Brownie Junior Bridging cupcakes

This year our troop bridged some Brownie scouts to Junior scouts.

These were very simple to make and takes wonderful!

Materials:
   Yellow cake mix (and ingredients)
    Rainbow cupcake papers
    1 can pre-made vanilla frosting
    Rainbow Airheads
    Miniature marshmallows

Start off by baking the cupcakes according to the directions on the box.

Let cool completely.  Don't try to frost them while they are warm or you will have a mess!

Split the can of frosting in half.  Mix Hershey's baker's cocoa powder into one half to make brown frosting.  Add a small amount of powdered sugar and green food coloring to the other half to make the green frosting.  NOTE; add small amounts of powdered sugar to the frosting to make it a bit firmer.  Do it in very small amounts so you don't make the frosting crumbly.  Having that extra sugar in the frosting will help it hold the shape better after piping.

Prepare the candy.  Cut the marshmallows in half and the airhead rainbows in half.

Pipe both colors using a #21 Wilton star tip.  While the frosting is still wet gently bend the rainbow airhead and stick it down into the frosting.  Place marshmallows on either side to look like clouds.

Enjoy!!

First Day of School Survival Kit

 This year I thought we could start the year out with a little survival kit for the teachers.

Using large recycled peanut butter jars I was able to fashion cute little survival kits.

Materials:
   Large jar
   Tea (2 kinds)
   Instant coffee (4 packets)
   Chocolate bar
   Hard candy
   Hand sanitizer
   Chewing Gum
   Craft paper
   Glue
   Pens

I was inspired by several different posts in Pinterest but was concerned about sending glass mason jars on the bus with my kids.

Problem solved.  I can't bare to throw away peanut butter jars.  I use them for everything.

Using a lot of supplies from my scrapbooking supplies I was able to decorate the recycled peanut butter jars.

These are pretty simply decorated.  Most of it was pen work with colored sharpies.  I used oval cutters and long strips of cardstock.






The writing reads:

"Welcome back to school" - around the edge
"Survival Kit" - in the center

"Thank you for all you do!" - on the back

It worked out great and the teachers loved them!

Dragon Training Party

Did you see How to Train Your Dragon 2?  Wasn't it awesome!?!  My son decided he had to have a Dragon Training birthday party this summer.  Here is how we pulled it off.

  I created an invite like a movie admission ticket.  Using free wallpaper images from Dreamworks and text effects I was able to create time invite in my photo suite program.  Dreamworks also has party invites on their site that you can print out.


PARTY DECOR
  Dragon emblem and balloons on the mailbox.
  Viking Hats
  Viking Shields
   Balloon Swords
   Stuffed Toothless toy - Walmart
  How to Train your Dragon gift bag (table decor)
  Red and black table ware & paper party supplies

Viking Helmets were an easy do-at-home project with mostly all scraps that were laying around.

We had one helmet for every dragon trainer.











Next, every viking needs a shield.  First rule of Dragon training - get a shield.

I used an appliance cardboard box and duct tape to make these.  Two circles per dragon trainer.  I made loops of duct tape and threaded it through the first circle and secured it to the inside.












Then I took the matching circle and taped the edge, sealing the armbands inside and make a "metal" edge.

I then created a small duct tape circle for the center of each shield.

The first things our dragon trainers did upon arriving at their training date was decorate their shield.












Here is my Hiccup.  He even made a flame sword himself for his dragon training.


For our guest dragon trainers I got some long balloon-animal balloons and found a YouTube video on how to make a sword.  I think this was even more exciting to them than the costumes.











PARTY GAMES
  Shield Decorating
  Racing Paint
  Dragon Races
  Pinata

Racing Paint was simple and made them so happy.  I found face paint crayons (super easy to use and no mess).  I duplicated the face paint seen in the movie during the dragon racing games.

Dragon Racing

I set up an obstacle course in our back yard using just about anything I could find in my house.

Construction stakes with paper flags, old fence posts as balance beams, toddler tunnel, water balloons, and of course baskets for their sheep.

