Holiday Baking

The Big Day is almost here! I must say this Christmas has had a whole different kind of fun to it since Lil' Hunkie is a little older.  We've been reading about Baby Jesus, we've got Buddy the Elf here and he knows who Santa 'Caus' is.  ☺ I'm actually not really caring about myself...shhhh..don't tell Hunkie!

I don't have the normal tutorial today just thought I'd share a little bit of one of my favorite Christmas traditions...baking.  Things haven't quite gone smoothly this go round but ya gotta 'roll with the punches' sometimes! My normal procedure is to make sugar cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies (they are my pastor's favorite!) and then some goodies not requiring the oven like easy fudge. Well I got the oatmeal raisin cookies done but then 2 'pops' later and the baking element in my oven was not working!  It broke in 2 places! And I planned on making cute tags for my containers with my new stamp from Pick Your Plum but it just didn't work out for me!  I was proud of myself for not getting upset at these things and just making do!

I did experiment with my Babycakes Whoopie Pie maker and managed to not waste my sugar cookie dough and at least got to include those in my neighbor boxes! As my sister said "nice save"!!

Here...what do you think?

I also made Peppermint Chocolate Marshmallows.  Just dipped a marshmallow in white chocolate then in crushed up candy canes!

I made the ever so popular Saltine Toffee for our church's Ladies Christmas party.  So easy and yummy!

Hunkie said it tastes like a Heath Bar and it really does! I followed Gallamore West's version, thanks Lori!

And earlier in the month I did get to make some sugar cookies for a friend, she was having her work party at her home.  At least I got to make some this season!

We ordered a new baking element today and so I'm probably going to have to have a Plan B for cookies for Santa!  And I also plan on making Santa Hat Party Mix to give to my siblings...thank goodness no oven is required!  

How about you? What yummies do you make at Christmas time?

{Tomorrow is an exciting day here!!  I'm partnering with Allison of Feeding My Temple for our 1st Birchbox Beauty Bash!  It's a beauty themed link party! We'd love for you to join us!!}

See my Link Parties Page for where I might be sharing.

Happy Thursday!

Darling Day-Birthday Edition!

Do you remember that on Monday will begin my August Bash?

It's a week long bash to celebrate 2 things...you my 100+ followers....yippee!....and my little ole' birthday which is Sunday!!!  Double yippee!  I have some fun planned and will announce the details on Sunday!

Hint: each day I'll highlight a prize which will be gathered up at the end of the week and put in my Bash Bag to which one lucky person will win!

So to start my Birthday weekend I thought I'd share the Darlings I have on my list.  Yes I have a list!  It's makes life easier!  And regardless of what Hunkie thinks I don't expect to get everything on the list!

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New Cell Phone Cover

The one I have is dingy so it's way past time for a new one! But I can't decide on this lace design or one that's pink and sparkly.....

Photo courtesy of Wireless Emporium

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Babycakes Cake Pop Maker

I would love to add this to my Cupcake and Whoopie Pie makers!!

Photo courtesy of Babycakes

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Curling Wand

I recently made a hair decision....to stop flat ironing it all the time!  So I'm trying to be more creative with my locks and am thinking this might help! Does anyone have experience with one of these? I'd love to hear!!

Photo courtesy of Conair

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New Tunes!

I ♥ music!!

These guys are awesome!

Photo courtesy of Hillsong United

This guy is fairly new to me, introduced by my Pastor {who is such a cool guy!}, his songs are like singing Scripture! A great thing to do!

Photo courtesy of Aaron Keyes & Itunes

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I can't wait for the family dinner Sunday evening!!

And don't forget!!

Happy Darling Day!



Experiment Baking-Pound Cake Cupcakes

We had our annual family reunion (my dad's side) over the weekend.  And I needed to figure out what food item to take when I decided to do a little experimenting.  Now I love my Babycakes appliances and I know I'm not utilizing them to their full potential....it's on my mental list of things to do more of!

So this wasn't a big experiment but one none the less. 

I had a Chocolate Pound Cake mix that had been given to me as a gift that really needed to be used.  So busted out the Babycakes Cupcake maker and got started.  I wasn't for sure how a pound cake would turn out in mini cupcake form but I was pleasantly surprised! Not too bad!

Then I just wanted a simple glaze to top them.  Well this is where it gets a bit more hairy.

Using the recipe in the Babycakes book, I had to make some adjustments as I didn't have one of the ingredients.  It called for butter;check, light corn syrup;check, semisweet chocolate chips....uh no!  The only thing I had was cocoa!  So that's what I did, 3 tablespoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon shortening.  Plus more light corn syrup!!  Turned out just sweet enough to compliment the sweetness of the cupcake! Add some sprinkles and they disappeared!!  And had a request from my nephew for more....he ate 6!!  ☺

Now if you like cupcakes as much as I do then let me tell you what I stumbled upon!
It's a month long linky party dedicated to the cupcake!! What a fun idea!!
Screaming Sardine is the genius behind this and one of the hosts!
I'm joining the fun!! You should too!

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Happy Monday!!

Surely I'll Win Something......

