Firecracker Cakesicles

Cakesicle

       [kāk-si-kəl] noun

      Popsicle shaped cake on a Popsicle stick :).

These are especially easy if you have a Cakesicle Maker.  Just make sure that you cook each piece thoroughly without burning them.

Put Popsicle sticks in each piece of cake while the cake is warm :).

Dip the cake in melted frosting and spray with Wilton's edible spray.  

-OR-

Dip the cake in melted chocolate and use different colored melts.

Fourth of July Sparklers

These 4th of July treats are sure to create more of a BANG than your firecrackers :)!


SWEETS

Party City has plenty of great ideas and supplies to really spark your 4th of July dessert table.  

This themed table has M&Ms, cake pops, cupcakes, cookies, and gumballs.  The red white and blue M&Ms and gumballs are a great and easy way to make your 4th of July tables more patriotic in a snap.  There's no baking involved but everyone can enjoy them.  If you have the time or just love baking the cupcakes and cookies really bring this table to the next level.  The cupcakes in the background are so simple in their red cupcake liners with white frosting and blue sprinkles, but the best part is definitely the red and blue foil picks on the top row.  The cupcakes in the right bottom corner are a little healthier with their blueberries and flag design.  The star sugar cookie pops are my personal favorite because I love sugar cookies, but they can be very time consuming; so only having to make a handful of them for this table is really great.  Finally the CAKE POPS.  Everyone's favorite!  Cake pops usually take a longgg time, but these have some short cuts.  Because they are sitting flat on the tray you don't have to let them dry straight up (putting the stick in styrofoam) and you don't have to use the sticks at all, cake bites would be just as cute.  

HEALTHY SNACKS

Don't forget about your health conscious guests, it is bikini season after all.  Luckily it is easy to be healthy and keep your red white and blue color theme.  

Strawberries, yogurt, and blueberries.  Simple and sweet.

Blueberries, and bananas, and strawberries OH MY.  

DRINKS

For all ages:

I'm not sure how great this will taste, or how well it will stay separated, but if you are brave enough to try it GOOD LUCK :)!  Party City's website says this mix of pomegranate (or cranberry juice) topped with blue Gatorade followed by a layer of club soda will stay separated as long as "the liquid with the highest sugar content is at the bottom".

21 AND OVER!!

Punch Bowl.com has a patriotic sangria recipe that could will have you seeing stars and stripes.

Red, White, and Blue Sangria

Ingredients:

• Strawberries, sliced
• Blueberries
• Pineapple, cut into star shapes
• 2 bottles dry white wine
• 1 cup Triple Sec
• 1/2 Cup berry-flavored vodka
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup simple syrup

Combine the ingredients in a large pitcher and stir. Chill in the refridgerator for at least four hours.

Red, White, and Blue Shot Recipe

Ingredients:

• ½ ounce Grenadine
• ½ ounce Peach Schnapps or Vodka
• ½ ounce Blue Curacao

Slowly pour each ingredient into a shot glass to create a layered effect. Add them in the order listed above.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

WARNING: IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO INSTANTLY GAIN TEN POUNDS DO NOT READ THIS

This sounds unbelievably amazing!!  I found this recipe on One Ordinary Day.  Nobody could resist a warm chocolate brownie topped with a layer of cookie dough and chocolate (I think I just gained 10 pounds thinking about this).

How To:

- Bake brownies

- Spread uncooked cookie dough over cooled brownies (egg free recipe)

- Chill cookie dough and brownies

- Pour chocolate glaze over the cookie dough

- Cut, serve, and gain weight :)

Cookie Dough Recipe:

1. 1 Cup of butter
2. 1 Cup of light brown sugar
3. 1/2 Cup of sugar
4. 4 Tablespoons of milk
5. 2 Teaspoons of vanilla extract
6. 2 Cups of flour
7. 1 Cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix the first 5 ingredients together.  Gradually stir in the flour until combined.  Then add in the chocolate chips.

Chocolate Glaze

1. 1 Cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2. 1 Tablespoon of Crisco

Melt chocolate and Crisco until smooth.

Healthy Festive 4th of July Treats

Patriotic chocolate covered strawberries :)

And for the health conscious:

From The Gochevs

Cute Cakes and Good Ideas

Watermelon Cake

Perfectly adorable for summer and simple to make <3

 

Keeping cupcakes safe while transporting them is a huuuuuge problem, but here is an easy and cute solution:

(not to mention the rose cupcake is super cute itself)

Both of these cute ideas are from Bird On A Cake

Homemade Yellow Butter Cake

This recipe makes the most amazingly delicious yellow cake <3!

The cake comes out as fluffy and light as a pancake but tastes like a delicious sugar cookie even before your frost it.

Ingredients:

1. 2 Cups and 10 Tablespoons of flour (or 3 cups minus 6 tablespoons)
2. 3 1/3 Teaspoons of baking powder
3. 3/4 Cup of salted butter (room temperature)
4. 1 1/3 Cups of sugar
5. 6 egg yolks
6. 1 Cup of milk
7. 2 Teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

First sift the flour and baking powder together in a medium sized bowl, then set it aside.  In a separate bowl beat the butter until it is creamy, then add in the sugar and beat it until it is light and fluffy.  Next add in the egg yolks one at a time, beat well.  Then add the vanilla extract and mix until all of these ingredients are combined.  After all the ingredients are combined gradually the flour/baking powder and the milk (add 1/3 of the flour, then half of the milk, then 1/3 of the flour, and the second half of the milk, then the rest of the flour).  Mix all of the ingredients.

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes

You'll never go back to boxed cake mix!

Buttercream Recipe

Up until now I HATED buttercream, but after playing around with the Wilton recipe I think it is delicious!


Nobody ever complained about my previous buttercream recipe, but to me it smelled like popcorn (not something I wanted on a cupcake).  

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Crisco

1 Pound of Confectioner's Sugar

At Least 8 Teaspoons of Milk

Steps:

1. Blend all of the ingredients together

2. Add more milk if the buttercream is too thick or too sugary

3. Continue blending until the mixture is whipped

4. Use on cake and cupcakes :)

Simple Elegant Cupcakes

         Matching cupcake liners and cupcakes boxes and cupcake wraps topped with sugar pearls :).

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.