Too much time

The other day I just had too much time on my hands.  You can only read, clean your house, and watch TV for so long, I did all of the above for at least 2-3 hours each, plus the previous day was will with the same. (I of course I interacted with my kids while doing two out of the three, I pretty much ignore them when reading.) But oh what was I going to do other four hours, that didn't involved feeding my children or sleeping? And was cheaper than buy useless stuff to fill up my void with? Make cupcakes of course. 

I decided to go with a patriotic theme in honor of the Air Force Academy's graduation Thunderbird fly by. I think they are spectacular if I do say so myself.

Grandma Carol's Famous Strawberry Pies

My husband, his siblings, and everyone they went to scouts with grew up making my mother in law's famous strawberry pies with a secret ingredient. My husband is totally easy going about everything, except his mom's pies. I tried to make him one three years ago after his mom gave me the recipe. He told me it didn't taste right. That is the one and only time he has ever told me that. He dreams about opening a strawberry pie shop, named "Grandma Carol's Famous Strawberry Pies".  I was at my mother in law's the other day, and she sent me home with some red goo, she ran out of strawberries. I cut up the strawberries normally she keeps them whole de-stemmed. But it was her goo, and it still didn't taste right! I'm a pathetic.

I always wonder what Liz would think of the pie, in all her vast pie knowledge.  But it would do no good to ask, because she could never tell me if she didn't like them. My husband could never forgive someone who didn't like his mom's pies, and I can't keep a secret from my husband. 

Better Late than Never, Valentine Brownies

About two weeks after Valentine's we finally made our heart shaped brownies. I was suprised how much the boys like brownies. I haven't made brownies regularly since before I had a colicy infant. Chocolate doesn't do well for colic. I was surpised everyone liked brownies, I only remembered me liking them.

Even though these are all cute and valentiney everyone liked them plain better.

All things Gold

For the Gold Birthday party. 

We decided we needed gold awards, and treasure.  Instead of making all the awards gold, I decided to go frugal and had multiple colors.  They were a big hit everyone was pleased to have one pinned on them.  I of course made them in case there was any question in anyone's mind that they weren't homemade. 

I thought they looked pretty cute on the kids, and I was glad they didn't end up looking girly when the boys put them on.  For treasure everyone got gold crowns, which my son soon took off, for his more unique homemade crown. 

For the rest of the gold we had a treasure hunt via birthday boy's request.  The treasure they found was their gift bags. I couldn't find any gold gift bags I was impressed with, so instead I took lunch sacks and covered them in gold glitter.  I went with normal brown bags instead of white or anything else because it was a boy's party. The bag was filled with "gold," chocolate gold coins, winners gold metals, big plastic money, all stuff the birthday boy picked out.

I also caught Martha Stewart's article in a recent issue about Number Themed Parties, so we made a big gold 5 with balloons.

We finished the party off with white mini cupcakes with gold sprinkles.  I think mini cupcakes are better for kids, some kids only lick the frosting where other kids can eat two mini cupcakes, the amount of one normal size.

For course the party included a trip to the party store for gold colored supplies like plates and streamers.

Cookie Cake

We have a lot of parties and birthday celebrations during the middle of February, so in an effort to think of dessert that my family likes other than cake, I remembered my son loves chocolate chip cookies. Then I thought of a big cookie pizza cake thing. This was my first effort, and it was fun to make but needs a little perfecting and more chocolate chips. It was removable from the pan, but then I realized I didn't have anything big enough to put it on. I guess I need a bigger plater. My five year old was thrilled to see such a big cookie.

Mini Cakes

Mini cakes are my new favorite hobby. I've been interested in mini cakes for a long time now, made my first a year ago, but have recently become obsessed with the functionality of it, especially now that I have two mini (6") cake pans. I use two 6" cake pans from Wilton, with a box mix, then make cupcakes out of the left overs.  I have a beautiful small cake, more than enough cake for us to eat, with just enough left overs.  I freeze the cupcakes providing us with another desert on another day, preferably Monday night.  A mini cake fits on a dessert plate instead of a dinner plate.

Now I don't have to eat a whole cake in one week! I love it.  Plus they are so cute. Notice how that cake is smaller than my child's hand, and he doesn't even have large hands.

Valentine's Cards

I had a lot of squares of material with hearts cut out of them from my heart garland, so I recycled some of them to make valentine's cards.  I sewed the material on to paper to make the cards.  We bought packaged valentine's for the preschool class, but sent these to grandma's and such.

Valentine Birthdays

I teach two five years in church.  I technically have five kids, but two show up.  One of their birthdays is today, just like my hubby, so I made him cupcake cookies. He is now six.  The cookies turned out cuter than I expected. I was quite proud with myself.

