Everything Smurfy

Smurfs are back!  It's so exciting to share them with my kiddos.  Many a Saturday morning was spent singing "la LA la la la la LA la la la la"


Smurf stuff is popping up everywhere.  Check out what I found...

Smurf Bento.  Do I see blue rice?  Love it!

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Homemade Papa Smurf Beard

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Peek-A-Boo Smurf Cupcakes

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Smurf Hat

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Gorgeous Cupcakes

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Smurfy Mushroom Party Favors

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3D Smurf Toppers

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Smurfette Hairbow

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Cakepops

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Smurf Party Favor Bags

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Smurf Nails!

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And finally...

Smurf Yourself at Be Smurfed

Sarah as a Smurf is "Smurfarah" 

Cupcake Crops of Carrots

This is so easy to make a very cute cupcake.  

I bought a big bag of Starburst candy 
and a bag of Twizzlers (rainbow).

I cut a few of the green twizzlers into strips and 
then cut them in about 1" long pieces.

Next, I melted an orange Starburst in the 
microwave for no more than 2 seconds.  


(You can see I also tried to mix red and yellow.  
It made a red-orange color).

I divided the Starburst in half to make two "carrots."  Then, I molded it around the Twizzler strips and shaped it to look like a carrot.  

The kids loved this and had a great time 
"harvesting" their carrots.

More Spring treats:

Painted Easter Crackers

Lemon-Soaked Berry Cake

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Dreamy Spring Cupcakes

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Glazed Orange Cranberry Cake

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Golden Eggs

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Since Halloween is literally right around the corner, here is a repost of one of my favorite pumpkin recipes. I suggest doubling this recipe since it's so yummy. Enjoy!

I've been trying to use up some ingredients in my pantry.  I found some pumpkin and coconut and thought, "there has to be something I can do with both of these".  It turns out - there is!  I found this great recipe for pumpkin coconut muffins.  The sugar on top was my idea (and ended up being just what the muffins needed).  There is also plenty of other good stuff inside ...wheat germ, flax, and more!  These were a HUGE hit around here.  So much so that by the time I got my camera to take a picture of the muffins, they were all gone.  It's a good thing there was an 8x8 pan in the oven no one knew about yet. 

I just had some for breakfast this morning and it was so delicious!

Click HERE for the recipe on Allison Cafe's blog. 

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry CUPCAKE

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Gooey Caramel Cake

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Coconut, Pumpkin, and Chocolate Chips!

I've been trying to use up some ingredients in my pantry.  I found some pumpkin and coconut and thought, "there has to be something I can do with both of these".  It turns out - there is!  I found this great recipe for pumpkin coconut muffins.  The sugar on top was my idea (and ended up being just what the muffins needed).  There is also plenty of other good stuff inside ...wheat germ, flax, and more!  These were a HUGE hit around here.  So much so that by the time I got my camera to take a picture of the muffins, they were all gone.  It's a good thing there was an 8x8 pan in the oven no one knew about yet. 

I just had some for breakfast this morning and it was so delicious!

Click HERE for the recipe on Allison Cafe's blog. 

Perfect Chocolate Cake

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Craving Glazed Coconut Cake

I've been craving anything coconut lately.  It's odd because I don't remember EVER craving that before.  Anyway, I made this A.MAZ.ING. coconut cake and wanted to share just incase you need your coconut fix too.  It fed any craving I had and then some.  It's so delicious!

There are three main parts...
(1) Cake 
(2) Glaze 
(3) Frosting/Topping

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(1) Cake:

2 C Cake Flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 C Sugar

1/3 C Butter, room temp

2 Eggs

1 (14 oz) can Coconut Milk

1 tsp Vanilla

Preheat oven to Sift together flour, bp, and salt.  Whip the butter and sugar (I mean WHIP the butter and sugar) for about 5 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time.  Alternate adding milk and flour mixture.  Add vanilla.  Pour batter into greased AND FLOURED!!! 8-9" pans.  Bake  25 minutes. 

Don't forget to flour your greased pans!

Let cakes cool for a few minutes in the pans, then transfer to a cooling rack. 

(2) Glaze

1/3 C Butter, melted

1/3 C Coconut milk

Mix ingredients together in a pourable measuring cup.  While the cakes are cooling on the rack, poke them with a fork about 20 times. Pour a mixture of melted butter and coconut milk over the cakes. They'll absorb the liquid very quickly so be ready to spread it across the cakes.

(3) Frosting

Here's the fun part!  I got a little crazy with the icing and it sure payed off!  Instead of making a basic buttercream with just butter, I replaced about half of the butter with coconut oil.  Oh my heavens!  Why have I never done this before?!?  There really isn't a recipe for the icing.  It's a mixture of butter, coconut oil, powdered sugar, vanilla, and coconut milk. 

Toast about a cup of sweetened coconut in the oven or on the stovetop. - Just until golden.  Refrigerate the warm flakes until they're cool.  Anything warm will melt the frosting.

Frost the cakes with the coconut frosting and top with the crunchy coconut flakes. 

This is officially my new favorite cake.  It's melt-in-your-mouth-and-make-you-close-your-eyes delicious!  Yes, it's unbelievably fattening and rich but it's OH SO GOOD!

Happy 1st day of May!

Vanilla vs Vanillin

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Bear Cake

So I wanted to make a bear cake for a certain special someone in my house.  He's as sweet as can be so it had to be a great cake for my handsome little stinker.  After some thought, I came up with this...

It's as easy as pie to assemble and turned out looking like an actual teddy bear!

I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe (coming soon!)

and poured the batter into the following pans...

(2) 9" cake pans - belly

(1) 6" cake pan - face

(1) Cupcake - mouth

(6) Mini Cupcakes - ears, arms, and legs

I stacked the 9" "belly" cakes with a bunch of icing inside.

The icing was my favorite chocolate buttercream
for the body and buttery buttercream for the accents.
(also coming soon!)

Blue m&m's for the eyes and he was just right.

Side view for a better idea of the stacking...

Valentine Cupcakes

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