Each child ran through the obstacle course carrying their sheep and put it in these baskets at the end.  They each had four sheep to put in the basket.








Here are our fluffy little sheep.


Aren't they cute!!














Dragon Egg Pinata was a hit.  It took them forever to break it open.  They loved it!!

Party favors for a dollar at Walmart!

 Toothless birthday cake.  The cake topper was bought online.

The cake is a chocolate box cake, two layers with frosting in between.

I prefer a cream cheese frosting to other kinds.  It's got a great texture and flavor and sets up like a buttercream once chilled.











MENU

     Meatlug Treat - Grapes
     Fishleg Snacks - Goldfish
     Dragon Eggs - Cakeballs
     Dragon Teeth - Apple Slices
     Hiccup Skewers - Ham & Cheese skewers
     Astrid Crunch - Chex Mix
     Gobber Peg Legs - Chocolate dipped pretzel rods
     Nightfury Juice - (Our Journey)

 
The tags were made with images all available on the Dreamworks site.  I used wood texture, metal texture and a viking script all available free on the internet to create the food tags.

Once printed I glued them to cereal box cardboard and bent them into self-standing food tags.

The cake balls were dipped in blue candy melt then rolled in chocolate sprinkles.  They were a mess but my son loved them.

 To end the day each kid got a special Viking bag which contained their pinata candy and some dragon eggs (cake balls) to take home.

The image is a printout available on Dreamworks website.  Be sure to check out their site as they have lots of things there for your little dragon lover.

A pretty simple party that went over HUGE with the 5 yr old crowd we entertained.

Fluffy Sheep

I made these to go with my son's Dragon Training birthday party game, but you could use them as snowballs, sheep or anything else you can imagine.

 Materials:
     Thick soft yarn (I got baby blanket yarn on clearance)
     Scissors
     Patience

Wrap yarn around your hand sixteen times.  Do you have to do 16?  No.  That's just how I did mine.

Cut a short section of yarn.

 Slide the yarn off your hand.  Use the short section of yarn to knot off the center of your wrapped yarn.

Taking your scissors cut all the loops on each end of the wrapped yarn.














Next pull apart the yarn.  I pulled each strand of yarn in half to the center.

This one is partially done.  You can see that by splitting the yarn it becomes curly and fluffy.

Look at my little herd of sheep!

After finishing these I thought "why didn't I think of this for my daughter's Frozen birthday".  They could have had a snowball fight.

I have tucked this little things away for a mid-winter indoor snowball fight this year.

Have fun!

Dragon Egg Pinata

 Materials:
      Ballooon
      Newspaper
      White liquid craft glue
      Water
      Tissue Paper
       Ribbon
       Candy
       Utility Knife

To start I inflated a large party balloon.

Mixing white liquid craft glue and water (50/50 mix) in an old peanut butter jar I poured some glue mix out onto a plate.

Tear up newspaper pieces into small pieces.

Wet each piece with the glue mixture and place on the balloon.

After a the balloon is fully covered let dry completely.

I used a mixing bowl to hold my balloon so it wouldn't roll away.

I did 6 layers of newspaper to be sure the pinata was strong.  Be sure each layer is dry before starting a new layer.

 Using a utility knife cut a small door in the top of the pinata.

Also cut two holes on either side of the pinata.  Run a ribbon through the holes and tie a knot on the inside.

Fill with candy and then tape the door shut.













 Cut 2"x 2" pieces of colored tissue paper.  I separated my colors into other mixing bowls.

 Using full strength liquid craft glue runs small lines on the pinata.

Pinch a piece of tissue paper and place onto the glue.

Repeat - A LOT!

 I tried to make our pinata look like a dragon egg.  Here it is almost finished.

All done!

The kids loved the dragon egg pinata.  In review I probably could have gone with one or two less layers of papermache (the newspaper and glue step).  The kids used a wooden baseball bat and it took almost 15 min to bust this thing open.  They had an awesome time attacking it.

