Mini Cupcake Carousel...

Last week in Joanns Fabrics I spotted this adorable Egg Carousel in the Easter section. It is of course meant to hold eggs however I thought it would be a super cute way to hold mini cupcakes! Thus I purchased it at its 40% discount price (still going on, on all their holiday themed items) and happily brought it home. I think it looks super adorable with the cupcakes in it and probably looks equally adorable with colored eggs in it for Easter as well. I used it for my Welcome Little Sweetie party.
I am LOVING Joanns holiday themed items. They are super precious and pretty much never full priced.

You can check out the banner I made for my Welcome Little Sweetie Party.

XoXo.

BlogOween: Candy Corn Cupcakes

Via

With Halloween right around the corner (which I seriously dont know how that happened) I thought it would be fun to do a lot more Halloween themed type blog posts. Of course I need to give it a fun name as well...BlogOween it is. And what better way to kick this off than with cupcakes...yum.

Via Pinterest

Unlike the first photo I think I might actually be able to pull this one off. Simple yet festive and cute.

Via

Hmmm...I may be able to pull this one off...just need some good ole food coloring.

Via Pinterest

Okay, this has got to be the Over Achievement Candy Corn Cupcake...at least that is what I would call it. This seriously is a candy corn covered strawberry on top of a Halloween cupcake...whew....

Via Pinterest.

XoXo.

Sweet Shoppe Series Part 1: The Idea

www.thoughtfullysimple.com

Baby Z has her first birthday party coming up here soon too soon. I originally planned to have her party in June (her birthday is May 27th) but due to family schedules I found out sort of last minute that I will be needing to host this party in just a few short weeks. With working full time and not having very many creative bones in my body I happily turned to the parties of those before me for inspiration. I knew I wanted to throw a Sweet Shoppe/Shop (not sure what is up with the spelling differences here) themed birthday complete with candy decor, candy decor and more candy decor. Thanks to good ole Pinterest my visual desires were met. Here is a list of the decadent pictures I have taken my inspiration and ideas from. I am in awe at the women behind these parties and their creative minds!

www.thoughtfullysimple.com

Original source unknown; I found it on Pinterest.

www.thecakeblog.com

www.HowDoesShe.com

www.glorioustreats.com

Stay tuned for more Sweet Shoppe Series to see how the crafts, decor, DIY and other inspiration I utilize for the 1st birthday of Baby Z!

Sweet Easter Treats...

Pinterest never ceases to amaze me. The things I find on their showcase such amazing talent. Here are my top picks for amazingly sweet looking and Easter treats.

Rainbow colored Jello Eggs. How brilliant is that? And if you are on a diet (like me) you could even make them with sugar free Jello! Source.

 So that's what to do with all those Peeps I get but never eat during Easter season! Source unknown as the Pinterest link for this item did not work.

These adorable bunny cookies have a distinct vintage vibe going on. Would be amazing for a vintage'esqe Easter themed gathering/party/birthday. Source.

Simple and chick..er chic. Would be fun to make these as a vanilla cupcake with lemon creme frosting. Source.

Yay! Here is one for us adults. Chocolate mousse in golden egg cups designed by Wolfgang Puck. Easter Couture. 

Main photo courtesy of Better Homes & Gardens.

DIY: Simple Marbled Cupcakes

Marbling cupcakes is really so easy and fun. First choose which two flavors you want to marble together. For mine pictured above, I just stuck with a simple cocoa batter and a vanilla batter. The possibilities really are endless though and that is the fun part. I was thinking of the following flavor combinations:

• Chocolate & Hazelnut
• Lemon & Strawberry
• Vanilla & Almond

You can also color your batter with food coloring. Its hard to tell in this picture ( and because I ran out of food coloring) but I dyed my vanilla batter a nice shade of orange since these ones were for Halloween.

Take your first layer of batter and place a spoonful of it on the bottom of the cupcake tin then take a spoon of your second flavor and place on top of first. Then use a toothpick or any other utensil that is long and relatively thin and gently swirl the two flavors together. Yes it is really that simple.

DIY: GraveYard Plot Cupcakes

A easy, fun DIY Halloween cupcake activity that the kids can participate in! As you can see above we got a little tired of writing RIP on all the headstones so we got imaginative and put some ghost and pumpkin faces on some of them. Hey its Halloween, you can be as creative as you want.

The Plots ( Chocolate Cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk

How To:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper or with butter and a little bit of flour. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
3. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. 

The Dirt ( Frosting & Topping)

Your plot (cupcake) will be topped with soil (frosting & oreos). I went with a cream cheese frosting which is really easy to work with. Once its time to top each cooled cupcake with the frosting you can put your frosting into a ziplock bag and zip the corner edge off for easy frosting. This works wonders and no expensive piping bag  is needed.

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

About 20 oreos, with filling scraped out. Take your oreos sans filling and put them in a ziplock bag. Crush them up into a fine texture (its ok to have a few chunky pieces left).

Beat cream cheese with your mixer until smooth and creamy. Add in butter and vanilla. Mix this at a medium to high speed. Lastly, add in your powdered sugar a little bit at a time and voila you have homemade frosting. Frost your cooled cupcakes and generously douse each one with your crushed oreos...errrr dirt.

The Headstones

You will need a bag of Milano cookies and a black gel icing tube. Cut 1/4 end off of each Milano cookie. Use your black gel icing tube to write on each headstone. Place cookie firmly into the icing. Voila!

Place finished cupcakes on a cupcake stand or on a platter and garnish platter with remaining crushed oreos for a very earthy graveyard appearance.

I had left over chocolate cupcake batter, so I quickly whipped up a vanilla cupcake batter, dyed it orange with food coloring (yellow + red) and created a Halloween themed marbled cupcake. Those are the ones you see below mixed in with my extra GraveYard Plot cupcakes.

Eat & Enjoy.

Happy Haunts.

Kill My Diet Now: Halloween Cupcakes

Today's Halloween themed post is all about cupcakes! I absolutely must make some sort of Halloween themed cupcakes this year. As my mouth is watering looking at these pictures I just need to decide which ones to attempt. I found the above picture on Pinterest and my brain is straining to figure out how they got that perfect pumpkin shape.

Im a huge cupcake in a jar fan. Like huge. I think the possibilities when you take a Mason jar and a cupcake are endless. I might just do a post one day all about jars of cupcakes. I love making these. These festive ones came from Glorious Treats.

I love owls. I love cupcakes. Enough said.

Im from Pinterest.

I absolutely adore this black and orange marbled cupcake. I think I may just have to go for these ones and then get creative with the frosting and toppings. Can I just say one more time how much I love cupcakes?