"Special" Christmas Recipe Spotlight!

Hello Hello yall!!! I have called this a "Special" recipe spotlight because it is coming from one of my dear friends Stephanie. The girls and I got together for a lil Christmas party last friday and went ice skating and had a great festive time! Our friend Stephanie gave us all gifts, a beautiful scarf and also a tin full of yumminess! I have had her write me up a How To so I can feature it on my blog to share with you all! I hope this gives yall some inspiration to create some of your own Christmas Yumminess!

Stephanie's

Cake Balls

I break the cake balls into three parts:

PART I

1. Bake cake
2. While the cake is still warm crumble into a medium size bowl and mix one can of icing (I usually use less than one jar for a good consistency)
3. Mold the cake/ icing mixture into a big ball
4. Put bowl into the freezer for fifteen minutes

PART II

1. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.
2. Take bowl out of freezer. With either your hands or a melon-baller (or ice cream scooper) form mixture into tiny balls
2. One batch usually makes about fifty cake balls (depending on the size of balls)
3. Place balls on cookie sheet and place into freezer.

**The time to keep the balls in the freezer differs on personal preference. I usually leave the cake balls in the freezer over night, but you can leave the balls for about three to four hours and they will still be good to go.

PART IV

1. Melt your preference of chocolate in a fondue pot or double broiler.
2. Dip a frozen ball into the melted chocolate using a fork.
3. Tap the fork on the side of the pot to remove any excess chocolate.
4. Use a toothpick to remove the ball from the fork and place the ball back on the wax paper. Decorate with sprinkles, jells, or icing as warranted.

NOTE: The less time the balls are spent in the freezer, the faster they melt, thus, the quicker you must coat your balls.

5. After coating all the balls, place back in freezer for thirty minutes.
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Thank you Stephanie for sharing your recipe for making yummy Cake Balls, I'm telling you she did a strawberry cake, with white chocolate, it was AmAZinG!!

TTYL~Misty

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

YAY it's your b-day let me celebrate!!! My sister Starla and her husband Dione have their birthday's right next to each other. As in Dione's b-day is Nov 29 and Starla's is Nov 30. How cool is that, or not cool if you like all the attention to be on you for your b-day week. Yes every year I take the whole week to myself lol so this would not be that great for me, anyways I digress. I have made it my tradition each year to go to Rome and watch my adorable niece and nephew, and decorate my sister's 12 ft tree for their birthday present! Decorating the tree is no joke, but I love the satisfaction I get when I complete it.

Here are a couple of snapshots of my birthday projects for them.

Chocoholic Cupcakes
My sister is a chocoholic, so I took chocolate cake batter to make the cupcakes. Then I took chocolate frosting and mixed it with crushed up oreos for the topping, drizzled it with melted white chocolate, and then added a piece of oreo on top. They were yummy and my sister and brother in law seemed happy to receive them. So yay mission accomplished!

The Tree

The camera doesn't pick up all of the details, it is alot fuller looking in person:)

12ft!!
My Two Angels

Recipe Spotlight! (Pumpkin Bread)

Happy Fall yall! I hope you all have been enjoying this time of year so far. I love all the colors of the trees, the smells, and festiveness that this time of year brings! Since pumpkins are so readily available right now, I wanted to spotlight this recipe. I got this off of my go to website, none other than http://www.foodnetwork.com/ , I love Alton Brown's recipes! I have tested the below recipe and it is definitely worth using!

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds (I didn't put this into mine)
• 3 cups shredded fresh pumpkin
*Cut into the pumpkin and take out sections and scrap off the seeds and strings,
then grate the flesh of it on a cheese grater. If you don't have one GO GET ONE!;)


* I made two thinner loafs with this so I could try adding dried cranberries. I made one with and one without. I LOVED it with the cranberries! It's great both ways.

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.

*Here is an example of sifting in case you do not know how. Just put all the ingredients you are sifting together in one of these strainers and shake it into the bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla. Combine both mixtures and fold in the shredded pumpkin and pumpkin seeds. Once the ingredients are all incorporated pour into a non- stick 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan. If your pan is not non- stick coat it with butter and flour.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. At this point a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf should come out clean. *( Since I made 2 thinner loafs out of the recipe mine only took about an hour)

Cool for 15 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack. Cool completely. For muffins temperature should also be 325 degrees F., but bake for 30 minutes.

Mmmmm hope you enjoy filling your house with this Goodness!

HALLOWEEN TREATS!!

Muahahahaha! Yes that was my attempt at evil laughter. Happy Halloween! I wanted to do the post early in order to give you a couple of ideas for your Halloween festivities!

I created a few things but only 2 made the cut for me this year. I do not like to put out anything that I am not in love with.


Spooky Smores and Spider Bites!

Spooky Smores

As your sitting around your living room camp out (pretty much the only way I like to camp out) telling your scary stories, what goes better with this than smores! This inspiration came from a bridal show that I went to. There was a company that made colorful marshmallows, and had this as a favor idea for weddings. I saw the marshmallows and thought to myself, I can figure out how to make this, and so I did!

Need:
Grahmam Crackers
Hersey bars
Marshmallows
Kabob Sticks
Flame Can (you can find these in the camping section of Wal-mart)
Black Sugar
Orange Sugar (these should be available in the baking section where the sprinkles are)
Bowl of Water

Take a Kabob stick and put a marshmallow on it. Dunk into the water quickly so the whole thing is submerged. Shake off excess water. Then have a plate with a coffee filter or something to catch the excess sugar. I prefer the coffee filter because it is bowl shaped and easy to bend and pour the remaining sugar back into the container. Take the colored sugar and sprinkle over the marshmallow covering it entirely. Then place the marshmallow on a plate to dry. That is it! Now just set up how you want to display your smore station, and use the kabob sticks to roast the marshmallows and enjoy!! You can make these a couple of days ahead of time, once dried throw into a bag!

** Do not place the marshmallow directly into the flame. It will roast perfectly right above it. Be sure to slowly spin the marshmallow so that once the sugar on the outside heats up it won't start dripping into the can causing unneeded smoke. If you have kids doing this ADULT SUPERVISION IS A MUST!

Spider Bites

We've all seen the cupcakes with the spider on top. This is no new thing. Well I wanted to take it further, miniaturize them into bites and put a filling inside to represent BLOOD mauhahaha, and so you have the name Spider Bites!

Need:
Yellow Cake mix
Buttercream Icing
Black Sugar
1 can of Cherry pie filling
Spider rings (Wal-mart has a pack in their Halloween section)
Mini cupcake liners


If you do not have a miniture muffin pan it is time to invest in one. I got mine for $9 at target. You can use it for all of your other parties. The smaller the better because it lets your guest try many different things.

Line your muffin pan. Follow the instructions on the box to make the cake mix (unless of course you know how to make it from scratch). Then pour the mixture into each liner almost to the top. I like to fill it high so that the tops come out big and pretty. Once all the liners are full place a cherry from the pie filling on top, try and do this as quickly as possible because you do not want them to sink before you put them in the oven. As it bakes the cherry will start dropping. *Once they are done remove the cupcakes and let them cool down for a good 30 min before attempting to try them, because the cherry center will be extremly HOT! Once cooled down apply the buttercream icing and sprinkle the black sugar. Then push a spider ring into each one and serve!! They are sooooo yummmy!

*I do not suggest doing this in chocolate, because the cherry filling does not show up well once bitten into losing the purpose of having a blood effect. But it is of course up to you!

Hope yall have a Happy Halloween!!!!