Viking Helmets

 Materials:
    Large Carboard Boxes
    Hot Glue Gun & Glue
    Scissors
    Masking Tape
    Duct Tape

To start off measure your child's head.  If most of the guests are about their age you can make them all the same size.

My daughter is a bit older so I had to make one special for her.

After cutting out each section for the hat I used hot glue to seal it into a band about 4" wide and long enough to wrap around my son's head.

 Next I cut 1" strips that were long enough to go across the helmet band but leave a bit of height (gentle arch).

 These were secured in a criss-cross pattern with hot glue.

 Next for the horns.  Draw out a shape on the cardboard that you like for your horn shape.  Remember to leave a small tab at the attachment point.

 Cutting a hole in your helment band, poke through the tab of the horn.  Next you need to spread the cardboard out flat by splitting the tab in half.

 Tape each side of the tab flat to the inside of the helmet band.

 Your next step is to wrap the helmet horns in masking tape.

Once the horns are wrapped you can wrap the helmet band.  I found it much easier to run the duct tape lengthwise around the band.  I had to make slits in the tape to work around the horns but it went much faster than completely wrapping the band in tape.

Don't forget to wrap the crossbars going over the top of the helmet.













This one wasn't quite my size, but here is the finished product.

Teacher Appreciation Fruit Tray

Here are just a few different ideas from Pinterest, all put together to make a wonderful beach theme for the end of year teacher appreciation brunch.

The apple crab was a DIY photo share on Pinterest.

I used a 50/50 wash of orange juice and water on the sliced bananas and apple to keep them from browning.  The other fruits held up beautifully and the platter was the main attraction of the brunch.

Baby Shower Cookies

The recipe I finally found success with was by Wilton.  The original recipe calls for almond extract.  While this is a gorgeous nutty flavor, some may not care for it and when making it for nut-sensitive friends I modify the recipe.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter , softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

I also don't put salt in my cookies.  Some will say that this effects the rise on the cookies, but I have found that it isn't necessary.  Preheat your oven to 400F.  Gather un-greased cookie sheets.

Begin with room temperature butter.  Cream the butter and sugar together until they are just barely mixed.   I have found that if you over stir this step you add too much air to your batter and the cookies spread.  Mix in the egg and vanilla, again just stirring enough to incorporate.  Then add in the flour in small amounts.  Just before the mix comes together put your spoon aside and press the dough together with your hands.  This will help give the cookie a flaky consistency (like shortbread cookies).  Separate into two balls, this makes it more manageable once rolled out, you will need to use all the dough - it does not refrigerate well.  On a well floured surface and with a well floured rolling pin, roll out the dough until 1/4" thick.  Flour your shaped cutter of choice and cut dough.  Press together scraps and re-roll.  Bake cookies for 5 minutes.  Cool cookies.

Be sure to cool your cookies completely.  If they are even the least bit warm your icing will run off and make a huge mess.

Blissfully Domestic provided me with the most successful recipe for icing the cookies.  When making the "flooding" icing (the icing that covers the entire cookie) be sure to add VERY small amounts of water.   The icing should barely run off your spoon to flood.  I found that to coat the cookie but be thick and opaque you'll need to place some icing on the cookie and gently encourage the icing around the cookie with your spoon to fill it.  When I made the icing runny enough to "flow" on the cookie it was much too thin, and soaked into the cookie.  If you find that your icing is too runny using your sifter, sift in small spoonfuls of powdered sugar until it is back to the right consistency.  

These were made for a gender reveal party.  I used light pink, light blue, white and black royal icing for these cookies.  Some might like flat poka-a-dots instead of the 3-D dots I have pictured.  To get a flat dotted effect you will have to pipe thick colored icing into the wet flooded icing before it sets.  That will make a smooth dotted appearance for the background.

Happy Baking!

St. Patrick's Day Cookies

The recipe I finally found success with was by Wilton.  The original recipe calls for almond extract.  While this is a gorgeous nutty flavor, some may not care for it and when making it for nut-sensitive friends I modify the recipe.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter , softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

I also don't put salt in my cookies.  Some will say that this effects the rise on the cookies, but I have found that it isn't necessary.  Preheat your oven to 400F.  Gather un-greased cookie sheets.

