Heart shaped cake bites

I have resisted the cake pop/ball trend for this long because I have an unnatural fear of touching food that other people are going to eat. It's weird, I know. But I came up with a way to make these that thankfully had little touching involved!


1 box cake mix (I used strawberry)
1/2 can vanilla frosting
melting chips

Bake cake as directed and allow to cool. Crumble cake (I used forks to tear it up) into a bowl and stir in frosting. Place some batter on a glass plate and press to 1/2 inch thickness under plastic wrap. Use cookie cutter to cut small shapes from batter. Freeze shapes for at least 1/2 hour. Dip in melted chips and decorate.
Easy, tasty, and with minimal food to finger contact, just the way I like it :)

Enjoy!

Valentine T for baby

This is my sweet nephew P's first valentine's day, and I wanted to make him something special. Considering he's only 7.5 months old, he can't have my cookies or cupcakes, so I made him a t-shirt.
First I bought a plain red T-shirt from Target and some black fabric with lips on it from JoAnn's. Then I sketched out a template of a necktie. I cut out the tie shape and sewed it on like an applique, trimming off the extra fabric when it was done.

I love it, and I can't wait to see it on his chubby little self!

Conversation Heart Cookies

Because everyone is doing it! Inspired by Annie over at Annie's Eats (have I mentioned her yet? That woman has my heart. Her pictures and food are beautiful and her recipes easy to follow. Go visit her now, it wont hurt my feelings!) I decided to attempt to make conversation heart sugar cookies.
Every season I forget how much I *hate* rolling out sugar cookies, and this time I figured out why, I'm impatient! I never wait for the dough to chill. After giving up on my cookies for 6 hours, I came back to perfectly chilled dough and easy to roll cookies. Doh!

Also, this is only my second attempt ever at royal icing. The first time I absolutely hated it, and swore never to do it again. This time I sat at the table and used Annie's Tips, and had a lot more fun. I will definitely be making royal iced cookies again and again.

I used this sugar cookie recipe, from a year in the kitchen, and Annie's Royal icing recipe. These are some of the best sugar cookies I've ever tasted! The lemon really makes them special.

I'm still a little impatient when it comes to decorating and I didn't wait until the base color was fully dry before writing on them, and my base color is pretty lumpy. Oh well, live and learn! I'll work on my technique for St. Patty's day! Also, I had the hardest time thinking of sayings to write! I didn't even think of "be mine", which is pretty much the ultimate Valentines day saying. It was 11pm, I'll blame my brain delete on that!

mmm, cupcakes

I needed a good reason to use the adorable Valentines sprinkles and cupcake wrappers that I got for 40% off at JoAnns, so I made these mini cupcakes for my mom for Valentines day. Aren't they adorable?!
I have more Valentines baking up my sleeve for this weekend, along with my first attempt at homemade pasta. What are yooooou doing for Valentines day?

It's a boy!

I just found out that my new nephew is boy! Unfortunately, that means I still don't have anyone to make ruffle butt onsies for, but I'm excited! Now I just need to find an equally cute boy project.

Want.

I am in immediate need of two things:

1. A ruffle foot for my sewing machine
2. A girl baby

Why? Three words: Ruffle Butt Onsies!!!
I found this tutorial over at U create, it's a guest post from Crap I've Made (the photo is hers too!)

Aren't you in love with that onsie? And that chubby legged baby?! I am, and I'm crossing my fingers that the fetus my SIL is growing is a girl! (and yes, I just texted my SIL to see if she knew what it was yet. She doesn't. poo)

Still. I foresee many of these in my future. I just need to find some babies to put them on!

If you're in need for some crafty inspiration, check out U create and Crap I've Made . They are both beautiful blogs with tons of great ideas!

10 minute cookies

I'm not a gourmet cook,baker or eater. I don't make my own cheese and I've never had arugula. I eat what I like, and what I like is easy. Sometimes I debate (with myself) whether or not my recipes (like this one) are worthy of sharing with the blogosphere, and then I had an epiphany.

Sometimes, a girl just wants a cookie...NOW.

And a cookie you shall get! These take approximately three minutes to whip up from a box cake mix, and only 7 minutes to cook. Perfect for whipping up during the commercial break on Hulu on a lazy Sunday afternoon!

10 minute cookies

1 boxed cake mix (any flavor!)
1/3 c. oil
2 eggs

Mix all three (!!!) ingredients together. Roll into balls and roll in powdered sugar. Bake at 350 for 7-9 minutes. Eat all of them in one sitting.

Some of my favorite variations: Lemon cake mix with 2 tbs lemon zest mixed in. Chocolate cake mix with 1/2 c. nuts mixed in (pictured). Spice cake mix rolled in cinnamon and sugar.

Enjoy! And the fact these come from a box mix will be our little secret ;)

crochet hat

For Christmas I made my two year old nephew a crochet hat, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of it (so maybe I finished it in the car on the way to our Christmas celebration, I never said I was organized! :)
Yesterday my sister texted me this picture:

How stinkin' cute is that! I love his cheesy fake smile. Oh, and the hats cute too :)

I can't believe it's February already! This year is going to FLY by!