Summer Vacation Cookies

It's finally here...VACATION TIME!

Here are the cookies I made for the road!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies

2 sticks margarine

3/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

In stand mixer with dough hook mix together margarine, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add in flours and cocoa powder 1 cup at a time until fully mixed. Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes or more depending on cookies size.

These cookies are made with Wilton mini cookie cutters and this recipe made 100 mini cookies. The cookies are iced with royal icing.

Soft, chewy, and bite sized!

See you in a few weeks!

  ~Christina

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Grill Brownie Cupcakes

It may not offically be summer quite yet, but the heat has arrived and so have the picnics!

These brownies are easily made using your favorite brownie recipe or mix baked in cupcake liners. A little orange sanding sugar, a tube of ready made black icing, and a few Hot Tamales make decorating these easy!

Another version of these brownies with candy aisle hotdog gummy candy placed on top.

Perfect for any summer party or picnic!

   

Enjoy!

~ Christina & Katie

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We link up at these fun parties! 

Red, White & Blue Link Party

Hey everyone! It's time for another party! With Memorial Day and 4th of July coming up, Happy Hour Projects and Mrs. Fox's Sweets teamed up to bring you the Red, White & Blue Link Party! Together we bring you the best of both worlds from crafts to baking!

<center><a href="http://mrsfoxssweets.blogspot.com/2012/05/red-white-blue-link-party.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc7XbKm0hasFDEY8kka44op9-R4nk23WxQQH-5z1hMPnXDA67wKAP7zLTDaVvwft0V_M9NVqAb3f1AblqNrPZxSPTvBaIV6Y2wUmmViqBdnADeH87bDdgVvfDYvNrOg8E5qrFCZeRq1lk/s240/redwhitebluebutton200.jpg"/></a></center>

Link up your recipes, projects, anything red, white & blue to celebrate!
We would love for you to add our button to your post, party page, or wherever you would like, not mandatory, but the more the merrier! Help us make this our biggest party yet!
(Actual party button will be smaller than the one above- I just wanted to use the big one for this post! Thank you Adrianne for making another fabulous button for our party!)



Pink Princess Cupcakes #7- Magical Mermaid / The Little Mermaid

Magical Mermaid

(starring The Little Mermaid)

I had to use the picture with The Little Mermaid first, since I like it best!

This is #7 of 28 cupcakes that I will be making from the Pink Princess Cupcakes book by Barbara Beery. I have found that most of the cupcakes in this book are very easy to decorate, but just like other books of this type, sometimes it is a little hard to find supplies and substitutions have to be made, so I am still working on figuring out how to make the "Sunshine Princess". Anyway with this cupcake, that wasn't the case. This stuff is easy to find too.

To start bake your cupcakes. I used Pillsbury Funfetti box mix. I do use box mixes about half the time, but with 3 kids, sometimes it is easier...not to mention quicker than getting a bunch of ingredients together and measuring out stuff. Besides, I think they taste fine! I do like "from scratch" recipes too though! The seashell cupcake liners I used are from the Mary Englebreit collection.

While the cupcakes were baking, I began making my candy. I used Candiquik Vanilla Candy. Out of the 3 brands that I have tried that are readily available around here, I prefer this one. It melts up easy in the microwave, doesn't get gloppy, and hardens quick. My kids and I prefer the taste too. What you don't use can be saved for another use, and will melt up just fine the second time around. The candy mold is the Wilton Seashells Candy Mold. Fill the mold with your melted candy and a spoon and refrigerate 5 or 10 minutes until set. The back of the candy will have a matte finish when it is ready to unmold. If it doesn't unmold easily by tapping on the counter once or twice, it isn't ready.

It is hard to tell from this picture, but the seashells are pink swirled. I did this by using the Pink coloring from the Wilton Garden Candy Color set and just not mixing it in fully.

 

The frosting is Pillsbury Vanilla, colored teal with blue sprinkles on top and then topped with a candy seashell. In the "Pink Princess Cupcakes" book they used a beautiful shell wrap over the liner. I didn't have those, but I did have a couple Little Mermaid Fun Pix picks left from The Little Mermaid Cupcakes that I had made, and I thought they went perfect on this Pink Princess cupcake as you can see at the beginning of this post.

