R2D2 cake

This weekend we celebrated Lil' E's 7th Birthday.  Going along with the Star Wars themed Cupcakes we made this R2D2 cake.  This was a fun cake to make.  It is made from 3-6"rounds, and a 1/2 ball cake pan.  The cake itself was alternate layers of White Sour Cream Vanilla Cake and Chocolate Cake with Cookie n Cream filling.  This go around I even made my own marshmellow fondant.  It turned out great and was just as easy to work with.  Who would have thought.  Man I have been spending way to much on the other stuff.  It only cost me about $5 to make 6 lbs.  Wheras the other is about $4-$5 a pound.

Thanks for looking!

The arms weere made out of Rice Cereal Treats that were covered in buttercream and fondant. 

 

I can't believe Lil' E is seven years old. 

Wilton Punch. Cut. Decorate! {Giveaway}

I haven't posted a giveaway on here before, but thought I would let you know of one that is going on right now at Mom Spotted.  Look at these super cool Wilton Punch. Cut. Decorate! tools:

For those who have never piped or piping doesn't come easily these cute sugar sheets can make it easier. They have different colors, prints, solids and alphabets.

The tool that I am most excited about are the cake punches.  I do have my cricut cake, but when I don't have to pull out the cricut the better.  These look so fun to use.  Some of these even come in sets of 3 different sizes for layer.  Oh I want these too bad.



Do you want a chance to win this Wilton Punch. Cut. Decorate! set valued at $126.  If so head on over to Mom Spotted.  Good Luck, but I will be honest I am keeping my fingers crossed that this giveaway comes my way!

Have I mentioned that I really wish I knew how to become a Wilton Mom Abassador to try out the newest Wilton's tools?  If any of you know how I can do so please let me know!!

Baseball Cupcakes

T-Ball and Prep are coming to a close tomorrow and we just happen to have snack, and it is Lil' E's birthday.  Well it was planned because I am the team mom.  I thought it would be fun to make cupcakes in the colors of the boys' teams.  Lil' E is light blue.  They were the Mariners.  Doble's team is orange.  They are the Tigers. 

I used my FAVORITE cake recipe, but altered it a bit by substituting the vanilla for the almond extract.  I think most kids like vanilla better.  Then I topped it with a GENEROUS swirl of Italian Meringue Buttercream...MMMM!  The little baseballs are out of fondant with tylose and then piped with royal icing. 

sorry in advance to the parents whose children will be consuming all that frosting.

Star Wars Cupcakes

Not the best picture of these cute little cupcakes.  Lil' E is having a Star Wars themed birthday.  For his Kindergarten class today we made Star Wars light saber cupcakes.  Super cute and super easy!  He actually just wanted frosing and star sprinkles, but can you believe it NO SPRINKLES anywhere in town.  I think these turned out better and he loved them.

Can I just say that I am LOVING the frosting recipe I have been using to lately.  It is so light and creamy.  I will never go back to frosting with powdered sugar again.

Thomas Goes to the Circus

Thomas and the Chinese Dragon Birthday cake for Doble.

He wanted a Thomas Carnival cake and this is what I came up with.  For his preschool class we made cupcakes to look like boxes of popcorn.  This was alot of fun to make.  Everything is edible.  The two figures are made from gumpaste, and the circus tent is out of rice cereal treats.  He chose a vanilla cake with cookies and cream filling and a chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream and raspberry filling.

Once again I had to cover Doble's name.  The red little plaque thing on the bottom layer has been colored in to hide his name.

I used nut and party cups instead of cupcake liners. Every other crease was colored using a sharpie.  The popcorn look was created using marshmellows that had x's cut into the top of them and then painted using yellow food coloring.  We had butter and extra butter!

Strawberry Banana Muffins

About a month ago a friend on my facebook posted a link to this recipe. I knew I wanted to try it. However, strawberries and bananas don't last too long in our house. The kids devour them quicker than I can muster up the motivation to bake. A couple days ago we went to costco and bought fruit and lots of it; apples, oranges, grapefruit, grapes, bananas, and strawberries. With so much fruit in the house I was actually able to try out this new recipe!

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, chopped
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 medium, ripe bananas
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix the bananas, eggs, brown sugar and butter until blended. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Stir in vanilla and strawberries by hand so as not to mush the berries. Spoon into well greased muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.
Makes 12-18 muffins.

The Verdict: The house smelt delish! I love the smell of baked goods and banana bread is one of my absolute favorites. The muffins were also very tasty. The banana and strawberry flavors as always compliment eachother. I will admit strawberries are not my favorite mushy foods. I like them fresh. I hate them in strawberry yogurt. I don't like chunks of mushy strawberries so it did take me a bit or two to get past the warm mush of strawberries. I may have to try one later when they aren't warm to see if it helps. If you can get past the mushy strawberries you are sure to love these. I have a feeling they won't last long in the house.

For more yummy recipes visit Nanzinas-Recipe-Swap.

Banana Crumb Muffin Recipe

Tonight while JBody was at Priesthood session for General Conference, I decided to let the kids watch Tangled. We just received it from Netflix. With a movie, often times comes snacks. As I looked around for something for the kids to snack on I found some ripe bananas. I remembered Razy talking about making cupcakes and decided to go muffins. I quickly surfed the web for a test worthy muffin recipe. I found a yummy sounding Banana Crumb Muffin recipe with great reviews.

So what was our verdict?

DELICIOUS, yummy, ScRUMPtious,mmmmmMMMMM! The list could go on.

Here is the original version of the muffins (found on allrecipes.com).  I actually made some additions.  You can find those and some tips at the end of the recipe.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted



1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

2.In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

3.In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

4.Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

So I added 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. of cinnamon to the muffin mix

The topping is seems to cook into the muffin if you add it before putting it in the oven.  I actually did a batch by putting the topping mix on 5 minutes before baking time ended.

In my oven I baked the mini muffins for 7 mins then added topping and baked another 5 mins.

I baked the larger muffins for 17 mins adding the topping at the begining.  Next time I would bake for 12 mins and then add topping and bake another 5 mins. 

Let me know if you tried these out and what you thought.

Wanna share a muffin recipe?  Post one on your blog and send me the link, send me an email (djpeachparty5 at gmail dot com) or post in my comment section.  I love new recipes!