Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcakes - Chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter cup center and a Whipped Cream Peanut Butter Frosting

Keylime - White coconut-lime cake topped with White Chocolate frosting

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - Chocolate chip cupcake filled with eggless cookie dough and topped with a creamy cookie dough flavored frosting and mini-cookie.

German Chocolate Chocolate cupcake filled with a gooey mounds bar and pecans topped with homemade German Chocolate Frosting.

Cookies n'Cream - Dark chocolate cupcake topped with buttercream and crushed oreos.

Strawberries n' Cream - Vanilla yogurt cake topped with Whipped Cream strawberry frosting and a fresh berry.


Keylime, Reese's Peanut Butter, Strawberries n' Cream, Red Velvet, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and German Chocolate.

Eggless Chocolated Chip Cookie Dough Filling


Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.

Recognition Night 2010

On the menu:
~300 cupcakes of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Key Lime with White Chocolate Frosting, Blackberry Yogurt, and German Chocolate variety.
~Cucumber Limeade
~Fruit and Veggies with Chipotle Ranch and Berry Yogurt Dip
~Avocado Salsa

REESE'S PEANUT BUTTER CUP. Rich chocolate cupcake with a Reese's nestled in the middle and topped with a Sweet Cream Peanut Butter Frosting.




KEY LIME CUPCAKE WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE FROSTING. Enough said.


BERRY YOGURT CUPCAKE. Extra moist French Vanilla Yogurt Cake with a Creamy Berry-Cream Frosting.

GERMAN CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE. Rich moist chocolate cupcake filled with Mounds bar and toasted pecans and topped with homemade German Chocolate Frosting.


CUCUMBER LIMEADE. Icy Lemon lime punch with a fresh cucumber accent.


FRUIT AND VEGGIES WITH CHIPOTLE RANCH AND BERRY YOGURT CREAM DIPS


AVOCADO SALSA AND CORN CHIPS.

Do you want to see A LITTLE GLIMPS of what this looks like behind the scenes?

Fruit Trays

I have a friend who wanted some pictures of some of the trays and chocolate fountains that I have used at events I have catered. Here are the ones I have found so far and hopefully will be able to add a few more later. This particular fruit tray is a little overloaded but you can get the general idea. I would recommend refilling rather then piling it all up so that visually you can see the colors of all the fruit.
Choose a pineapple that is ripe but has a beautiful top or trim the dried parts off so that the leaves are still pointed. Cut off the top and put it in the middle of the tray. Cut off the bottom and discard. Then depending on the size of the fruit cut the pineapple into 6 or 8 wedges leaving the outside skin on. To make the PINEAPPLE BOATS, cut off the hard middle section then use your knife to cut as close to the skin as you can to make a wedge of pineapple. Put the wedge back on top of the skin and slice crosswise down the wedge making 1/4-1/2 inch peices. Fan your pineapple boats on your tray and then fill the area between with other fresh fruit. I like whole strawberries and grapes. I like to leave the grapes with their own color, so normally I would have a section of strawberries, one of red grapes and then one of green, alternating every other one.
Simple and inviting!

Mooers and Schwimmers

The scampi is lacking a little color, next time I will put fresh parsley and lemon wedges.
One day this will be a completed post but I have just figured out that one of my binders with a ton of my favorite recipes is gone!!!! AGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Okay has it really been since October. I forget what we were even celebrating this day. I just wanted to share this awesome and easy Shrimp Scampy recipe.

1 1/2 pounds large shrimp (16-24)
1/3 cup clarified butter
4 Tablespoons minced garlic
6 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 Tablespoons lemon juice, fresh if possible
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse shrimp and set aside. Heat butter in large skillet over medium heat. cook garlic 1 or 2 minutes or until softened but not browned. Add shrimp, green onions, wine and lemon juice: cook until shrimp are pink and firm. Don not overcook. Add chopped pasley and salt and pepper before serving.

I am also looking for some great tips on grilling steak. Yummy marinades, sauces and processes to get that awesome medium well cut of beef. If you are a steak expert give me some tips in the comment section.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I have been wanting a good recipe for chocolate chip cookies. No, not just good, THE BEST! The kind with substance, chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside and . . . I think I found them!!!

BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used Pampered Chef bourbon vanilla)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (milk for me)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions: (I think it is pretty important that you follow them exactly)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. IMPORTANT dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips and nuts. Drop large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned

I love google!!! If you think you might possibly have one that is better share it with me in the comments section. I'll let you know what I think.

Cheating :)

So this year for Sam's birthday I cheated. Hehehe. . . I had to plan two seperate parties because of our schedule and the fact that there was no way I would be able to entertain all of the kids Sam wanted to invite this year at my house. We now have preschool, playgroup, Kindergarten and church friends whose parties we attend and really want to have at our parties. So. . .

