Cute As A Button BABY SHOWER

As me and my DIY Partner in Crime Say, "Another notch in our belt, another success!"

We recently gave a "Cute as a Button" baby shower and I must say, it really was, Cute as a Button" !

These might be the most simple invitations we have ever made but they were just perfect for our little shower!

Of course my Cricut machine worked its magic! This banner was very easy to make, just be prepared to use a lot of paper! I love having my mantle to hang things!!

Diaper cakes are always a must!

Wishing I could take credit for these tiny cakes because they tasted like a dream! They fit in perfect with out little buttons and they were a huge hit!



The Butterfinger Blondie

If you love butterfingers you will love these!! They are inbetween a cookie and a brownie.  Get your glass of milk ready b/c they are SWEET!! :)

1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp coarse sea salt
2 cups coarsely chopped Butterfinger Bars (approx 16 “Fun Size” bars)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°
Cream butter and sugars in mixing bowl.
Add the vanilla and eggs and mix until incorporated.
On low add your dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking soda) until just combined.
Stir in your chopped Butterfinger.
Spread in a 9×13 baking dish and bake for 25 minutes until center is JUST set.
Remove from oven and cool completely.

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Cooking time: 25 minute(s)

Butterfinger Buttercream:

Ingredients

1/2 cup room temp butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening

3 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
1/2 cup chopped Butterfinger Bars (approx 4 “Fun Size” bars)

Instructions

Cream the butter and shortening together until smooth.
Add in you powdered sugar on low speed. Turn speed up to medium and mix until smooth
Stir in your chopped Butterfinger. (I sprinkled mine on top rather than stirring them in!)
Spread on your cooled blondies

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)

Buttercream

Dough w/ the Butterfingers added

Final Product!!

Award Winning Banana Pudding

This really is award winning Banana Pudding!! I made it for a dessert contest we had at work and I got FIRST place!! The best part is, its so easy!!!



• 2 box's INSTANT Vanilla Pudding
• 8oz Sour Cream
• 1 Large Cool Whip
• 1 box Vanilla Wafers
• Bananas (approx 4-5; sliced)

Prepare pudding as indicated on box.  After that is finished beat in the sour cream.  Then you will want to fold in the Cool Whip.  In the pictures shown, I have crushed up the cookies and I folded them into the pudding as well.  You can incorporate them however you want and as many as you want.  I like a lot of cookies so I crush up almost the whole box.  I set a few aside to decorate the top.  As for the bananas, I layer them in.  I don't like to mix/fold them in b/c they turn too brown too fast.  The less you handle them the better. 

This has to be the best tasting banana pudding for as easy it is!  It's a must try!!!

Finished Product!

Bridal Recipe Shower

Let me first start the explination of this post by showing you this invitation I made.  My brother is getting married in Feb and I wanted to throw a Kitchen/Recipe shower for his bride.  I created the whole invitation using my Cricut and regular home printer.  I found the wording simply by a google search and I thought it was just genious.

"Let's Shower our Bride,

A perfect Kitchen We Hope to Provide.

Add your Favorite Recipe for her File,

We'll Outfit Their Kitchen in Fabulous Style."

I wish I could take credit for the cake because it turned out so awesome! I took the invitation to my favorite bakery and asked them to try to match it...I think they did a GREAT job!

We had a table full of snackies...my favorite kind of food!

The meat,cheese and veggie kabobs turned out looking very nice!

The best part is yet to come!  I found a couple good blogs that had some nice ideas for decoration and then like always, I added my own touch to everything.  I bought several things off of the brides registry including untensils and dishcloths to put everything together.  Here are a few pictures:

Paper towel holder wrapped w/ dishclothes.  Very Simple!
Also a little hard to see but I stuffed an oven mit with utensils.

Utensil "Cake"
You can find the tutorial here

I used their engagement pictures and strung them along the mantle with mini clothes pins.

Lastly, I also saw this idea on a blog.  I bought a water/tea pitcher that was off the registry and placed a regular drinking glass inside.  If you look closely, you can see it in the top picture.  Then I cut up about 6-8 lemons and started placing them in between the pitcher and glass.  It was very simple and turned out beautifully!

Once the flowers are in, you can't see the glass inside.

Is it a Brownie? Is it a Cupcake?

So I don't know what to call these but they were fantastic! Brownie on the bottom, cake on the top and raspberry chocolate chip cream cheese icing.  It wasn't all that hard, just made a LOT of dirty dishes.  This was also my first time to make cream cheese icing with a fruit puree in it.  I need to work on the consistency but it did have great flavor!

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 48 muffin cups with paper liners.


2. Whisk together the brownie mix, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup canola oil, and 1/4 cup water in a bowl. Stir just until fully incorporated, about 50 strokes; add about ½ cup chocolate chips; stir; set aside.

3. Mix the white cake mix, 2 tablespoons canola oil, 1 1/3 cup water, and 3 egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.

4. Spoon the brownie batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each cup 1/3 full. Spoon the cake batter over the brownie batter, until muffin cups are each 2/3 full.

5. Bake in the preheated oven until golden and the tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 20 minutes.



Icing
8 oz cream cheese; room temp
2 sticks butter; room temp
3 cups powdered sugar; sifted
2 tsp vanilla
About 4 oz raspberries (pureed in food processor)
½ cup chocolate chips

Mix cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in standalone mixer. Gradually add the sifter sugar.

Add pureed raspberries and chocolate chips.

Refrigerate for an hour before adding to cupcakes

***Make sure cupcakes are COMPLETELY cool before adding icing.***

Brownie Batter with the chocolate chips

Fill cups only 1/3 of the way with brownie batter

Cream Cheese frosting with the Raspberry puree

The finished product!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Dip

This went over really great at Thanksgiving.  A lot like my other recipes, it was simple to make!

1 Can Pumpkin

1 Box Vanilla Instant Pudding

1 Large Cool Whip

Cinnamon & Sugar to Taste

Chocolate Chips to Garnish & Decorate

To me, this tasted the best with the green apples, but was also good with the GingerSnaps.

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Raspberry Lemonade Bars

After a while, you will realize that in my recipe posts, I either make up my own or I adjust the one I'm following.  Here is one that was adjusted/added to.  It was VERY simple and so TASTY even though it was a partial fail.  Here is the low down:

Get you a box of regular Lemon Bars
Prepare crust as directed
When it comes to the lemon-filling part, take about 6oz of fresh raspberries and run them through the food processor.
When you have a thick/soupy texture, add that to the lemon part and follow the rest of the directions.
Here is where I failed: bake LONGER than what the box tells you.  The raspberries make the bars extra soupy so it is a must to bake them longer than you think.  I was unable to get them out of the pan in an orderly fashion, that's why the pictures look questionable. :)
Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

No matter how they looked, they were very tasty and everyone loved them.  I will be trying this recipe again, I'll let you know if they are a success or a fail!

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