Strawberry Limeade

I am loving all the delicious strawberries in season right now. They were on sale and I bought a few packages...like 6. Yum! I already made the Strawberry bundt cake and I've been looking for more recipes that use fresh strawberries so I can use mine up before they go bad. Alysia found this one for me and suggested I try it. It was really good. I made a little modification and thought it was delicious. It's the perfect addition to summer dinner (or Spring, in our case).

Here's what you'll need:
3 c. fresh sliced strawberries (about 1 lb.)
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. fresh squeezed lime juice
4 c. cold bubble water (Club soda or sparkling water)

What to do:
Slice your strawberries and mix them with the sugar. Then use a potato masher and squish 'em really good. Allow to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Once they've sat for a bit, use an immersion blender or a blender to remove all chunks.

Run this mixture through a fine mesh sieve to remove all the seeds. Then mix it with the 2/3 c. lime juice and 4 c. of bubble water.  Serve cold and Enjoy!

Strawberry Pretzel Jell-O Salad Cups

Try saying that name 10 times really fast! I found this recipe on...(you'll never guess...) Pinterest! I always thought this salad looked/sounded really gross. Who wants to eat pretzels with Straberry Jell-O!? My sister-in-law brought it to a family function and I made myself try it and I absolutely loved it. I think I ate half of the 9x13 pan by myself. It was that good.

Then I came across this recipe on Pinterest that looked super yummy and it even called for individual serving cups! I bought these cute half-pint jars forever back and now I'd finally get to use them!

While I was making it, I thought the cream layer was a little thick and was going to make these again so I could adjust it, but it ended up being just right and tasted quite fabulous!

I found the recipe here and she says it works great for a 9x13 pan too.
Serves: 10

Here's what you'll need:
1 1/2 c. crushed salted pretzels
4 T. white sugar
10 T. unsalted butter, melted

1 c. sugar
2 (8oz.) pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
1 t. vanilla extract
1 (8 oz.) container whipped topping, thawed

1 (6 oz.) pkg. strawberry flavored gelatin
2 c. boiling water
1 (16 oz.) pkg. frozen sliced strawberries (or fresh will work too)

What to do:
Preheat oven to 350.

Crush the pretzels until you reach the consistency you like- chunky or more of a fine powder. I prefer it with a few pretzel chunks still.  Add the 4 T sugar and the 10 T. melted butter. Divide evenly between 10 single serving size cups (make sure they are bake safe).

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool before adding your cream topping.

Cream the sugar, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Fold in the whipped topping. Divide evenly between the 10 cups. I didn't quite use all mine. I didn't want the cream layer to take up the entire cup, so I had about 1/4 c. - 1/2 c. leftover. Ellie and Anna were very grateful- they got to dip the beaters over and over again in the leftover cream. ;)

Boil 2 c. of water and then dissolve the gelatin in it. Add the frozen strawberries and place in the fridge for 5 minutes or so- to allow it to thicken a little and cool down so it doesn't melt your cream layer.

Divid evenly among the 10 cups.

Refrigerate for at least an hour and then Enjoy!

Heart Attack on a Stick

I saw these on Pinterest and knew I had to try them. They aren't technically called a heart attack on a stick (but rather Chocolate and Carmel Cinnamon roll skewers), but once you see the calories (850 calories/skewer!!!!) you'll understand why someone called them this and why it's so fitting. :)

Unfortunately, they were pinned wrong, so I had to go searching for the correct recipe. But they looked really good...so I knew I had to find them!  I am so glad I searched. Here's where I found them. These were so dang delicious, I can't even begin to tell you. They are also so far from healthy, I can't begin to tell you either. But that's okay, just don't eat a whole one by yourself and it's not so bad (or do what I did and only eat half at a time and then you'll feel better about it...or just skip lunch...and maybe dinner too...to make up for the calories!)

Here's what you'll need:
1 can Pillsbury Grands! Flaky Supreme refrigerated cinnamon rolls
4 (12 or 10 in.) wooden skewers
25 caramels, unwrapped
1 T. milk
3/4 c. Milk Chocolate Chips
1 t. Vegetable Oil
chopped nuts (opt.)

What to do:
Heat the oven to 350. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or spray with some Pam. Separate the dough into 5 rolls. Unroll each roll into a strip and thread each strip onto the wooden skewer. Place on the cookie sheet.

