Holiday Food Gift Ideas

I love giving food as gifts. There just is no better way to say, "I Love You" in my book!

Candy Coal (Love this one!)

Holiday Cookie Decorating Kits

Snowball Fight Cookies

Candied Nuts (Really, really easy!)

Hot Cocoa Mix (another simple one!)

S'Mores Toffee

... and so many other sweet treats! 

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Cake Halloween Treat Ideas

Looking for a fun Halloween Treat idea? I mean, because we don't eat enough sugar on this holiday! I have lots of ideas from the ridiculous and time-consuming (above), to super easy and super fast (below)!

Super Simple Monster Cupcakes

Easy Fondant Halloween Eyeballs Cake

An Easy Monster Cake Made with Icing

A More Difficult 3-D Monster Cake

Creepy Halloween Cupcakes

An Easy Jack-o-Lantern Cake

 Pumpkin Cake Pops Many, Many Ways

Halloween Cake Pops

Big Pumpkin or Jack-o-Lantern Cake

D-I-Y Jack-o-Lantern Cakes for Kids

And... If you're looking for ideas to get rid of some of that extra Halloween candy... I like to use them in lots of different treats after the holiday. 

Leftover Halloween Candy Treat 

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Fall Cupcake Recipes

I'm teaching a few of my favorite "Gourmet Cupcakes Made Easy" classes this month, and while we use cake mix for the base of the cupcakes in class, I wanted to share my scratch recipes for those awesome cupcakes here for my students to try.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream 

Homemade Caramel Sauce (soooo good!)

S'Mores Cupcakes from Scratch

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Back-To-School Treats

I'm not ashamed to admit that I readily bribe my children's teachers from the very first day of school... This year will be no different. Below are a few of my previous years' bribes and treats for teachers.

Back-To-School Cookies for the Teacher

Simple ABC & 123 Cookies

Pencil Cookies

Easy Crayon Cookies

Apple Cookies for Teacher

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Apple Cake Pops

Apple-Flavored Cut-Out Cookies

 

Marshmallow Flower Cupcakes

Flourless Chocolate Cake {Recipe}

This chocolate cake received rave reviews from our entire Fourth of July party. It was so rich, so tasty, and best-of-all... It's flourless, so our friends with dietary restrictions were as happy with it as we sugary gluten eaters!
It did taste more like a brownie than cake, but it was still very good. My favorite thing is that it is adapted, ironically, from This recipe found on the King Arthur Flour website. And it is so easy that my eight-year-old did most of the work making it.

What You Need:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cup sugar*

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. finely ground coffee or espresso powder 

1 Tbsp. vanilla

6 eggs (at room temperature)

1 cup cocoa powder

* Note: I am going to test this with just 1 cup sugar next time to lower the carb count even more, I'll let you know how that goes.

Click Here to Read More>>

Cool Fourth of July Easy "Pies"

This treat is perfect if you love pie, but don't want to heat up the kitchen for hours. You still have to bake some of the crust, but it only takes five minutes, not an hour, in the oven.

What You Need
Pie Crust
   You can use store-bought or one of my Two Favorite Pie Crust Recipes
   (Flaky Pie Crust or Rich Pie Crust).
Strawberry-Rhubarb Sauce
   Or you can use store-bought pie filling. Cherry & Blueberry would make a cool red, white and blue pie.
Vanilla Ice Cream


Pretty simple instructions here...

Make the crust.
For mine, I used my Flaky Pie Crust Recipe, and cut it into stars (or even just cut into strips if you want to make it even easier).  Be sure to prick it with a fork before you cut it so that the crust doesn't get funky air bubbles. Bake at 425-degrees for just 5-7 minutes.
I only used 1/4 of the dough, and it made about six to eight "pies."

Make the filling.
The Recipe for Strawberry-Rhubarb Sauce is here.

Assemble them in cute cups or mugs, and top with ice cream.

Yum!

Easy Strawberry-Rhubarb Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

We have rhubarb and strawberries galore in our backyard garden right now.
So, I decided to make this very easy cake for my boys to welcome them home from Cub Scout camp.
*Note: My husband took my camera with them to camp, which is why the photos here are a little -- ish.

What You Need:
For the Cake:
1 box white cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1-2 cups chopped strawberries
1-2 cups chopped rhubarb

For the Frosting:
1/2 cup (4 oz.) cream cheese (at room temperature)
1 cup heavy whipping cream (very cold)
1/4-1/2 cup powdered sugar

Click Here to Read More>>

Tank You Very Much! - Thank You Cookies

We are getting a fish tank. So, we need to thank (or "tank") the guy who is giving it to us.

We made him some "Tanks a lot" cookies... I think these will do it.

What You Need:
Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies
Buttercream Icing (or canned icing)
  OR Royal Icing
Nerds Candy
Swedish Fish Candy

Click Here to Read More>>

National Donut Day (at home)

Did you know that today is National Donut Day? I'm a little behind, but here are some of my favorite homemade donut (or doughnut) recipes.

'Healthy' Homemade Donut Recipe

Easy Donut Recipes from Cake Mix

Best Donut Frosting and Glaze Recipes

Crazy Chocolate Donut Recipes

Strawberry Powdered Sugar Donut Recipe

Apple Cider Donuts

I've also done a post about donut makers and donut pans.

And, if you'd like to see my worst TV appearance ever, making some of these donuts with my son, you can go here.