Better Homes and Gardens

Simple & Cute Cupcakes :) from Better Homes and Gardens

Textbook Cake

Made this just for fun, one of the simplest cakes I've ever made <3.  

Give it a try anyone can make this :)!

To make a cake like this you need:
- 1 Box of Cake Mix
- Fondant (1 Box of Witlon PreRolled)
- 1 Can of Frosting
- Edible Color Sprays
- Chocolate Writers

First bake a regular cake (13X9).  While the cake is baking begin making the fondant covers for the book.  Roll out fondant and cut 2 rectangles (14X10) and the spine of the book (eyeball that measurement).  Next decorate the fondant, I used edible color spray to get the colors I wanted.  By now the cake should be about done.  Allow the cake to cool before frosting it with the icing.  

While you are waiting for the cake to cool continue decorating the fondant (give the spray a little time to dry).  I used chocolate writers to write on the fondant, icing didn't hold its shape well enough and I didn't feel like cutting out fondant letters.  After the cake has cooled and you have frosted it cover the cake with a white piece of fondant.  Put the bottom book cover on a cake board and move the fondant covered cake onto the bottom book cover.

Now Use a fork to gently draw lines on the sides to create the illusion of pages.  Allow the book spine and the front cover of the book to harden (you may have to leave it over night).  Once they have hardened use a small amount of water to stick the spine and book cover onto the cake.  Share, eat, and enjoy.

Easter Egg Cookies

Easter Sugar Cookies

Easter Treats

Easter Lamb Cakes :)

Mini Cupcakes & Flower Sprinkles

(Originally I wanted to use green coconut as the grass around the 

lambs but I had extra batter so mini cupcakes won that battle)

It's not Easter without Easter Eggs :)

Rainbow Cookie Cake

This is my absolute favorite dessert!  Instead of having it in small bite sized cookies I used a checkerboard cake pan (but unfortunately I didn't put the colors in the correct order).

The checkerboard cake pans make this delicious dessert so simple to make.

To make this dessert follow my tricolor cookie recipe (x3) and use a checkerboard cake pan :) <3.

Heart Cake

Looks like a boring (slightly messy) bakery cake... until you slice it up :).


This seemly ordinary yellow cake coated in a chocolate cream topped with chocolate ganache is anything but ordinary.  Every slice has a little extra love baked in ...

Following Directions

Hey guys, sorry for not posting anything in a while.  I thought tonight I would finally have a few things to post but instead I wound up with a disaster and nothing delicious to show for my efforts.  At least I have a little advice to share based on this experience...

Mistake: Adding Too Much Batter:

A while ago I wanted to try something new and exciting,  but the recipe must have

left out a few ingredients because I wound up with a bunch  of mushy nothingness

which only consisted of brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, and butter.

So today when I tried a new cake mold that called for one box of cake mix I was 

skeptical about the directions because it didn't look like the mold was even almost 

filled, thus I made another box of cake mix to add.  NEVER DO THAT!!!!!!!!!!!

Result: Uncooked/burnt cake, huge mess in the oven, two wasted boxes of cake mix and a lot of wasted time.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I found this chocolate sugar cookie recipe on Flour Child's baking blog.  I wanted to make these for the Superbowl but I couldn't find a single football cookie cutter :(.  Anyway here is Flour Child's recipe for chocolate sugar cookies:










Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon milk    
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour




Preheat the oven to 375.

To Make The Cookies:

First beat the butter, sugar, cocoa, milk and vanilla together.

Then beat in the baking soda and flour.

Once all of the ingredients have been combined you can begin to roll out the dough,

dust your work surface with flour so that the dough doesn't stick or rip.

Use any cookie cutter to shape your cookies before placing them in the oven for 5 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool then enjoy! :)

Grandma's Homemade Cheesecake

Until recently I was not a fan of cheesecake; however, I have just recently become a big fan of cheesecake.  


Here is a simple recipe with a few tricks to make cheesecake :).






