Tooth Fairy Pillow Winner

Congrats to BECKY QUINLAN, the winner of CalcoCreations tooth fairy pillow giveaway!

Thanks to everyone who entered!!!!

Chocolate + Peanut Butter = ♥

{Reese's Pieces Chocolate Cupcake}

So, after our New Orleans trip, I've been dying to make this Reese's Pieces cupcake that I had at the Kupcake Factory. It's sooooooooooooo good! It's a chocolate cupcake topped with a peanut butter buttercream frosting, and rolled in crushed Reese's Pieces. Oh.My.Goodness. YuM! I just used Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe and topped it with peanut butter frosting, which is basically vanilla buttercream, minus the vanilla, add 3/4 C. - 1 C. of creamy peanut butter and mix it up. So good! I tried Martha's peanut butter frosting first, which had cream cheese in it..... NOT a hit. Quite disappointing actually, a tad salty for my taste. {I like my frosting SWEET!} Then you just grind up some Reese's Pieces and you have a very dangerous cupcake on your hands.

{Peanut Butter Cookie Cupcake}

I'm pretty sure these are at the top of TJ's favorite cupcake list. And they couldn't be easier to make! So simple. I got the recipe here. All it takes is a Reese's peanut butter cup and a bag mix of peanut butter cookies. Drop a Reese's PB cup in the cupcake liner, top with about 2 Tbsp. of cookie dough mix, bake at 325* for 15-20 minutes and wah-lah. Then I topped it with a white chocolate buttercream and it is DE-LISH.

Thanksgiving Treats News Segment

{Oreo Turkeys}

I first started making Oreo Turkeys when I taught 2nd grade at South Euless Elementary School down in Texas, so I know they are kid friendly. My BFF, Jennifer, taught me how to make them. These are modified just a little bit from my teaching days, but they are pretty easy to whip up. They do take a little bit of time because you have to let the oreos set up so they won't topple over, but if you go here, they'll give you a tutorial on how to make ones very similar to these ones. A BIG thank you to my sweet friend, Kristen, for making these for me during our bake fest trying to get all of these goodies together for the segment!!! She did an AWESOME job!

{ Sugar Cookie Pumpkin Pie}

I got these adorable printable cupcake toppers from Amanda Parker over at Shindig Parties. I got them for being a Facebook fan. Go check out her blog, her stuff is AMAZING and UBBER CUTE!!!

These Fudge Stripe Cookies topped with a chocolate dipped marshmallow are also from the same site as the Oreo Turkeys. SUPER EASY!

And here are my Martha Stewart Turkey cupcakes I demonstrated on the news. SO cute. I used Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes and they turned out VERY YUMMY! To make the turkeys, here's a link to Martha's recipe HERE. Some advice... the recipe says to cut a gummy fish in half and insert it into the marshmallow for the beak. What they don't tell you is that you can't just "stick" a fish into a marshmallow and expect it to stick. I used my kitchen scissors and made a little snip and then inserted the gummy fish. Well, then they started falling out after a few minutes, so I stuck a toothpick up and through it to hold it in place and that worked much better. You need to do the same thing running a toothpick up and through the fish for the feathers or else they'll fall out, too, and completely ruin one side of your cupcake breaking apart your cupcake. So, toothpicks will save the day on these cupcakes! (Just make sure to warn your guests!) Toasting the coconut was really easy, too. Just bake at 350* for about 1o minutes, and it's brown and toasty. These will make a cute addition to all of your Thanksgiving goodies this week!

***For those of you not in my viewing area, here's the link to my news segment I did tonight!***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sLxdARNUNg

CalcoCreations Tooth Fairy Pillow GIVEAWAY! *CLOSED*

***GIVEAWAY ALERT***

My cute & creative cousin, Callie, of CalcoCreations over on etsy has graciously offered one of my followers a custom made tooth fairy pillow! She's designed these adorable little pillows to either hang or be put under your sweet one's pillow. How cute are these? And they're even personalized! Check them out!

I'm a sucker for polka dots! I LOVE this pink one!

Look at all the fabric options!

And check out these Lovie Security Blankets she also has in her shop! So cute and cuddly!

So, are you ready to win your very own personalized tooth fairy pillow for your sweet little guy or gal? Even if you're little one is still toothless, it's never too early to start planning ahead!

