Family Party: How to Display Cake Pops

I have the most creative Aunt. She is an artist who has unleashed her skills in the cake world. I had two birthday themes: "Hello, Kitty" and "Lala Loopsy" and my Aunt Lisa made the best cake pops. Well, actually they were Rice Krispy treat pops! You have got to check out Cake Creations by Lisa on her FB page!  Now to get to the featured title: 

This is one way to display your cake or krispy Pops:

 I filled several Mason jars with rice and stuck the cake pops in the jars in groups of three. Such and easy solution since I didn't have a cake pop stand. You could also do this with one large bowl full of rice.r  I should of tied a bow around each jar. Maybe next time.

 After I filled the jars with rice and cake pops, I set them on different cake stands and some on the table in an arrangement that was pleasing to my eye. I had 24 cake pops and six small cake stands. So three Mason jars went up on the stands and two went on the table.

 Can you believe the detail on these cute little cake pops!!!!

My Aunt was so wonderful to make these for the party! And if the truth be told, it was actually really hard to eat them because they looked so darn cute! ( But I am really glad that I did eat them because they were so darn tasty! I think I might even like Rice Krispy pops better than cake pops!

Happy Crafting!

xoxo,

 Amy

Party one and Two: Done and Done

I have a confession to make. I ran out of time. Plain and simple. I had a grand plan of amazing birthday decor that would transform our house from ordinary to extraordinary, but alas it was not meant to be. Between the two youngest getting sick and a mid week photo shoot (which I was happy to do) I had to go into necessity mode: meaning kids don't care too much about decor but they do want to eat and they do want to play fun games. Plus I had a handful of my old skirts that I needed to resize to give to my girls as birthday gifts. So while  I had dreams of decor that looked like this and this, it simply didn't happen. Not to worry though! The kids didn't know what was missing and a good time was had by all! 

Here is a small recap! 

 I used the hanging rosette balls that I made for Raia's birthday. You can find the tutorial here. 

Mine are slightly different.

"C" for Cambria's birthday

I tried my hand at some tissue paper pom poms. Find the tutorial here. (Mine don't look like Martha's because frankly, I'm not Martha. It feels good to get that off my chest:)

 "K" for Kiera's birthday.

I put scrapbook letters on skewers and stuck them in a bowl of rice

Here is a close up. You could hot glue them so you can't see the tape, but I didn't know how to do the dot on the "i" I guess I could have done a capital. Of course, you could also cut around the tape better. Ninja vanish!

We played pin the bow on the LalaLoopsy for party number two. I free handed this image onto a poster board after I used my large round laundry basket to trace a circle.

We played pin the bow on the Hello, Kitty for party number two!  I also free handed this.

My hubby provide entertainment while this kids waited in line:)

We had coloring pages . . .(free handed this too)

My dear friend, Ashley, of Bany Canyon, who is incredibly amazing at many things made this little outfit for my Kiera so she could feel like a Lalaloopsy.

back:

We played this AWESOME game. Put a baseball in one leg of a nylon (we used little girl tights) and knock down a row of water bottles. You can do it as a minute to win it game and try and knock them down in one minute, but we did it as a relay. Knock a bottle down, then race back and hand your headwear to the next kid in line. They loved this and wanted to do it again and again.

Then we had another relay. We used two big kitchen serving spoons in which we place an egg. The runners goal was not to drop the egg.

They had to jump over an ice chest . . .

go around the toy car . . .

and drop the egg in the basket before running back to tag their teammates hand. This was also a lot of fun and a big hit with the kids.

We ended the day with ice cream cake a birthday song and lots of presents!

We did the same thing two days in a row with two different sets of birthday girls and two different groups of kids and both groups had so much fun, though the 9 year olds were WAY more competitive. I hope this can give you a few ideas on which to make your own!

Now, I just have one more party to survive throw! The family party that will be in a few weeks. I have saved all the decorations and maybe just maybe I'll get to add a few. We'll see!

Follow my birthday party ideas on Pinterest! There are a million fun ideas out there!

Happy Crafting!
XOXO,
 Amy

So- Easy- Can't- Stop- Eating- It Peach Cobbler

"That was you who made the peach cobbler wasn't it? 
I was the one who had to clean all the dishes and when 
no one was lookin' I licked the dish clean!"

Funny right?! One of the elderly ladies in our ward told me that the day after our ward party. On a table full of desserts this was the first to go! You can make it too and be the hit of the next party!

You will need:
2 cans of country peach pie filling
One box of vanilla cake mix (I used classic white in this particular time, but I like vanilla better)
and a lot of butter (I used my country crock, it might have been equal to 1 1/2 sticks of butter)
Dump the pie filling in the dish, dump the cake mix on top, and cover the surface area with little pats of butter (it looks neater if you have a stick pf butter that you slice up and plop on, I just used a spoon to dish mine out of the butter tub)

Cook on 350 for 40-45 minutes but start checking at 35 minutes. The butter should be completely melted, the top should begin to turn a golden color and the pie filling should start to bubble through the sides.

Here is a close up of the crust and the bubbly pie filling:

mmm . . . so good. It can be served alone or with ice cream or whip cream. (My husband saw me writing this post and said, "Did you just make some?!" He was sad when he realized that these were pictues from the ward party:))

You can do the same thing with cherry pie filling or apple pie filling. I usually make cherry cobbler using vanilla cake mix, but I have also made it with chocolate cake mix on occasion and it is quite a decadent treat!

Happy cooking!

xoxo, Amy

RIP- Halloween Cupcakes

How cute are these to satisfy your Halloween craving?

While I was waiting in a doctor's office (something I do a lot since I have four kids) I saw this cute little recipe for a chocolate cake with "RIP" Headstones made out of cookies. I loved the idea and wanted to make it, but I thought cupcakes would be easier. No cutting and serving and plates and forks to worry about that way:)

So I guess I cheated a little bit because I didn't make the cake or frosting from scratch, but I did add an extra egg and a teaspoon and a half of vanilla to a white cake mix. And besides, My friend who is an expert at making cupcakes and frosting from scratch says she likes store bought chocolate frosting better than homemade anyway:)

So you will need:

Cake mix- whatever flavor is your favorite Prepare as directed adding extra egg and teaspoon and a half vanilla extract

Cup cake liners

2 cans Chocolate frosting

Milano Cookies from Pepperage Farm (Vanilla wafers would also work)

Basically you make your cupcakes according to the directions on the box. Let cool completely (put in freezer for a half hour if needed)

Fill a zip lock bag with chocolate frosting and cut a very tiny slit in one corner to pipe "RIP" onto cookie.

Frost cup cakes, cut a slit in the top of the cup cake with a knife for the cookie to be inserted into the cupcakes.

note: if you use a chocolate cake recipe you can crumble a little of the cake in front of the headstone to look like freshly turned dirt. I didn't do this because I used a vanilla cake.

So Yummy and so fun!

Happy Crafting!

xoxo, Amy

P.S. - Do me a favor and go here and click on my link (#512- at the bottom) so that I can be one of the most viewed links and e featured . . . please?