{from my kitchen} chocolate malt cupcakes

Yesterday was our first day of Spring Break, and it was a gorgeous day! The weather was just perfect. Grayson and I spent a lot of time outside, coloring on the driveway with sidewalk chalk, him riding in his Tonka truck, planting a few flowers, and just enjoying the sunshine!

We also baked some cupcakes for our family's Easter celebration today. My little helper sure was cute.

I volunteered to bring these Chocolate Malt Cupcakes. I've never tried these before, and they were simple because the recipe is just a doctored-up cake mix. They are topped with a perfect chocolate buttercream that has malt powder in it! I frosted them with a large french tip and topped each one with a Robin's Egg candy.

This recipe can be found at My Baking Addiction.

I hope y'all have a wonderful, blessed Easter! I'm so thankful my Redeemer LIVES!

Valentine's Day Treat Tags

Hi there! Yes, I realize this is my second post today, but I just had to share these Valentine's treats that I just made with you!

Do you use Pinterest? I use it and *love* it. Among the many boards I've created on there, I've created one for each holiday to store crafty and gift-giving ideas. The only problem is that there are just way too many things I want to make! I guess I've got ideas stored away for the next five years! LOL! :)

I wanted to make some treats to hand out at school to my co-workers, and I finally settled on these cookies. I love to make Peanut Butter Cookies, so when I saw this idea on Pinterest to use a heart-shaped chocolate with them, I knew it was a perfect, quick, homemade treat for my Valentine's Day treats!

However, things never go as planned, right? I couldn't find heart-shaped chocolates anywhere in Walmart, and I didn't want to go anywhere else. Then I remembered an idea I saw on the Plain Chicken blog the other day - to dip Milano cookies in vanilla almond bark and then coat in sprinkles. So easy!

Super cute, right? Mine didn't turn out that well, but I'm hoping the handmade tag makes up for the messy look to the cookies! LOL :)

I packed these by putting them in cellophane bags and attaching a handmade tag to each one. I love to make tags. It's kinda like a miniature card! I used some tags from Taylored Expressions and embossed each one with the Polka Dots embossing folder. I added a bit of patterned paper from the My Mind's Eye Love Me collection and a scalloped strip to each one. I cut hearts out of red, white, and pink felt using the Hearts a Plenty Dienamics by MFT Stamps and hot-glued a few hearts to each tag. I finished them off by adding some pink ribbon and twine. I just love how these tags turned out! They were really simple to make, and there was no stamping or coloring involved! As much as I love to stamp, when you're mass-producing something, it's easiest to find a way that doesn't involve a lot of coloring.

I hope all my recipients love them as much as I loved making them!

Thanks sooo much for stopping by today! :)

Supplies:

Cardstock: Sweet Blush (PTI), Kraft cardstock tags from Taylored Expressions

Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye Love Me

Embellishments: twine (RibbonCarousel.com), pink ribbon (Papertrey Ink)

Tools: Simply Scallops Border Dienamics, Hearts a Plenty Dienamics (MFT Stamps), Polka Dots embossing folder

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Hi there! I'm not real big into Halloween. I do decorate for Fall, though, and when I saw these adorable Candy Corn Cupcakes over at The Girl Who Ate Everything, I knew I had to make them just for fun!

My layers didn't turn out as even as hers. I think I used way too much orange. However, these did turn out just delicious! I used her cake recipe and frosting recipe, and they were perfect! I always doctor up my cake mixes, but I'd never added milk before. These cupcakes were so light, fluffy, and yummy!! I will definitely use that method for doctoring up a cake mix again!

Click here to get the recipe!

Hope you have an extra *sweet* day!!

Meljen's Designs - Back to School!

Hi everyone! It's Back to School for me today! I had a great day, but I'm exhausted and there are soooo many new names to learn - around 130 of them! I'm looking forward to a great year with my students, though! :)

I wanted to make some little "happies" for my fellow teachers, and I knew this Apple for Teacher digi by Meljen's Designs would be perfect for making gift tags.

I started by sizing my digi to fit in the upper portion of the oval and typing a sentiment underneath it before printing it out. I cut it out with Classic Oval Nestabilities and colored it with Copic markers. I added a strip of patterned paper and accented it with some gingham ribbon, twine, a button, and three red Twinkles.

