Watermelon Tea Pot

I decided to try another watermelon carving. I like my turtle a lot better than this one, but I think it still turned out ok. I didn't have enough fruit to showcase the fruit salad that is inside the watermelon, but trust me, there is some yummy fruit inside here.

Watermelon Carving

In honor of Mother's Day tomorrow, I carved this turtle out of a watermelon to hold my fruit salad. I have never carved watermelon before and it was tedious work ,but fun!!  Now if it will just hold up and stay together in the car for the drive to my mom's house (which takes over an hour)!! If you want to learn how to do watermelon carvings, then go to www.watermelon.org and click on the word "carvings" on the right. They have a lot of super ideas for carvings for holidays and parties.

Peeps Sunflower Cake

My boss showed me this adorable cake that she found on the Internet yesterday and I decided to make it today to try it out. It was really easy and other than the fact that my sunflower "peep" edge doesn't look as round as the original, I'm happy with it overall.  I probably could have simplified it and used store bought cake and frosting, but that wouldn't have been as much fun!

1 store bought cake mix ( I used scratch, but you can use this to make it easier)
2 tubs chocolate frosting
chocolate chips
19-20 peeps

Bake cake according to pkg directions in two 9 inch round pans. Cool completely. Turn one of the cakes out onto a pretty platter. Put a thin layer of frosting on the top and place the other layer of cake on top of the frosting. Frost the entire two layers of cake with chocolate frosting. Place peeps ( I didn't pull my peeps apart, I just bent them a little bit to make them "rounder") around the edge of the cake to form the sunflower. Next place chocolate chips in circles around the middle to make the "seeds"

Hello Kitty Truffles

Today, my daughter and I helped a friend make hello kitty truffles for a bridal shower. I guess the bride to be really likes hello kitty. They were a ton of work, but worth the work in the long run. Besides, what can be better than spending the day with loved ones? These are just a basic oreo truffle that has been shaped into a hello kitty shape. We used white chocolate chips for the ears and glued them onto the truffle with white frosting. Then we dipped the truffles in melted white chocolate. Using red, black and yellow frosting we decorated the faces.

Spaghetti and Meatball Cake

Is it live or is it Memorex? Is it a plate of spaghetti or a cake?
When you read the title you were probably thinking "that's disgusting" right? Well calm down sparky, it's just a cake! ;)
This was so much fun to make and I can't wait to take it to work tomorrow! It's super easy and anyone could make this. It just takes a little time and effort. Right now just looking at it is making me very hungry for dinner, so I have to type this quickly and go make something to eat. Maybe spaghetti? haha
If anyone reading this ever decides to make this cake.....please let me know how it turns out for you!

1 box chocolate cake mix
2 tubs vanilla frosting ( I make my own..it's much better and less sweet, if you want the recipe, let me know)
2-4 drops yellow food coloring
1/2 tsp cocoa powder
1 (16 oz) bag or tub of frozen strawberries, thawed
White chocolate, for grating ( I used white chocolate chips and just chopped them finely instead of grating)

1) Make the cake batter according to the package directions.
2) Pour the batter into two 8 inch round cake pans, that have been sprayed with Pam. ( I only had one round pan, so you can make one in a round pan and one in any other kind of pan you have available.)
3) After you bake them, let them cool completely. Put the first round cake onto a nice serving platter. Take the other cake and crumble it into a large bowl. Crumble it with your fingers until it is a very fine crumble.
4) Squeeze a handful of cake crumbs into a 2 inch ball. Roll until it looks like a meatball. Roll 3 of them. Set them aside.
5) To frost the cake. Spread about 1 1/2 cups frosting smoothly onto the cake. Use a spatula to make the sides smooth.
6) Arrange the "meatballs" on top of the cake.
7) Mix the remaining frosting with the yellow food coloring and the cocoa. Transfer to a pastry bag with a small round tip or if you don't have that you can put it into a baggie and cut a small corner off and squeeze it out of the sealed baggie.
8) Pipe the colored frosting onto the cake, around the meatballs, in figure 8 patterns to look like spaghetti.
9) Puree the strawberries in a blender or food processor until smooth with only a few chunks. Spoon between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup of the strawberry puree onto the top of the meatballs and noodles to look like tomato sauce.
10) Grate white chocolate, or chop white chocolate chips and sprinkle over the cake to look like Parmesan cheese.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Footballs

A little late for Superbowl? Yes...but that's ok because I don't watch sports haha! I saw these online and thought they looked so cute, so I gave it a try. Ok,so I know they aren't decorated as good as a professional decorates them, but hey....at least I tried! I couldn't find my decorator tip that I needed to pipe on the football laces, so I had to improvise with a baggie. It didn't work so great, but they sure taste good.

