Our Valentine's Goodies for 2011

Wow!!  I need to get on the ball and get this blog updated!!  Where the heck does the time go!!  

Here's some of the goodies I made for February.

Here is a strawberry cupcake that I did just because it sounded soooooo good!!!  And you know what?  It was!  I posted the recipe on our Sugar Teacher's Blog.  You can find it here...

Below are some chocolate hand dipped Oreo's that the grandkids, Kaitlyn and I made.

These heart Oreo's are made using a Wilton cookie mold.  They're kind of tricky to make!  I had to put the red in, making sure I didn't fill it too much, then I put them in the freezer to harden.  I put a very thin layer of the chocolate (white or brown) and let the harden in the freezer for a few minutes.  Then I run the melted chocolate down the sides and let harden again.  I tried to do it like the directions say on the mold, but it would never look nice!!  Go figure!

Next we made dipped pretzel rods.  These are yummy!  I love the sweet and salty taste these have.  I think the pictures are pretty self explanatory.  If you want more details, let me know!!

Just make sure you put the sprinkles on before the chocolate hardens!!!

We had a Valentin's party over at my daughter's house.  

Here's her table set up and the one below is for Carlee and Kailey

We had heart shaped pizza, salad and cake pops for dessert!!  

Gobble, Gobble...Turkey Cupcakes

Here's a quick, cute way to make some turkey cupcakes.  We enjoyed these at our Thanksgiving dinner this year.

To make the cupcakes, I used a simple, quick, eggless recipe so that Carlee can eat these instead of pumpkin pies. 

Just mix one spice cake mix and one 15 ounce can of pumpkin together.

If the batter is too thick, you can add 1/4 cup milk.

I used a large cookie scoop to fill the cupcake lines.  If you put the scoop in and leave it, this is how the cupcakes will turn out.

If you use the back of a spoon to move the batter to the sides.....

...the cupcakes will come out more uniform.

Now...using red icing, I used cream cheese icing, make ruffles with a #104 petal tip most of the way around the outer part of the cupcake.

Again with a #104 tip and orange icing, make a ruffle inside the red ruffle.

With yellow icing, use a #103 tip to make the final ruffle.

Tip #7 and brown icing was used to make the turkey neck.  Start at the bottom, letting the icing build up and then move the tip up through the yellow icing. 

Using orange and tip #3, make a beak.  With another #3 tip make the waddle.

White and a #3 tip was also used to make the eyes.

Add brown dots in the center of the white with a tip #2.

Here's my sweet girl enjoying something that she can eat from the dessert table at Thanksgiving.

Happy Easter 2010

Wishing everyone a very Happy Easter Sunday!! 

Here are some cupcakes that I did for Joe to take to work with him on Saturday.

Saturday before Easter is the day my family has always celebrated the Easter bunny so that Easter Sunday can be worshiped in the true meaning of Easter.  Kami, Collin and Carlee came over for an egg hunt and the Easter bunny left Collin and Carlee's Easter baskets here at my house!  Imagine that!!!  They had a great time looking for 66 plastic eggs full of candy and money!!  Wish I didn't forget to take pics of it though!!  Sunday was spent watching conference, and going to Kami's for Easter dinner.

Here is a beautiful slide show video of Christ.

I also made this cake for a friends little boy that turned 5 years old.  It was a really fun cake to do!!

A Caramel Brule Cupcake

I have been wanting to try this combination cupcake for a long time!!  It was really easy and all that ate them, loved them!!  YEA!!!  

Start out with any basic white cake recipe, either from scratch or mix, substituting Coffee-Mate Creme Brule liquid for the liquid in your recipe.

 

 When your cupcakes are cool,  cut a hole in the middle of the cupcake with a sharp paring knife, cutting at an angle. 

  

Remove the plug.

  

I filled the cupcakes with Nestle's La Lechera Dulce de Leche caramel.

  

Then replace the plug and squish down to even out the top

  

 I made my icing with half butter and half shortening, some vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, and of course powdered sugar.  For the liquid, I used the Creme Brule coffee creamer again, heating it up until very warm, but not boiling.  I don't have exact measurements because I didn't measure!  Sorry!!  I just mix it until it's light and fluffy!! 

