Funfetti Cupcakes

Happy Friday Fun Day! This cupcake recipe can be summed up in one word...FUN! Combining my obsession of 2 things...sprinkles + cupcake liners I've come up with a Funfetti recipe that I've been wanting to make for a long time now! I love how this recipe turned out for so many reasons. It's loaded with sprinkles inside and out, it's bursting with color and it's absolutely scrumptious! More fun photos and the recipe for these happy little cakes can be found on The Cake Blog! I hope you've got lots of sprinkles on hand because this is one recipe you will want to try this weekend!

Aren't these stripe & polka dot forks adorable! Luckily I had a few left over from Sam's 1st Birthday Bash! I got them from Sucre Shop, it's only the cutest place to shop for hand painted wooden utensils! Seriously you need to go check them out now! They've got tons of amazing patterns in bright colors I really would like to order one of everything!  But I contained myself and only ordered 4 things just a few minutes ago...more forks, spoons, popsicle sticks and mini wooden scoops! Let's just say when that package arrives it's going to be one fun mail day!

I hope you will give this recipe a try, it's definitely on the top of my list for all time favorite cupcake!

Baking Organization - {Part 2}

One thing I've been working really hard on this year is getting all my baking things organized, as you may remember from this post. If you ask my husband he will quickly tell you that almost every single room of our house and all of our cabinets and pantry are overflowing with something related to baking! So to keep my baking hobby under control and eliminate the chaos throughout our house I decided it was time to give everything a place. I've gathered bins and baskets and have re-purposed a book shelf to create my central baking hub in my office. Here you will find a lot of the props that frequently show up in my blog posts such as ribbon, cupcake wrappers, fabric, napkins, etc.

Using an open wall storage system and clear bins with labels and baskets provides both a great visual for things that I have on hand and also provides a lot of color to brighten up my office and make it a fun place to work!

So here's the behind the scenes pictures of one of my central blog & baking related spaces in our house! The baking organization doesn't stop here though, I've got more to show you in my kitchen so check back soon for fun ways to organize your cookie cutters, sprinkles and cupcake wrappers!

Happy Birthday To Me!

I'd like to introduce you to my birthday cake! It's pretty fun don't you think? Definitely one of the most colorful and sprinkled cakes I have ever baked or indulged in. Oh and yes it was absolutely delicious too! I have been DYING to make my own version of this Pastel Swirl Cake ever since I saw it on Sweetapolita's blog a while back. If you have never visited Sweetapolita's blog, you sure have been missing out. Rosie makes the most decadent, delicious, unique, and most beautiful cakes that look like pure pieces of art! She is one talented lady and I am in awe every time I look at her latest cake creations! I wish I could spend a day in her kitchen and learn some of her techniques and be her taste tester!
 I have baked several of her cake recipes and they never disappoint! I have been anxiously awaiting the perfect time to try her Pastel Swirl Cake and figured I would give it a go for my birthday cake this year! I loved the three colors Rosie picked when she did her swirl cake, but I wanted to create a cake that was completely different so I decided to go with pink (since my birthday is the day after Valentine's day), purple because it's one of my favorites and then a teal green...well because as you can see from my blog I kinda have a thing for teal! And as far as I'm concerned every cake tastes better with sprinkles, so I loaded up the top with some Valentine jimmies, pink nonpareils and some pale pink sugar pearls!

Lucky for me and you, Rosie made a video tutorial (and yes I have watched it several times) of this very cake on her blog so you can learn just how to blend the colors to make the perfect pastel swirl cake! I decided to use the same Chocolate Cake Recipe and Whipped Vanilla Frosting recipe that Rosie used but just made a 6" cake instead of 8". This is seriously one of the best cakes I have ever tasted in my life and I've already had 2 slices today!

And then I got out my camera and snapped about a million pictures of my colorful cake because it just made me so happy!

Happy Birthday to me and thank you Sweetapolita for making my birthday so sweet with this beautiful cake idea! You truly are an inspiration!

Heart Rice Krispies Treats

If you are in need of a last minute Valentine treat for your kids to take to school, look no further! Who doesn't love a good old fashioned Rice Krispies Treat! A no bake recipe that really can't get much simpler, and I'm sure you all have a bag of marshmallows on hand, right? So whip up a batch of  these crispy marshmallow treats, add a few Valentine's sprinkles and cut out some hearts! What a sweet treat for all the kids.

Oh Valentine's sprinkles, how I do love you!

Cut out hearts alternating the shape upside down and right side up to maximize the number you get from the pan.

Look at all those yummy scraps that will be left over for munching on after you cut out the hearts!

Package in a plastic bag and tie with a cute ribbon and you've got a super sweet Valentine treat!