If you are just seeing this Pink Princess Cupcakes series that I am doing for the first time, I am working my way through the book and not always in order. Barbara Beery has also put recipes in the front of the book for both cupcakes and frosting some baking tips, but says you can use your favorite cake recipe or a boxed mix as well. If you don't already have this book, you should, especially if you have a little Princess at home. The book is actually in the children's section (ages 6 and up) and has wonderful pictures in it. Barbara Beery has quite a few books like this like "Pink Princess Tea Parties", "Fairies Cookbook", and "Green Princess Cookbook"(sweets to save the planet...that kind of Green), just to name a few. I hope to own them all one day! They all look so very cute and are not all, all about cupcakes. Some have real food, pasta, sandwiches, and drinks. Amazon, has "A Look Inside" available for most of the Barbara Beery books and they all look amazing and fun for little girls of all ages!

Be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

The Next Pink Princess Cupcake that I will be making:

Garden Princess
-or-
Cotton Candy

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This Pink Princess Cupcake is shared at:

Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday

Lady Behind the Curtain: Cast Party Wednesday

Daily Organized Chaos: Foodie Wednesday

These Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked

Miz Helen's Country Cottage- Full Plate Thursday



Pink Princess Cupcakes #5- Ice Cream Sundae

Ice Cream Sundae

July is National Ice Cream Month, so I decided to make "Ice Cream Sundae" for the last cupcake of July.
 

This is the 5th cupcake out of 28 different Pink Princess Cupcake designs that I am making from the Pink Princess Cupcake Book by Barbara Beery. Be sure to view the other Pink Princess Cupcakes I have made too.

 The book recipe for these particular cupcakes was the Strawberry Cupcake that I used for the Pink Princess Cupcakes #1- Pink Lemonade. Just getting back from vacation, I wanted to simplify these from using the book recipe. In making the Ice Cream Sundae cupcake, I used Pillsbury Funfetti Box Mix and 12 ounces Kroger Diet Black Cherry Soda. That is it, just 2 ingredients, no eggs, oil, or butter. The Diet Black Cherry Soda gave the cupcakes a pinkish/lavender color.

 Place your flat bottom ice cream cones into your cupcake tins. Fill them with your cake batter only 1/2 to 2/3 full. I went up to the line inside the cone (about 3/4 full) and some of the cupcakes dripped over and out of the cone while baking.  I made 18 cones (that is how many came in the box) and 2 cupcakes with the leftover batter. These baked at 350 for 20 minutes. You could really make a full 24 cones making the cupcakes with soda as I did.

 

After the cupcakes are well cooled, just before serving, top with a scoop of ice cream, Magic Shell, rainbow jimmies, and a stemmed maraschino cherry! This was easier said than done. Even with the air conditioning going non-stop, with this 100+ degree heat wave our house is at 81 right now. The ice cream wasn't even that hard in the freezer, usually you need a chisel and hammer to scoop ice cream. I had to work quickly at putting the ice cream on and my daughter quickly added the toppings and put them immediately into the freezer to harden up a bit before we photographed.

The cupcakes in the cones taste great and were cooked perfectly. I love the taste of them with the Diet Black Cherry Soda. With just a scoop of ice cream on top it is easy to eat before the whole thing melts! I really like these, they are my favorite out of the 3 ice cream cupcakes that I have made from the Pink Princess Cupcake Book.

Next weeks Pink Princess Cupcake:
Sunshine Princess (subject to change)
I have not been able to find a key ingredient for the "Sunshine Princess" yet, so I may pick out a different cupcake for next week.

Be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

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Visit the Ultimate Coupons.com Blog for a fun "What Your Favorite Ice Cream Says About You" infographic.
I have 2 favorite ice creams out of the selection. The ice cream I like the most, "Coffee", says that I am "The Elitest", my second favorite ice cream says I am a "Straight Shooter." Go check it out to see what your favorite ice cream says about you!
 
These Cupcakes are shared at:
A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Screaming Sardine: Month Long Cupcake Party
Party Mindie Style: Weekend Link Up
Jam Hands: Recipe Sharing Monday
Talking Dollars and Cents- Muffin (and Cupcake) Monday
Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday
Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday
Rook No. 17: A Little Birdie Told Me Tuesday
Lady Behind the Curtain: Cast Party Wednesday
This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked
Daily Organized Chaos: Foodie Wednesday
Something Swanky: Sweet Treats Thursday
Miz Helen's Country Cottage: Full Plate Thursday
 
These Cupcakes were featured at:
Screaming Sardine: Cupcake Link Features

Pink Princess Cupcakes #1- Pink Lemonade

Strawberry Pink Lemonade Ice Cream Cupcakes

Recently my dear husband bought for me Pink Princess Cupcakes by Barbara Beery and Princess Cupcakes Kit with booklet by Laura Starr. I love every single recipe and idea in the book and the liner kit goes great with it!