Begin with room temperature butter.  Cream the butter and sugar together until they are just barely mixed.   I have found that if you over stir this step you add too much air to your batter and the cookies spread.  Mix in the egg and vanilla, again just stirring enough to incorporate.  Then add in the flour in small amounts.  Just before the mix comes together put your spoon aside and press the dough together with your hands.  This will help give the cookie a flaky consistency (like shortbread cookies).  Separate into two balls, this makes it more manageable once rolled out, you will need to use all the dough - it does not refrigerate well.  On a well floured surface and with a well floured rolling pin, roll out the dough until 1/4" thick.  Flour your shaped cutter of choice and cut dough.  Press together scraps and re-roll.  Bake cookies for 5 minutes.  Cool cookies.

Be sure to cool your cookies completely.  If they are even the least bit warm your icing will run off and make a huge mess.

Blissfully Domestic provided me with the most successful recipe for icing the cookies.  When making the "flooding" icing (the icing that covers the entire cookie) be sure to add VERY small amounts of water.   The icing should barely run off your spoon to flood.  I found that to coat the cookie but be thick and opaque you'll need to place some icing on the cookie and gently encourage the icing around the cookie with your spoon to fill it.  When I made the icing runny enough to "flow" on the cookie it was much too thin, and soaked into the cookie.  If you find that your icing is too runny using your sifter, sift in small spoonfuls of powdered sugar until it is back to the right consistency.  

For the white cookies with green clovers you will need to work with the icing while wet.  After lining the cookie with thick royal icing, flood the cookie with thinner icing.  Then pipe in the thick green trim color into four small dots.  Then while still wet use a toothpick to drag the green icing into center to form the cover shape.  The first few might be a bit abstract but you will soon get the hang of it and have gorgeous cookies.

Happy Baking!

Spaghetti Cupcakes

I've seen these "joke" cupcakes all over Pinterest and decided to give it a try.

My church was having an all church birthday party.  A special Sunday where we set up 12 tables (one per month) and each table has a cake.  The members of the church sit at the table with their birth month and share a birthday cake together.

I decided to volunteer for April and have a little "April Fools" fun.

I made spaghetti and meatballs and it really did look like I made dinner instead of dessert!





Materials:
   Box Cake Mix & ingredients to make
   Cupcake Papers
   Cupcake Pans
   Foil baking pan with domed lid
   Cream Cheese Frosting
   Piping bag & #3 tip
   Strawberry jelly (no junks)
   Ferrero Rocher chocolates
   White Chocolate Bar & grater

I started out with a standard box cake mix and cooked according to the directions.

Once they were fully cooled I whipped up a batch of my new favorite recipe for cream cheese frosting.  I decided not to add food coloring to the mix since the butter in this recipe makes it slightly off-white to begin with.  I refrigerated the icing until it was firm again before trying to make these.

I lightly frosted each cupcake with a knife and then place it into a foil baking dish that had a domed plastic cover.  I was only able to fit 20 in the pan I bought - the kids were thrilled to have samples!  I then filled a piping bag and used a #3 tip to make the "spaghetti". Working quickly I randomly swirled the icing all over the cupcakes.  I held the piping tip about 6-8" off the cupcakes to allow the continuous flow to twirl and bend in a more random way.  I took a break after a light layer and refrigerated the frosting in the bag and the cupcakes to be sure to keep the form of the frosting.  If this gets too warm - the noodles will lose their shape - so keep it cool as long as possible!

Once I had used all the frosting on the cupcakes - even making noodle to bridge the gaps between cupcakes so it looks like a full pan of spaghetti - I got the "sauce" out.  Strawberry jam without fruit pieces worked for me.  To make the jelly "runny" like sauce I spoon whipped the jelly in the jar before gently spooning it on the noodles.  Try not to move the jelly around too much or you'll lose the shape on your noodles.  Cover the center and dribble it around so it looks like you have ladled sauce on the noodles.  Then take each Ferrero Rocher chocolate and roll in the jelly.  Place on the noodles randomly.  Finish it off by shredding white chocolate on the whole thing to look like Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy.  Everyone love my "April Fools" cake....it was super tasty too!