So, here's how to enter... I'm going to make it EASY on ya! Head on over to Callie's etsy shop, CalcoCreations, and HEART her shop by adding her to your favorites. Come back over and leave a comment telling me you did and you're entered, easy as that! Giveaway ends this Saturday, November 27th, at 3:00 pm CST. **Be sure to leave your e-mail address in your comment so we can get ahold of you! Now go check her out!!!! :)

New Orleans Kupcake Factory

After the Bridesmaid's Luncheon this week I noticed the Kupcake Factory right across the street. So, of course I had to go in and check it out! Their cupcakes were AMAZING. I had to sample a few different ones, those being, red velvet, coconut, wedding cake, and my favorites a caramel apple cupcake and a Reese's Pieces chocolate cupcake. Oh.My.Goodness. YUM! Definitely got some inspiration!

Eden's Cupcakes

I had the pleasure of baking my sweet friend, Stephanie, some cupcakes for her daughter, Eden's, birthday party this weekend. It was an Ocean/Under Water Theme. So cute! I did a Brown Sugar Cupcake (as seen in this previous post) with a Cookie Dough Buttercream frosting. The birthday girl knew just what she wanted, which makes party planning such a breeze. They picked out exactly what they wanted for the cupcake toppers so all I had to do was make them. Then I just added some blue polka dotted ribbon to my cake stands and wrapped two boxes in blue paper and we had an instant, easy, simple tablescape. Everything turned out super cute!

Boxed Up & Ready to GO

{Snickerdoodle}

{Pumpkin}

{Devil's Food with Oreo Cream Filling}

My Dinky Donut and Scary Shark

Just had to share some pics of one sweet little donut and super scary, but sweet, shark! HUGE thanks to my Mama for making Jillian's costume. I think we did a pretty good job on a knock-off of a Pottery Barn Kids donut costume, at a fraction of the price. Let's not talk about the price of Brock's...

Devil's Food Cupcakes - #9

So for our Fall Fest at church last weekend, I made Martha's Devil's Food Cupcakes. MUCH better experience than those Marble Cupcakes. These were really good! Then to make them even better, I scooped out the center with a new gadget I found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and filled them with some oreo cream filling. De-Lish!

Scoop out the center...

Pipe in your oreo cream filling...

Pop the trimmed off top back on top...I filled them with the oreo cream filling using a simple ziploc bag with the end snipped off. Need the recipe for the oreo cream filling? Click HERE. Then I got to thinking, if I wanted to make it really easy on myself, buy a tub of Cool-Whip and fold in the 10 crushed oreos. (Maybe I'll try that next time.) Next, you need to trim the part you scooped out, or else you'll have cupcakes that look like this top left one in this next picture. Not pretty.

After I topped them, I made a chocolate ganache and dipped them in it, then let them sit for awhile in the fridge to set up. I found a really good chocolate ganache recipe HERE. Last, topped them with some buttercream frosting and a Ghost Peep topper. Yummmmm...

Want to try these on your own... here's the recipe!!!

Little Miss Cutie Cupcake

Meet Little Miss Cutie Cupcake

This here is a girl after her mama's heart.

Whenever I start baking, there she is, standing on her little chair, eager to help. She's a great mixer and dumper...and an excellent beater licker. We have to give a shout out to our sweet friend, Kathy Trammel, who made this super cute hair barrette for her. Too stinkin' cute! Wait till you see the owl barrettes she made...

Marble Cupcakes - #8

{Is this not the cutest, sweetest little helper ya ever did see???}

So, I attempted Martha's Marble Cupcakes awhile back. Obviously didn't think to post about it because, well, I wasn't a fan. I used some dark chocolate cocoa, which I will NEVER buy again. IcK! I do think maybe I'll try these again, but use the cocoa I normally buy, and not that dark chocolate stuff. Martha tops these with sifted powdered sugar, but I'm guessing frosting would be good, too. Go ahead, give 'em a try... but getcha a good cocoa. :)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients: Makes 16 cupcakes

1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/3 cup milk, room temperature, 1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature, 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, 1 cup granulated sugar, 3 large eggs, room temperature, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, 1/4 cup boiling water, Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Stir together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine milk and cream.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk mixture, and beating until combined.

3. To make chocolate batter, measure out 1 cup batter, and transfer to another bowl. Combine cocoa and the boiling water in a bowl. Stir into reserved 1 cup batter.

4. Fill prepared cups with alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter, filling each three-quarters full. Run the tip of a paring knife or wooden skewer through batter in a figure-eight motion to make swirls. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until tops are golden and a cake tester (i.e. toothpick) inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

5. To finish dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving.