BUNCO

I recently made cake pops for a family friend's BUNCO get together.  I thought it would be fun to make dice cake pops to go with the BUNCO theme. This was somewhat of a challenge as I have never made cube cake pops before.

 Start by mixing your cake crumbs with 3/4 can of frosting.

Press the cake mixture into an 8x8" pan.  I wanted my dice to be approximately one inch in size, so I pressed the mixture into the pan so that it was one inch thick.

 To compact the cake mixture and get a smooth top, place a piece of parchment paper on top of the mixture and roll with a small rolling pin.

 Place the pan into the freezer for approximately 15 minutes.  Remove the pan and cut into cube shapes.  Or if you live in Minnesota, like I do, place the pan outside in the freezing cold winter.

 Place a stick into the center of each cube.  Dip the stick into melted chocolate first.  This will help keep the cake pop on the stick when dipping the entire cake pop into the melted chocolate.

 Dip each cake pop into the melted chocolate and let dry.

 Use sprinkles or frosting to decorate the dice.  Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Pie

So, I meant to post this before Thanksgiving but never got around to it.  I was intrigued when I saw this Sweet Potato Pie recipe in the Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine.  Try it out for one of your holiday gatherings.

 Start by steaming or microwaving the Sweet Potatoes until soft.

Pulse the Sweet Potatoes with a food processor until smooth.

 Blend in the buttermilk...

 eggs...

 brown sugar, and salt.

 Pour the mixture into a prepared pie crust.

 Bake at 350 degrees for 50min.

 Now, here comes the fun part!  Pile large and small marshmallows onto the top of the pie.  Place under the broiler for approximately 3 minutes until the marshmallows puff up and are lightly browned.  Then enjoy!

The Sweet Potato Pie tasted great.  It was  very similar to a pumpkin pie, but I really liked the addition of the marshmallow topping.  It gave the pie an extra kick.  

ONE!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, baby boy!  I can't believe a whole year has already gone by.  It has been the most wonderful, exhilarating, and exhausting year of my life.  I wouldn't change one thing about it.  In honor of my baby's birthday we celebrated with a Peanuts themed dessert table. 

 Happy Birthday Charlie!

 Candy jars filled with  lemon drops, Hershey Kisses - Cookies n' Cream , and licorice.

Cake Push Pops  These push pops are simple to make and were a hit at the party.  Simply bake a cake, cut into small cubes, and alternate with layers of cool whip or frosting.  Top with a garnish.  I ordered my push pops from Sweet Lulu.  Sweet Lulu is a great place to order party supplies. 

Charlie Brown inspired sugar cookies.

 Lucy football truffles.  Remember in the Peanuts comics how Lucy always "holds" the ball for Charlie to kick?  These are so de-lish and easy to make.  You can find the "How To" from Bakerella. 

Beverages in the theme colors; red, blue, and yellow.  In addition, paper drinking straws from Sweet Lulu.

 And last, but not least the Snoopy Cake!  This took me hours to make but I was very happy with how it turned out.  The cake was alternating layers of white and chocolate cake filled with buttercream frosting.  Unfortunately, my little guy was not a fan of cake this year!

Another view of the cake.

Snoopy and Woodstock.

I love you Charlie!  Here's to another year of amazing memories.

Halloween Dessert Table

 Halloween is a week away!  Here are some fun ideas for a Halloween Dessert Table. 

 Rice Krispie Treats with Candy Corn and Peanuts.  A good sweet and salty mix.

 Graveyard Goodies.  Brownies with marshmallow ghosts.

 Spider Eggs (Sixlets) and Newt's Teeth (Watermelon Rock Candy) Treats

 Coffins filled with Dirt n' Bones.

 Monster Marshmallow Pops

 Spider and Spider Web Cupcakes

 Gooey Goblin Eyes

 And don't forget the Witch's Brew

Happy Haunting!

Trick or TREATS!

Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays.  I love dressing up and I LOVE all of the candy and treats.  Here are some fun Halloween goodies that are easy to make.  All you need is test tubes, candy, and labels.  I found these Martha Stewart test tubes at Michaels.  They even come with labels.  Last year I ordered test tubes online and made my own labels.  I bought 'Newt's Teeth' (neon green watermelon rock candy) and 'Spider Eggs' (Sixlets) to fill the tubes.  Be creative!  You can use any type of candy and different sized test tubes.  Stay tuned for more Halloween treats over the next couple of weeks.  

4-0

Happy 40th birthday to my cousins Amy & Ryan! 

Here are some pics of the cake I made for their birthday celebration. 

I started by making two 6" and two 8" round cakes and leveling them with a knife.

Then I filled the cakes with a homemade chocolate ganache and buttercream icing.

Next I iced the cakes.

I recruited my husband to help roll out the fondant.

Once the fondant was rolled, I covered both of the cakes.

I then cut off the extra fondant and smoothed out the bumps.

For the decorations I used these black Wilton Sugar Sheets.  I found these at Michaels and they come in a variety of colors. 

It was super easy to use and looks really nice on the cake.  To start I peeled the sugar sheet off the plastic.

I then used a cutting board (a clean one, of course) to cut black strips for the cake.

Once the strips were cut, I used a paint brush to brush each strip with water so it would stick to the cake.

After brushing the strips with water, I placed them one by one onto the bottom layer of the cake.

After the bottom layer of the cake was decorated, I stacked the smaller layer on top.

I rolled white balls of fondant to use as the border around the top layer of the cake.  I used a little bit of frosting to hold them in place. 

For the top layer of the cake, I used a knife to cut 4s and 0s from the black sugar sheets.  I added rolled white fondant balls to the top of the cake and added the fun, twirly wires with hanging jewels to the top of the cake.  You can find the wires and jewels at Michaels also.  I think they make a fun addition to any cake.

Zucchini Bread

Does anyone have a lot of Zucchini from the garden that they don't know what to do with?  We recently got a bunch so my mom and I made Zucchini bread using my Grandma's recipe.  For this recipe you will need:

3 Eggs

1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

3/4 C. Applesauce (or cooking oil)

2 C. Grated Zucchini

1 1/2 C. Sugar

3 tsp. Vanilla

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Baking Soda

3 C. Flour



Start by grating the Zucchini.  We grated all of the Zucchini and put the leftover in freezer bags for future use. 

 Beat the eggs.  Add oil and sugar. 

 In a separate bowl sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

 Add grated zucchini and flour mixture alternately to the egg, oil, and sugar mixture.

Pour mixture into baking pans.  We used miniature bread pans to make several loafs.  We added walnuts and chocolate chips to some of the loaves.  My favorite was the chocolate chip zucchini bread!

Here's a picture of the zucchini bread fresh out of the over.  De-lish!  Do you have any other recipe ideas for zucchini?  We also tried zucchini noodles for dinner that night.  Turned out pretty good!