Ingredients:

• 1lb Cottage Cheese
• 1lb Cream Cheese
• 1 1/2 Cups of Sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Tsp Lemon Juice
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 4 TBSP Corn Starch
• 4 TBSP Flour
• 1 Stick of Butter
• 1lb Sour Cream

Crust Ingredients:

- 1 Sleeve of Graham Crackers

- 1/4 Cup Sugar                      .

- 1 Stick of Melted Butter       .

To Bake:

Preheat the oven to 325

Use a springform pan if you have one.

Begin by making the crust, first,put all of the Graham crackers into a sealed Ziploc bag and smash the crackers until they make a fine powder.  Next pour the powder into your pan and add the sugar.  Finally add the melted butter to your mixture and use your hands to shape the crust.  The crust will cover the bottom of the pan and some of the sides, it will not cover the entire side of the cheesecake.  Now you can move on to create the cake batter.  Mix the ingredients together in the order they are listed in, DO NOT STOP STIRRING.  If you have a stand mixer it will come in handy because you need to continuously stir while adding each ingredient.  Once all of the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth pour the batter into the crust.  If you are using a springform pan put a cookie sheet under the pan to catch the extra butter which will seep out from the bottom of the pan.  Bake the cake at 325 for 1 hour (DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR!), after it has baked for an hour turn the oven off but leave the cake in the oven for an additional hour and again DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR, not even for half a second!  After you have patiently waited 2 hours you may open the oven door and remove your cheesecake, however you must then continue to wait before you can eat the cheesecake because now it must sit in the fridge for at least an hour and a half.  I recommend leaving it over night.  Enjoy! :)

Be Mine

Here are a few cookies I've made for Valentine's Day.  I can't promise that they will 

make it to Valentine's Day because I already really want to eat them :x.

Valentine Treats

Hey everyone, sorry for not updating lately but school and work are keeping me crazy busy.  But since I haven't made anything recently here are more bakespirational cookies for you to try.  Hopefully I'll get to try these out too! :)

Obviously I LOVE Valentine's Day :), and I love the adorable treats people have made for it.  These mini cakes are from Wilton's website.  These little mini cakes are made with sugar sheets and if you've read some of my previous posts you know I am NOT a fan of those.  I am also not a big fan of cutting the little cakes out of a sheet cake, it takes a lot of time and wastes a lot of cake (unless you make cake pops too).  So when I make these I am going to go cake pop style for the entire mini cake!  Instead of using the sugar sheets I am going to use a thin piece of fondant for the top hearts, as far as the sides go I'll play it by ear and get back to you.

If you are single and celebrating Valentine's Day with your best friend then lucky you because you have a reason to make this adorable cookie...

This is another cute idea from Wilton.  Good luck with the writing, pretty fonts are not my forte :x.  




Hopefully I can make something soon for you guys :)!

Wilton's Valentine Cookie Envelopes

Wilton has tons of ideas for Valentine's Day this year.  If you want to bake a homemade goodie for your Valentine then go to Wilton's website and look through all of their adorable ideas.  Here is one of my favorites and the one I hope to bake closer to Valentine's Day this year.




Click here for the directions to make this cute cookie for your Valentine.

Woodloch Pine's Mardi Gras Dessert

This Mardi Gras themed cake is creative.  It is easy to make and it is so cute with their theme.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.2

CONTEST WINNER

January 1st is finally here and thanks to everyone I have exceeded my goal of 30 followers!! :).  I wrote everyone's names on paper and picked the big winner out of hat (really it was a bowl but I don't want to mess with the saying).

The winner is .......................



CHRISTINA AMODEO!!!!!!

Congratulations girly!  Christina won a mini three tiered cake!! 

Thanks everyone!

Healthy Treats For Your New Year Resolutions

Everyone always makes new year resolutions to lose weight or eat healthier, here are some delicious looking recipes from Shape magazine that will help you sacrifice the calories without sacrificing taste :).