I went to Dairy Queen and got an Oreo Blizzard Cake for the swim party in our backyard.



Then I made R2D2 cupcakes for the bowling party. I don't know that they neccessarily looked like the little droid guy but Sam loved them and the kids recognized them. I think they look kind of cool when you see all of them together. (I have also made Death Star cupcakes with gray and black frosting before.)

Have a Party, Make a Cake!

Childhood = Birthday Parties!
I remember from my own kidhood how important birthdays are. More importantly, the parties. The biggest insult one little friend every dealt my son was when he got mad and said, "Oh yeah, I am not even inviting you to my birthday party!" Sam was devastated!!!
My advice when it comes to throwing a successful birthday bash is:
#1 Pick a theme
#2 Decorate a cake
#3 Throw in some children
#4 Mix together and don't forget the candles.

I am serious. As long as there is cake; square, round or of the cuppy kind with the appropriate number of burning sticks of wax, the kids are happy! Here are a few successes from our past:

This fairy cake was super easy. It is a double layer 10" round cake on the bottom and a double 8" cake on top of that. I used Wilton's Buttercream Frosting and a can of purple Spraymist foodcoloring. I was worried about mixing enough frosting of the color I wanted. If I mixed too little I would have to try and match the color. If I mixed too much I would have wasted frosting that I could have used for another color and I HATE MIXING FROSTING!!! So using the spray color made it super easy to just frost the cake with white and then spray on my color:-) Then I just made ivy with a round writing tip and a leaf tip. Last of all we just stuck on the fairy figurines that we picked up at the Disney Store. I didn't get any pictures of the inside but I used food coloring to turn the yellow cake into all of our favorite fairy colors bright pink, purple and lime green.



Nothing like a cup cake with LOTS of fluffery frosting! Even better when there is purple stardust sprinkles and princess candies.

This is a take off of the "Barbie Cake" that we have all seen with the giant Cinderella Dress.


I pulled this cake off by using my Pampered Chef Classic 8 Cup Batter Bowl.
Any boxed cake mix can be used. Just mix it up and put it into the batter bowl that is either greased with flour or sprayed with Baker's Choice (oil spray with flour). Fill the bowl 2/3 full and bake at 350F for about 25 minutes or until the middle bounces back when you lightly press with your finger. (This eliminates dry overbaked cakes or having to stick a toothpick or knife into the top of your cake.)
I put the domed cake ontop of a double layer 9" round cake. I frosted the domed cake, then I pushed Aerial down into the center of the cake and when the frosting was still fresh and sticky I covered it in brown sugar to look like sand. Her fin is made of green frosting that I piped on with a large writing tip and built up in layers. I then frosted the ocean and added a little bit of seaweed and some bubbles onto the sides. Flounder and Sebastian were from a playdough toy set that I had purchased earlier. It was the perfect cake for my two year old that was obsessed with "Merdaids" and singing ah ah ah ah everywhere she went.

Another fun idea with barbie cakes is to use the Pampered Chef Prep Bowl Set (each one cup) prepared just like the batter bowl to bake your cupcakes (350F for about 20 min. using the same finger test mentioned above) and then use Polly Pockets in each cup cake. Have frosting bags or the Pampered Chef Decorator Bottle Set ready for all of the lucky party goers to decorate their own individual "Barbie Cake." (I always have orders going in if you need the bowls.)

The Castle cake was awesome! We celebrated that year in a real castle with Sir Samuel Tyler of Parks. All of our little guests came in knight and princess costume ready to hunt the treasure steeling dragon. Of course we had to have a cake that would properly commemorate the occasion.


The castle cake was a two layered 10" on top of a double layered 12". I used half of a cake cone as the turret decorated with frosting with an upside down sugar cone on top. A toothpick with a little flag fit nicely into the bottom of the sugar cone. Everyone wanted a peice with the turret. I only halfway mixed the grey frosting so that it gave the cake a marbles stone look.

Okay, Now this is where I share my biggest birthday cake secret and it is spelled C-O-S-T-C-O.! When life is crazy and I am having way too much fun building pinatas and homemade dragon eggs for the upcoming festivities, or I need to feed an army and the little cake I made is just not going to cut it, I order up a yummy cake from the friendly neighborhood wholesale warehouse. Then I get creative. We have had a couple Star Wars cakes, a mermaid cake, a Hello Kitty Cake and a princess easter cake to name a few. I just add pictures, toys or sometimes I get fancy and do a basket weave with roses. It cuts cake making time down a few hours and feeds 50 for under $15.00.