Bake 13-19 minutes or until the rolls are golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet and place on cooling racks. Put the parchment paper under the cooling cinnamon rolls...it's gonna get messy!

In a small saucepan, over low heat, heat the unwrapped caramels and milk until melted. Generously drizzle over the skewers. If you're using nuts, roll in the crushed nuts right now.

In a small freezer ziplock bag, microwave the chocolate chips in 30 second increments, until melted. Snip a corner off the bag and drizzle over the skewers as well.

Warm the icing that came with the cinnamon rolls and use a spoon or fork to drizzle it over the skewers as well.

Serve warm, and then devour. Very slowly and in small portions...so you don't make yourself sick by the yummy, chocolatey, carmel-y, frosted goodness.

Enjoy!

Rainbow Cake

For my son's birthday this year, I was looking for a fun cake... but not a theme cake. I had spotted some awesome ombre cakes on pinterest and was really hoping to try that in orange for him... but when I showed him some of the pictures, he emphatically told me he wanted the rainbow cake. So the rainbow cake it was.

And what a fun cake it was! After checking out a bunch of different pinterest links, I felt like I was ready to tackle it. Since it was for a five year old who doesn't even really like cake, I decided to keep it simple and use a dressed up cake mix. The colors were going to make it exciting... he wasn't even going to care about the taste. However, I decided to use a pudding filling in between the layers and then I frosted the whole thing with our favorite whipped cream cheese frosting and the cake was seriously delicious. Best birthday cake ever and the first time in nine years that a birthday cake has been finished. Usually, we pull it out for pictures and then the next day I throw it all away since no one in my house likes cake. But not this one. Nope, this one was delicious and actually eaten!

This cake was a lot of fun to put together and really not that hard. The hardest part was getting the layers even and keeping such a tall cake from turning into the leaning tower of cake! I baked the cakes the night before and then stacked, filled, and frosted them the next day.  But you could do it all in one day pretty easily.

The next time you want something flashy and fun, but still simple, I think this cake is a great choice. If you want some more inspiration, look here ( I love her ruffle frosting on top), here (love the Skittles rainbow on top... but that was a bit too frilly for my five year old), here, and here.  And here's how I made mine:

Cake:
2 boxes white cake mix (white cake mix colors the easiest)
oil as called for on the box
eggs + 2 as called for on the boxes (so, if your box calls for 3 eggs, you'll use 4 eggs per boxed mix...)
buttermilk in place of the water called for on the box
food coloring (neon or gel colors work best here to get the most vibrant color)
as many round cake pans as you have, well greased
small mixing bowls
kitchen scale (I highly recommend this!)

Filling: 
recipe source: Not Just Cute
1 box Instant vanilla pudding mix (big or small... doesn't matter... I used a big one since I had a lot of cake layers to sandwich together)
1 container Cool Whip, thawed( big or small, depending on whether your pudding mix was big or small... I almost used all of a big container)
1/2 the milk called for on your chosen box of vanilla pudding


Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting:
recipe source: Allrecipes
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups whipping cream, chilled
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt

Cake:
1.  Preheat your oven.  Grease your round cake pans really well and/or line with parchment paper. 

2.  Mix both boxes together, according to the package instructions.  A big bowl and a stand mixer come in really handy here.

3.  Once you've mixed everything well, prepare to divide your batter.  I only had two pans and I knew I didn't want to have to clean them and bake another round more than twice so I settled on six colors.  If you have more pans, feel free to use as many colors as make you happy.  Six made me happy enough.  Divide the batter evenly between your six small bowls.  This is where a kitchen scale comes in really handy.  I wanted my layers to all be the same size and height and I knew that I wouldn't be able to eye it close enough.  So, after I had divided the batter between my six bowls, I then weighed each bowl and re-distributed the batter as needed, so that each bowl weighed nearly the same amount.  That way I knew each cake was going to be approximately the same size.

4.  Once your batter has been evenly divided, add a different color to each bowl.  I was using neon gel food colors so I didn't need a ton of color to reach a really vibrant color.  We went with the traditional colors... red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.  Sorry my picture seems to be missing a couple colors... they must have already been in the oven baking!

