Tanee's Crawfish Boil Birthday!

This is Tanee.  She is my soon to be sister in law!  (I'm so happy about that by the way!)  She is so amazingly sweet and I love her to death.

My brother in law, Cory had a Crawfish Boil for her birthday and I made her cake... her it is!

The cake was strawberry with strawberry buttercream, chocolate with chocolate fudge filling, italian cream cake with cream cheese filling, and blueberry lemon with lemon buttercream filling!  Whew! 

A lot of flavors I know, but I like to have a variety when I do a large cake for a small group.. more cake gets eaten that way.

Aren't they the cutest crawfish ever!?!  My favorite is their wiskers!

The Easiest Fruit Dip Ever!

This recipe has been in my family since I was a little girl.  I don't remember who gave it to my mother but I do remember when we had our very first taste of this incredible dip.  My first bite of dip was slathered on a fruit and nut filled bagel.  Now I serve this dip with fresh fruit, mainly strawberries but grapes work great too. 

This recipe is great to entertain with... just mix it up a day in advance throw it in the fridge and then let it sit out a few hours before serving to soften.  Everyone goes crazy over this stuff!!

Here is the simplest recipe I ever!

Fruit Dip

1 pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 jar marshmallow creme (or marshmallow fluff, whatever you call it)

Throw both in a bowl and mix with a hand mixer, you could use a stand mixer too.  And that is it!  Viola!  The easiest fruit dip ever! 

I highly suggest making at least two batches.. people go nuts over this stuff.

Strawberry Muffins (Eggless)

Sweets for a Saturday #8- Strawberry Muffins (Eggless)

Click on the button above to check out a lot of other goodies!

 

I had a package of thawed strawberries in the fridge from a recent strawberry cake I had made and decided to put them to good use.  I already had strawberry cupcakes in the freezer and wanted something with a little more healthy snack vibe for the little tornado aka my two year old son.  Soooo... I whipped up his little recipe by looking at a few recipes online and inventing my own.  This recipe has no eggs so it's great for those with allergies (like my little guy) or if you just happen to be out of eggs.  These muffins are perfect for breakfast or snack (or dessert as my husband ate them).  They are just sweet enough without being a cupcake and make you feel it's okay to eat more than one... hey there's whole wheat flour in them...that makes it okay right?

Start by whisking the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the strawberry puree, buttermilk, oil, yogurt and vanilla.

Dump the dry ingredients into the wet (no need for splitting it up into batches...just dump it) and whisk to combine.

Divide batter into prepared muffin tins... I made both mini and standard size muffins.

And back at 375 degrees... minis 5-7 minutes. standard 14-17 minutes...keep and eye on these... they are suppose to be super moist so you don't want to over bake them.  When a toothpick comes out clean they are done!


Strawberry Muffins

1 cup strawberry puree
1/3 cup plus 3 tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup low fat vanilla yogurt (you can add 1 egg if you prefer)
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; whisk to combine.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the strawberry puree, buttermilk, oil, yogurt and vanilla.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet and divide into prepared muffin tins.  Bake at 375 degrees until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
Mini: 5-7 minutes  Standard: 14-17 minutes

Allow to cool a few minutes in muffin tins and turn out to cool completely on a wire rack.

Yield: Approximately 12 to 14 standard muffins


Coming Soon!  Party planning tips, recipes, tricks and treats!

Tracy's Baby Carriage Theme Shower

This was the family baby shower for my sister in law Tracy.  The theme was baby carriage and of course PINK!  I love it!  Here is the cake I made...

The tier sizes are 10" and 8" rounds.  The topper was made by using the Wilton ball pan.

The bottom tier was two layers of almond-vanilla cake with cream cheese filling and two layers of chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling.
The middle tier was two layers of blueberry lemon cake with lemon buttercream filling and two layers of strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream.

The top tier was made from rice krispie treats molded into the Wilton ball pan with one of the halves cut in half.  I then covered it in modeling chocolate to get a smooth finish and then covered that in marshmellow fondant.  The pink details are made from 50/50 pink marshmellow fondant and gumpaste.  The roses were made of the 50/50 mixture as well. 

The rest of the shower details.....




The food table



Fresh strawberries and fruit dip (I will be posting this recipe soon)



Banana Nut Muffins





Punch cups rimmed in pink sugar



Straw flags I made



Coming soon!  I will be sharing entertaining tips, tricks, secrets and recipes!