Mint Chocolate Chip Filled Cake

Well, last night I could not sleep at all. I laid in bed tossing and turning and just couldn't shut off my brain. So when John left for work early this morning (4:30) I decided to just get up and start my day. I had plans to make a
"mini" cake today for my neighbors birthday, using my new fill and frost pans I bought for Christmas. They are pretty handy, and make filling a cake so simple! Anyway, I made a chocolate cake, filled  it with an amazing mint chocolate chip buttercream filling. Making filling was fun and I would definitely make it again, and I can't wait to try different variations on the flavors! I had plans to frost it with a home made buttercream frosting, but suddenly the thought hit my brain to try making home made fondant. I have never  tried anything like this. It was super easy to make and covered the mini cakes very well. I know that I didn't get it smooth and it doesn't look "professional" but hey....not only am I running on 3 hours of sleep, but I have never done this before. I guess it's not too bad for a first attempt. Fortunately I had all the ingredients here at home and didn't have to run out to the store. After I frosted the first cake and decorated it, I threw together the second one, (which is obvious from the pictures), threw some coconut on the top, just to finish it off and sliced it so you could see the filling on the inside. Yes, I will definitely take the "unsliced" one to my neighbor for her birthday haha! When all was said and done, I had extra cake batter so I made chocolate cupcakes with the leftover batter and frosted them with my leftover filling. The filling would not pipe through the decorator tip, because of the big chocolate chips, so I had to improvise, which is why the cupcakes are not the best decorated either!

 Here is the finished mini birthday cake!

This is what the filling looks like in the above pictured cake, though this is just the filling on a quickly thrown together one for the picture

This is my new cupcake batter pourer. It really helped. No muss...no fuss. It's great for pancake batter too :)

These were the cupcakes I made out of the leftover batter

7 up Jello

I know this sounds like a weird title for a food, but it's a jello salad my mom used to make when I was growing up. I think it was popular at church pot lucks back in the day because almost everyone had or has this recipe! The recipe calls for pineapple and I did put pineapple in it, but I think next time I will make it without the pineapple for a smoother texture. I also think I will substitute miniature marshmallows in place of the pineapple as some of the 7 up jello recipes on the Internet, call for mini marshmallows in this jello.You can make this jello with lemon or lime, but I happened to choose lime because it's my favorite of the two choices.

1 small package lime or lemon jello
1 cup boiling water
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, broken into small pieces
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup 7-up

Dissolve jello in boiling water. Add cream cheese. Beat with an electric mixer at low speed, until smooth. Stir in pineapple, sugar and vanilla. Add 7-up. Stir. Refrigerate until set.

Cheese and Fruit "Turkey" Appetizer

My daughter Kylie made this today for Thanksgiving and I just had to share it on my blog. It was super cute and looked great on the table. She is super creative and always makes her things look so good!

For  the body use a honeydew melon. For the tail feathers, place cheese and grapes on skewers and insert them into the melon. For side feathers, cut red and yellow pepper slices and place in with toothpicks. The head is a bosc pear and the nose is a cube of cheese. The eyes are cranberries and the "gobble" was cut out of a red pepper also. Attach with toothpicks!

Quite a few months ago, she also made this baby carriage stroller for my other daughters baby shower. I thought this post would be a good place to put this picture too! Isn't it adorable???

7 Layer Jello

Today is Thanksgiving. I made a 7 layer jello to take to my mom's house. Everyone loved it! My sister Janet was the first person I know to make this jello and ever since she shared the recipe with me, I have been making it.

1 small box black cherry jello
1 small box lemon jello
1 small box lime jello
1 small box cherry jello
1 small box orange jello
1 small box peach jello
1 small box strawberry jello
1 can evaporated milk


*If you can't find the small boxes of jello, just use half of the large box. Also, if you can't find the black cherry, just substitute raspberry. (That's what I had to use for the top layer in this picture)


Method # 1
Mix jello with one cup boiling water. Stir to dissolve sugar completely. Pour in half a cup of cold water.

Method # 2
Mix jello with one cup boiling water. Stir to dissolve sugar completely. Pour in a half a cup of evaporated milk.

Alternate method one and method two for all layers. Make one layer, pour it into a bundt pan and refrigerate it until completely set. (about a half hour or so). In the meantime, make the next layer of jello in a bowl so it can be cooling down before you pour it over the last layer. Pour it over the previous layer, only when cooled down on counter and the first layer is completely firm in the refrigerator. Continue to do this until last layer is poured on. After all the jello layers are completely firm, put some tepid water in the sink, just high enough to come to the top of the bundt pan, but not over the top edge. Hold onto the pan and let the water sit around it for a minute or so. Maybe less, depending on the water. Pick up the pan and tilt it to the side gently to see if the sides of the jello loosen from the edges of the pan. Continue to soak and check the edges. Once the edges loosen from the side of the bundt pan, place a flat round dish on the top of the bundt pan and flip the entire bundt pan over. The jello should loosen and come out onto the plate. Fill the center with whipped cream!

Garden of Brownie Pops

Awhile back I was asked to bring something to a family get together. I wanted to make brownies, but wanted to be more creative than just bringing a pan of brownies. I made these brownie pops. I made my homeade brownie batter, then poured it into brownie pop pans. Some were flower shaped and some were just regular brownie pops. I made butter cream frosting and tinted it many colors. This required a lot of bowls haha!! I then frosted some with peanut butter, some with carmael and nuts and some with frosting and sprinkles and/or coconut. I was pleased with the outcome. It took a lot of time, but family is always worth the time it takes to do anything!