5.  Once you have your rainbow assortment of batter, you're ready to bake them.  This is where multiple cake pans come in handy.  I only had two pans so I baked two colors at a time.  Once those were done, I got to set them out to cool, wash my pans and bake my next two layers.  Repeat as necessary.  Luckily, your cake layers are smaller than normal so the baking time is much shorter!  Watch them carefully.  My layers were done in 11 minutes... but that was on convection.  I recommend setting your timer for about ten minutes and then watching closely until they're done.  If you're using at least 6 six colors, they'll probably be done in under 15 minutes.

6.  Once a layer is done, turn it out to cool on cooling racks.  I sandwiched my layers between layers of wax paper.  It made it much easier the next day when it came time to stack them all together.  It gave me a nice, flat surface to stack on.  I just peeled the wax paper away from the cake.  Once all your layers are baked and cooled completely, you're ready to start putting it all together.


Filling:
1.  Mix the pudding mix with 1/2 the milk called for on the box.  Whisk until it starts to thicken.  Then fold in 1 container of cool whip.  Done.  That's it.  Set aside until you're ready to use it.


Frosting:
1.  In a small bowl, whip the whipping cream until stiff peaks begin to form;  set aside.

2.  In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with the sugar, salt, and vanilla.  Mix until smooth.  Gently fold in the whipped cream.

Assembly:
This is where you can do whatever you want.  Some variations of the rainbow cake keep a very light sandwich filling, so the rainbow effect is stronger.  But I like filling.  Lots of it.  So I simply spread a bit of filling on my bottom layer of cake and then topped it with my next layer.  Continue this until you get to your top layer.  I tried really hard to keep it really even so that my layers stayed even but my final cake was leaning just a bit.  It's probably best to measure out the filling amount so you use the same amount between each layer, but I didn't do this and a couple of my layers were a bit thicker than others.  Oh well. 

Another option... brush some jelly or syrup on your cake layers before sandwiching them together, for more flavor.  I added some raspberry jelly to a couple of my layers, but I found that it discolored the cake just a bit, so if I do that again, I'll only brush the darker cake layers with it. 

Quite frankly, the cake looks really pretty just like that if you're careful not to make a mess with your filling.  But, I wanted to create some real drama when you cut into the cake so I wanted to cover up all the color and just present a plain white cake to the birthday boy.

Once I had all my layers sandwiched together, I did a quick crumb coat with the cream cheese frosting and put the cake in the fridge to chill for a couple hours.

Once it was nice and cold, I pulled it out and used the rest of my frosting to cover the cake completely.  Keep in mind that there is a LOT of cake in there, so don't skimp on frosting.  It needs to balance out all that cake!

I'm sure a more talented cake decorator could do something special with the white outside, but I'm lucky to get a decently smooth exterior, so I just left it like that and gave the top a quick spray of color and some sprinkles.  And then it was ready!

This was easily the biggest cake I've ever made, but it looked awesome when we cut into it and the birthday boy loved it.  And it didn't hurt that it was delicious to boot!

Glass Block Jell-o

This is the coolest looking jell-o ever! I love it! And not only does it look super cool, it tastes pretty darn good too!


Emily introduced me to this recipe a while back and I just kept forgetting to post it. Once I made it, everyone said they'd heard of it before, but his particular recipe is from Our Best Bites. I'm going to make it again and figured I best post it before I forget where I got the recipe from.  


Here's what you'll need:
4 3-oz. packages assorted Jello (in coordinating colors)

2 packets unflavored gelatin
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
Spray 4 small food storage containers (like Tupperware/Gladware/Rubbermaid) with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Bring 5+ cups of water to a boil. Combine 1 c. boiling water with 1 package of Jello, stirring until dissolved. Place the dissolved Jello in one of the prepared containers. Repeat with the remaining packages of Jello. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferable overnight.

When the Jello has set, bring another 1 1/2 c. of water to a boil. While the water is heating, sprinkle 2 packets of unflavored gelatin over 1/2 c. of cold water. Allow to stand for about 4 minutes. When the water is boiling, pour 1 1/2 c. boiling water over the dissolved gelatin and stir to combine. Add the sweetened condensed milk and mix well. Allow to come to room temperature.

Lightly spray a 9×13″ pan with non-stick cooking spray. Carefully cut the colored Jello into cubes and gently toss to combine in the 9×13″ pan. Pour the cooled milk mixture over the colored Jello and, if necessary, rearrange some of the colored Jello to make sure it is evenly distributed and not sticking out of the white mixture too far.