Rice Krispies Treats
(makes 18 hearts)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 (16 oz) bag mini marshmallows
9 cups Rice Krispies Cereal
Valentine's Sprinkles

1. Prepare large cookie sheet with parchment paper and grease with butter.
2. Melt butter and marshmallows in large pot over medium heat on the store. Stir occasionally until marshmallows are completely melted.
3. Pour Rice Krispies into pot and stir into marshmallow mixture.
4. Spread Rice Krispies onto prepared cookie sheet and flatten with spatula.
5. Decorate with Valentine's Sprinkles.
6. Allow Rice Krispies Treats to set up for about an hour.
7. Cut out heart shapes.
8. Package in plastic bags and tie with ribbon.

Happy Heart's Day!

XOXO

Mardi Gras - King Cake Cupcakes

It's time to wrap up Mardi Gras week with a super simple and amazingly delicious recipe. King Cake Cupcakes! Our grocery stores have been stocked with king cakes for weeks now and I am always browsing to see which one has the most sprinkles. I've eaten my share of two king cakes so far this year and have resisted the temptation for many more on numerous trips to the grocery. The King Cake is my absolute favorite part about Mardi Gras! They come filled with all sorts of flavors and fruits, but my favorite is the cinnamon filling. So when I was flipping through the Jan/Feb issue of my Cooking with Paula Deen magazine and came across these King Cake Cupcakes this was quickly moved to the top of my baking list for February!

I have made a king cake from scratch before although it's been a few years, which I'm sure you can tell from the photo quality. But when you are given the opportunity to take a few shortcuts and come out with equally impressive results by using crescent rolls, well that's the path I chose to take this year! Thanks Paula for the fabulous idea!

So grab 3 tubes of Crescent Rolls and all the yummy stuff for your filling...cinnamon, brown sugar and pecans.

Unroll 1 tube of crescent rolls at a time and form them into 4 rectangles.

Spread your filling down the center of each rectangle, leaving a small border around the edges.

Sugar and nuts...

Fold the top of the rectangle towards the center, then fold the bottom of the rectangle towards the center.

Fold the left side to the middle. Fold the right side on top of the left side.

Place the dough, spiral side up into cupcake liner and bake.

Prepare vanilla glaze and grab the sprinkles. It's time to decorate!

King Cake Cupcakes (recipe adapted from Paula Deen)
(makes 12)

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 (8 oz) cans refrigerated crescent rolls
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 Tbsp milk
green, purple & yellow sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In small bowl, combine brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans.
3. On lightly floured surface, unroll each can of crescent rolls and separate each into 4 rectangles. Press perforations to seal.
4. Sprinkle about 2 Tbsp brown sugar mixture down center of each rectangle. leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges.
5. Working with 1 rectangle at a time fold the top of the dough towards the center, then fold the bottom of the dough toward the center and overlap.
6. Fold the left side of the dough in to the middle. Fold the right side on top of the left side.
7. Place dough spiral side up into prepared muffin pan.
8. Repeat procedure with remaining rectangles.
9. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until brown.
10. In a small bowl, whisk confectioners' sugar, and milk until smooth. Drizzle over warm cakes while in pan.
11. Sprinkle with green, purple & yellow sugars.

You really need to give this recipe a try! You will wow all your friends with how amazing these mini king cakes look and taste! I think I'm going to have to keep crescent rolls on hand at all times just in case I need a King Cake fix throughout the year!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras - Mask Cookies

I'm back again with another fun way to celebrate Mardi Gras...mask cookies! You may remember I made some mask cookies a few years ago. Back then I didn't have a mask cookie cutter so I found clip art online and hand traced all my cookies...boy was that a lot of work! This year since I'm planning Sam's 1st birthday and mustaches & ties are the theme I just so happen to have a mask cookie cutter because, well the mustache flipped around makes a mask! It's two for one, gotta love that!

So whip up a batch of masks using your favorite sugar cookie & royal icing recipes. This is my go to recipe! Tint your royal icing green, yellow and purple.

Then pipe the outline of the masks and the shapes of the eyes.

Then grab some sprinkles and get ready to decorate!

Flood your cookies. I always work in groups of 6 cookies at a time when flooding. So after you flood 6 stop and add the sprinkles! Then flood 6 more, sprinkle, and repeat until your are done with all your cookies.

Time for sprinkles, give a generous coating! This is one of my favorite and quickest ways to decorate cookies. You can hide any flaws from your flooding and you don't have to wait for the flooding to dry before you pipe on decorations! And as an extra bonus I love the crunch you get when you bite into a sprinkle covered cookie!

Tip: Allow your flooded & sprinkled cookies to dry for several hours. Then tip the cookie sideways and allow the extra sprinkles to fall off. Any sprinkles that get stuck inside the mask eye holes you can easily remove by gently scraping a toothpick in between.

Look at how they sparkle! I packaged these up this weekend and delivered to some of our friends with kids! They absolutely went crazy over them! I've got one more Mardi Gras recipe coming up on Friday! I've saved the best and yummiest for last so you won't want to miss it! Any guesses what it could be?