Easter Pops

I came across this easy and fun receipe to make Easter pops with your kids. Hope you enjoy, we sure did!

Receipe from Bakerella:
1 box cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can frosting (16 oz.)
Wax paper
Yellow candy melts (1 lb. pkg.)
Lollipop sticks
Edible ink pens


After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
Mix thoroughly with 1 can frosting. (I use the back of a large spoon, but it may be easier to use fingers to mix together. But, be warned, it will get messy. Also, you may not need the entire can of frosting, so start out by using almost the entire can and add more if you need to.)
Roll mixture into quarter size balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50)
Melt chocolate in the microwave per directions on package. (30 sec intervals, stirring in between.)
Dip the tip of your lollipop stick in a little of the melted candy coating and insert into the cake balls. (Insert a little less than halfway.)
Place them in the freezer for a little while to firm up.
Once firm, carefully insert the cake ball into the candy coating by holding the lollipop stick and rotating until covered. Once covered remove and softly tap and rotate until the excess chocolate falls off. Don't tap too hard or the cake ball will fall off, too.
Place in a styrofoam block to dry.
Once dry, draw faces with an edible ink pen and allow ink to dry!

Twilight Cupcakes!

So yummy!!! We are having a Twilight DVD party tonight at a friends house and I decided to make a Twilight inspired cupcake. It's a red velvet cupcake, with a cheesecake coconut/choc chip center - the red and white looks great together, and I've decorated them with quotes from the book, which I found here. I think they turned out so good!

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg - Duncan Hines® Moist Deluxe® Red Velvet Cake Mix
• 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup flaked coconut
• 1 tub Duncan Hines® Creamy Home-Style Cream Cheese Frosting

Baking Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease muffin pans or line with paper baking cups.
2. Prepare batter according to package directions.
3. Spoon batter into lined muffin cups. In small bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and egg; mix until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips and coconut.
4. Spoon about 1 tablespoon cream cheese mixture onto batter of each cupcake.
5. Bake 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes following package directions. Spread cupcakes with frosting. Throw the diet out of the window.
   
   Makes about 24 cupcakes.

Rainbow Cake

Doesnt This look Yummy!!




I was blog stalking today and found this easy recipe.

Sunny Day Rainbow Cake

2 boxes white cake mix
24 oz of clear diet soda (2 cans, ginger ale and sprite work well)
gel food colouring
16 oz whipped topping
2 oz instant fat-free sugar-free pudding mix (2 smallish boxes)

Mix the cake mix with the soda according to regular instructions on box. It will be lumpy afterward. Again, you can use any white cake recipe you want, this is just how I do it.

Measure the total volume (by my estimate, 64 oz), then divide by 6 and measure into separate bowls. There are 8 oz in a cup, so 64/6 = 10 to 11 oz, or 1 cup + 2 tbsp.

Stir colour into each bowl with its own spoon. For the first colour into the pan, measure out 2/3 to 3/4 of your mix (in this case about 1 c) as close to the middle as you can. Drop in your first three colours, then work on the other pan with the last three colours. So if you’re doing rainbow order, the first pan should have red, then orange, then yellow, and now the purple, blue and green go into the second pan. As a recap, this is so both layers are roughly the same size.

Bake the cake as instructed on the box. Check it when the box says to, but usually it’ll need an extra 5 or 10 minutes because of the density of the soda method. Just keep baking, checking back every 5 minutes or so until a toothpick to the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before moving to a wire rack.

Meanwhile, make your frosting. Just mix the pudding mix in with the whipped topping for a few minutes. Dye if you’re into that.

Frost your fat-free cake with your fat-free whipped frosting. Eat.

For Step by step instructions and pictures visit Omnomicon. There are a few swear words just as a warning.

She does say if you are not bothered about it being fat Free then just make the cake according to the directions on the box and then add the food coloring.

Flapjacks

Being an American living in England I have a few things that I really love from England and will definitely take with me when I do eventually move back home. One of those things is Flapjacks. I love them. They make such a nice healthy snack too (Unless you put chocolate on top or in them, which I do A LOT!) Anyway here is a really good recipe. They are so easy to make!



1 cup Butter (not margarin)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 Tablespoons Golden Syrup or Honey
2 cups oats

Melt the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup or honey together. Add oats and pour into an 8x8" pan bake at 320 for40 - 45 minutes. Let cool for at least an hour before serving as it will be extremely hot! I sometimes melt chocolate and pour it over the top. Or alot of times I will chop up some of my favorite nuts and add them as well as some dried fruit. Berries are the best in my opinion! Plus with the fruit and nuts it is definitely more healthy. These are delish!!

Rag Quilts

I know to a lot of you this is a simple thing to make but to me this is the first two I have ever made and I am so proud of my self. They turned out cute and now I cant get enough of them. The only problem is it can be an expensive hobby. All you have to do is cut the squares one inch bigger then you want then put the two backsides together for both fabrics and sew them together side by side for how big you want them to be I did one that was 4x4 and another that was 5squaresx4squares. then when you sew them allow a 1/4-1/2 inch seam. them cut every 1/2 inch or so around all the seams and wash again and it is done it took me 1 hour for the 4x4 and 1-1/2 for the 5x4.

Easy Wreath

I found this on this blog and it is now my weekend project. I cant wait It looks so simple!! All I am going to do it buy a twig wreath. You can buy them ready made at pretty much any craft store. I have also bought a whole bunch of pine cones, living in England I dont see them laying on the ground very often. The only other thing Im going to be using a a hot glue gun and a big ribbon. All you need to do is glue the pine cones on the wreath and glue a bow at the top Vwalah! You then have a lovely all season wreath for your front door. If you wanted to make it more seasonal you could glue anything around it. Why not make up a bunch of Salt Dough Shapes maybe hearts for valentines day, clovers for St Patricks Day, You can get some spring flowers (maybe another Lei like I used for the other wreath) for Easter.hYou get the idea. The good thing about using hot glue is you can easily pull the items off and glue something else on. Alternatively these wreaths are not that expensive. You could just make one for each season.