Thursday, November 26, 2015

You say Piecaken, I say Cherpumple...

Behold the Cherpumple!!



Otherwise known as the Turducken of Thanksgiving desserts.

Here we have 3 different pies baked into 3 different cakes, covered in buttercream, and topped with caramel and crumble.  I warned my guests that it was either going to be amazing or awful, but it was a challenge and I had to accept it.

Luckily, the consensus is that it was AMAZING!! (There is something for everyone!!)



Not sure I will ever make one again, but it sure was a lot of fun to give it a shot!

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Happy 3rd Birthday Sean and Joia!


After one of the longest work weeks ever, and before moving all of my belongings from one house to another (Did I mention we bought a new house last month?) I thought I'd take a few hours to celebrate two amazing kids who were born on this day 3 years ago. 

Happiest birthday to My sweetest son, Sean and his favorite little bestie, Joia. Here are your cakes! 

Hello Kitty and fire truck! ( For Hello kitty I used this Wilton pan) The fire truck I made on top of the body of a truck I dismantled so Sean's cake could roll. It also has lights that light up! Happy birthday kids! Love you! xoxo

Friday, July 03, 2015

Beat the heat with Healthy Snow Cones! (Dye Free, Syrup free!)

One of my all time favorite things on a hot Summer day is a giant rainbow snow cone.  


Every time we pass the isle in the store with the machine, those cute little cups and the shelves of rainbow syrups, Sylvia begs me to buy them.  I love the idea of making them ourselves, but hate the idea of the amount of sugar the kids would be eating.
Today I got inspired in the store when I saw those cute little cone cups on sale.  I picked up 3 different healthy juices in bright colors and rushed home.
Ice to snow in a few seconds in my awesome Ninja!!  
(I'm sure you can use any kind of blender.) 




Pack it nicely in the cute snow cone cup. (I used a rounded measuring cup)

I used a straw to insert the color juices

The kids inhaled them!  They had no idea they were healthy!




SUCCESS!!





Saturday, June 06, 2015

The Dukes of Hazzard Birthday Cake

I was asked to make a Dukes of Hazzard cake for a 9 year old boy's birthday party this weekend.  I was SO excited for this challenge since I was a huge Dukes fan when I was a kid.  I didn't realize they were making a come back with the kids.  His mom already had the cars, and asked that I create something fun using them.

This is what I came up with.










It is chocolate cake with cherry filling, fudge and buttercream frosting.  The dirt is a chocolate and regular graham cracker that I put through the food processor.  The sign is made of popsicle sticks, I used my brulee torch to make the sign look weathered.  I wanted it to look like a backroads cliff type scene, so I purposely made the frosting a bit rough and dusted with the dirt afterwards.  I suspended the flying General Lee with some floral wire and a wine cork to anchor it in to the cake.  It worked out great!




Sunday, May 31, 2015

Up-Cycled garden bench using old dining chairs

We had these dining chairs sitting outside for the Winter.  They got pretty beat up.  The wood on the backs were splitting, the cushions pretty rotten, but the structure was still sound.  I decided to turn them into a Garden bench to use on the patio.


I collected my materials.  I had Home Depot cut a pretty inexpensive but sturdy piece of wood to fit the seats.
Sean picked up this piece of camper foam for me at Fred Myers.
I found the fabric for $3 at the local thrift store.  It is a nice canvas material, and I loved the bright crazy colors for my garden/patio area.

First, I created the cushion by using a bit of wood glue and attaching the foam.



Then I cut the fabric and stapled it on.  Really easy!  Using staples is so forgiving!


I popped the old gross cushions off, saved the screws because I can use them to attach the new cushion.


I could be done at this point, but I didn't like how the backs looked.  Since the seat backs were already splitting from elemental damage of sitting outside, I decided to cut them down and make it a more classic bench style.

I used a Skill saw and cut the backs off.



Had an adorable helper help me sand the parts that were cut.

