Let them EAT cake....

While I am attempting to finish our costumes...I thought I would post some of the cakes that I have made over the last few years. I have wonderful memories of the cakes that my mom made for me growing up & I want my boys to have those too. I really love to bake & create. I am amazed at what you can turn a cake into.

A few years back...I made my first birthday cake. Kaden had a pirate birthday party & we made a pirate ship. I was stressed & excited, but when it was all said & done...I was so proud. From that moment on....I WAS HOOKED.





The next year...I moved onto a homemade frosting, but I still stick with a boxed cake. Here is Preston's train cake. It was fun & pretty easy, but a bit time consuming! He really loved it! Here is the whole cake:



And now some close ups:







Next came little bigger man's horse cake. It was the EASIEST cake. A little cutting & some frosting...TADA!!!!



I made another pirate cake for "talk like a pirate day".



This is my first (& only..so far) attempt at fondant. I even made marshmallow fondant.



This year Preston had a dinosaur party.



And Kaden went with Monkeys. I actually had a SUPER cute monkey cake picked out, but Kaden really wanted these cupcakes. I think that he made a great choice!



The final cake is this one. Simple & delicious!!! **Notice the cake plate...yup I made that. A charger plate, a candle stick, & some E6000.

Halloween!!!

I really don't sew. I have an antique sewing machine that my mom was sweet enough to "loan" me, but the tension is all off & it doesn't have the instruction manual. Hubby & I are going to attempt to fix the tension & "create" our own Halloween costumes. Now, there isn't a TON of sewing to do on these & what there is is basic. I am excited to tackle this, but considering I have less than a week...I am down to the wire. Wish me luck & I will post when they are finished!

Win a trip to Disney

I just entered to win a trip to Disneyland. You can enter at on two different websites. Good Luck!

www.sweetlifeinthevalley.com
www.outandaboutwiththefamily.com

Frankenstein Brownies

I saw some super cute, festive Frankenstein brownies over at CONTROLLING MY CHAOS. I was so excited to make them that I ran right out to get what I needed!



I just made a box brownie mix & let them cool. I cut the brownies into rectangles & put them on a plate.

I decided to make the frosting minty..so I found a recipe to start with & went from there. I couldn't find creme de menthe liqueur so I used mint extract. I will give you the single recipe..I doubled it, but I'm still not sure that I needed to!

Here is the recipe:
1/2 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp mint extract
2 Tbsp milk
green food coloring

Mix all of the ingredients together & continue mixing until fluffy. Frost each brownie rectangle & chill until set.

For the decorating you could use chocolate frosting, but instead I used a chocolate ganache. You will need:

6 Tbsp butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

You can melt your chocolate & butter in the microwave, but I had better luck with a "double boiler". I used a glass bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Stir occasionally until smooth. Remove from heat & allow to cool a little.

While your chocolate is cooling...cut some mini marshmallows in half. These will be the whites of your eyes. You will need 1 mini marshmallow per Frankie.

Now that your chocolate has cooled...put it in a piping bag (or ziploc baggie with the corner cut off). I used a small round piping tip that I slid into the corner of a ziploc baggie. Use the chocolate to decorate the hair, mouth, & eye.

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie is one of the ULTIMATE comfort foods! I also love to give it to the kiddos because they are getting so many veggies & they either don't know or don't care! Now, it is a little involved & I recommend that you follow the recipes timing, but it is definitely worth it!!! I changed the original recipe to fit my taste..so that is what I am giving you!

5-6 chicken tenders (3 breasts)
32 oz chicken broth
3-4 potatoes
1 yellow onion (I cheat & buy chopped onion in the freezer section!)
3 celery stalks
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 package peas & carrots mixture
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 frozen deep dish pie crust bottom**
1 pie crust top (in the dairy case)**

**This makes enough to make 2 pies...so you could use 2 of each pie crusts

1. Place chicken in a pot of cold water just to cover chicken. Add salt, pepper, & garlic powder. Bring to a boil, turn off heat, & cover. Let cool in the pot.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Peel & cut potatoes into bite size pieces & boil until almost fork tender. Drain & set aside.
4. Wash & cut celery into bite size pieces. Cut onions into bite size pieces (or just use the frozen stuff(: ).
5. In a large heavy skillet, saute onion, celery, & olive oil over medium heat for about 5-8 minutes. Add peas & carrots & cook for about 5 minutes. Add flour to veggie mixture & cook for about 30 seconds.
6. Add chicken broth & bring to a boil. After it has become thick, add the potatoes.
7. Remove chicken from the pot & cut into bite size pieces. Add chicken to veggie mixture. Add salt & pepper to taste.
8. Pour mixture into the pie crust bottom. Cover with the pie crust top. Trim the shell down & crimp the edges so that the juices don't spill into your oven. I also put it on a cookie sheet...just in case.
9. Bake at 350 degrees fro 45 minutes or until pie crust is cooked & golden brown.

