Happy Easter!

A few days late. Here are a few pictures from Easter. Will had so much fun finding the eggs and putting them in his bag. He had it down pat! Grandma Deters helped him around on the rocks. The poor kid had enough accidents in one week.

At Mimi and Papa's house, Will and I enjoyed the swing. Then he found out how to get on the swing by himself and I regretted teaching him how to do that. It was such a great day with family.

I had to take a few of the beautiful tulips. We have a huge mole problem at our house and so the dang little devils eat the bulbs and so I dont have any anymore.

Logan is such a smart little guy, he was trying to pul Will around, succeeding a little. He then looks up at me and says "You help?" So I go over to help him and he then he says "I get in now." So, lucky me, I get to pull the boys around in the red waggon. It was pretty fun.

Beautiful Mother and Daughter. They were having 'girl talk'

Aren't they cute!

Finished Product.

Just another cookie

We decorated cookies with Dennis's family last week and I was pretty excited to try something that I had seen and was even more excited when it turned out so great! We made some color flow icing along with royal icing. I know this picture is pretty dark but it really shows you the detail in the flowers. I love how it turned out and if you had just square cookies you could do the same thing. I cant wait to try it out again!

Modeling Chocolate and Fondant

By far, the easiest thing in decorating. It is easy to make, easy to use, just easy in general! I also made my own fondant. This was also very easy, time consuming, but easy. Not having any of the utensils that you need to make fondant flowers and things, I had to just use my hands to mold the flowers. These are 'supposed' to be jonquils. Yes, they do have a mold for these, if I had them. Who knew that you can have so many different decorating utensils.


So, Nikki came over after I had made the modeling chocolate and she wanted to play. I showed her what I was wanting to make with the cake and so she helped. She made the squirrel but didn't have time to make the fur. He still isn't done, I just wanted to show you this little guy. I'm pretty excited about all this! So much fun!







This is my little guy. I made a bunny! Maybe I'm a little bias but I think he's pretty cute. I actually just made him a little girlfriend but I haven't taken a picture of her yet. You will have to wait for a later post.














Nikki also made the little blue birds. Can they get any cuter?!?! All of these will go on top of a cake that will be a tree stump. This cake is taking way to much time for an Easter cake but I really needed to practice my decorating. I have full confidence in my cakes, even ones that I am making for the first time, I have the full belief that it will taste amazingly moist and delicious. Even the fillings, they are so easy! So, this cake may have taken me a total of 6+ hours already and I still have to put it all together but I am enjoying every minute of it as I need the practice!

Modeling Chocolate
2 1/2 cups + 2Tbs. white chocolate chips
1/2 cup corn syrup

Melt the chocolate in microwave at 30 second intervals stirring each time. Once fully melted, stir in the corn syrup, let stand for at least 20 minutes. Knead together like bread dough. You may keep in an air tight container up to 6 months in room temperature.

Marshmallow fondant
16 oz marshmallows (not jet puffed)
2 Tbs water
1 Tbs. glycerin (I used corn syrup)
2 drams of Lorann butter flavor (A dram is those little bottles of oil that is in my last post. I just used 2 tsp of another extract that I had)
2 lbs powdered sugar

Melt Marshmallows and water in microwave for about 1 minute. Do not go over 90 seconds. Add the rest except the powdered sugar. If you are coloring your fondant, this is the time to add your color. Trust me, its tough to color once it is hard like rubber! Then add about 1/2 of the powdered sugar and get it mixed really well. Then you may add the rest. Adding it in two prevents clumps. This will get challenging. The original recipe calls for you to make this with an electric mixer. I have no idea how it will not blow your motor because of how hard this is to mix. I just greased my hands up and went in! After about 15 minutes of mixing, my arm aching, and a kid wanting to be put to bed, I had fondant. 100% better tasting than store bought!

Tangerine/Grape cupcakes!

To start this off, I bought new toys!!!!!!!!

