Ninja Turtle Birthday Cake

Pretty excited about this cake. I used to love the Ninja Turtles as a kid, so it is awesome to see the younger generation get just as excited. 

Girl Baby Shower Cake

Apple Pie Cookies

I saw a recipe for apple pie cookies on facebook, so I decided to try my own: http://cincyshopper.com/caramel-apple-pie-cookies/?utm_source=spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_facebook

In the original recipe, it calls for apple pie filling. I don't normally buy apple pie filling, so I made my own. 

Ingredients: 

1 1/4 cup cold water

2/3 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 1/2 cups chopped and peeled apples

2 refrigerated pie crusts

1/4 cup caramel topping

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Get the pie crusts out of the refrigerator and let them sit for about 15 minutes to warm. 

Place 1 1/4 cup water, 2/3 cup sugar, and 3 T cornstarch in a saucepan. Heat the mixture until boiling and thick, while stirring with a whisk. When thick, remove from the heat and add 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. 

Meanwhile, peel and chop 5-6 medium apples. Add to the thickened sauce. 

Spread caramel sauce on the top of one of the pie crusts. Then top with the pie filling. (I had some extra pie filling. I will use that to top some ice cream later :) ) 

Cut strips out of the second pie crust and place it on top of the pie filling.

Using a cookie cutter, cut out small pies and place on a greased cookie sheet. (I had a heart cookie cutter, so I used that.)

Brush the cookie with beaten egg. Stir 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg in a bowl. Sprinkle that mixture on the top of the cookies. 

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until brown.

Fresh Salsa

We love this time of the year when the vegetables are starting to ripen in the garden and we have an abundance of tomatoes. A batch of fresh salsa is gone within minutes of being made. 

This recipe is pretty flexible. In this batch I have 15-20 grape tomatoes diced, about 2/3 cup chopped peppers (green, red, yellow, and orange), 1/4 of a large purple onion chopped, 2 cloves of garlic minced, 1 jalapeno seeded and diced, about 2 teaspoons sugar, salt and pepper to taste, and about a tablespoon of lime juice. (If you don't have lime juice, add a couple of teaspoons of vinegar.) 

I don't always have the colored peppers, so most of the time I just add chopped green pepper. 

We eat the salsa with Tostitos Scoops. It is definitely a summer favorite. 

Shopkins Cake

Shopkins have become quite popular in our house this year. So when a friend asked to make her daughter a Shopkins cake for her 6th birthday, we were all excited. The kids loved helping with this cake. They helped design the cake and picked out which Shopkins to include on the cake. 

Inside Out Birthday Party and Cake

Rachel saw the movie Inside Out and loved it! She liked it so much that she decided she would like an Inside Out birthday party. We wanted to create headquarters for her cake. This is what I came up with...Having the Inside Out characters made the cake a lot easier! I just did two 10 inch round cakes for the middle. I covered a little cardboard box with fondant and used that as the console. I added fondant controls and a memory ball to the console. The circles on the cake are fondant as well. The walls of headquarters are made from rice krispie treats that I molded and covered with fondant. It is hard to see, but the back wall has five window cutouts for the five islands. I made memory balls from fondant and stuck them on the walls. Then we made the little couch that sits in headquarters and stuck Sadness over there. 

The Inside Out photo board was a huge hit. All the kids had a great time with it. 

Using water beads, I made a sensory box of "memory ball" for the kids to play with. They had a blast with this! 

I was able to find a lot of free printables online. These two websites in particular were great: http://www.mrskathyking.com/free-inside-out-printable-party-decoration-pack/

http://www.mrskathyking.com/17-free-inside-out-printable-activites/

I found little Inside Out reusable bags on Amazon. I used those as little gift bags for Rachel's friends. I added a coloring book to the bag, stickers, candy that was the color of the 5 emotions, and  laminated door hangers and activity sheets that I laminated for dry erase use. I found Inside Out cups at Walmart that decorated the table as well. Then we added balloons the color of the five emotions to the chairs. 

The party would not have been complete without vegetable pizza! (For the broccoli pizza comment the kids love from the movie!)  This is just a package of crescent rolls pressed flat in a baking pan. Bake for about 8 minutes. Mix a package of Hidden Valley Ranch dip and sour cream. Spread that on the cooled crescent roll. Then added chopped veggies. Here I have broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. I did fruit kabobs that were the five colors of the emotions (green grapes, purple grapes, blueberries, strawberries, and pineapple).

I also found these little pictures of the emotions online at the website above. I laminated them and hot glued them to a lollipop stick. 

Inside Out Photo Board

For Rachel's 4th birthday party this weekend we are doing an Inside Out theme. She loves this movie and the character Disgust. I decided to make a little photo board for her friends to use at her little party. 

I just used a tri-fold presentation board as the base. I drew the characters first with pencil. Then I cut out the head shapes with and Exacto knife. I used Sharpie marker and acrylic paint to color the board. We are having a lot of fun with it already by displaying the different emotions.