Stovetop Peach Cobbler

Mmmmmm...this is so tasty & incredibly easy! It is gooey & crispy all at the same time. This is another one of my favorites from allrecipes.com.



Here is the recipe:

1 29 oz can of sliced peaches
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup white sugar
1 packaged yellow cake mix
4 tsp margarine/butter

1. Pour out half of the juice from the can of peaches. Pour the peaches & remaining juice into a large saucepan. Sprinkle cinnamon & sugar over the top of the peaches. Empty the cake MIX evenly over the top of the peaches. DO NOT MAKE THE CAKE MIX...YOU ARE POURING THE POWDERED MIX ON TOP OF THE PEACHES! Cut up your butter into pats & place in the CENTER.

2. Cover the sauce pan with the lid & bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once steam starts to come from your saucepan, reduce heat to medium low & cook for 10 minutes. DO NOT LIFT THE LID!!! Remove from heat & let sit for 15 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Playdough Cookies

I originally posted this recipe on my other blog, MOMMY GURU. I really love this recipe & thought that I would share it here. I think that I am going to make them this week & use orange & black as the colors. These cookies are really fun & easy to make. My boys love to help make them. You could even put sucker sticks on them & make them a lollipop cookie...hmmm...so many possibilities!



The recipe:

3/4 cup butter (softened)
3 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I added 2 tsp)
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1. In large bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, & sugar until fluffy. Add egg & vanilla & mix until smooth.

2. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, & salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir until soft dough forms.

3. Divide dough into fourths. Tint each with a different color of food coloring. Wrap each color of dough separately & chill for 2 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take a small amount of each color & then roll into a snake. Coil the snake starting at one end. Place on cookie sheet & bake for about 8 minutes.

Cupcakes

I haven't made any super fun Halloween treats yet, but I thought I would share some cupcakes that I made last year.

Ghosts

I love Halloween, but don't want to spend a lot on decorations. Here is a cute, CHEAP Halloween decoration that is so easy to make. I got all of the stuff that I needed for a total of $2.00. I made four & could make so many more. I love having the ghost hang from our trees in the front yard. The boys love them too!



I bought garbage bags (without the string in them) & balloons at the dollar store. I already had fishing line & a black sharpie at home. You could use newspaper instead of the balloon, but I like having the tied part of the balloon to hang the ghost from.

Blow up your balloon (not with helium). Take the bottom of your garbage bag..the sealed side & make a small slit in the center. This is where the knot of the balloon will come out. Feed the knot through the hole in the garbage bag. Using your sharpie, draw eyes onto the garbage bag where the balloon is. Tie fishing line to balloon knot. Last year I left it at that, but this year I added extra fishing line to the corners to make arms.

Mummy Heads

My house is SERIOUSLY lacking in Halloween decor. I came across this idea on the internet {somewhere}. I went to look for some balls, but they were too expensive...until I stumble upon the kids craft section at Walmart. They had styrofoam balls 6/$3.50. Now that I could do!!! I painted the balls black. Be prepared...styrofoam takes a long time to dry! I used my handy dandy hot glue gun & glued on some google eyes. Then, wrap gauze around the balls. I used more hot glue just to tack the gauze in place.

I linked up to Creative Cat over at Poppies at Play. Go & check out the amazing ideas over there.

Recipe Box

I found this recipe box on clearance a while back. It was ok, but could be cuter!



I used a line from My Mind's Eye called Penny Lane. I love their paper!!! A little (or a lot) of Modge Podge & it is so much cuter. The top could use a little help, but I'll get to that eventually!



I am working on covering the recipe card dividers, but had to put that on hold for house work...BOOOOOO!!!

Nachos Dulces

This is one of my favorite treats! There is a restaurant near my house that serves Nachos Dulces & we love it! I figured out how to recreate it. There are two ways to make it. I will tell you about both...because I am just nice like that! :) It is really easy & pretty basic.

Here is what you need:

flour tortillas
sugar/cinnamon mixture
canola oil spray
vanilla ice cream
honey butter



This is my favorite way of making this:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. I like to line my cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper. That was it is easier to clean up! I used 2 tortillas for my treat. Spray both sides of your tortillas with the canola oil spray. Sprinkle only one side of each tortilla with your cinnamon & sugar mixture. Cut into 8 slices. I usually use a pizza cutter, but you could just use a knife.



Bake for about 10 minutes. Your tortillas need to be crispy like chips, but watch that your sugar doesn't burn. Once they are finished cooking...lay the tortilla "chips" out onto your plate. Drizzle honey butter on the top of your chips. Then scoop your vanilla ice cream on top. I like to sprinkle a little more cinnamon & sugar on the top of the ice cream.



The other variation...that my hubby prefers is instead of baking your tortillas in the oven...heat some canola oil in a frying pan. While your oil is heating, cut your tortillas into 8 pieces. Fry the tortillas until golden brown & then put on a plate covered with a paper towel to drain off the greased. Place the tortilla "chips" onto another plate & sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar. Then continue to layer as above with honey butter & ice cream.