These are the LoAnn flavorings and oils, I think I bought a dozen of them! I was so excited about these I just had to try them out. I have wanted summer cupcakes, just didn't know how or how to do it. Now I have what I needed!!!! Alright, I'll stop the excitement, on to the cupcakes:

I have to admit, I was getting lazy by the time that I fought with the sugar, so I cheated.

I used an average white cake mix for the cupcakes. I did change it up a bit by adding some sour cream and apple sauce to make it extra moist. I then added one Orange flavor and Tangerine flavor oil. The Grape frosting, I did make from scratch and yummy it is!

1 cup butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 Tbs. milk

2 T. vanilla extract

1/2 bottle of LoAnn grape flavoring

4 cups or 1 lb. powdered sugar

Combine all the ingredients except sugar in a medium to large bowl and beat until smooth and well combined. Begin adding powdered sugar about a cup at a time, continuing to beat each addition until completely combined. You may need to adjust the consistency by adding sugar or milk until it is at the consistency you want. (I ended up adding quite a bit more milk. For some reason, it seemed quite stiff for what I wanted).

Frost and enjoy!

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

CAUTION: These are the sweetest cupcakes you will ever eat, in your life!

I have them all cute for Easter since I made them for my family for later today, our Easter on Palm Sunday.

To make the Limeade cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups cake flour (I only had bread flour and didn't notice a difference)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup limeade concentrate

2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners.

In a small bowl combine the cake flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir together and set aside.

In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream the butter and sugar on med-high. Add in the limeade concentrate. Add the eggs, scraping down the bowl after. Add in the flour mixture in thirds, blending slightly after each addition. Mix ingredients just long enough to incorporate (do not over mix).

Divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners (will make 12 cupcakes). Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserts in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lime syrup

1/3 cup limeade concentrate

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Whisk limeade and sugar together in a small bowl. Poke holes in the top of the cooled cupcakes, and brush over the top. I brushed two times, and could have been once more.

Cherry Buttercream

3 cups powdered sugar

6 Tbsp. butter, softened

2-3 Tbsp. Maraschino cherry juice (or grenadine) (I had more like 4)

red food coloring (optional)

Mix powdered sugar, butter and maraschino cherry juice in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated, then increase to med.-high speed and beat until smooth. Add more maraschino cherry juice as needed to achieve desired texture (or powdered sugar.)

Frost and enjoy!

If I make these again: The buttercream is VERY sweet. It also didn't make quite enough so I would double that next time. Also, I poked holes in it by making a few X with a fork on top of the cupcake.

I found the recipe on The Doctor's Dishes Desserts Decor blog as well (I love her!)

Spun (Poured) Sugar

Okay, since I post all about my baking, my failures should be included, right? I had the idea that if I made spun sugar and balled it up to make it look like a birds nest, it would be pretty cute and make a great cupcake topper. Turns out, I need practice. The idea of making the sugar spun is that you have a 'shaker' and you throw it back and forth vigorously to make the strands of sugar. This was my creative idea to get the rods about 12" apart. I didn't have a the shaker that is talked about in spun sugar recipes so I just tried to drizzle it back and forth with my spatula. This technique made me thankful for the fact that it was cold so I was wearing socks. Hot sugar is well, hot. So, I had the idea of maybe aluminum foil with holes in it will work as a 'shaker'. Just so you know, it doesn't work.

I halved the recipe of: 2 lbs granulated sugar, 1 lb corn syrup, 1 pint water.

You bring this all to a boil to about 250 degrees.

With all my failures, I resorted to this. Pour the sugar out on a silicone mat and let cool for a few minutes. I then cut circles out to wrap around Easter eggs.

Let the sugar cool and carefully remove the eggs.

Ta-DA! Little sugar eggs. As another side note: I added orange flavoring and green food coloring. Why green? I'm not sure, I don't think I would care for green eggs. Don't tell Dr. Seuss.

After trying this attempt, I am now watching YouTube videos on how to make spun sugar, and learning that a whisk would have worked!!!! I'm excited to try this again as sugar really is a work of art! Try it for yourself and you will find this out!