Then I used some wipe on stain to make it match better.  Since I'm using this outdoors, it doesn't have to be perfect.  I just used what I had on hand.


After the stain dries, just screw the seat onto the chairs and there you have it!  An adorable little bench.

At this point I could add a cute throw pillow on it if I wanted to.  I'd probably pick something solid color in one of the fabric tones.  Maybe a black pillow, or a sunny orange or yellow pillow?  So many fun things could be done to pretty this up!

If I was going to use it indoors, I'd paint the wood white and make it super fancy. But, I don't feel like going to all the trouble for this project.  Also, painting with my little helper always turns into more of a mess than I feel like dealing with today.  I just wanted to do something easy and inexpensive that would give new life to these old chairs that likely would have been firewood otherwise!



Cost me about $20 for materials, but only took me about an hour of time to complete.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Pinterest Challenge

I've got so many great things pinned on my Pinterest boards, I decided last week I was going to start working my way through them when I have time and trying to re-create some of the things I've pinned.  These are the first two that I came up 

These are Strawberry Rhubarb Hand Pies that I made from THIS RECIPE pinned on my Just Desserts board.  I loved making these almost as much as I loved eating them!  I will make these again with different variations for sure. 



And this is the Easy Fruit Leather from my Kids Snacks to Try board.  This was pretty easy to make but I don't know that I will be making it again.  3 hours in the stove with such a low yield doesn't completely seem worth it to me.  Also, I found out if you bag it up over night it is WAY better the next day.  It is kind of crunchy when it comes out of the oven, but it totally softens overnight in a sealed container.  I liked the texture a lot more on day 2. 


Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Coconut Banana Bean Cake






































I made these for Preschool snack day tomorrow.  Turned out really good!

#GlutenFree #NoSugar #KidsSnacks

Thursday, May 07, 2015

Nananananananananana BAT Tri-i-i-i-ike!

Last week, on our way home from dinner, we picked up a Kettler Kettrike Alana Tricycle with Pushbar in a free pile on the corner. I was excited because I had been thinking about buying one. Since they usually run around $100, you can imagine how stoked we were to see one sitting right there for free, the only bummer was it was all pink and white and princess colors.  I'm sure the boy would not really care what color it was, but I decided right then I was going to pimp his ride.  My inspiration? The Batmobile!

I forgot to take the before picture, but this is what it looked like only way dirtier and scratched up and minus the bucket in the back.  But the body was still solid!:

First I painted the body black and the guard below the handle bar yellow:



Then I ordered some yellow bike grips for only $7 and a few Batman car decals.

Viola! BatTrike!



Thursday, April 30, 2015

"Some Pig!" cupcakes for Charlotte's Web

The one thing I love baking for as much as preschool snack day are school bake sales!
ESPECIALLY when there is a theme involved.  My bonus middle child is in a play this weekend! They are doing a production of one of my all time personal favorites, Charlotte's Web.

These are the cute little Wilber cakes I just finished making for the opening night bake sale.  I love their little personalities.  So adorable!  It is just a Devil's food with a basic buttercream frosting.  I didn't want to get too fancy schmancy since I was baking in bulk and my audience is going to be a lot of Elementary age kids.


I used the Wilton #11 round tip to make the head and the snout and a small leaf tip for the ears.  The nostrils are Nestle Toll House Mini Morsels.

I also finally got to try out using the Wilton Candy Eyeballs.  I kept seeing them in the store and finally picked up a pack.  They really did give these little guys a little extra boost of adorable!

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Leftover Rice PB&J Pancakes

I made this for my kids today, they really loved it.  It is a perfect thing to do with leftover takeout rice. 

For the boy I made a short stack of peanut butter and banana: 



For the girl I made the classic PB&J and I garnished with a couple of banana slices.  I just made the layer in-between jelly and topped with the PB fluff: 




I'm pretty excited to finally have a use for the leftover rice as it seems we always have some leftover.  (If you use rice flour in the recipe, it also makes it gluten free!)

