Ice Cream ... Cupcakes :)

So ... I'm still here!  I swear I haven't forgotten about this little blog (although when did I last post????) but you know when everything just seems to keep you away from your computer?  Yeah, those all seemed to be happening around here!  From no energy, to the baby refusing to sleep, to being to busy to sit down with a few spare moments to 'get it all out', to, life!  I think I have a handle on things for a little bit and hope to get back into my little routine because I have been creating this whole time ... just not sharing ... sorry!

Anyway, onto tonight's post :)

My little guy just turned 5 on the 18th!  CRAZY!  I honestly have no idea where the last 5 years!  To celebrate his birthday he wanted a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party, complete with an Ice Cream Cake from DQ, do you know what I cannot make?  An Ice Cream Cake from DQ :(  We held his party on the 19th and still wanted to have a little celebration on his actual birthday, and although he hoped to get 2 DQ cakes (one for each celebration), I managed to convince him to have cupcakes instead!  

I have seen some really cute cupcakes baked in ice cream cones recently and thought, maybe the cones will make up for only having 1 ice cream cake!  

I have to say, these little cakes turned out great!  I used this recipe from Milk Allergy Mom and baked the cones for around 20 minutes.  The cake was moist and chocolaty as well as kid and adult approved!  Some people have mentioned that the cones get soggy, but not with this recipe, maybe because it's quite thick?

My helpful hints, I used a regular cupcake pan and placed a cupcake liner and cone in each cup (I'm not sure the liners were necessary but thought if the cones overflowed they would make for easier clean-up), then I filled the cones about 2/3 full, and finally once the cakes were cooked I tipped the cones on their sides in the pan to cool (I hoped this too would help prevent those pesky soggy bottoms!)

I used this butter cream icing recipe from Roger's Sugar which I have used for years without fail!  It makes a good stiff icing that always tastes great!  To 'pipe' the icing, I simply filled a freezer Ziplock (I like how thick they are), snipped off a little corner, and iced away :)  Super easy, I promise, anyone could do it!

Are you looking for a new twist on an old favourite?  Try baking your cupcakes in ice cream cones, and please let me know how they turned out!

Winter "One"derland Party

As I said in my previous post, my littlest princess turned one in November and we celebrated with a Winter "One"derland Party.  I really thought I took TONS of photos to share with you all, out it turns out, I did not ... sorry!  I do have some which is better than none I guess! 

First up, the table centrepiece...

I found a little metal tray in my Mother-in-laws collection of things, I have no idea where it came from but it was a nice size and fit my colours so I grabbed it!  I placed five mason jars filled with bunches of baby's breath on top and filled the rest of the tray with silver jingle bells and clear snowflakes (both from Dollar Giant).  SUPER simple to make!

I decorated the Christmas Tree with silver garland, purple snowflake ornaments (from WalMart) and snowflake ornaments crocheted for the party by my amazing Mom!  Each one is beautiful and truly are beautiful, this picture does NOT do any justice at all!

I crocheted a little Bunting to decorate the fire place (again bad picture), I wanted to decorate for the party and Christmas in one shot, hence "Let it Snow" versus "Happy Birthday".  I followed the instructions from Attic 24 (she seriously has some great projects!) for the triangles, from Moogly for the letters and I'm not sure where the snowflakes came from ... I made soooooo many different ones for the party from so many different places (however I only blocked these ones so I have a bag full of limp snowflakes for next Christmas!!!!), I'm sure you can find some patterns you love with a quick google search!  

I'm actually quite happy with this little bunting and look forward to using it again and again!

Here are the little Cornstarch dough ornaments made by me decorated by the kiddos and adorned with the tags from my last post!

If you haven't tried Cornstarch Dough, you really should!  It does need to be cooked, but it really is simple and is nice to work with!  Want to make some?  Check out The Imagination Tree for instructions.  I gave the kiddies silver and purple sparkle paint and let them go to it!  It was fun to see the differences between the ornaments and they were sooooo excited to help our guests pick out one to take home.

The "Goodie Bags" were very simple, I used to Cornstarch Dough recipe from the Imagination Tree and added about a Tablespoon of Cream of Tarter (it acts as a preservative), a bit of peppermint oil (I just dumped it in, sorry!) and a bunch of glitter.  After kneading it out I popped a little "snow" ball into a small container (Dollar Tree), topped with an ornament (Dollar Tree)

Somehow I missed taking pictures of the Hot Chocolate bar, but did get one of the delicious concoctions whipped up!

Doesn't it look scrumptious!  I made Crock Pot Hot Chocolate topped with Whipped Cream and your choice of toppings including: Crushed Candy Canes, Chopped Score Bars, Gingerbread Oreo crumbs, M&M's, Chocolate Sauce, Butterscotch Sauce, and of course Marshmallows!

All around we had a fun day and enjoyed celebrating the amazing, beautiful, cuddly, happy, precious little Missy we are blessed to call ours!

Thanks for joining me!

~ jenn