::rainbow rice krispies::

I love rainbows so very much.

When I saw the idea for these on pintrest I knew that my Lily would love it just as much as me.

I had to make them in this dish because of my friend over at the sunshine state.  She has some wonderful ideas.  Go check her out.  Her rainbow slush is stunning.    

 With a constantly nursing baby I knew that Lily and I had limited time to do this project.  I had everything all laid out ahead of time.  It looked so pretty all lined up. 

One little kid had to have a sample.  

 We melted the butter and then added the marshmallows.  When they started melting me put in the food coloring.  We went with out 15-20 drops of color per batch.  We made a half batch for each color.  That comes up to - 3 cups rice krispies, 2 cups marshmallows, and 2 T butter. 

Purple was our favorite.  Lily sang it the "Star Spangle Banner".

Please note that we made it upside down.  Red really should have been on top.  

Lizzie was on alert under the island to help with clean up.  

Photo by Lily.  

Another great Lily shot.  

 It was hard to get the first slice out, but after that they were no problem.  

 

::peppermint bark::

 I LOVE white chocolate.  It is just about my favorite things ever.  I also know that my wonderful neighbors love it too.  So I thought the kids and I would have fun making some peppermint bark.  

 I don't actually own a double boiler so we just use a heat safe spatula and pyrex bowl - placed over a pan of boiling water.  Lily got to help with spatula duty.  It scares the crap out of me to let her use the stove but I was right next to her the whole time. 

  

While we were stirring, Max was carefully crushing two pounds of candy canes.  We put them in a ziplock and let him beat them with cans.  It was a perfect job for that beast.  When the chocolate was melted we poured in the candy canes and stirred them in.  We sprayed pam into two baking sheets and then poured in the chocolate mix.  We let it cool and harden for two hours and then used a fork to pop out chunks. 

We ended up with a TON of it.  Which is not a problem.  We gave away about 2/3rds of it and kept the rest to snack on.  It tastes wonderful and was a perfect kid easy cooking project. 

Two dozen candy canes $1 each box X 2 = $2.00

Three bags of white chocolate chips $2.50 X 3 = $7.50

Total cost = less than $10

::rainbow cupcakes::

BIG FAT FUN!

Seriously - I love anything rainbow.  I originally saw these on IdeaRoom, but she give the credit for them to OurBites.  Whatever - they rock.  I am building a cupcake tower that will sit loaded down with these cupcakes at a "cupcake decorating station" to be decorating curing the art party.  I will ice them all white and then have decorating stuff on the table for the kids to dress them up with.    

Things to improve - For the art party I will put the icing in a bag and do them up all fancy like I did for the cookie dough cupcakes, but these are just our practice run.  I was super surprised at how easy these are.  They look complex and time invasive to me.  But they are not.  Promise.  Pinky swear.  Try them.  The shorties came unglued over these, and I had a dozen left over to take to my neighbors.     

All you do is make up cake batter, divide it into bowls and color them.  You could use icing dye or food coloring.  I went with food coloring this time.  Then you spoon out a little bit of each color icing into each cupcake wrapper.   

Then you give your two year old a spoon of batter so he will chill out long enough to allow you and your six year old to get these in the oven.  (Eggs straight from our chickens, does that make it any better to give a two year old raw eggs?)  We let them cool and iced them with white frosting.  I can't wait to make these again.

  

::cake decorating::

Here is the master cake decorator at work.  This is Shealynn, a family friend, that I helped do cake decorating.  You ice a piece of styrofoam that you cover is the horrible icing (it is not edible) that dries to be rock hard.  After we put the first two coats on the base we took it to my Dad's wood working shop for him to sand it down flat.  Shea came up with her own design and we used YouTube to learn about how to use the tips to make the correct decorations.  We had to do certain techniques, such as writing and a shell border.  

Can you believe how amazing she did one this?  What a smart kid.  This is her first time to do this project.  