Rice Pancakes: 

4 eggs 
2 cups of cooked rice 
1/2 tsp vanilla 
1 tsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt 
1 TBS of coconut oil 
1 TBS of flour

Blend all ingredients in Ninja until smooth and cook like regular pancakes on med heat until cooked through. 


Peanut Butter Fluff* topping:

Equal parts PB and plain yogurt.
Sprinkle of Cinnamon
splash of almond milk to help blender (as needed)
Blended until fluffy (I used the single serve Ninja attachment) 


*The PB fluff is also a favorite on apple slices in our house!  


Saturday, April 25, 2015

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Make a tiny garden with your tiny tot!

I've been trying to come up with activities that will get the kids outside and keep them occupied. This idea is super easy, fun, and really not very expensive.  You can create an adorable garden that your child can nurture all Summer for less than $20.
He picked a nice pinwheel to finish the decoration.


First we picked up a fence at Home Depot.  Then I let the boy pick whatever color of spray paint he wanted and we decorated the fence.  (Mom did the painting part)


I then had him pick out whatever flowers he wanted in his garden.  This time of year you can get loads of sturdy flowers for $1 each.  You don't need a lot, since you are just making a tiny garden.




I let him pick out his own watering can at the store.  I wanted it to be something he picked and small enough for him to handle, because my plan is to have him water his plants every day as part of our routine.




It took us a few hours of playing in the dirt, and I let him pick where the plants went.  In the end we have a very sweet little garden that he can take care of all on his own this Summer!


Friday, April 03, 2015

A Healthier Peep Just in Time for Easter!

When I was in the store the other day I saw the Wilton Peeps Mold and had to buy it.  I was instantly inspired to make my kids a healthier version of the fun holiday treat!

I once again used my healthy chocolate cupcake recipe that I've also used to make healthy donuts.

Instead of dipping them in dark chocolate, this time we used up the rest of some white chocolate bark that I had leftover and cut it with a bit of coconut oil so it didn't solidify all of the way.  Then I dipped them in Wilton decorating sugar in the perfect Peeps colors and used a skewer to poke the holes for the eyes and bunny nose to give them that classic Peeps look.



I'm really happy with the results of the bunnies and the boy was convinced he was getting what he saw in the store.  (Let's hope he never figures it out!)

Made a few Easter colored doughnuts too with the leftover batter

The chicks were a little harder.  I could have used the same method, but since I had such a sparse amount of white chocolate I was working with, my double boiler wasn't full enough to really dip them in there and get the coverage I needed  I'm sure it would have been successful if I had more chocolate.  But I kind of prefer the flat surface of the bunny, because it leads to less chocolate and a healthier (less sugar) treat for the kids.  I think I will go back and buy the all bunny pan they were selling next to the bunny and chick pan that I purchased. 
HAPPY EASTER!!!


Friday, February 27, 2015

Healthy Chocolate Doughnuts made with Garbanzo Beans and Avocado! (White sugar free and gluten free)

After I made those healthy chocolate cupcakes last week, I decided to test them out as mini doughnuts!  I thought the texture could lend well to a cake doughnut.  The first thing I did was order a perfect pan for my cupcakes. I love THIS PAN so much, I ordered a 2nd one today!

My recipe made enough for 3 dozen of these mini doughnuts.
Aren't they so cute!?


I followed my recipe.  The only variation was that I added a little bit more rice flour just to make the batter a little thicker.  Then I piped it into the pan with a piping bag.  Cooked for 15 minutes at 375 and out popped perfect doughnuts!
When they were done, I dipped them in a few chocolate wafers melted with a bit of coconut oil.  I had some sprinkles in the cupboard, so I added them for flare. The baby ate 5 of them before I even put chocolate on them.  They are yummy without frosting, but once I added the flare, the 8 year old and Papa both ate some too.  They got thumbs up all around! 

I'm thinking some version of these are going to the next preschool snack day!

 

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