Place the 9×13″ pan in the refrigerator and chill overnight. Cut into squares, rectangles, or various shapes with cookie cutters and serve.

Panna Cotta

When we were cruising down the Seine River in Paris, we had a fancy French lunch and dessert. The main course was nothing to crow about, but the dessert was heavenly. Sam wasn't overly fond of it, so I ate mine and then his too. Then, when we were in Florence, again, lunch came with the tour. The main course was a bean lasagna... leave it to the Italians to come up with something amazing. And the dessert was another version of the heavenly French treat. I have been wondering ever since what that amazing stuff was. Last night, I thought, that it was somewhat custard-like. So I looked up custard on "all recipes" And this came up, with the description of "a delicious Italian dessert". I had to try it. I fed it to the Topherbugs when they came today, and we unanimously declared it a winner. Now here is your challenge: Make something that tastes as amazing but for less than the 400 calories that this beauty clocks in at a 1/2 cup serving!

Edited 6/26/2010: So, we made this for dessert several nights ago and substituted half and half for all of the cream.  I had never tried it with straight cream, but it was DIVINE with the half and half.  My mom said she couldn't really tell the difference.  So, you could save yourself a couple calories and make it with half and half instead.  All I'm going to add is that you must try it... it is so delicious.

Ingredients:
1/3 c. Skim Milk
1 (.25 oz) Envelope Unflavored Gelatin
2 1/2 c. Heavy Cream (Consider substituting in some half and half for some of the cream)
1/2 c. White Sugar
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Directions:
1. Pour milk into a small bowl, and stir in the gelatin powder. Set aside.

2. In a saucepan, stir together the heavy cream and sugar, and set over medium heat. Bring to a full boil, watching carefully, (and stirring frequently) as the cream will quickly rise to the top of the pan. Pour the gelatin and milk into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly.

3. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and pour into six or seven individual ramekin dishes. (About 1/2 c. in each dish)

4. Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving.

For Topping:

You could do just berries, a chocolate sauce, or canned or fresh fruit, however, my preference for the topping is this:

1 sm. bag frozen mixed berries, thawed
1/4 of a danish dessert (this is like jell-o but doesn't set as stiff as jell-o...and it tastes better, I find mine at WinCo)
1/4 c. juice

Directions:
1. Cook and mash the berries in saucepan, bring to a boil.

2. In a separate bowl, dissolve the danish dessert powder in cold juice.

3. Add to boiling berries and cook 1 min. Cool and spoon over chilled panna cotta

Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie Bites

Remember truffles and cake balls? Are you ready for the next truffle style delectable? Don't hate me, but truth be told, as much fun as cake balls and cake pops are to make, I don't love the flavor. They have a slightly soggy and mushy taste to me that I sometimes can't get past. Granted, I also don't love cake, so there's a point against them already. But my family loves them, and everyone I've ever brought them to loved them as well, and they are fun to make, so I make them. But, back when I first made cake balls, my mom questioned what other concoctions we could dip in chocolate. At the time, she suggested brownies, and I sort of brushed it off, thinking they'd be too messy to work with.

Fast forward a couple months later, and I stumbled across these little brownie bites. And let me tell you, I love them. They taste just like brownies...and I never have a complaint with a brownie. And surprisingly, they were less messy than truffles and cake balls. There's so much oil in the brownie batter, that your hands stay greased and they don't leave a lot of residue. (That sounds gross, doesn't it?) Taste great and less messy... these are a keeper!

Recipe Source: Picky Palate

Makes about 25-30 brownie balls

1 box brownie mix (9x13 size)

eggs, oil, and water called for on brownie box

2 cups Semi-sweet chocolate chips (or other dipping chocolate)

1/4 cup Peanut butter

1. Make brownies according to package instructions. Underbake them by just a few minutes, so they're really soft... not runny or gooey. Just really soft.

2. Allow them to cool completely. Once they're cooled, using a cookie scoop, scoop sections of brownie and roll them into balls, slightly smaller than 1 inch.

3. Place on a wax paper covered baking sheet and refrigerate or freeze until completely chilled. I left mine in the freezer overnight.

4. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave, or in the oven, whatever your preferred method is for melting chocolate. Once it's completely melted, stir in the peanut butter.

