4th of July Cupcake Flag

I was inspired to make this after seeing something similar in a Food Network magazine.

In their version, they did little pastry shells and filled them with vanilla custard, and used blueberries and strawberries to decorate the colors of the flag.

I decided to do vanilla mini-cupcakes and just use colored icing.

I did blue with white stars, and then rows of red and white for the stripes. 

I would have done more stripes to make it a little more accurate, but I ran out of red icing, so this is what I could do.

I think it turned out really cute!

And what I like best is that it's a dessert that people can just grab one of, making it less messy and easy to just set out and have people take as they want.

Cupcake Fun

I love to save myself time and work by using store-bought box mixes for things. 

You can make them "semi-homeade" by adding flavored extract to the mix and by topping them with creative little touches!

I made these strawberry cupcakes with white icing and different colored sprinkles. 

I think it's more fun to eat treats that are pretty!

Santa's Sleigh

I found a great idea about making Santa's sleigh from a Sandra Lee show.  It's so easy!

-graham crackers

-red and white icing

-candy canes

-coconut

-little santa candy

1.  Frost one graham cracker with white icing, and another with red.

2.  On the white cracker, place two candy canes on the top at the sides. 

3.  Put a little extra icing on top of the candy canes and put the red cracker on top.

4.  Decorate with coconut to look like snow and put Santa on his sleigh!

*Sandra also did a seat made out of licorice to put Santa on, and did a sack made out of a fruit roll-up, with starburst presents inside and on the sleigh for decoration.

Angel Food Cake with Berries and Cream

Take an angel food cake and cut of the top with a serrated knife. 

Then dig a tunnel in the bottom of the cake (hollow it out).

Then fill the space with whipped cream (I actually prefer cool whip), some fresh berries (your choice, but I definitely recommend strawberries and some fresh mint), the pieces of the cake that you took out and a little bit of flavored extract (your choice).

Then put the top back on and frost with the rest of the whipped cream/cool whip.

Decorate with the rest of the berries and refrigerate until serving.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

I made this yesterday.  I love to make white chocolate cheesecake.  Usually I would put some raspberry sauce over the top too, (and I really like chocolate crust with it), but I used the ingredients that I had.

No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Cups

This recipe is from a Nestle Tollhouse dessert cookbook I have (it has such yummy stuff in it!). I love it cuz it's "no-bake" and pretty simple. I used a mini-cheesecake springfoam pan to do these last night, but you can do them in a square/rectangle pan and just cut bars.

Ingredients:

• 
  
  2 cups peanut butter, divided
  
  
  
• 
  
  3/4 cup (1 and 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 cups powdered sugar, divided
  
  
  
• 
  
  3 cups graham cracker crumbs
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 cups (1 package) Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet choc. chips
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  Directions:
  
  
  
• 
  
  GREASE 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
  
  
  
• 
  
  BEAT 1 1/4 cups peanut butter and butter in large mixer bowl until creamy.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Gradually beat in 1 cup powdered sugar.
  
  
  
• 
  
  With hands or wooden spoon, work in remaining 1 cup powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs and 1/2 cup morsels.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Press evenly into prepared baking pan.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Smooth top with spatula.
  
  
  
• 
  
  MELT remaining 3/4 cup peanut butter and remaining 1 1/2 cups morsels in medium, heavy-duty saucepan over lowest possible heat, stirring constantly, until smooth.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Spread over graham cracker crust in pan.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until chocolate is firm.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Cut into bars.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Store in covered container in refrigerator.
  
  
  

*Halloween Cake*

This is the cake I made for Halloween. Kate helped me decorate it with the sugar candies. What would be more appropriate for Halloween than a delicious Devil's Food Cake?!?! I added orange extract to the mix to give it a little special flavor. Then I used orange food coloring to make the frosting, and used the Betty Crocker Cupcake Icing to trim it.

*Lemon Coconut Cake*

I made this cake last night. It is so yummy! You can do it as homeade, or semi-homeade, as you like! I didn't have coconut (which I realized after I had started!), so I just decorated the top with sprinkles.

What you need:

-1 box lemon cake mix (or you can use yellow or white, and add lemon curd, lemon extract and other stuff to make it lemony) (or you could do it all from scratch!)

-3 eggs

-1/3 cup veg. oil

-1 and 1/4 cup water

-about 1 tsp. coconut extract

-the zest of 1 lemon

-lemon curd (optional)

-lemon extract (optional)

-frosting of your choice (I used plain white)

-coconut shreds for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Mix cake mix, eggs, oil, water, coconut extract, and lemon zest (you could add lemon curd/lemon zest if you like, for extra flavor)

3. Pour into cake pan (I used a bundt cake pan) and bake according to directions
4. Let cool completely

5. You can make any kind of frosting/icing you want. To make it extra special, you can add either lemon or coconut extract to it for flavor. Frost cake.

6. Decorate with coconut shreds (or any other topping)

Enjoy!

*Pumpkin Cupcakes*

These little pumpkin cupcakes are so cute and festive for Halloween!

To make, you can use mini-bundt pan molds, or any small mold you have (I did these with a flower bundt mold that I have). You could also just use regular cupcake pans if you want.

-1 package of white cake mix

-3 eggs

-1 and 1/4 cup water

-1/3 cup veg. oil

-orange food coloring (or red and yellow to mix)

green food coloring (or blue and yellow to mix)

-white frosting

-green licorice (they have mini green sour sticks), or any green or brown candy you can use as the stem

1. 
   
   Preheat oven to 350
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Mix cake according to directions on box
   
   
   
3. 
   
   use food coloring to dye the cake mix orange
   
   
   
4. 
   
   pour into pan/mold
   
   
   
5. 
   
   Bake according to directions
   
   
   
6. 
   
   let cool
   
   
   
7. 
   
   mix food coloring in frosting to make green
   
   
   
8. 
   
   frost the cupcakes with the green frosting to make it look like leaves on top
   
   
   
9. 
   
   put the "stem" in the middle
   
   
   

Enjoy!

*Crack*

This is a recipe that everyone always asks for anytime I make it. It is so good... hence the name "crack"!!! And it is so easy to make...

1. 
   
   Preheat oven to 350
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Line a greased cookie sheet with foil.
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Line the sheet with Saltine crackers (it takes about 1 to 1 and 1/2 sleeves)
   
   
   
4. 
   
   Mix 2/3 cup brown sugar with 2 sticks of butter in a saucepan til mixed well.
   
   
   
5. 
   
   Pour sugar over the crackers.
   
   
   
6. 
   
   Bake for 5 minutes.
   
   
   
7. 
   
   Make sure the crackers are lined up and even (you might have to adjust them with a fork). Let cool.
   
   
   
8. 
   
   Melt chocolate chips (semi-sweet is best). You can do this by using a double boiler (chocolate in a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water- don't let the water touch the bowl, thoguh!) or you can nuke them in the microwave for a minute and a time, stirring til melted.
   
   
   
9. 
   
   Once crackers are completely cooled, spread chocolate over with spatula.
   
   
   
10. 
    
    Add any toppings you want (slivered almonds, white choc. chips/shavings, etc.)
    
    
    
11. 
    
    Cool overnight in fridge (or at least a few hours).
    
    
    
12. 
    
    Break apart with your hands and enjoy!
    
    
    

This really takes little time and is a sure hit with everyone!!! Make it special for any occasion by putting different toppings on (crushed candy canes during Christmas, orange sprinkles for Halloween, etc.)