Candy Land Birthday Cake!

I finally talked my little one into having a Candy Land birthday because I really wanted to make the Wilton Castle cake with it.. it would have been great, but I didn't get to use that because when I went to Walmart to buy it they had just stopped carrying it. Oh well I guess, less money spent. So this cake was the best my little cake making talents can do so far. I was happy with how it turned out and also happy with new things I learned about cakes. Like frosting it with a crumb layer... I never knew! Such a good thing to know! Basic, but still grateful I learned it. Just frosting it with a thin layer all over before "really" frosting it to keep all the crumbs out of your frosting! Very helpful.

 So this is how it turned out and my little one was very pleased. She was even showing it off to her friends when there was only one piece left and you couldn't even tell what it was by then. :) I'm so glad she liked it!

Baked Pumpkin Donuts

Time for fall cooking!! I found this recipe courtesy of pintrest.com (again, I'm sure you will see a lot of my pintrest finds here).  I bought a donut pan and have been dying to use it and this was a great recipe to try it out on. They are yummy! Sweet, but not too sweet. And they have just the right amount of spice. ( I even made my own homemade pumpkin pie spice for this too. Also courtesy of pintrest.com. haha)

So click HERE for the Baked Pumpkin Donuts recipe. And click HERE if you are interested in making your own pumpkin pie spice! Definitely keepers!!

Having The Right Tools Helps!

 So yes, this is more proof to me that having the right tools really does make a difference! I tried using paper muffin molds before to work with chocolate, but it just didn't really work out so well. We found these awesome silicups at Bill's work and WAHOO!! Now the possibilities are endless.

 The Silicups are just reusable silicone muffin molds, but they are self standing and can be frozen, chilled, and everything just pops right out!
 Keep in mind that the picture is not the best and this was the first try (with help from one of my cute little helpers). But needless to say it worked! We made our own chocolates some with carmel in the middle (oh and I only had ice cream carmel on hand... it was a little messy), some with peanut butter and powdered sugar mixed in the middle, and some with peanut butter and carmel mixed in the middle. ( I know.. that might sound gross, but please try it first and then tell me what you think because mixed with the chocolate..... it was GREAT!

Easy Peanut Butter Graham Balls

I was really wanting some peanut butter and chocolate. I had made some kind of peanut butter chocolate balls a long time ago and that sounded like it would hit craving spot. I had no idea what recipe I used so I searched online and came up with  THIS Easy Peanut Butter Graham Balls recipe. Very yummy. And in the words of a family member... Dangerous. It's hard to stop eating them, so beware, you might end up with a sugar buzz.  :)

Campfire favorites

Some of our favorite things to eat at a campfire are :

                                    

Keebler Fudge Stripes Cookies. Forget the graham crackers and chocolate bar. Just use the cookies! Their faster, and less expensive and SO much better! And I am sure that any of the Keebler cookies would taste great as a smore. I can't wait to try the Coconut Dreams, Peanut Butter Filled, and Deluxe Grahams!

And...

Ball Park Beef or Angus Franks. So much tastier than regular hot dogs!

Brownie Volcanoes!

We used the smallest loaf pan in this pic

Bill came up with this for my birthday last year. Since I turned 22 on the 22nd he did something special and/or fun for me every day leading up to my birthday. He called it the 22 days of Carli. This one he did  on the 7th day because the Kasatochi volcano of Alaska erupted on August 7, 2008. (some days he had to be more creative than others with things to do.) So we made BROWNIE VOLCANOES! Tasty! we were originally going to make the brownies in a bunt cake pan and put the ice cream in the middle of that, but we didn't have one. So we made the brownies using 4 small loaf pans and sculpted each of them into volcanoes. Then we put our ice cream in the middle and drizzled it all with Chocolate syrup! Mmmmm! SO GOOD!

 This was just our first time making them. So next time we make them we just might put on lava sprinkles, escaping gummy bears, pieces of candy bar rocks.. so many possibilities!

Easy Cinnamon Rolls

I love this recipe! I got this one from a local elementary recipe book. Just a bunch of families put together their favorites.. now this is one of our favorites too. The book also had a yummy cake recipe that I will post soon. This recipe though is so nice because it doesn't take very long. You only have to let them rise for 10 minutes!
 DOUGH                                                    FILLING
1/3 Cup Sugar                                       1/2 Cup Brown sugar
2 Tbs. Yeast                                          1/2 Cup Sugar
1 1/4 Cups warm water                          2 Tbs. Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Butter (softened)                         FROSTING
3 Eggs                                                  2 Cups Powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt                                          1/4 Cup Milk
5 Cups Flour                                        4 Tbs. Butter
                                                            1 tsp. Vanilla

In bowl combine first four ingredients. Cover and let set for 15 min. Add 3 eggs and 1/2 tsp. salt, stir together. Add 5 cups of flour. Knead for 5 min. Roll out and spread butter on dough. Combine brown sugar, sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle on buttered dough. Roll up and use unflavored dental floss to cut ( or you can use a knife). Set for 10 min. Bake at 400' for 10 min. Combine remaining ingredients and drizzle on warm rolls.

For the frosting you can also make a cream cheese frosting. I have always liked that better myself, but the frosting in this recipe is fast and yummy too.