5. Dip brownie balls into chocolate/peanut butter mixture, covering completely. The best way I've found to do this, is by using two spoons, and rolling the ball back and forth between the two spoons, allowing the excess to drip off.

6. Place dipped brownie ball on a wax covered cookie sheet and allow to cool completely. Embellish as you please, with sprinkles, drizzled chocolate, nuts, etc. and enjoy!

Flower Cookie Pots

I remember watching my mom make these over 20 years ago and finding them simply charming. I thought she was the most creative lady around. (I still do... I wish I had an ounce of her artistic talent.) I love the presentation of these little flower pots and they are the easiest thing around. My 5 and 7 year olds helped me make all the flower stems. And I let them help me. That's how easy they are. Plus they're cheap! The clay pots are usually under a dollar, wooden skewers are cheap, and the cookies can be cheap. Plus, one package of cookies will make several flower pots.

I love to bring these in the Spring as visiting teaching treats. There are far fancier cookie bouquets out there, but I love how easy these are. Plus, you can easily spruce these up with different cookies, or more variety of cookies, bigger gumdrops in the middle, etc. Or you could paint your flower pots or modge podge them. Or you can paint your skewers. Or your could add leaves. The possibilities are endless and they're super fun.

Supplies needed:

Terra cotta clay pots, in whatever size you wish (I buy these at Michaels, Jo-Ann's, Wal-Mart, or even Lowe's)

Wooden skewers

Cookies with a whole in the center (I've always used Keebler's Fudge Stripes, but I found those beautiful Nabisco Iced Lemon Shortbread cookies that are my new favorite. I'm sure there are lots of other options, too. Samoa's, come to mind...)

Gumdrops in a variety of sizes and colors (or other bright candies... Dots, etc.)

Dried Beans (for weight and stability)

Styrofoam (in lieu of beans... your choice. I actually used both)

Filler, such as dried Spanish Moss (I bought a bag of this at my local craft store)

Paint, Mod Podge, or other embellishing supplies

Ribbon (to tie around the clay pot)

Assembly:

1. Prepare your flower pot first. I actually prefer them plain, but I painted a couple this time for fun and more color. I painted the pots and then once they had started to dry, I wiped them down with a wet rag, to give them more of an unfinished look.

2. Prepare your skewers. I've always just used them plain, but this time I decided to paint them green first. I kind of liked how the stems were green, but be careful not to paint the tips of your skewers, or you may not want to eat the candies that have been skewered on top. Just paint them about 2 inches from the tip. Or save yourself some time and don't paint them at all.

3. Decide how you want to stabilize the cookie stems. In the past, I've always just filled my pot with dried beans. It works, but the skewers tend to move around a lot. I happened to have some 4 inch Styrofoam balls lying around that fit perfectly into my clay pots. I put them in the bottom and then covered the balls with dried beans, about 1.5 inches from the top of the pot. I liked how sturdy the Styrofoam made everything, but again, you don't need it.

4. Assemble your flowers! Gum drops get skewered on first, upside down. Then cookie (or two--we did a couple double cookies... that's what happens when my kids help.) Then a gumdrop on top of your cookie to hold it in place. And it's done.
5. Arrange your cookie stems in the pot, breaking the skewers off at different lengths, to create more height and shape to your flowers.

6. Top the pot with dried moss, tie a ribbon around the clay pot and you're done. So simple and so cute!

April Fool's Cupcakes-- Mock Spaghetti and Meatballs

This is the other fake-out cupcake we decided to make for April Fool's Day. I've already shared the mock TV dinner cupcakes. I thought this spaghetti and meatballs platter turned out pretty fun, as well. It was far simpler to put together than it looks and I have to admit, the meatballs looked so realistic, it was almost gross! The added bonus of this recipe was that the cupcakes tasted so good with the extra strawberry jam. They looked and tasted great!

Recipe Source: Hello, Cupcake!

