Yummy Cinnamon & Apple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Just some yummy Apple & Cinnamon Cupcakes I whipped up the other day. I had leftover blueberry cream cheese frosting and topped them off. 

 Soo yummy, the icing made the cupcake.

Stella & Dot Specialty Cake

My niece Lauren has become a stylist with Stella & Dot and asked me to make her a specialty cake for her Stella & Dot launch party. Here it is.

Check out the beautiful jewelry at http://www.stelladot.com/sites/laurendunnam

Picnic Party

Surfing around the web, I found this adorable picnic party. I just love this idea.

This would be a great idea for a birthday party, a play date or a summer party… I will have to come up with a reason to have picnic party. It's just too darn cute!!!

You can see more pictures by visiting   love, INK.

Lauren's Graduation Cake & Tyler's Birthday Cookie

Congratulations Lauren, I am so proud of you!

 I started off by taking Lauren's graduation picture and getting it copied at the local office supply store so I could create this adorable keepsake gift for her. I  transferred the digitally printed mirror image to the canvas and embellished it from there. I loved the way it turned out but is was not so easy. I had a hard time with the picture being too cloudy.

 Well this was my first attempt to make a shoe out of gum paste and a shoe box cake. I think it turned out pretty well considering my first shoe cracked and I had 2 days to make another and have it dry. It was really fun. I had my niece email me her signature and I cut it out for the top of the cake. She loves shoes so this was my opportunity to make this cake. I made a vanilla bean cake with vanilla pudding filling and butter cream icing, covered it with fondant. I have the hardest time cutting gum paste on my cricut, any advise would be welcomed.

My nephew Tyler turned 16 this past Sunday so I made him what he wanted a big cookie. It was very good and cute.

Guacamole so good my kids eat it!

I never liked avocados but ever since my mom made this guacamole I am hooked. My husband never liked avocados or guacamole but he loves mine and so do my girls.

Remember: When you buy avocados they will not usually be ripe I have to let them sit in my window sill for 2 to 3 days. They need to be dark on the outside and feel soft when you squeeze them. 

Guacamole - So good my kids eat it!

3-4 Haas Avocados - the small ones
Cayenne pepper
Garlic powder
Hellman's Mayo
1/2 Lime or lemon
salt
2-3 Roma ripe tomatoes

                                                                                                

Scoop out all of the avocado into a bowl. 

Chop up with knife and smash with spoon or fork. 

Add mayo, salt, cayenne pepper & garlic powder. 

Chop up tomatoes and mix into the avocado mix. Do not add juice of tomatoes.

Squeeze your lemon or lime over and stir in. This prevents your guacamole from turning brown. Let marinate & chill for a couple hours. Serve with tortilla chips.

 It may not look so good but it taste very good!

Enjoy!

Mom's Peach Cobbler

My Moms Peach Cobbler

1 cup All Purpose Butter Flour (Cut up 1/2 stick of soften butter mash into flour)
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Milk
1 big can of peaches

Preheat oven to 375

Mix the first 3 ingredients - It will be runny

Spray baking dish with cooking spray
Pour flour mixture into baking dish

Strain off peaches a bit not all
Cut up peaches and pour over top of mixture

Sprinkle cinnamon & sugar over raw mixture and bake until golden brown

Can be served alone or with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Homemade Italian Pizza Recipe

Pizza Dough
2 1/4 tsp. Yeast
2 Squirts from honey bear
1 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees. If it’s too hot to keep your finger in it will kill your yeast and not rise)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbs. olive oil (when out I use vegetable oil)
3 1/2 to 4 cups Bread flour
Cornmeal

Microwave water for about 30 sec. Dissolve yeast and honey in warm water. 

I use my kitchen aid bowl. Let sit for 10-20 min until foamy. Mix in salt, oil and 2 cups flour. Mix on low speed. 

Add in the rest of the flour. It should pretty much clean the bowl. I will stop and kneed it in the bowl to get all the flour mixture mixed in, then mix a bit more on med speed. 

Form ball lightly oil sides of bowl and dough turning it to coat. Cover with a dish cloth and set in a warm place for 1 1/2 to 3 hours (Until it is Double in Size). 

Punch down and kneed for about 30 sec not long form in round discs place on cookie sheet and cover with dish cloth for about 10min Shape out your pizza on the pans. Add sauce and toppings.  

If you are making bread with this recipe then shape your loaf, sprinkle corn meal on pan and cover to let rise (let double in size). 

Pizza Sauce
1 can of petit diced Italian tomatoes
1-2 cloves fresh garlic (or powder if you don’t have fresh)
Olive oil
Tomato paste & sauce
Italian seasonings
Sage (I know you say sage. I was adding fresh sage thinking it was basil and it turned out good)
Chop garlic sauté in oil add tomatoes, seasonings and as much sauce you think you might need then add paste to thicken up. Let cook for at least 30 min on the stove on low to marinate. Let cool add to pizza or use with bread sticks. So good.
The cheese I use is polyo mozzarella it is the best and I grate it myself. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese
add toppings and bake for 10 to 15 min. Yummy Pizza

Italian Meatballs for Pizza
1lb. ground beef
2-3 bread ends (Grated)
1 egg
Hand full of Parmesan cheese
Garlic (Fresh or Powder)
Italian seasonings
Mix all together roll small meatballs put on cookie sheet and cook for 10-15 min Cool slice in half and put on your pizza.

Easter 2010

Easter is here and I love to bake so I have a reason but just not a lot of time. So here we go! I wanted to make a bunny cake but I ended up with a colorful coconut cake. I usually use buttercream for almost everything but I wanted to try something different something more fluffy & lighter. I have to say this is one of the best icings I have tasted and pretty easy to make.

I will post the recipes soon. 

Off to making Easter bread for the first time. I think it turned out better than I expected and tasted pretty good. An all day project so start early!

The Easter Bunny has arrived!

  I just love their new hand painted Easter buckets.

Off to mom's for Easter Sunday.

 To see more pictures click the picture below

Easter 2010/Kylie & Ella Biking

Kylie's 1st Grade Class - Easter 2010

We had fun! I spent the day with Kylie and her 1st grade class. They went on an Easter egg hunt and had a Easter party and movie after lunch.

I wanted to bring something for their party so I threw together these peep cupcakes.  Who doesn't love peeps!

Click on the picture below to see more pics

Kylie's 1st Grade Easter

Taste Testing Slumber Party Night

FUN! FUN! FUN!

Friday night slumber party with the girls. To make it fun and I wanted to try out some different cake recipes I made cake and let the girls and their friend Avery decorate their own cakes. They had fun and got a super sugar high to boot. Crash and burn!

 And the winner is the Lemon cake with lemon filling and butter cream icing!

They are so cute!