Soooooo.....I have decided to work my way through the book making each of the recipes. There are a total of 28 recipes. I haven't decided yet if I will make one idea a week, maybe sometimes I will want to make 2! I am sure there will be a week that I skip too. If I do one a week that will be 28 weeks of cupcakes! I should have all the ideas in the book completed sometime near the end of January 2012. I had thought about making them in order, but a few involve ice cream and are over halfway through the book and I probably won't want ice cream in the winter, so some ideas will be out of order. I also figured the author of the book probably wouldn't appreciate me publishing every single wonderful recipe of hers, so the recipes won't be included...sorry! However, I will include pictures of some of the steps as I make each idea and pictures of the final product, so either you can buy the book for the full recipes or improvise!

Here we go! The first recipe/idea from the book I am making is.....

Pink Lemonade

This recipe makes 48 mini cupcakes. (For me it made 56 mini cupcakes-so you probably would want to cut this recipe in half) For these cupcakes, I will be my Babycakes Mini Cupcake Maker. I have had the mini cupcake maker almost a year and only used it a few times since I don't make mini cupcakes that often.

The first step in making these cupcakes is to thaw out 1 quart of ice cream for about 20 minutes and then mix in a packet of sweetened pink lemonade. I have a huge container of Country Time Pink Lemonade, so I used 4 scoops, that sounded good to me! After 20 minutes the ice cream was still pretty firm, but I was able to mix in the pink lemonade powder. (I worked with this half at a time.) Now that needs to refreeze for at least 2 hours.

For the cupcake recipe, you have the option of a vanilla cupcake or a strawberry cupcake. For either you mix in additional pink lemonade powder. I am going to go with the strawberry cupcake recipe made with fresh strawberries! The recipe used 6 whole eggs and self-rising flour. I haven't made a ton of different "from scratch" recipes, but this seemed like a lot of eggs. I have never made cupcakes with self-rising flour either, but all of the cupcakes in the book use self-rising flour. I did follow the instructions for everything except the 1-1/4 cups of butter, which I substituted with unsweetened applesauce. I also omitted the extracts, I figured there would be enough flavor with the pink lemonade powder, which I used 3 scoops for the cupcake batter.

I filled the liners and they took about 7-1/2 minutes in the cupcake maker to fully bake. I had to do this 7 times...I didn't think this out really well, so it took me a little over an hour to get all 56 baked. I only have one mini cupcake pan as well so either way it would have taken me a long time! The book recommends lightly spraying the wrappers with cooking spray...I didn't.

They came out bubbling hot! This was the first batch. The cupcake ended up being perfect size, a little extra room is needed to accommodate the ice cream, as it will want to slide off. With the second batch in the cupcake maker, I had to try one of these! It was super hard to get the wrapper off, so the next batch, I sprayed lightly with cooking spray. The 3rd batch, the liners wouldnt stay on, so I learned just to spray the bottom of the liner a tiny drop.

With all the cupcakes baked and the ice cream ready, let the fun begin!

I don't have a mini ice cream scoop yet (never needed mini sized), so the ice cream is in tablespoon sized blobs! The ice cream wanted to melt quickly, so put that on right as your are about to serve.

They turned out cute for a little princess tea party!

There are about 50 of these mini strawberry pink lemonade cupcakes still left to eat!

PS- These even taste better the second day and were a lot easier to peel after being stored overnight at room temperature in my Wilton cupcake carrier. 

 

 

Next week's Pink Princess Cupcake:

Frosty Ice Cream Sandwich

 

Be Sure to Check out all of my Pink Princess Cupcakes!

  

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These cupcakes are shared at:

Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday

Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday

This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked

Lady Behind the Curtain: Cast Party Wednesday

Daily Organized Chaos: Foodie Wednesday

Around My Family Table: Turning the Table Thursday

Alli N Son: Sweet Tooth Friday

Sweet as Sugar Cookies: Sweets for a Saturday
A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Screaming Sardine: Month Long Cupcake Party
Talking Dollars and Cents: Muffin (and Cupcake) Monday
Kitchen Bouquet: Ice Cream Social 2011
Moms Crazy Cooking: This Weeks Cravings- Ice Cream
Moms Crazy Cooking: This Weeks Cravings- Strawberries
 
These cupcakes are featured at:
Daily Organized Chaos: Foodie Wednesday
A Well-Seasoned Life:Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Screaming Sardine: Fruity Cupcakes

Happy 4th of July Cupcakes!

