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

Champagne & Raspberry Cupcakes

It's Valentine's Week, do you know what you are getting your sweetie this year? With only a few days left, there's still time to bake to impress! I've got the perfect treat that's sweet and pink. It features a bottle of bubbly and some fresh raspberries! So forget that box of chocolates or dozen roses this year, put on your apron and whip up a batch of these Champagne & Raspberry Cupcakes.

The recipe and all the details are featured over on Half Baked! I used Korbel Sweet Rose Champagne which paired well with the fresh raspberries. I hope you all enjoy these cupcakes and share them with the ones you love.

Wishing you all a sweet week!

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?

Mardi Gras - Push-Up Pops

Mardi Gras is in full swing here in Mobile. Everywhere you look you see purple, green and yellow. Every weekend there are parades all day long with stuffed animals, cups, moon pies and beads a flying! This week I thought it would be fun to share a few easy and festive Mardi Gras treats with you all!

The first up is the Push-Up Pops. You may have seen or even own this book written by Courtney Whitmore of the popular entertaining blog Pizzazzerie. Unfortunately I do not have this book, but I have thumbed through it a time or two while at Michael's. This book is super cute with lots of fun ideas and recipes for making Push-Up Pops. It's also on Amazon's top 100 list...pretty amazing!

I bought my push-up pop containers from Cake Art Party Store back in the fall but they are also available online. So this weekend I figured it was about time to bring out the pops and see what I could come up with! I decided a trio of green, purple and yellow was appropriate for Mardi Gras. So I whipped up a 3 layer white box cake mix and tinted each layer green, purple and yellow. Once the cakes were cool I took the push-up pop container and cut circles into each layer.

Vibrant circles of cake ready to assemble.

Once all cake circles were cut out, I placed the green cake in the bottom of the push-up pop first. Then the yellow cake and then purple until the pop was full.

Such a cute, fun and quick idea!

Swirl with a dollop of buttercream icing and add a few sprinkles!

It's the perfect Mardi  Gras treat! I shared a few with our neighbors and they loved them!

Check back soon, I've got 2 more Mardi Gras ideas you don't want to miss!

Sam's Nursery

I have been getting a lot of emails lately from expecting moms about Sam's Nursery that was featured on Baby Lifestyles last year. So I figured I would go ahead and do a non-baking related post today and instead showcase my little boys nursery and all the details that go along with it! This is honestly my absolute favorite room in our house. The fun patterns and bright colors bring me so much joy and definitely bring a smile to Sam's face every time he is in his room! I can't believe he will be ONE at the end of March. Boy how time sure does fly.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of Sam's lime, turquoise and orange nursery! It truly is a mix of old and new pieces, with a modern twist and I just love how everything came together. My goal was to create a room that reflected both mine and Randolph's personalities. I wanted a unique space, something that felt like it was created with lots of love and DIY projects. Since we live in the south and Randolph LOVES to be on the water..he will fish and go crabbing any free chance he can get I wanted to add a small touch of things that Randolph loves to do and can't wait to share with Sam some day in his room. So the crab accents in the picture frames and pillow and the fishing pole lamp turned out to be absolutely perfect.

A detailed list of all the sources with links is provided at the bottom.

 
Paint Color: Polished Sliver by Valspar from Lowe's

Glider & Ottoman: Siegel's Baby Room 
Crib: Siegel's Baby Room 
Dresser/Changing Table: Charles Phillips Antiques, custom painted by Audrey Phillips Paint and Design
Side Table: Cotton City Antique Mall, Mobile AL
Wall Frames: found at 2 local antique stores - Midtown Antiques & Cotton City Antique Mall, Mobile AL
Yarn Letters: DIY Project - bought the wood letters at Hobby Lobby and orange yarn from Michael's
Fabric: Carousel Designs
Curtains: Handmade by my step-mom (Lime & White Zig Zag Fabric)

Crib Skirt: Handmade by my step-mom (Lime & White Zig Zag, Lime Organic and Tangerine Fabric)

Quilt: Handmade by my dad (Lime & White Zig Zag and Tangerine and White Minky Chenille Fabric)

Pillows: Handmade by my step-mom (Aqua & White Zig Zag, Aqua Organic and Tangerine Fabric)
Toy Basket: liner was handmade by my step-mom (Aqua & White Zig Zag)
Fishing Pole Lamp: Gift from my step-mom, she bought the lamp at Hobby Lobby and then covered the existing plaid shade in aqua fabric to match the nursery
Baby Age Blocks: Montana Vintage Greens on etsy
ABC Print: Trendy Peas on etsy (size 16 x 20), bought the wood frame from Hobby Lobby and had the print matted in the frame at Michael's
Crab Art: DIY Project - had the white Pottery Barn Frames from our wedding, bought the wooden crabs and orange paint from Michael's
Diaper Caddy: Michael's
Green Lamp: Target
Plush Stacking Toy & Striped/Polka dot Plush Dog: gifts from Auntie Em


Hope you all enjoyed a peak into little Sam's nursery!