Baking Stuff

I love to bake!  I get that from my mom.  She loves to bake too.  The problem?  Then I end up eating it!  Ha ha ha!  I didn't actually do too much baking over the past few months just because I have been trying to eat better & if sweets are around, I will eat them.  Luckily we have many neighbors & friends who enjoy being the recipients of the baked goods.  

I made this simple bundt cake for my hubby's birthday:

 Luckily his birthday cake requires very little fuss.  He requests this chocolate chip bundt cake every year.  It is easy & it is so good!  What I also love about this bundt cake is that it's dense which makes it sturdy so it travels well too.  I can't do bundt cakes too often because they are just so heavy, but I'll make this recipe a couple times a year.  If you are in the mood for chocolate, lots & lots of rich chocolate, then this cake is the one!

Here's another pic of the apple decorated cupcakes we made for our annual back to school dinner:

 I saw this idea on Pinterest & they were so easy to decorate-red buttercream, green fruit slice cut in pieces to make leaves & a pretzel rod for a stem.  The girls loved helping with these too!

For Thanksgiving this year I made some pies:

 I'm not a big pie person, but my absolute favorite kind is the Apple Crunch pie (above right).  That's actually the only kind of pie I usually make.  So for Thanksgiving I thought I would branch out & also make a pumpkin pie & cherry pie.  Yum!

We went to my parents house for the actual Thanksgiving holiday & my mom made cupcakes with our girls:

 She had bought one of those little cupcake decorating kits & they turned out really cute!

For some sweet treats for friends during the holidays I dressed up my chocolate chip bundt cake & made them mini:

 Why are they just so cute when they are mini?  And they looked pretty with the powdered sugar "snow" & holly berries.

In January our baby turned 2!  She is SO into Monster's Inc. & Monsters University.  It is so funny!  She drags her little Mike & Sulley stuffed characters everywhere.  So it was just the natural choice for the theme for her birthday party this year.  I saw this Monsters inspired cake on Pinterest & decided to give it a try myself.

I think it turned out pretty cute:

Quinn loved it & that's all that really mattered!  Oh & it tasted pretty darn good too!

Crafty Stuff

Hello blog world!  Wow.  It has been almost one year since I last posted here!  Yikes!  Time really does fly when you are having fun.  I don't have any excuses for not posting for so long other than life is busy!  Even though things have been crazy busy around here I still manage to get my craft on when I can.  I decided to do a few posts with some pics of craftiness from the past year (I have been trying to remember to take pics when I do make something).

Here are the teacher gifts I made for the girls teachers for their end of the year gift last year:  

 I had gone to Utah in May with some friends & we went to this awesome wood/craft store called The Wood Connection.  I picked these cute wood pencils up at that store.  Then I just painted them, added pink glitter to the eraser, tied some silver ribbon around them & put each teacher's name on the pencil in black vinyl.  They turned out great!

When we moved to our new house the big girls decided they wanted to have their bunk beds separate for a while.  I decided they needed something above their beds.  But I didn't want anything too heavy (hello, we have earthquakes here!) so I just painted a canvas in a pink that coordinated with their bedding, painted a wooden letter of their initials white & glued it on the painted canvas:

 The pictures are from my phone & they are horrible!  Ha ha ha!  But they look really cute in person.

Then I painted some Ikea wooden spice racks white & we hung them on the wall next to each girls bed so that they could have a little shelf to put their reading books on:

 I know you saw that idea on Pinterest too.  But it works out great!  They love their little shelves.  Oh & the cute pink reading lights are from Ikea too.

My Aidynn has always wanted long hair.  She talks about it all of the time.  So for her 4th birthday last July I made her a Rapunzel braid:

 Isn't she darling?

Here's a better view of the braid:

 This was so fast & easy to make & it was by far her favorite gift.  It has definitely gotten a lot of use!  To make it I just braided yellow yarn, tied it with some pretty lilac ribbon & then hot glued some fake flowers in different shades of purple all over it.