Wishing You All a Happy and Safe 4th of July!

Quick and Easy Cupcakes!

Started with Pillsbury Funfetti mix, added some almond flavoring.

1M Almond Buttercream swirl, Patriotic wraps, sprinkles, and picks!

(Works best if you put the cupcakes in the wraps before icing!)

Plenty of time left for FIREWORKS!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

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These cupcakes are shared at:

Mom Crazy Cookie: This Weeks Cravings
Cupcake Apothecary: A Themed Bakers Sunday

Fireworks Cookies

Everybody's Making Them!

Yes, this is the cookie design on the cover of the Martha Stewart Living Magazine and yes, I am making them too! Why not? They are eye catching and easy! I used this method on the very first Halloween Cupcakes I made and a similar method on Shamrock Cookies.

I started by making my favorite sugar cookie recipe: Martha Stewart's Essential Recipe No. 2: Sugar Cookies. This recipe has never failed me! This time I used almond flavoring. I cut them out using a 4" round cutter, so these are big cookies! The recipe makes 12 cookies at the 4-inch size. I just made 10 with some dough left over to try out my new cookie press!

To decorate the cookies, all you have to do is outline your cookies with royal icing and a size 3 tip (you can find the recipe I use at my Margarita, Flip Flips and Cheap Sunglasses Cookie Post). Let the outline dry a few minutes and then thin out your icing and fill 'er up! For these cookies you don't want to let the first color dry before adding rings inside the cookie with various colors and size 2 tip, so make sure all your bags are ready to go! Drag a toothpick through the wet icing and that's it! It is best to work with just one cookie at a time!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

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These Cookies Were Shared At:

Sweet As Sugar Cookies: Sweets for a Saturday

A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Cupcake Apothecary: A Themed Bakers Sunday

If You Like Pina Coladas

And getting caught in the rain...

If you're not into yoga...

If you have half a brain...

These cupcakes are fun to make, YUMMY, and great for summer!

No, that picture at the top isn't a regular Pina Colada, it is a Strawberry Colada for a little inspiration!

I found the recipe in the Betty Crocker- Big Book of Cupcakes. Yes, I am lovin that book! The recipe however was a bit incomplete I found as it didn't tell how many eggs to use, just to put them in one at a time. Weird, anyways....

 

Ingredients/Directions for Pina Colada Cupcakes

2-1/2 cup Unbleached All Purpose Flour*

1 cup sugar

1 stick margarine*

Strawberry Applesauce (one of those single serve cups, about 1/2 cup)*

2-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp coconut extract

1 tablespoon light rum*

3 eggs*

Half or a little more of a 20oz can of crushed pineapples, drained (save juice), no measurements just eyeball it*

1/4 cup pineapple juice from the can*

1/4 cup milk

 *denotes my changes or more or less me just doing stuff my way as usual, so I changed most everything. I can't remember how many changes it takes before a recipe is considered your own?!

 

In the book it does have you to do things in certain orders, but I just put all the dry stuff in the mixer, followed by all the wet stuff and they turned out fine! I filled my liners between 2/3 and 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. This recipe made 21 cupcakes for me.
   

Cute seashell cupcake liners are Mary Engelbreit from Michaels.

    

Now onto the frosting...

First, let me tell you I have never cooked frosting in my life!

This was fun!

 

Ingredients/Directions for Tropical Frosting

2 egg whites, beat just until stiff peaks form (leave that in your mixer and move on to the stove!)

  

In your 1qt sauce pan...

1 TB water

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup corn syrup

 

Mix those 3 ingredients well and then cover and turn burner on medium until reaches a rolling bowl...just keep peeking...about 3 to 5 minutes depending on your stove. No stirring, don't touch it. Remove lid and continue to boil untouched for 4-8 minutes or until candy thermometer reads 240 degrees. This took about 6 minutes for me.

As soon as the sugar mixture reaches proper temperature, SLOWLY pour into your mixer turned on medium, keep it going and add 1 teaspoon coconut extract and 1 teaspoon light rum (I didn't have rum extract, just used rum!)

Keep mixer going for about 3 minutes until stiff peaks reform.

    

For some reason I had a lot of fun making the frosting!