I only made a few cupcakes because they were so much work, mostly I made valentine cookies.

Gold Sprinkles

Two weeks ago I made this cake. I needed to pratice my birthday idea for almost 5 year old. I think the gold sprinkles are perfect for our gold birthday party. 

My cake looks a little lopisided doesn't it? I think it is just the camera angle agaisnt the white, I don't remember it shapped like that.

I made whipped cream frosting for the cake, because I wanted it to be fluffy looking.  It was my first time making it and it was so easy!  Everyone liked it in my family, but the downside is the cake has to be stored in the fridge, which can take up a lot of space.  I won't make it for the party though because I'm making cupcakes I think cupcakes are easier for kids to eat.

Here is what the Joy of Baking taught me about whipped cream frosting.

Whipped Cream Frosting:1 cup (240 ml) heavy whipping cream (35-45% butterfat content)1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract1 tablespoon (15 grams) granulated white sugarChocolate Whipped Cream: To the above add1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder plus an additional 1 1/2 tablespoons (20 grams) granulated white sugarRaspberry Whipped Cream:Make the whipped creamAdd: 1/2 cup (120 ml) lightly sweetened raspberry puree or seedless raspberry jamStrawberry Whipped Cream:Make the whipped creamAdd: 1/2 cup (120 ml) lightly sweetenedstrawberry puree
Whipped Cream Frosting: In a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and wire whisk in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When chilled, beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.For chocolate whipped cream: Add the cocoa powder and additional sugar to the above mixture and chill for at least one hour so the cocoa powder has time to dissolve.  Beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.For raspberry whipped cream:  Make the whipped cream but beat only until soft peaks form. Then add the sweetened raspberry puree, a little at a time, and beat just until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised. Taste and fold in more sugar or puree, if required.For strawberry whipped cream: Make the whipped cream but beat only until soft peaks form.  Then add the sweetened strawberry puree a little at a time, and beat just until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised. Taste and fold in more sugar or puree, if required.Makes about 2 cups of whipped cream frosting.Source:Beranbaum, Rose Levy.The Cake Bible. William Morrow and Company, Inc. New York: 1988.

Read more:http://www.joyofbaking.com/WhippedCreamFrosting.html#ixzz1DVrvk2q7

More Hearts

I love my heart garland so much I made to make more hearts.

P.S. Don't hate on the network cable.  Everyone has things they care about, this family-- fast internet.

Pink Satin and Demin

With some of the left over denim I made my daughter a pocket purse with pink satin ribbon for the straps.

She was pretty thrilled when I gave her the purse.

New Play Rug

I sold our IKEA playrug last summer/fall because no one ever drove their matchbox cars on it, and it was all rough. We had a  hard large plastic sheet that is quite thin under the rug, it came from a pallet of food storage that was delivered to some cousins. I kept the sheet of plastic, even though we didn't have the rug anymore, and pulled it out whenever the wooden train track came out. Then I found this Disney Cars material.  It was so cute I couldn't resist. 

Finally with the material I made a large pocket for plastic sheet, I put denim on the back.  Cars is one of three Disney movies that my son will agree to watch. Now we just need a Lightening McQueen toy and a Mater car toy.

See the sheet isn't pretty, but it works well for the train.  Since we don't have space for a train table.

Heart Garland

I decided our house needed a heart garland. I realized in the middle of the project that I should have used Heat and Bond, but instead I had to sewed the hearts together. Luckily I bought a sizzix heart die for my old school sizzix cutter, so I didn't actually have to individually cut out the hearts. Heat and Bond should have been applied before the cutting, which is why I had to sew.

It was a little monotonous and repetitive to say the least but I love to look at it as I wait for my TV it to turn on.  I also ended up making it about twice as long as I needed because I didn't measure.

January Cake

Sometimes I just don't think there is enough time to consume all the treats you can make in December. 

So I figured snowman wasn't just christmas it was all winter right? So we made this little number in the middle of January. J couldn't stop asking when we were going to make his snowman cake. 

It was so easy! 

Just a round cake, slathered in cool whip, blueberries for the eyes and mouth, and an orange slice for the nose.

Still Christmas?

We visited my mom, dad, maternal grandma and Aunt for christmas. My mom told J she would make candy trains with him. We ran out of time, and the first thing he said when we got home a week after christmas was when are we going to make my train? So instead of making a christmas train we made New Year's Trains on the 2nd of January. You think we opened enough candy?

It was ridiculous, but it was also way easier than I was expecting and Nan did an excellent job of making one and not eating too much candy.  I hate doing ginger bread houses, but I could do this in 11 months again.

I really was surprised at how much building she could do.

Gummy Bears were our passengers.