Serves10

Supplies needed:

10 vanilla cupcakes, baked in white liners

1 can vanilla frosting

1/2 tsp. cocoa powder

3 drops yellow food coloring

11 Ferrero Rocher chocolates, unwrapped

3/4 cup strawberry preserves (preferably the low sugar kind... it has a better, brighter red color)

2 Tbsp. grated white chocolate, plus a chunk of white chocolate for garnishing, if desired

1. Tint the vanilla frosting with the cocoa powder and yellow food coloring. You're going for a pale yellow, almost cream color. I actually added just a touch more cocoa powder for mine

2. Frost the cupcakes and arrange on a platter so they're touching.

3. Spoon the remaining frosting into a freezer duty Ziploc bag and snip off a small corner from the bag. Be sure to snip a very small opening. I found this to be the trickiest part of the whole cupcake. Somehow, I didn't snip my corner off just right and my noodles ended up being just a tad "flat." They looked more like Ramen noodles. Be sure to snip a nice clean, small corner, about 1/8 inch.

4. Pipe the frosting over the cupcakes, piling it slightly higher in the center of the platter, creating a mound of noodles. Be sure to allow some to hang over the edges. This part was really fun. The messier you pipe and the more you pipe, the better it looks. You want to cover as much of the cupcake surface as possible.

5. Place the chocolates in a small bowl and coat with some of the strawberry jam. Spoon some of the preserves onto the cupcakes. Then top each cupcake with a strawberry jam coated chocolate. It's cute if you leave one "meatball" to fall on the plate. Then spoon any remaining preserves over the chocolates and cupcakes.

6. Sprinkle the entire platter with the grated white chocolate. If you want, place a small chunk of white chocolate on a separate plate and serve it alongside the "spaghetti and meatballs" along with a cheese grater.

April Fool's Cupcakes-- Mock TV Dinner

I mentioned that I've been searching for excuses to make cupcakes from my "Hello Cupcake" book and April Fool's Day lent itself the perfect opportunity. I had family in town, a dessert to make for Dinner Group and and willing helper in my brother. Only problem was that we couldn't decide which "fake out" cupcakes to make. So, the logical solution was to make two! We had so much fun putting these together and I was delighted with how they turned out. Often times, things simply aren't as cute as they are in a book or pictures... but I thought ours turned out just as cute. They were easy to make and the final product made them even more worth doing. I love how they turned out! I'll post the mock "spaghetti" cupcakes later this week.

TV Dinner Cupcakes
Serves 6

Supplies Needed:

1 aluminum muffin tray, with 6 spots
6 cupcakes, baked in foil liners
white frosting (at least 1 container)
green food coloring
3-4 Orange fruit chews (Starbursts, Tootsie Fruit Rolls), cut into 1/4 inch cubes
Green hard candies, such as Runts or Skittles (I liked the Runts best)
1/4 cup white melting chocolate
1 c crushed cornflakes
3 plain donut holes
1 Yellow Fruit Chew (Starburst, Toosie Fruit Rolls, Laffy Taffy), cut into a 1 inch cube
Caramel Sauce, slightly warmed for easier pouring
2-3 Tbsp. Chocolate frosting
Colored Sprinkles or Jimmies

For the Vegetables:

1. Tint about 2-3 Tbsp. of the white frosting bright green and frost 1 cupcake with the green frosting. Arrange cut up orange fruit chews and green hard candies on top, to look like peas and carrots.
For the Mashed Potatoes:

1. Frost 1 cupcake with white frosting, mounding slightly on top, and making a small well on top with a spoon.

2. Drop the yellow Starburst at an angle in the well, and pour heated caramel sauce over the frosting and Starburst, allowing it to drip down the sides, to look like gravy.


For the Dessert Cupcake:

1. Frost or Pipe chocolate frosting on top of one cupcake. Sprinkle with colored sprinkles or jimmies.

For the Chicken Legs:

1. Draw yourself a bone template. (I'll try to get my template up at some point. In the meantime, draw a long, skinny rectangle. Then place a heart on top of it, and a small triangle and the bottom. That should give you your basic shape.) Place it on a cookie sheet and cover with a piece of wax paper. Melt the white chocolate wafers in a small freezer duty Ziploc bag. Microwave in 20-30 second intervals, massaging the bag after each time. Repeat the process until the chocolate is completely smooth.

2. Press the air out of the bag, seal it, and snip a small corner form the bag, making yourself a piping bag. Pipe the bone outline onto the wax paper. Fill in the outline with the chocolate and tap the pan lightly to smooth the top of the chocolate. Repeat and make at least 3 bones, although I recommend making more, in case you break one. Refrigerate bones, until firm.