AND SHE WON GRAND CHAMPION AND HONOR GROUP AND FIRST PLACE AND SHE GOT PICKED FOR STATE FAIR!!!!  This is our biggest win in a project at fair ever.  I am so impressed with her.

::play dough sucker cookies::

This is a project that I am trying to decide if we are going to make for Lily's birthday party.  I was excited because we got to use our first farm fresh egg to make the recipe.  It was still warm out of the nest.  

The recipe originally comes from allrecipes but there is also a tutorial to how to make them on theidearoom.  I just loved all the bright colors.  

The dough really does look like play dough, but taste wonderful.  

I had two little helpers, but this one was being photogenic.  This one also ate his fair share of raw dough.   

I liked how they turned out but they are way to labor intensive for the big birthday party.  Plus if you walk around with them they are soft enough to fall right off the stick.  I think this would be perfect for a sleep over, but too much for the amount of them I will need for the party.  They did taste amazing.  Who would have thought that cream cheese would make a cookie taste awesome.  

 

::white chocolate strawberry's::

  We had some plan changes and I needed a quick (10 mins or less) dessert to bring to a little dinner party we were going to.  I grabbed out all the sprinkles I could find and put those shorties to work.

We don't own a double boiler, but this pyrex bowl on top of the boiling water did the trick.  (PS - this is not my bowl - is it Shelly's???)

Then I let the Shorties go crazy.  I loved how pretty they looked.  And not one made it home from the party.  Next year we will make them for the 4th, but only use a tip of blue sprinkles.  

::butterfly cupcakes::

I made these little cuties for Lily's sixth birthday party.  I got the original idea from Martha Stewart.   

I iced the bodies blue and used yellow icing to make a bead of icing down the center.  I broke off the bottom of the pretzels and them stuck them in the icing.  I then added another bead of yellow icing to try to hide the bottom of the pretzels and make sure they had enough icing to stick.  I used M&M's to make the eyes.  I think mini-M&M's would have worked better.  

The kids loved them and I think they turned out cute.  My dearest little love Megan took these pictures. 


 

::chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes::

Even the title is long!  Josh loves anything with cookie dough in it so when I saw these on The Idea Room I knew that they would be perfect for his birthday.  They are chocolate chip cupcakes with a hole cut out of the top and egg free cookie dough filling.  Then the icing is a brown sugar piece of heaven.  I got to be straight, these little buggers were not for beginners.  And when it comes to baking I am barely above beginner.  All the cakes I make are from a box.  I am just above intermediate when it comes to decorating cakes.  These took all I got.  But they actually turned out really good.  They took me forever to make.  But the directions were perfect and I followed them to the letter.  (which is fairly unusual for me)  Even my chronic icing hater, Emma, thought that they were amazing.


For the recipe link here.  
  

::monkey cupcakes::

Here are the latest cupcakes of the week.  These were lots of fun.  Ice the base all over with chocolate.  Tint white icing light tan, place it in a ziplock, cut off the very tippy corner, and draw in the snout.  The ears are flattened milk duds with a dot of tan icing.  We ran out of black tinting so we ended up with a grayish color to draw in the mouth, nostrils, and eyes.  

I showed the kids how to make one and then they got a turn.  Since these were just for us I let them get crazy.  They each made one that was like mine and then they took artistic rights over.

Think they are so cute and sweet?  

Watch this video for the grand finale.

::ham cakes::

Here is the first of the weekly cupcakes that I am hoping to make this month.  My dear friend Shelly brought a cupcake book to work and a used that books piggie idea as my starting point.  I knew I wanted to make some cupcakes for Easter dinner but I didn't want to do traditional bunnies or something like that.   I thought these little ham cakes had some irony to go with their cuteness.  

I was in charge of icing the body and the upside down reece's cup.  Lily placed all other parts of the cupcakes.  M&M's for eyes and spice drop ears.  We used brown icing for the nostrils and pupils.  She did a really good job and it was a fun time spent together.  I learned all about what every kid in her class brings for lunch every day.  Very important information and delivered in her typically adorable manner.