Birthday Cake with a Marzipan Bow

Here is my daughters 7 year old birthday cake and what do you think she requested! A wedding cake!!! Seriously! Well, I didn't want it to be TOO elaborate, but still wanted it to be fun and special that would somewhat honor her request.

I started with a chocolate cake and made 4 cakes so that each tier had 2 layers. Covered the cake in pink buttercream frosting and then piped on some lacey accents. Finally, I had some ready-to-use Wilton Rolled Fondant (available at any craft store) and I made the bow for the top of her cake. The instructions were on the back of the box that the fondant came in. Basically you roll out the fondant into a thin sheet and then cut it into strips. Fold them in half, add a little water to adhere and start stacking them on top of each other, and then all of a sudden it becomes a bow...

Cream Cheese Chicken

2 frozen chicken breasts
1 can chicken broth
2 T. Butter
1 package of ranch dressing mix or italian seasoning mix

Place these items in a crock pot and cook on high for 3 hours.

Pull out cooked chicken and shred. Add it back into the crock pot along with

8 ounces cream cheese, cubed
2 cans Cream of Chicken soup

Cook on high again for 30 minutes to an hour. Serve over steamed rice or cooked noodles. YUM!

Birthday Favor

We made these Birthday favors for my daughter Samantha's 7th Birthday. She took them to school to share with her friends. I started with a small brown paper bag and I cut off the top third of the bag to make them smaller, then used a Jumbo Stampin' Up Wheel and Real Red ink to decorate the bag. It makes it so quick and easy. The wheel just rolls right over the bag and there is no precision required.



Then I printed a "Happy Birthday Samantha" from the computer and cut them out. Pasted them onto a piece of Real Red Cardstock, folded the paper in half and stapled it on the top of the bag to keep it closed. And Voila! They were done! The bags were filled with a variety of goodies for the kiddies.

Mother's Day Cards

Here are the mother's day cards that I made this year for my dear sweet mother, and mother in laws. I wanted to have some sparkle so I added some glitter to both the flowers and the butterfly. They are essentially the same card, only differnt color scheme.

Ribbon Wreath

A fun ribbon wreath that is quick and easy to make. Great way to use up ribbon.

Click here for the link to the instructions to make one of these.

Basically you will start with a foam wreath form and many strips of ribbon. You can do a mono-color wreath like pictured here or you can do many colors of ribbons. Basically you will tie the ribbon onto the wreath form using a square knot (right over left, left over right). The square knot will keep the ribbon from unraveling. As you go around try to keep all the knots in a row on the front. Let the edges hang freely. The longer the ribbon, the more they will hang. If you use shorter ribbon, obviously it will produce a less full wreath. My ribbons all measured about 8-10 inches each, and I probably used about 100 ribbons.

Have fun tying all your ribbon.... If you have several coordinating ribbons, it would be a great way to use up some of your ribbon stash.

Think... red, green & white for Christmas.
Red, white and pink for Valentines day.
Black, purple, orange, and green for Halloween.
Orange, brown, tan, etc, for Thanksgiving.

Add in some rafia or some colored tulle.

There are so many possibilities... Have fun making some decor for your door!

Fried Twinkies

Fried Twinkies

6 twinkies
popsicle sticks
4 cups vegetable oil
flour for dusting or powder sugar
1 cup of milk
2 tbl vinegar
1 tbls oil
1 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Chill or freeze Twinkies for several hours or over night. Heat 4 cups of vegetable oil in deep fryer to about 375 degrees. Mix together milk, vinegar and oil. In another bowl blend flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk wet ingredients into dry and continue mixing until smooth; refrigerate while oil heats. Push stick into Twinkies lengthwise leaving about 2 inches to use as a handle. Dust with flour and dip into the batter, rotate Twinkies until batter covers entire cake. Place carefully in the oil, the Twinkies will float so hold it under with a utensil to ensure even browning. It should turn golden brown in 3 to 4 min depending on the size of your deep fryer, you might be able to fry only one at a time, two at the most. Remove Twinkies to paper towel and let drain. Remove stick and allow Twinkies to sit for about 5 minutes before serving. You can put powdered sugar on them while they are hot and then more when they are cooled. You can top them with chocolate syrup or caramel or cool whip and strawberries for a deep fried short cake. The toppings are endless...

Here is the Fried Twinkies fresh out of the oil and covered in powdered sugar.

Plus you can cut up one Twinkie into four pieces and then batter them individually so you serve them to kids or to even adults because it is very sweet and rich. So yummy... Gotta try it at least once! Next on the list is to fry ... Snickers and Milky Way candy bars... Mmmmmmm!

Stuffed French Toast

Stuffed French Toast

Griddle Temperature: 350° F
Ingredients
2 Eggs
1/2 Cube Melted Butter
1 1/2 Cups of Milk
4 Teaspoons vanilla
1/4 Cup Sugar
2/3 Cup Flour
1/2 Teaspoon salt
2 Slices of Texas Style toast per person
1 Tablespoon of strawberry cream cheese per person (blueberry or raspberry, etc.)
1/2 Bag of frozen mixed berries
1 Tablespoon of cornstarch
2 Tablespoons of sugar divided
1 1/2 Cups heavy whipping cream
Sliced almonds

Preparation
Mix ingredients from eggs to salt in blender to create your batter then pour into mixing bowl.
Put frozen mixed berries in pot, add sugar and corn starch and place on med high flame on stove top.
In mixing bowl pour in heavy whipping cream, add sugar, and mix with hand mixer on medium until peaks form. Add more sugar if needed.
Spread strawberry cream cheese between 2 pieces of bread. Cut diagonally. Dip each piece in the batter and fry on griddle that has been greased with melted butter. Fry until each side is browned.
Plate French toast and top with warmed mixed berries, fresh whipped cream and slivered almonds. YUMMY!

Tips:
Use Texas Style bread because it's thick enough to soak up all the batter but won't get gooey.

Here are the preparation pictures... This is the bread with blueberry cream cheese on it. We tried raspberry and strawberry too. All of them tasted FABULOUS!

Here they are cooking on the griddle... you cut them in half and cook them on the top and bottom first and then you flip them on their side and cook the edges too. Makes them nice and crunchy all the way around.