I attached the tag base to the red cardstock, which was cut out with Scallop Oval Nestabilities. I put an eyelet at the top to reinforce the hole.

I  tied the tag to a bag filled with Lemon Crinkle cookies. These are such a delicious and easy cookie to make, so of course, I'm going to share the recipe with you!

Lemon Crinkles

1 box Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme cake mix

2 cups Cool Whip, thawed

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup powdered sugar

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, Cool Whip, and egg. Mix until well combined. Chill the dough several hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Form one-inch balls and roll them in the powdered sugar. Place the cookies on a greased cookie sheet several inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes until the cookies are set but not browned. Cool on wire rack.

A couple tips that I've learned from baking these a lot:

-Mix the batter with a wooden spoon. It is WAY too thick to mix with a mixer.

-Yes, you must chill the batter. It makes it much easier to roll the cookies into balls. I stick mine in the fridge for about an hour, or if you're really impatient, try the freezer for a little bit.

-My medium-sized Pampered Chef cookie scoop is the perfect size for these cookies! I just scoop and drop right into the powdered sugar.

-10 minutes is the magic number for me in terms of baking. I like a soft cookie, though. They may look like they're not done, but after letting them sit for awhile, they'll firm up a bit. Everyone's oven is different, though.

These are soooo simple to make! Try them with pecans, or try different flavors of cake batter such as chocolate or strawberry. There are lots of possibilities!

That's it for me tonight. No one has to make me go to bed...I'm tired! Have a great evening!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper: October Afternoon Report Card
Stamps: Apple for Teacher by Meljen's Designs
Ink: Copic markers
Embellishments: Twinkles (Taylored Expressions), ribbon (Walmart), twine (Papertrey Ink), button, eyelet
Tools: Classic Oval Nestabilities, Scallop Oval Nestabilities

{In the Kitchen} Christy Jordan's Cinnamon Rolls

Have y'all heard of Christy Jordan over at Southern Plate? I just love her. She is all about some good, down-home, Southern cooking. Which each recipe she posts, she tells a story that goes along with it, and I just love the way she can tell a story. It makes you feel like she's right there in the kitchen with you. I bought her cookbook, and I use it all the time. Christy cooks the kind of food I was raised on...no fancy stuff here! Now that I'm married and am making a feeble attempt at learning to cook, she's right there helping me along. I've always been good at baking, but cooking takes work for me. Christy says that anyone can cook as long as they have the right recipe. Well, let me tell y'all, her cookbook is full of the right recipes! :)

I recently made her Homemade CinnaBuns. These are so easy because they're made with frozen bread dough. These were soooo yummy, oooey, gooey, and delicious. What made them especially good was the frosting - cream cheesy, buttery, powdered sugary, cinnamony yumminess! Christy put cinnamon in her icing, so I did, too! I'd never had a cinnmon roll with cinnamon in the icing before, but it was a perfect touch!

Now before y'all go on and try these, I must confess. Mine did not come out right at all on the first batch. In fact, they came out like this. I think if you Googled "Epic Fail of Baking Cinnamon Rolls," you would find this photo. BURNED!! That black stuff is the burnt junk on the bottom of the pan. The pan is supposed to be silver. The recipe said to bake them at 400 for 15 minutes or until done. Well, that's what I did. I think they're done alright.

So, I had my heart set on these CinnaBuns, so I tried again. This time I baked them at 350 for 15 minutes, and they came out like this...much better!

Even better with some of that yummy icing on top!!

Head on over to Southern Plate where you can find the recipe for Christy Jordan's Homemade CinnaBuns and many more wonderful Southern recipes!

4th of July Yumminess

I love cupcakes...baking them, eating them, buying cupcakey things, etc. They're just so cute! I have been in search of the perfect buttercream icing recipe. I don't like the Wilton one because it uses Crisco, and Crisco leaves that waxy taste in your mouth. I wanted pure buttercream, but yet one that would hold its own with a piping bag and make a beautiful swirl. I finally found it! I have experimented with so many different recipes, but it was worth it. The one I made yesterday was a sure keeper. I even made it in chocolate. Then, I was inspired to make some cupcake wrappers. There is a new cupcake wrapper Cricut cartridge at Walmart. I've been wanting it, but then I Googled "free cupcake wrapper svg" and found lots of them. So, that saves me $39! I chose some red, white, and blue papers and cut out the wrappers to wrap around my cupcakes. Here they are!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!!

