Cupcakes in a Cone

    These sweet treats are a super simple, but totally adorable twist on the typical cupcake. I have a bake sale coming up and I needed to find a quick, but fun treat to make before tomorrow. These cupcakes in a cone are perfect for a bake sale, birthday party, kids classroom party, or just about any sort of gathering!

Here is what you need:
-- (1) Box of cake mix of your choice
--The ingredients listed on the back to make the cake
--(24) Ice cream cones
--Frosting of your choice
--Sprinkles (or any other things you wish to decorate with)

   Simply follow the instructions on the back of your cake mix box to mix up the cake. Put the ice cream cones into a baking pan where they will fit snug without falling over (I used bread pans and eight cones fit in each perfectly). Pour batter into each cone up about 2/3rds of the way to the top. Bake the according to the directions on the package for cupcakes.

   When the cupcakes are done, take them out of the oven and allow to cool completely before frosting them or the frosting will melt. As soon as the cupcakes are cool, frost and decorate them as you please! The possibilities really are endless! I kept mine simple due to a busy day and needing to get them done and ready to go, but yet they are still cute and taste amazing!

Halloween Treats

     Being a Family and Consumer Sciences Education major and hoping to have my own family some day, it is important to know how to provide kids with healthy foods that are fun to eat so kids get the fruits and vegetables they need in a day. Here are just a couple ideas for fun and easy treats which are perfect to feed kids instead of Halloween candy, and they still look intriguing to kids!

    Cutie Pumpkins:
12 cuties
4 stalks of celery

These are so easy to make! Just peel the cuties and stick a short piece of celery in the middle.... and tada! Pumpkins!


Monster Apples- (Yields 30 monsters)
3 granny smith apples
2 cups of Peanut Butter
Mini Marshmallows
60 Toothpicks
1 cup Almond Slices
Black food dye (or frosting)

   Slice each apple into 20 slices (a Pampered Chef apple slicer makes 10 slices so just cut each of those in half and it is super easy!) Put about 1 tbsp on an apple slice, then put another apple slice on top of it with green sides facing the same direction. Repeat until all of the slices are used.

   Next, for the teeth... place the almond slices skinny (pointy side) down onto the peanut butter to create the teeth of the monsters. Then, place two toothpicks into each with marshmallows on the end for the eyes. To put dots on each eyes, either black food dye or a small amount of black frosting can be used. When all of these steps have been repeated for each monster, you are done! How cute are those?!?!

Fall Baking and Crafts!

This weekend was a fun time spent with a wonderful friend doing some baking, crafts, and catching up to celebrate the fall season! We made some amazing food to snack on and each did a fun craft while we drank our apple cider and visited!

We made our own hot apple cider, mini apple pies, pumpkin fluff, candy corn rice krispies, and cut up some fresh orange watermelon from my garden! For crafts, we made a fall wreath and a couple country votive candle holders.

Hot apple cider recipe:

64 FL oz (one jug) Honey Crisp Apple Juice

5 sticks of cinnamon

1 tsp clove

1 tsp allspice

-Simmer for about 20 minutes to enhance flavor then enjoy!

Our candy corn were super simple.

Candy Corn Rice Krispies:

--We dyed normal rice krispies an orange color with red and yellow food coloring. Then we dipped one end in chocolate almond bark and the other in white chocolate.

Apple pie bites:

1 tube of original Cresent rolls

1 granny smith apple cut into 8 pieces

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp clove

1/4 tsp allspice

2 Tbsp butter

Chopped walnuts (optional)

--- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine brown sugar, clove, allspice, and cinnamon. Roll out each Cresent roll and spread with melted butter. Sprinkle with sugar combination and a few chopped walnuts. Place the apple on top of that and roll up the Cresent roll. Top with more melted butter and sugar mixture. After doing all eight bites, bake for 12 minutes. Take out of the oven and allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes before serving. (Optional- drizzle with a little caramel sauce before eating)

Pumpkin Fluff:

1 tub whipped cream

1 1/2 cups pumpkin (I used some I had frozen in my freezer from our home grown pumpkins but canned will work too)

1 tsp pumpkin spice

1 pkg vanilla pudding mix

1 cup dark chocolate chips

---Combine all ingredients in a bowl and serve with graham crackers and/or sliced apples!

-For our wreath craft, we bought a stick wreath at walmart and glued a sunflower and some pinecone to a corner to add a little color.

-Then we also took small votive candle holders and hot glued short pieces of broken twigs to the sides to create some fall table decor.

Wine Bottle Tiki Torches

      Wine bottles have many decorative uses after they are empty; however, I wanted to give them a functional use. I wanted something fun to sit on the table when eating meals outside on the patio, plus I wanted to keep bugs away. So, I decided to turn the two wine bottles I had into table top tiki torches. It was super easy and didn't take any more than 5 minutes to put together once I found all of the supplies I needed.
    I ended up ordering the tiki wicks and the fuel from Amazon for a pretty reasonable price, the hex piece(s) came from Bomgaars, and the pebbles came from Walmart.


------Here's What you Need:------

Wine bottles
Tiki Wicks
3/4 inch hex brushing
pebbles (optional) or other "filler"
Tiki fuel




------Here's What to Do:------

1) Remove the labels from your wine bottles
       (or you can leave them on- I left one on and took the other one off)
2) Fill your wine bottles with the pebbles or filler you pick out.
3) Put the tiki wick through the hex piece
4) Fill the bottles with fuel not quite all the way to the top
5) Rest the brushing and wick onto the top lip of the wine bottle
6) It is ready to light and be used!
----Yes, it is that easy!----