1) FONUTS:

These are fake doughnuts, they look like doughnuts but they have about half the calories of a real doughnut. This quick and easy treat only takes a bout half an hour to make and makes about twenty four mini doughnuts. Here is the recipe for the Rosemary-Olive Oil Fonuts :).

 Calorie Count: 143 per Fonut (9g fat, 15g carbs, 2g protein, 21mg calcium, 1mg iron, 81 mg sodium) Compare to Dunkin' Donuts at anywhere from 200-500 calories for a full size donut.

                                                                                                                                  Ingredients:

2 Cups of Flour

3/4 Cup of Sugar

2 and 1/4 Teaspoons of Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Eggs

3/4 Cup of Milk

1/4 Vegetable Oil

2 Tablespoons of Coarsely Chopped Fresh Rosemary

Zest from 3/4 of a Lemon

Juice from 1/2 of a Lemon

1/4 Cup Pine Nuts (for the top of the fonut)

Steps:

1) Preheat your oven to 350 and grease your doughnut pan.

2) Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl

3) In another bowl mix the eggs, milk, oils, rosemary, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

4) Combine the wet and dry ingredients

5) Mix until they are combined (this mixture may be lumpy)

6) Fill each slot 2/3 of the way full.

7) Bake for 10-12 minutes

8) Grind the pine nuts into a powder and place the powder into a shallow pan, when the doughnuts are finished cooking lightly spray the top of them with a cooking spray and dip them into the pine powder.

For more Fonut Recipe's check out Shape's website :).

2) Vegan Cupcakes:

If chocolate is your weakness try out these chocolate cupcakes topped with a healthier version of butter cream.  This recipe makes about 12 frosted cupcakes.

Cake Ingredients:

1 Cup of Almond Milk

1 Teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar

1/3 Cup of Vegetable Oil

3/4 Cup of Sugar

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla

1 Cup of Flour

1/3 Cup of Cocoa Powder

1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Powder

3/4 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

Frosting Ingredients:

1/2 Cup of Vegan Margarine (or butter)

3 Cups of Powdered Sugar

2 Chai Tea Bags

2 Tablespoons of Boiling Water

2 Tablespoons of Almond Milk

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

Cupcake Steps:

1) Preheat your oven to 350

2) Mix the vinegar and the almond milk and let them sit for five minutes

3) Whisk your vinegar almond mixture with the oil, sugar, and vanilla

4) In another bowl sift the dry ingredients together

5) Combine both bowls and mix them together

6) Pour the batter into the cupcake molds and bake for 25 minutes.

Frosting Steps:

1) Beat the butter until it is soft

2) Brew the tea in the boiling water and let it sit for ten minutes

3) Add the almond milk to the tea

4) Next mix the tea with the powdered sugar and the butter

5) Beat for ten minutes

6) For extra flavor try adding some cinnamon to the frosting.

For more on these cupcakes check out Shape Magazine

3) Molasses Cookies:

Yum!!  These cookies look delicious and they have healthy ingredients to help you get your sugar fix while keeping you in shape and on track for your new year goals.  Makes 20 Cookies.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons of Ground Flax

1 Egg White

1 Banana

1 Cup of Whole Wheat Flour

1 Cup of Oats (not instant)

1/2 Cup of Blackstrap Molasses

2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon

1 Teaspoon of Ground Ginger

1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

Steps:

1) Preheat the oven to 350

2) Combine the flax and egg whites

3) Mash the banana in another bowl

4) Add the flour and oats to the banana and mix well

5) Add the flax and molasses and mix until combined

6) Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir well.

7) Scoop rounded spoonfuls of batter onto a baking sheet

8) Bake for 25 minutes

For other healthy cookie ideas scroll through Shape's healthy cookie slide show.

4) DRINKS :)

Celebrate the new year and get a jump start on your resolution at the same time.  Celebrate with a 92 calorie Cranapple Cobbler.  Mix 1 and 1/2 oz of TY KU Liqueur with 1 oz of apple juice and a splash of sugar free cranberry juice.  For other drinks Shape can help give you ideas.

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!