 

I added the icing swirl and drizzled with caramel ice cream topping. 

Arizona 2009

YAY!! I can blog!!!

The last time I blog was right before our trip to Arizona. That's well over a month ago!! I really didn't take many pictures while I was down there!! Shame on me!!

Our drive down was not a big deal. We left after church to start driving our 15 to 16 hour drive. We spent the night in Kanab, UT and then drove the rest of the way only stopping for potty breaks and to make something to eat.

When I got to my mom's house, we were greeted by Brandy with this big collar on!! She had an ear infection and an infection on her leg. She was able to get the collar off before we left.

Most of our visit we just stayed at the house and spent time with my family. It was great to just do that!! We did go out to eat a couple of times and did a little shopping. The only big eventful thing that happened was when Joe plugged the toilet up and we had to call someone to unplug it!! How embarrassing!! The when the plumber saw how old the toilet was and that all of the inside pipes were clogged (not by Joe!) he said that the toilet needed replaced.

I had a lot of fun with my sissy's!! I miss them a lot!! That's Jill, Jody and me. I wished we lived a little closer together so that we could see each other more then once a year.


Joe tried to take a picture of this highway sign that said Jomax Road. Our oldest son's name is JoMax and Joe thought he would like to see it. But...the picture isn't clear at all.


When we got back home, we picked up Carlee so that she could stay with us while her momma and Collin went to Virginia and Washington D.C. for several days. Sure wish I could have gone too!!


It was also Joe's birthday the next day, so Carlee and I made him some cupcakes to take to work with him.

What a sweet little chocolate face!!!

Well that's about it. Now you'll get a blog everyday until I get caught up!!!

Idea for Mandy #1

Today, Tina and I started working on ideas for her daughter, Mandy's wedding.

Mandy...let me know if you like the ideas or not!!

Dessert idea ~ Mini cupcakes with vanilla icing yellow sprinkles and blue royal icing flower. It's really supposed to be a violet. I can also do it with blue sprinkles and a yellow flower too. Next week I will do some small fondant flowers to show you!!

Below is a yellow and blue royal icing pansy. I made it just for the heck of it! It can be placed on larger cupcakes or desserts. All of these flowers can be made ahead of time and they are not hard to make!

Baby Shower and Pink Cupcakes

My Daughter Kami and her mother-in-law, Tina (my friend) gave a baby shower for a friend (Julie) that is in their ward. Kami and Julie are also Activity Day leaders together and they have a lot of fun!

Kami and Tina came up with the idea to have a Spa Baby shower! Julie is also having a girl so everything was pink!

There were games to play. Then we ate a visited. Then Tina put on a relaxation video that lasted for about 10 minutes, probably the most peaceful 10 minutes any of them have had in a while!! Then Kami had all the guests make their own relaxing bath salts to take home. I sure everyone had a great time!! Everyone was happy!












This is Julie playing one of the games. I wish I would have taken pictures of them all relaxing and making their bath salts!! Darn!!

I of course had to make something! I made Pink Lemonade cupcakes. They were really good.

Here's the baby shower cake. I made this cupcake stand that morning. You can find out how to make the on CakeJournal.

Oh and poor Carlee!!! I forgot and made the cupcakes with real eggs so she couldn't have any!!! I knew she would have a fit if she couldn't have one, so Joe thought maybe I should take the pink marshmallows that we had at home. In someways, I thought that it wouldn't work. Carlee would know that she wasn't getting a cupcake!!! Well when she started crying for one, I quickly put a marshmallow in a cupcake wrapper and put icing on it. It worked!! She ate two of them and then she was fine!! Didn't even want any cupcakes later!! Wheeeeww!!!

Collin surprised me by eating the whole cupcake!!

He usually only licks the icing off, but he ate it all!!

Here just a picture of all the food Kami and Tina served!! There was chicken salad in cream puff pastry and lots of veggies and fruit. Tina also made a real yummy dessert and I forgot to take a picture of that too!! You can check out Kami's post on her blog also!! She has some fun ideas on there!

Thanks for lookin'!!!