Thursday night.  We finally had the opportunity to watch it with another Aroura fan.  In honor of the special occasion we prepared Sleeping Beauty Pudding cups (Strawberries-N-Cream pudding with a Cool Whip topping), and Sleeping Beauty Cupcakes (strawberry cake with vanilla frosting, topped with a small strawberry).  The cupcakes were just little bite-size treats. 

I actually loved the movie!  Meriweather was by far my favorite character.  She was just too adorable.  And I must say, I'm a bit frustrated with her and Flor (I think it was Flora?).  If they would have acted just a bit more mature Aurora would have been a-okay!

Be My Valentine!

Maiya Dea

I had the honor of making blessing cupcakes for a dear friend's baby girl, Maiya Dea.  She's definitely a "pretty in pink" type of girl, so fitting is the perfectly pink almond frosting atop a dark chocolate cupcake.

Something's Fishy

Oh my!  My baby boy turned ONE year old last Saturday.  We had a small, fishy birthday party for him, complete with fishy cupcakes and a golfish cake.

Yes, I know that fondant makes a cake look a little more polished and "complete," but let's face it, no one really wants to eat fondant.  That's why I pretty much avoid it. 

Baby boy was a little slow at getting into the cake spirit, but after a few minutes he figured out how yummy that orange golfish frosting really was.

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

Bite Size Apple Pie

Wow.  I haven't been here in a very long time.  I'm still on the fence regarding my interest in keeping this blog going.  I started this post back in November and thought I'd post it and see how I feel.

Anyway.  I found this recipe for Mini Apple Pies on none-other-than Pinterest.  It was super easy and they really were quite tasty and fun to eat.  My kids even enjoyed them!

I think I'm going to delete this blog.

Golfing Green

Skeleton Cookies

Oh, how I love Pinterest!  I used the same gingerbread cookie recipe used here, and used store bought icing to pipe on the the skeleton bones.  Happy Haunting!

Teacher Appreciation

I was honored to make cupcakes for a local elementary school's teacher appreciation banquet. The idea came directly from Disney's Family Fun magazine. Aren't they adorable?

Baby in Pink

I had the opportunity to throw my dear friend a surprise Diaper Party for her third baby, a girl.  My girlfriend missed the chance to try my Cherry Almond Vanilla cupcakes a while back and I thought she'd really enjoy them, so I opted for that specialty again.

They were a big hit.  I mixed the frosting up a bit this time, and it turned out to be just as tasty as the previous batch, and just a tad different with a hint of maraschino cherry.  Congratulations!  I can't wait to meet that baby girl!

{the very BEST} Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

I found this recipe somewhere in the internet world a few years back.  I have been 100% addicted ever since.  It's a take on Great Harvest's Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread, and is honestly just as good as the real thing.  I often make it into muffins instead of bread just so we can share the wealth.  It bakes great either way.

the very BEST Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

2 1/2 c. white flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

3 c. sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

16 oz. cooked or canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

1 c. oil

4 eggs, beaten lightly

2/3 c. water

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 (9x5 inch) bread pans.

Mix flours, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a bowl; set aside.

Mix pumpkin, eggs, water, oil, and 2/3 c. water and stir into dry ingredients.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Place batter in prepaired pans.

Bake 60-70 minutes (only 30 for the small ones) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

*The only thing I do differently is that I use a large can of the pumpkin instead of only 16 oz and I use the entire bag of chocolate chips instead of just half. You know, if you're not going to eat whole wheat bread you might as well get the most out of it that you can.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Last week my daughter participated in the children's program at church.  We decided that we better thank everyone who worked so hard to prepare such a wonderful program.  We browsed Pinterest for a while until she decided on the perfect cupcake.  She selected Chocolate Chip cupcakes.  I used a simple Devil's Food chocolate box cake mix but used my own White Almond frosting recipe. 

I also found (on Pinterest) this cute way to deliver an individual cupcake.  Too, cute, isn't it? 

Kid's Menu

I know this is not real food, but it was a great project to do with my kids so I thought I'd share.

My little girl loves to play waitress. She often grabs a little note pad and pen and says to me "Ma'am? What would like off the menu?" When she said this to me the other day I instantly thought "Hey...that would be a great craft time project to do together, plus she could learn something at the same time."

So here we go.

I gave each child a pair of safety scissors, pulled out my collection of old magazines (primarly Family Circle, Good Housekeeping and Family Fun) and handed one to each child.  I then asked the children to go through their magazines and to cut out all the pictures of food that they could find.

Once everyone had their piles of food we cleared off the table and sorted the foods into 4 categories: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks/Desserts.  We labeled a separate piece of construction paper for each category and then glued the correspondings foods to the paper.

After allowing the glue to dry we stapled the papers together to form a "book."  My itty bitty is lovin' her new menu, and I love that we were able to talk about nutrition and health in a fun and creative way.

Masi Samoa

I've tried making Masi Samoa, a Samoan coconut "cookie," on several occasions. They've always turned out alright, but I finally found a perfect recipe that doesn't make over 5 pounds of cookie.
Check out Panipopos' Kitchen for the full recipe.

These cookies are not super sweet. They're sort of bland but have a coconut flavor to them. It's worth a shot if you're a coconut lover- or if you're married to a hot Samoan.

Pumpkin, Spice & Everything Nice

I'm trying to hang on to Summer as long as possible.  The weather this week, however, has not cooperated with my "hanging on" plan.  It's been in the upper 70's which, honestly, is perfect, but that means that Fall is on its merry way.  What better way to welcome Fall (while still hanging on to Summer) than by baking with pumpkin?  My mom makes the best Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies ever.  You're lucky I'm sharing.

Mom’s Pumpkin Cookies

4 c flour

2 c oats

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 ½ c butter softened

2 c brown sugar

1 c sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 16 oz solid packed pumpkin

2 c chocolate chips

-cream butter and gradually add sugars

-then add egg and vanilla

-mix all dry ingredients together minus the oats

-add flour mix alternating with pumpkin

-add oats

-add chocolate chips

Bake 350 for 17-20 min