I made myself a necklace for our family photos:

 I just used wood beads in different sizes & painted them a pretty aqua color.  I strung them onto ribbon & that's it!  It was an easy & inexpensive way to get exactly what I wanted to go with our colors for our family photos.

Speaking of, here's our family photo from last July:

I also made Aidynn a yellow wooden bead bracelet to wear.

(Photo credit:  Shari Hanson of Shari Hanson Photography)

In September we had our annual back to school dinner the night before the new school year began.  Every year it seems I add just a little bit more to it which is fun.  I totally got the idea for the apple plates off of Pinterest.  They looked so cute on our table: 

The chalkboard we use every year on our first day photos:

We also got the easel out for the girls to color on:

And they love coloring on the table when we cover it with paper:

Also inspired by Pinterest, cupcakes decorated like apples:

The annual dinner?  Spaghetti, zucchini & garlic bread:

I made my niece some thank you cards for her nautical themed baby shower:

 Simple is always nice.

And a Christmas photo of these 3 beauties:

They keep me busy, but I love them so!

Well, that takes care of some of the random crafts from the past year.  Stay tuned for the sewing & baking adventures!

My Favorite Cupcakes for Fall

Ok, so these are my favorite cupcakes for Fall! Every year during the Fall I get a craving for these yummy spice cupcakes. The best part-there's nothing fancy to making these. I simply open a box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake mix & bake them according to the directions. Then I top them with a very thin layer of vanilla frosting. I don't like too much frosting taking away from the spice cake taste. Cream cheese frosting would be yummy too but the folks in my house aren't too keen on that, so I just use the vanilla. Then my girls helped to decorate-their favorite part! We put a pumpkin candy on some, we sprinkled cinnamon on others & then we put both onto others. And then we taste tested a few! So good!

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

I have been seeing around online where people make soda flavored cupcakes by simply using a box of white cake mix & a can of their favorite soda. Yes, that's really it! I had been waiting until Father's Day to try out these cupcakes using root beer since that is one of my husband's favorite sodas. So I just mixed a box of white cake mix & one can of root beer together, put it in the cupcake liners & baked them at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes. So easy!

Then for the frosting I made a root beer flavored buttercream. I used this super easy buttercream recipe except I used 1 teaspoon root beer flavor instead of the 1 teaspoon vanilla. I have to say that it tasted pretty good! I was so happy that it turned out well! And when you have the frosting on top of the root beer cupcakes & you taste it all together, it is so good! And, of course, the striped paper straws just made them pretty cute! Just like a real root beer float! These were definitely a hit for Father's Day! I'm interested to try them with other soda flavors as well. Maybe cherry coke next? Hmmmm....

Hot Cocoa Cupcakes

I saw the idea for hot cocoa cupcakes in Family Circle magazine this month & thought they were totally cute. So when I had to make some cupcakes to take to a family dinner I thought I'd try 'em out! Plus, I just got the Stampin' Up! Perfect Setting XL die for the Big Shot while it was on sale last month & have been wanting to try it out. It cuts out these super cute cupcake wrappers (above) & napkin rings. So fun! I love that now I can make cupcake wrappers out of any of my favorite designer papers.

So I didn't use the recipe from the magazine, but I think these were pretty yummy too!

And so festive!

Halloween Cupcakes

Back at the beginning of September I was searching for some cute Halloween cupcake ideas & I came across this photo on Cupcakes Take The Cake:

To see the post about these cupcakes click here. I think they're originally from Bakerella.

Anyway, I thought these were just so stinkin' cute & decided that I would try to make some myself this year. I wasn't planning on making some until a little bit closer to Halloween, but it's been raining here for 3 days now (yes, in sunny Southern California) so we've started going a little stir-crazy at our house. I thought that today was the perfect day to do a little baking & cupcake decorating! My older daughter loves to help me with every step of the process so it's some good mommy & me time plus it keeps her occupied for a while.