Peep Cupcakes

I think Easter Peeps bring out the kid in all of us. We went to a barebecue at my aunt and uncle's house yesterday, and I made these cute Peep cupcakes to take.

I used a doctored-up cake mix for the cupcake part, and I frosted them with marshmallow cream frosting. The frosting didn't turn out the way I wanted, so I'm not even going to bother sharing the recipe. It was the first time I made it. My brother loved it, though.

I topped each cupcake with a marshmallow Peep and arranged them on my cupcake tree. You can see that I added sprinkles to a few, but then I got tired of putting sprinkles on. LOL!

I truly hope you had a happy Easter with your family celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I can't believe Easter has already come and gone. Time is going by so quickly. Savor each moment! :)

Sweet Valentine's Treat

Hi there! I have something extra yummy to share with you today. I wanted to make something special for my Secret Valentine at school. We've been swapping gifts with a secret pal leading up until Valentine's Day when we will reveal who our secret pal is! Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure my pal knows that it's me. I'm not very good at keeping secrets.

Here is what I made her for this week.

I have always wanted to try altering one of these clear paint buckets. I picked one up at Michael's the last time I was there. I knew that I wanted to fill this with something sweet for my pal.

I kept my design for the bucket very simple. I used a strip of Valentine's paper from my stash and edged it with my Fiskars Apron Lace border punch. Have y'all ever noticed that I use that on practically everything I make? Love it! I cut out a pink and a red heart with my Cricut and embossed them with my Cuttlebug and the swirls folder. I added a simple tag that I stamped to say "With Love from My Kitchen." That sentiment was from the Tag Treats set from Taylored Expressions.

Now, I know you're wondering what the treats were that I filled my bucket with! I made some peanut butter balls and dipped them in milk chocolate. Then, I used Wilton candy melts in red and white to drizzle them. We usually make these at Christmas and we never do the drizzling, but I wanted them to be festive for Valentine's Day. I found the candy melts on the Valentine's aisle at my Walmart, but they also have them at Hobby Lobby and Michael's.

If you do this, here's a tip for melting the red and white chocolate. I took the Wilton cake decorating classes at Hobby Lobby awhile back, so I had some cake decorating bags on hand. I put my desired amount of chocolate wafers (it doesn't take a lot) in each bag (without a decorating tip) and secured the bag with an icing bag tie. Then, I put the bags in the microwave and melted according to the package directions. After they were melted, I snipped off the edge and did my drizzling. That was the best part...fun! Here's how they turned out!

Peanut Butter Balls
16 ounces creamy peanut butter
1 box powdered sugar
1 stick of melted butter
Mix all ingredients together. Roll into balls and dip into melted chocolate. Place on wax paper to harden.
The chocolate that works best for these is the chocolate almond bark. It melts great and hardens quickly - no need to refrigerate. However, my peanut butter balls were a little soft prior to dipping, so I refrigerated them for a few minutes befor I dipped them in the chocolate. Also, it helps if you roll out all of the balls first, and then do the dipping. I use a toothpick to dip mine.
Enjoy! :)

A Yummy Taylored Expressions Blog Hop!

It is a VERY happy day for me! I am sooo excited to get to be a part of the Taylored Expressions January Key Ingredients blog hop today! Taylor emailed me a few weeks ago and asked me to be a guest designer, along with some other talented ladies, and I didn't even have to think twice about it. I replied "yes!" right away. I think by now we all know how much I *love* Taylored Expressions. So, you can only imagine my surprise when I got Taylor's email. I've been looking forward to this day ever since then. I am so honored to be among such awesome talent today. Taylor, thank you again for this AMAZING opportunity! I think I'm still in shock...

Before I get to my project, I'd like to tell you a little about why I truly love being a Key Ingredients subscriber.

1) You absolutely cannot beat the AWESOME customer service!

2) I love that the shipping is only $7 and that you can place an order to combine with your Key Ingredients and save 10% on that order. That's not all! You also get free shipping since it is combined with your Key Ingredients!

3) I'm horrible at "matching" things, so I love that the hard part is already done for me. It makes card-making a breeze. The products are also of great quality, great variety, and all-in-all, it's a great value.

4) This one may sound silly, but I just love getting that happy mail every month! Sometimes I come home from a hard day at school, and it just makes me so happy to see that package. I can open it up and go play and forget about all the stress.