Recipe for Samoa Cupcakes

I guess I'm just going to do it this way for now and hopefully I will figure out how on earth to fix this dang posting problem sometime in the near future. Samoa cupcakes: For the chocolate cake: 2 cups AP flour 3/4 cup cocoa 2 cups sugar (1 cup white and 1 cup brown works great) 2 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 2 eggs 1 cup hot coffee 1 cup buttermilk 1 Tbsp. vanilla 1/2 cup oil 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line cupcake pans with liners. Sift dry ingredients together and give it a whisk. Mix wet ingredients together in a 4 cup measuring bowl. Add wet to dry and whisk until smooth (not long). Add chocolate chips. Bakes for about 18 minutes Ganache glaze: 12 oz. mixed chocolate chips 4 oz cream 1/2 Tbsp butter Over double boiler, melt cream and chips together, add butter. Coconut Buttercream: 1 lb unsalted room temp butter 1 small white chocolate instant pudding mix 1 1/2 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup Malibu Rum (I omited because this was for my son's 1st birthday!) 1/4 cup cream of coconut 1 cup powdered sugar Beat butter and pudding in stand mixer with paddle on med high for about 5 minutes. (scraping bowl may be needed) or until light and fluffy, reduce speed to low and add cream and rum to blend, then rebeat on med high for 5 minutes. You may need to blend longer if it is still clumpy, just keep beating, higher the better. Reduce speed to low and add cream of coconut and sugar. (I found out that cream of coconut is very thick at the top and liquid at the bottom. You must stir it to have a consistancy you want. This may be the reason for my buttercream to turn out so greesy.) You will also need a carmel sauce. If you feel like being a creative baker, go for it, I on the other hand, had won the carmel sauce that was pampered chief and used it. To Assemble: Fill cupcakes with the caramel sauce, if you need to, you may have to cut a dome out. Dip the cupcakes into the Chocolate Ganache. You will need to let the ganache set up a bit. Add buttercream frosting and then drizzle more caramel over the top. If you happen to have some real samoa cookies, you can cut them in half and have a great decoration! If I were to make these again, I would have to figure something out with the frosting. It was way to greese for me, It tasted great but something needed changed. I also added cocanut flakes in the frosting to help with the issue on hand. I found this recipe at www.putacupcakeinit.blogspot.com there were several different Samoa Cupcake recipes I found but this was the best one I have found.

Recipe for Chocolate Chip cookie Dough cupcakes

Just for the record: I HATE TECHNOLOGY!!!!!!!!! I tried 4 times to get spaces on this damn thing and it still did everything together. So, apologies! We will try this again, and hopefully I succeed! Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes: Egg Free Cookie Dough Filling: 1 2/3 Cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted 2/3 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup white sugar 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract 2-3 Tablespoon milk 2/3-1 cup chocolate chips Mix all ingredients in a big bowl. Supper easy, right?! Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes: 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, packed 4 large eggs 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1 cup milk 2 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup chocolate chips To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar. Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. Stir together to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated. Blend in the vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookie Dough Frosting: 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed 3-4 cups confectioners sugar 1 cup all-purpose flour 3 Tbsp. milk 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract Beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy. Mix in the confectioners' sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended. To Assemble: Cut a cone out of the cooled cupcake & fill with some cookie dough. Frost cookies as desired with the cookie dough frosting and additional chocolate chips. (The original recipe called to garnish regular chocolate chip cookies. She has the recipe on her blog. www.thedoctorsdishesdessertsdecor.blogspot.com I give up on this stupid blog b.s.!!!!! I have no idea why it will not space. Giving you a recipe is no good if you cant read it so I am so sorry this is doing this to me.