3. Lightly frost 3 cupcakes with white frosting.

4. Frost the donut holes with white frosting and place on top of the cupcakes. Now using the white frosting, frost around the donut holes to make smooth, rounded surface that tapers slightly at the top. (It's hard to describe... but you want to use the frosting to give the cupcake with donut hole on top the look of a chicken drumstick.)

5. Pour crushed cornflakes into a shallow bowl. Press donut topped cupcakes into the cornflakes, covering completely. Do this carefully. As I turned my cupcake sideways, my donut hole started to slide off. You may have to sprinkle the cornflakes over the top of the cupcake and lightly press it into the frosting with your hands. Place the cupcakes in the aluminum tray.

6. With a very sharp knife, make a slit along the top of the donut hole. It needs to be deep enough and wide enough for the chocolate bone to slide into at least 1/2 an inch. Carefully insert the chocolate bones into the slit you've made. I found this to be the trickiest part of the all the cupcakes. Once I slid in the chocolate, my cupcake started to collapse a bit. I had to use some extra cornflakes to hide the damage. But it worked!

Spring Cupcakes (Bumblebees and Flowers)

I mentioned I needed some special cupcakes for RS and decided to try my hand at the piped chocolate decorations again. Except this time, I got a bit more ambitious. I decided I wanted bumblebees. After perusing some sites, I finally found a bumblebee design I liked and drew it out. Once I started them and realized they were going to be a bit of a headache, I made some flowers, too (a la Bakerella). They were much simpler. I made the bumblebee antennae too thin at first and they kept breaking off. Once I made them thicker, over half of them still broke, so that was frustrating. Plus, I was out of freezer duty ziploc bags, and the thin ones I was using instead kept splitting. With decent bags, the bees probably wouldn't have been as big a pain.

Once it came time to actually assemble the cupcakes, I decided I wanted strawberries, too. So I topped them several different ways. I couldn't pick a favorite... I liked them all! Which one do you guys prefer?

I used the strawberry cupcake recipe here and topped them with lemon cream, found here.

Other stuff I used:

white, yellow, and dark chocolate melting chocolates

Wax paper (for piping the chocolate)

strawberries

Pretty simple and short list, but they sure turned out fun!

Heavenly Lemon Cream

So, I have a lemon "thing." I've mentioned that I really love it. Really, really. And I'm constantly telling you that I've found my new favorite lemon dessert. And I'm going to do it again. Because I LOVE this stuff. It is so fantastically creamy, silky, smooth, and luscious. It's like lemon curd, except creamy. I made it last year on a whim and have been itching for another occasion to make it. I had to make cupcakes for a church function last night and decided my cupcakes called for divine lemon frosting.

This isn't technically a frosting. It is intended as a lemon cream for a tart shell. And it's perfectly acceptable for that. This stuff is so good, it's fabulous on its own. And it's very rich. But I decided to use it to pipe on cupcakes. After refrigeration, it's sturdy enough to pipe on cupcakes and hold its shape, although they do require refrigeration. It softens considerably after being out of the fridge for awhile.

It seems like a lot of work, and there is a lot of time over a stove and a lot of steps, but once you finish, you realize it wasn't that bad and it was completely worth it. Next time you want lemon pie or lemon frosting that isn't really lemon frosting, try this stuff. It is soooo good. I found the recipe here.


Makes enough for 1 Tart for about 8 servings
Or frosts about 20 cupcakes, generously

1 cup sugar
finely grated zest from 3 lemons
4 large eggs
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (juice from about 4-5 lemons)
2 sticks, plus 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small chunks (that's 21 Tbsp. total, or 10.5 oz.)
1 fully baked tart shell (optional... only if you're actually making a lemon tart)

1. Begin by having a thermometer, preferably instant read, a strainer, and blender or food processor ready.

2. Bring a few inches of water to boil in a medium saucepan.

3. Combine the sugar and lemon zest in a large metal bowl that can be fitted into the pan of simmering water. Before fitting the bowl over your boiling water, work the sugar and zest between your fingers, until the sugar is moist, grainy, and very aromatic. It'll turn the most beautiful shade of yellow.

4. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice.