Now, let's get to the good stuff!

Taylor's challenge was to let food inspire you. Use your favorite foods or sweet treats as a jumping off point for your creations! Use food images, create recipe cards, or other creations for your kitchen.

I knew immediately what I wanted to do for this challenge. Awhile back my sweet Sassy Blinging Babes and I did a 6x6 recipe card swap. I've had all of these beautiful creations from my babes with no album to store them in. So, I took on the challenge and came up with this...

I purchased this great stand from the TE store. I wanted to spray paint it white, and I actually tried to, but the windy 20-degree weather wasn't exactly cooperating with me last Saturday. Paint doesn't really dry in that kind of weather. I knew that spray painting inside would be a huge mess, so the stand itself isn't finished yet. You get the general idea, though.

I kept my design of the cover and divider pages very simple. When that cute striped paper caught my eye, I knew that I wanted it for the cover page. It reminded me of an apron. Of course, I had to use my Fiskars Apron Lace punch (my favorite!) and I did lots of stitching around my borders. I used Modge Podge on the cover and for the last step, I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch two holes for eyelets. All of the word cut-outs are from the Cricut From My Kitchen cartridge. This cartridge has really inspired me to use my Cricut more. It has TONS of stuff on it.

For my divider pages, I did not use Modge Podge since I was putting them in page protectors. The timer and pot holder were both from the From My Kitchen cartridge.

This was my favorite page to do because I love cupcakes so much!

Now, I'd love to share with you some exciting news about Taylored Expressions!

**There is a Brand Spankin' New Key Ingredients Website! I am so excited about this. My favorite part is the gallery, so that I can get inspiration and see what others have created with the kit. It's so great to see how many people took the same products and all created something different, yet beautiful.

**Limited Time Subscription Special - Purchase (or renew) a 6 month subscription on or before January 17th and receive a FREE Key Ingredients kit upon the completion of your 6 month subscription. This kit (a $23.95 value including shipping) will be an exclusive kit that will never be available in the TE Store! I just renewed my subscription for 6 months and I cannot wait to see the free kit!

**Beat the price increase - As of January 18th, prices will increase to $23.95 per month for 6 month subscriptions and $25.95 per month for 3 month subscriptions. However, if you subscribe or renew by January 17th you’ll receive the current pricing of $21.95 per month for 6 months or $22.95 per month for 3 months. You can renew your subscription no matter how many months you have remaining on your current subscription. Your renewal will simply add 3 or 6 additional months. Remember you only get the FREE EXCLUSIVE KI with the 6 month option. Just click here to sign up!
Thank you so much for stopping by today, and I hope you enjoyed seeing what I created. Be sure to hop around and see what the Baker's Dozen as well as the other guest designers have in store for you. I'm positive you'll love what you see!

Laura Leonard
Lisa Hjulberg
Lynn Mercurio
Randi Barrett
Sunghee Chon
Kathie Bailey
Taylor VanBruggen
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Melissa Sauls
Donna Baker
Charmaine Ikach
Jeanie Witmer

Have a GREAT day! :)

{Recipe} Pepperoni Pinwheels

I made these really easy pizza-style snacks over the weekend to take to a family gathering and they were soooo good! There was not a single one left!

I doubled the recipe and it made about 40 of these.

Pepperoni Pinwheels

1/2 cup diced pepperoni

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 tsp. dried oregano

1 egg, separated

1 can refrigerated crescent rolls

In a small bowl, combine the pepperoni, cheese, oregano, and egg yolk. In another small bowl, whisk egg white until foamy. Set aside. Separate dough into four rectangles. Seal perforations. Spread pepperoni mixture over each rectangle within 1/4 inch of the edges. Roll up jelly-roll style starting with short side. Pinch seams to seal. Cut into six slices. Place cut side down on greased baking sheets. Brush tops with egg white. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

A few of my tips:
*I actually bought the mini pepperonis and used them instead of dicing up pepperoni. That was a big time-saver.
*I made these up a few hours before I was ready to serve them. After I rolled them up, I wrapped the rolls in plastic wrap and stored them in the refrigerator. Then about 30 minutes before we left for the party, I sliced them up and baked them.
*It says cut them into 6 slices, but I actually only got 5 slices out of mine. Who wants the end without any good stuff in it? :)

I hope you enjoy these as much as my family did! Let me know if you try it!