Seems like there's always a giveaway going somewhere in blog land!  Which is a good, fun thing!!

Here's a few that I've recently entered that you might want to check out!!

My Girlish Whims

Photo courtesy of My Girlish Whims

Rebecca is giving away a Gift Certificate to her fabulous Etsy shop!  She has beautiful stuff...if you make a purchase then it gets you 2 entries!!

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Love from the Oven

Photo courtesy of The Babycakes Shop

Christi tested out the Babycakes Cake Pop maker and is sold on it! Not only did she make cute cake pops but she also made donut holes!! Which I must say...yummy!  And they're not fried!  She's giving away one of the machines....I would love to add it my collection!!

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Blonde Episodes

Photo courtesy of Blonde Episodes

Ok I'm new to Blonde Episodes and discovered her 1000 Follower Giveaway, which includes a signed copy of Kori's first book, Murder on the Boulevard, a beautiful scarf, some gorgeous notecards and a $10 Starbucks gift card! Kori tweeted she'd like some new followers...my good friend Natalia of Ma Nouvelle Mode retweeted that tweet and I checked her out and she won me over! See the power of a tweet!!?

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Surely out of all that I'll get a prize!  We'll see....on second thought maybe you shouldn't check them out!

Oh I'm kidding........

Happy Monday!

Soiree Day-Happy 40th Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Yep! 40 big ones for my parents! My siblings and I put together a surprise reception in about a week and on a budget!  We're saving the budget bust for their 50th!  Ruby is representative of the 40th year of marriage...which worked out great since I had some damask paper bags and somehow I have a handful of red serving dishes! 

Here's the details:

My sister took a photo of their wedding day and made a memory scrapbook page at Walmart.com. We provided a scrapbook for people to sign and write a special note in.  The plant is a gift from our church, the sign we found at Hobby Lobby and the bucket housed the beverages. This is what guests saw when they entered the room.

Used Coke products to stick with our red and silver theme!  I covered the water bottles with a strip from the damask paper bags! (I took this photo afterwards! And the rest were taken in a hurry right before guests showed up!)

This table has got to be the oddest shaped table ever! It's big for one thing and kinda rounded in the middle! I had to use 2 plastic white tablecloths and then used a piece of fabric down the center.  I had hoped to use the board from Lil' Hunkie's party as a backdrop but my red streamer ruffles didn't work out covering up the blue! Gotta roll with the punches sometimes!

The '40' came from Hobby Lobby and I thought it a nice little token to give to my mom.  The photos are actually mine! And I think real flowers always adds a nice touch.

As I said in yesterday's post, for the goodies we made family/childhood favorites.  My dad LOVES Whoppers! We had the hardest time figuring out what to put them in!  Finally used a Dixie size cup, and added a heart sticker.  The stand is actually just a heart platter ($2.50 in the Target $1 section at Valentine's time this year!) sitting on top of a candle stick!

The frames came from the Dollar Tree and I made the labels.

Here's the damask paper bags trimmed down.  Added white ones to break up the red a little.  Used some good ole $1 trays for serving!  When we were growing up we'd make sweet popcorn as a snack...it's just butter and sugar....much sweeter than kettle corn!

Get the recipe for Potato Candy here.

Rock and Roll cookies or probably better known as No Bake cookies! I have no idea where 'Rock and Roll' came from but it's what we called them!  One of my favs and so easy to make!

Our famous Sugar cookies!  My sister and I made these so often growing up that people actually buy them from my sister now!  She's better at making them then I am!  We wanted guests to have a favor and thought it perfect!  We had made a special label at Walmart.com but didn't get them in time...sis improvised and managed to at least get their pic on there!

Mini Red Velvet cupcakes...made them with my Babycakes maker!  Used some initial picks from Hobby Lobby.

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It wasn't much but it made for a nice memory! 

See my Link Party page for where I'm linking to.

Happy Soiree Day!

Show and Tell-Babycakes Whoopie Pie Maker

So I hope you're not tired of me and my Babycakes!! I can not tell you how excited I was purchasing my new Whoopie pie maker!!  Mainly because it cost me less than $3!!! Can you say 'Savvy Shopper'?!!

$21 store credit + $10 Kohl's cash+15% off coupon, taken off my cell phone= $2.70 and a great big Whoopee!!

☺

So I had bought a whoopie pie kit on clearance after Valentine's day and had a church meeting last Sunday that I needed to bring a snack for so here's how it went:

I love that it came with a rack and utensil to help get the pie out!

I made 38 of these in under 8 minutes and didn't heat up the house!

These were the first ones I did at 2 minutes...I adjusted the time to 1 1/2 minutes and no more brown spots.

It also came with a decorator's bag and tip...piped the filling on.  I didn't care for the filling mix...it called for butter....cream cheese would have been better!  I should have went with my gut!

But........

........they were gone in no time!!! I had walked by my Dad and he was eating one and with a mouthful full he grinned real big and teasingly said "them ain't no good"!  I ♥ my Daddy!!

So I didn't even get one.  But that's OK cause I made a whole lot of other people happy!!

Who else has been Babycaking it?