Recipe for Chocolate Chery Cola Cupcake with Red licorice filling

I'm going to be doing a little back tracking as I have never posted recipes of the cupcakes and all the other yummies that I have made. So, I will be re-posting some posts just so I can add the recipe. Disclaimer now: I have not made up any of these recipes and will say where I got it. I will eventually get so good that I can make up my own but for now, I'm still learning. Chocolate Cherry Cola Cupcake with Red licorice filling: What you will need: 2 cups granulated sugar 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup cocoa powder 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 2 large eggs 1 cup half-and-half 1/2 cup canola oil 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 1 cup cherry cola, warmed in microwave for 1 minute Red Licorice Filling, recipe follows 2 cups crushed yogurt-covered pretzels Marshmallow Frosting, recipe follows Cherry Cola Glaze, recipe follows You will need to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In an electric mixer on low speed, combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the eggs, 1/2 and 1/2, oil, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in the warmed cherry cola until fully combined. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter (If I make these again, I will not fill more than 1/2, when 3/4 they overflowed badly) and bake until the cupcakes spring back when touched with your finger, 10-15 min. Let cool. Fill each cupcake with the red licorice filling. Sprinkle the crushed yogurt covered pretzels on top (I didn't have these, living in Small Town, USA, I was unable to find any around here) Top with Marshmallow Frosting and drizzle with Cherry cola Glaze. Red Licorice Filling: 5 ounces red licorice (about 10 jumbo pieces) (recommended: Red Vines) 2 cups water 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 1/4 cup cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon salt 4 egg yolks, slightly beaten Tear the licorice into 1 inch pieces and place in a saucepan with the water over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool. Whisk in the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and egg yolks. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until think and bubbly (I thought this took forever, it truly took about 15-20 minutes of whisking until right.) Continue to cook for 1 minute, and then remove from heat, cool to room temp. Marshmallow Frosting: 8 egg whites 2 cups granulated sugar 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Place the egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in a heat-safe bowl over a saucepan with boiling water. Whisk constantly over the heat for 1-3 minutes. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and beat with an electric mixer on high until stiff peaks have formed, 5-7 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract. Cherry Cola Glaze: 3 to 5 teaspoons cherry cola 3/4 cup powdered sugar Add the cherry cola, 1 teaspoon at a time, to the powdered sugar until it has a good consistency to drizzle on cupcakes. Okay, here is what I learned in making this cupcake. If you want to save time with the cupcake, you can also use a chocolate cake mix and omit all ingredients and just use a can of cherry cola. I of course enjoyed trying a new recipe but I thought it was just an average chocolate cake, so this would be much easier and less time consuming. Try the whole thing if you want though. Also, the red licorice filling was very good. I had some extra and filled it with the white sour cream cupcakes that makes a million and topped with a butter cream frosting. To me, these were so much better than the combination with chocolate. If I ever repeat anything of this recipe again, it will most definitely be the filling! If you are looking for pictures again, you will have to go back to March's post of this process. I got this recipe from Food Network channel from the show Cupcake Wars.

1st trip to the park!

Will RAN for the lady bug! It was so cute, he knew what to do as soon as I sat him in this thing. He started bouncing and smiling as big as he could. He had so much fun! (He did not pee threw his diaper, he sat in a puddle!) After going down the slide several times, I taught him to climb up this and it will get him right back to the slide to go down again. Of coarse I had to help guide his feet to the rocks but he knew what to do. The park has these musical pipes. It was pretty fun and loud to bang on them. It took Will a while to get the hang of what to do with them but then the only other thing he wanted to do was either play in puddles or go down the slide. Yep, Mom had to! You can just see the excitement on his face. HA, not really but at least he wasn't screaming. This little bench will be so cute in the summer to take pictures by so we will just try it again then.

Trying to climb up the slide! He kept trying to crawl back up the slide. Then he discovered that it was more fun to go down on your tummy! Oh what fun we had that day, I cant wait for more warm days to live at either the pool or the park!

Knick-Knack Paddy-Whack

Give a dog a bone!

We didn't have the baby gate up the other day and Will found the dog treats. It was so cute, he grabed a hand full and waited at the door for us to open it. So, this is how you give a dog a bone,

Step 1: Get a bone (or 3)

Step 2: Give Katie a bone at door.

Step 3: Give her a 2nd bone as she runs to her purch. Step 4: Give Katie the 3rd bone and then final step is get mad when you are to go inside when done.