Ok, well here's my version of the Halloween cupcakes:

I thought they turned out pretty darn cute too! And they were really easy to make & Kaylee & I had so much fun! It was a great rainy day activity!

Beautiful Bridal Shower

So remember the bridal shower invite that I showed you a while back? This one:

Well the bridal shower was last Saturday. My sister-in-law, Cheryl, planned, organized & orchestrated the entire party (her nickname is "The Party Planner") & it turned out really, really nice. My sister-in-law, Beth, & I helped out too. It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. As a side note, I've known my niece, Alisha, who this shower was for, since I was 16 years old & she was only 6. So I got a little emotional with this one {tear}. I have so loved watching her grow up into the beautiful woman she's become. And I can't believe she's getting married! I keep saying, how did she grow up when I haven't gotten any older? ;)

So anyway, I wanted to share some photos with you of the shower & some of the things we made for it. These are the thank you cards that I made for her that match the invite:

And here's a guest book that I made for people to write a little message to the bride & then we recorded who gave her what in the back. I have to say, I LOVE how the cake turned out! Don't you love it when you have a vision in your mind & it turns out even better than you though?

Here's the awesome dessert table. My SIL wanted an elegant dessert table & it definitely was! And filled with all sorts of yummy stuff too-cupcakes, cookies, chocolate covered pretzels & lots of candies!

I had seen cupcake holders like these numerous times online & I thought it would be a perfect way to display the cupcakes at the shower. It was so easy to make too! I went to my local packing supply store & bought 3 square boxes in different sizes so that would make it look like a 3-tier cake. Then I covered the boxes with some pretty wedding wrapping paper. Then I wrapped some ribbon around it & topped it with some fresh hydrangeas on top. I was going to put the ribbon bands around the bottom of each layer, but with the cupcakes there it wasn't going to show. I thought it looked beautiful! Way better than I imagined! And it's the perfect way to display cupcakes. Yes, I got to practice my cake decorating skills again too! I made half chocolate & half vanilla cupcakes in silver foil liners, topped each one with a swirl of bright white buttercream & then added a small lavender fondant flower on top. They looked pretty & tasted yummy too!

My SIL, Beth, made these adorable heart-shaped butter cookies with her cookie press. I have to say, these cookies are so good they are totally addicting! But look how pretty they are & the way she displayed them was so cute!

My SIL, Cheryl, wanted to have some takeout boxes that people could fill with candy from the dessert table & take home with them as their party favor. So we decorated a bunch of these cute takeout boxes to match the invites. Another reason I love my Big Shot!

And here's a photo of the brunch table just because it looked so awesome too! And everything was delicious!

And here she is, my sweet niece Alisha! Soon to be Mrs. McLeod!

*Oh and don't you love that vinyl sign too? My friend Anya makes them. You can customize them any way you want. They are wonderful gifts! Check out all of her vinyl creations at Stuck Anya-Vinyl Lettering & More.

I love cupcakes!

So I don't know what it is, but lately I have been all about cupcakes! I love them! I love to make them, I love to eat them, I love my daughter's cute clothes with cupcakes on them, I love the new show Cupcake Wars, I love to stamp them, etc.! So I decided to make a paper cupcake for my sister-in-law's birthday card. This was so fast & easy to do. I used my Big Shot for the large white circle & the little lavender flower. Then I just cut a strip of paper & used my crimper for the bottom of the cupcake. Add a cute button to the center of the flower, use some dimensionals so that it pops a little & done! Super cute! These are totally my SIL's colors too!

I also found this cozy in the dollar bin-her favorite color is purple-and knew it would be fun to embellish. I'm starting to realize that these fabric flowers are cute on just about anything! I just made a fabric flower with my Big Shot & hot-glued it on there with a button in the center. Now she has a super cute cozy to keep her Coke cold in!

Happy Birthday, Cheryl!