My husband got me the book Sugar Baby by Gesine Bullock-Prado, she is Sandra Bullock's sister. Anyway, I have yet to make anything in the book, although I do want to one day! It is a great book with some stories in it and I did buy a candy thermometer because of it. I also learned by reading the book that molten hot sugar (what you are making in the pot for that frosting up there) boils hotter than water and it will stick to you and burn you like nothing else, so be careful and this is definitely something you don't to sling in your face when you put it in the mixer and you don't want small children around when you are making it.

   

Back to the Cupcakes

Frost the cupcakes with a spatula, press on some coconut, top with a paper umbrellas and enjoy! I put fresh strawberries on some of them too!

Anyway the cupcakes and frosting are YUM, and if you like Pina Coladas...just make them!
 

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These Cupcakes are linked up to:

A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday

Cupcake Tuesday
This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked
Lady Behind the Curtain: Cast Party Wednesday
Something Swanky: Sweet Treats Thursday
Miz Helen's Country Cottage: Full Plate Thursday
Alli N Son: Sweet Tooth Friday
Sweet as Sugar Cookies: Sweets for a Saturday

These Cupcakes were featured at:
Miz Helen's Country Cottage: What's for Dinner Next Week 7-10-11

Flashback to July 4th 2010

It's Flashback Friday!
This is a "now just occasional" segment that I post to show you some of my past adventures...

For this cupcake, I painted the inside of the piping bag, prepared with a 1M tip, with red up one side and blue up the other side and filled with Vanilla Buttercream frosting.

I experimented with a couple different star tips too 

My daughter is the cookie maker in the family and made these stained glass 4th of July cookies!

She started out with our favorite sugar cookie recipe: Martha Stewart Essential Recipe No. 2: Sugar Cookies. She rolled out the dough and cut out with a large star cookie cutter and then cut out the center with a small cookie cutter. She put Jolly Rancher candies in a zipper bag covered with a towel and used a hammer to break it up. Once the cookies were placed on the cookie sheet, she filled the center with the crushed candies. After the cookies baked, she iced them with Vanilla Buttercream icing and this is what they looked like! This was her first cookie project using this technique and I think she did a fabulous job!

Here are all of the different cupcakes and cookies that we made for July 4th, 2010!

Even the inside of the cupcake was Patriotic with Pillsbury Stars & Stripes Funfetti cake mix!

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These cupcakes are linked up to:

Cupcake Tuesday

Margaritas, Flip Flops, & a Pair of Cheap Sunglasses!

Margarita and Flip Flop Cookies are showing up everywhere! I recently saw the Margaritas at Glorious Treats with a fabulous "How To". Then I saw the Summer Cookie Cutters by Wilton at Michael's, so I just have to give them a try!

First the cookie part...
You can view the recipe I like to use and the tutorial for that by visiting my
Rockin' Shamrock Cookies Post
For this batch of cookies I am using Coconut extract to add to that tropical vibe!

On to the decorating part.....

I am not the greatest at decorating cookies at all! I used to use the wrong icing, either store bought or the same buttercream I put on cupcakes. Then when I did learn the right icing, I didn't give it a long enough time to dry. Now knowing my downfalls, can I pull off these great cookies?
After taking Wilton's Course 2 Flowers and Cake Design, I have definitely gotten used to making and using Royal Icing, so that is what I am using for these cookies, straight from the class book.

Icing Ingredients
1 box (1 pound) of confectioners sugar (this way you know you have the right amount)
3 tablespoons meringue powder
5-6 tablespoon warm water

Directions
Put the confectioners sugar and meringue powder in your mixer bowl. Add 6 tablespoons of warm water. Mix on lowest speed for exactly 10 minutes. Divide the icing into glass bowls and color as desired. Cover with plastic wrap and then with the lid. This will keep for a few weeks as long as you keep the air out!

For the outlines of the cookies- add water by the drop to reach toothpaste consistency. THIS IS THE KEY....TOOTHPASTE CONSISTENCY! I learned that from reading the "How to's" at Glorious Treats. Using a tip 3, outline your cookies. I only had one tip 3, somehow they are disappearing, so I used tip 2's on the other 2 colors.

To fill in the cookies- Put the icing back in the bowl and thin it out a little more with water a couple drops at a time to SHAMPOO CONSISTENCY! Again, I learned that from reading the tutorials at Glorious Treats! Once you are at shampoo consistency, you flood in your icing, using the same tip that you used to outline.