Frozen Birthday Party

You're invited to a Frozen Birthday!

I created this invitation using free downloads from Disney's Frozen website, text effect videos, free fonts found online and shapes within my photo editing software.




 I started with window clings and gift tags left over from Christmas to decorate my sliding door and hutch.  I spent several evenings mindlessly cutting out snowflakes of all shapes and sizes to string into a "blizzard" on my chandelier and in the corner behind the birthday girl's chair.  My Pinterest Board has links to the many different snowflake design ideas and "blizzard decor" ideas.

The buffet was set up on my island.  I used glitter snowflake ribbon left over from my Christmas decor to weave around each plate.  Underneath my three-tier stand I made 3 small tissue paper puff balls (you can find many videos on how to make these online).

I threaded cottonballs on thread and taped them to my cooktop overhead to create a snow-flurry effect over the buffet.
























I used free download images from Disney's Frozen website to make buffet tags for some of the menu items.  These were then glued to cardboard from cereal boxes that were due to be recycled.

Menu:

Snowflakes (decorated sugar cookies)
Snowballs (cake balls)
Marshmallows (brushed with corn syrup and dipped in sugar)
Snowman Pieces (white cheddar puffs)
Snowflakes on Crackers (miniature snowflake cookie cutter used to cut cheddar cheese)
Reindeer Treats (carrots)
Icicles (apple slices)
Glacier Juice (Our Journey)
Snow on Toast (cheese pizza)
Pigs in Blankets
Hot Coca Bar (whipped cream, mini marshmallows, blue rock candy)

We played pin the nose on Olaf.  I drew this on some of our art paper and the kids loved it!













The cake was inspired by Bubbly Nature Creations.

I found a glass candy recipe on Sugarhero that worked great to make my ice.

I started with two layers of chocolate cake and a center layer of vanilla cake baked in a 9" pan.







I used Roxanne's Home Baking chocolate cream cheese recipe for the filling on the layers.  I found this a bit bitter with the unsweetened chocolate and the tang of the cream-cheese.  I think the next time I try it, I will use a sweetened chocolate.  The small upper cake was vanilla cake baked in mini-cake tins.  This again was a three layer cake with cream-cheese chocolate frosting.

I used Blissfully Domestic's royal icing recipe to pipe the snowflakes on waxed paper and let them set until hard.













The exterior frosting was a double recipe of Allrecipes cream-cheese frosting.  

Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature.  I didn't realize that my stand mixer bowl was insulating the center of my ingredients and when I mixed up my batch I wound up with lumpy frosting.  The butter was not soft enough to mix in smoothly.  I placed the frosting in a microwave safe bowl and microwaved it at 20 second intervals, whipping it with a fork in between each heating until the frosting smoothed out.

I set aside about 2 cups to color blue for edging and finishing.

I found that the cream-cheese frosting got very soft when it got too warm.  I found it easiest to crumb coat each cake, then refrigerated the frosting and cake for 20 min.  Then add another layer, and refrigerate again.  I made three thin layers on each cake to be sure to have full even coverage.  I placed the small cake onto the big cake after both were fully frosted.

I colored the reserved frosting with blue food coloring and used a #21 star tip to make the edge piping.

I smashed my sheets of blue rock candy and placed the shards around the small cake.  I bought a mini-figurine set with all the Frozen characters and placed Elsa in her "ice palace" and had Olaf with some snowballs (small candies) on the larger cake.

For the going away gift bags I had my daughter make star-burst rainbow loom bracelets for each guest.  Then the bags received a small package of snowflakes (miniature snowflake sugar cookies dipped in blue sugar) and a snowball (cakeball)

Lovetheday inspired me to create the gift bag tag.  Again I used a font effect, free fonts and graphics in my photo editor software.

The party was a great success and it was a lot of fun to plan and create.