5. Fit your bowl into the pan of boiling water, making sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Begin to cook your lemon mixture, stirring with a wire whisk. You want to cook the cream mixture until it reaches 180°F. As you whisk the cream over the heat--and you must keep whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling, you'll see that the cream starts out light and foamy. Then the bubbles will get bigger and as it gets closer to 180°F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. Have lots of patience-- depending on how much heat you're giving the cream, it can take more than 10 minutes to get to the correct temperature. (Sidenote here: using my instant read thermometer, I never reached 180°F. But I watched the time, increased my heat, and after about 15 minutes, decided that my cream was light and thick enough, that it looked right. But definitely give it at least 10 minutes and enough heat before you give up. I think I gave up around 172°F.)

6. Once you reach 180°F, pull the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of a blender (or food processor); discard the zest. Let the cream rest at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until it reaches about 140°F, about 10 minutes.

7. Turn the blender to high, and with the machine going, add about 5 pieces of butter at a time. Scrape down the sides of the blender as needed while you're incorporating the butter. Once you've added all the butter, keep the machine going. Continue to beat the cream for another 3 minutes. As you continue to blend and incorporate air, the cream will take on a lighter, airy, and even more perfect texture. So don't get lazy...

8. Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and chill the cream for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Once you've chilled it, just whisk it a little to loosen it. Now you're ready to pour it into a tart shell or frost your cupcakes.

9. Lemon cream will keep in the fridge for 4 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I have been trying to find a great red velvet recipe since about last May, when we had some wonderful red velvet cake at Claim Jumper for Jared's birthday. I probably tried 2 or 3 recipes last Fall and each one was a bigger flop than the next. I was seriously depressed and felt like a major failure for a couple weeks. Dacia was here last week and we decided to attempt them one last time for Valentine's. We each tried a different recipe... I tried another new recipe from scratch, and Dacia tried a kicked up box mix recipe that we found on Picky Palate.
The verdict: although mine finally turned out and tasted good enough, we both preferred the box mix. So there you have it. We apparently have completely uncultured taste. But after struggling so hard to even find a red velvet recipe that works, I'll stick with this box mix from here on out. At least you know you can't foul them up.

We topped these with the best cream cheese frosting I've ever made and these little cupcakes were seriously delicious. We wanted to make them extra fancy for Valentine's and Dacia had a stroke of genius to make cute little chocolate hearts to go on top and I think they may be the cutest cupcakes I have ever made. The little hearts on top were seriously easy and I can't wait to try different pictures for cupcake toppers. They were just so cute!

Anyways, here's a great little cupcake for Valentine's!

Cupcakes:
1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
8 oz. sour cream (I was out and substituted plain yogurt with no problem)
1 small box instant chocolate pudding
4 eggs
1-2 Tbsp. red food coloring, optional (without it, you won't get a very deep red for your cupcakes, which may or may not be a big deal to you)

This frosting is seriously yummy. And I'm not a frosting kind of girl. But a word of warning... this makes a TON. If you're only planning on using it to frost these cupcakes, you can easily halve it. And looking at the ingredients list is seriously scary... these aren't for the health conscious!

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 1/2 lbs. cream cheese, slightly softened (2 1/2, 8 oz. packages)
1 lb. butter (the entire 4 sticks, my friends...)
2 lb. powdered sugar, sifted (yes, that's an entire large bag...)
1 Tbsp. vanilla

Mix the butter and cream cheese until well combined. Add the sugar and mix until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and a pinch of salt.

For Chocolate Hearts:

Candy Melts in desired colors (we used red and chocolate-- you can find them at Jo-Ann's, Michaels, Wal-Mart, even party supply stores)
wax paper
Piping bag or ziploc bag

Melt candy hearts either in microwave, stovetop, or I always melt them in the oven. I put them in an oven proof bowl, set the oven to very low (either the warm setting or 200) and let them melt slowly. I find that they stay the right texture longer when I melt them slowly.

Fill a piping bag, or sturdy ziploc bag with melted chocolate. Snip the bottom corner of your ziploc bag and trace heart shapes onto waxed paper. Dacia drew hearts on her paper first with a pen, and then flipped it over, to use as a template. But once she got about halfway through, she realized she could draw a heart free-handed just fine. Allow your outlines to set.

Fill another piping bag or ziploc bag with your other color and fill in your heart shapes. I used the tip of a baby spoon and toothpick to fill in all the corners. Again let that set, and then remove. Voila! You have adorable, perfect little heart toppers.