To put color on top of color- let dry 6-8 hours or overnight. If not, the second color will bleed right into the first color (Trust me. I know...I've done that before)  I am letting mine dry overnight before adding additional colors to be safe.....

 

The next day....

I added a little pearl dust to give the icing a little shimmer and added the finishing touches.

For the Margarita Glasses- I piped a little of the royal icing on the top of each Margarita rim and dipped in clear/white sparkling sugar and added a royal icing Violet that I have leftover from Wilton Course 2- Flowers and Cake Design.

For the Limes and Pink fictitious Lemons- I darkened some of the pink icing I had left and piped on the peel with size 3 tip, once that was about dry I piped on the white with size 2 tip.

For the straps on the flip flops- I used tip 46 to give them little ridges (although you really can't see the ridges from the pictures) and I added a royal icing Violet to the flip flops too.

The sunglasses- I piped dots and dipped in the clear/white sparkling sugar and added a Violet to each side.

I just love how these cookies turned out!

It's a lot of fun  and really not hard, now that I know what I am doing!

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These Cookies are shared at:

Sweet as Sugar Cookies: Sweets for Saturday
Party Mindie Style

A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday

This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked

Food Corner: Decorating Challenge #2- Royal Icing

My Oh My Mojito Cupcakes!

I have been wanting to make Mojito Cupcakes for some time now and today is the day!

For the cupcake, I doctored up a box mix...yes...a box mix! I used a Betty Crocker White Cake mix, 1 cup of Mojito Mix, 1 Tablespoon Lime juice, 4 egg whites, 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce, and as much chopped mint as I could get off my little plant and still leave enough for the top. (That was about 30 leaves of mint chopped up.) It could have used more! Mix all that together and bake at 350 for 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. The liners are from Nordicware...the color is perfect for these cupcakes!

(I did make a non-alcoholic version, but this could easily be changed by using 6 oz of Mojito Mix and 2 oz Light Rum instead of the 1 cup Mojito Mix.)

The frosting on the cupcakes was from the Margarita Cupcake Recipe in  Betty Crocker- The Big Book of Cupcakes.  For the frosting I folded together 2- 6oz containers of Yoplait Keylime Pie Light with 1-1/2 cups (1/2 a tub) of Cool Whip Light. I topped them with a mint leaf or two.

I also put a few birthday candies on some of them!

The cupcakes turned out nice anf fluffy! The frosting not very sweet taste of Keylime Yogurt and Cool Whip, it can really be eaten all alone, and that is what was done with the leftover frosting! Nice mint and lime flavored cupcake, low fat, low cal, simple goodness!

These cupcakes can be made from start to finish in less than an hour!

Enjoy!

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These cupcakes are linked up to:
Cupcake Tuesday
Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday
Alli N Son: Sweet Tooth Friday
Bacon Time: Party Mindie Style
Mom's Crazy Cooking- Fun Summer Recipes
A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Cupcake Apothecary: A Themed Bakers Sunday
Cajun Sugar Pie
Everyday Sisters: Sharing Sundays (Theme: Mexican)

Bears at the Beach!

It's Flashback Friday!
This is a "now just occasional" segment that I post to show you some of my past adventures...

These are the cupcakes I made last year for my birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me!

To make these cupcakes- I frosted about 1/2 the cupcake very thinly with white icing and smashed on some crushed teddy bears...okay that sounds really horrible! I feel guilty just saying it...so...if you want, use crushed graham crackers or brown sugar for sand. However, using the teddy bears give you one less thing to buy if you don't have the other items on hand!

For the water, I used a stiff consistency butter cream icing and kinda molded it on with my fingers. Towards the end I realized I could almost make waves with it.

I used Gummy Lifesavers as floats, Goldfish...as fish- haha (No Goldfish were harmed in the creation of this cupcake!), and Airheads to make beach balls, towels, and surf boards. Some of the umbrellas didn't want to stay up, so I used a small piece of Airhead to glue that up too! 

See the little waves?

These cupcakes were some of the first adventurous cupcakes that I made! Lots of fun!

 Since then I have discovered other methods of making water, check them out at the links below!

The Little Mermaid Cupcakes- I used Decorator Icing and Piping Gel

A Years Worth of Disney Cupcakes!- Check out the Disney Cruise Cupcakes on that post...I used buttercream, but also used a small spoon to make whitecaps on the waves!

These Cupcakes are linked up to Cupcake Tuesdays!