First, bake a batch of your favorite cupcakes. Make sure to fill the cupcake liner about 3/4 of the way full so the cupcakes rise above the paper but not all over the pan.

Once the cupcakes are cool. Slice a small smile shape into each one. This will be where you put the cookie once the cake is frosted. Cutting the cupcake will make sure you don’t break it into pieces when you push the cooking in.

While the cupcakes are baking or cooling, make some Cookie Monster blue colored frosting. You can use your own buttercream recipe or just a jar of store bought frosting. If you use store bought frosting, remove all of the foil from it and heat in the microwave for 25-30 seconds to soften it. You can use a very concentrated jar of food color or just the blue from the regular 4-pack. If you use the blue from the 4-pack, you will need quite a bit to make the color this bright.

To prepare Cookie Monster’s mouth (cookie) cut about 1/4 off of each Chips Ahoy cookie so you don’t need to press the cookie in as far.

Then line them back up in the tray if you are doing this step ahead of time. What do you do with all of the little 1/4 pieces? Put them on ice cream, of course!

Another step you can do ahead of time is build CM’s eyes. This is a very simple step and actually works better done ahead because the eyes have a chance to stick and dry. To assemble: place a tiny bit of white frosting on the back of a chocolate chip and attach it to rounded side of the wafer. Let these set and dry.

When you are ready to assemble:

1. Frost the cupcake (with the smiley shaped cut-out) with blue frosting.
2. Cut two small slits for placing the eyes into the cupcake. Place the eyes in the slits.
3. Place the cookie (flat side in) into CM’s mouth.
4. Sprinkle with blue colored sugar to give him a furry look!!

Happy Cupcaking!

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First, make cupcakes of your choice. I made sour cream almond cupcakes. Then, frost them with your choice of frosting. Green makes a great background for flowers!

When you are ready to decorate, cut big marshmallows into “petals”. We found that it worked best to make 5 petals from each marshmallow.

Then, roll or shake the petals in colored sugar to coat them.

Press 5 or 6 petals onto each frosted cupcake top.

And place a candy in the center of the flowers.

Enjoy!!

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In her Moses basket:

Having fun with her hands:

Kara kissing her little ducky bottom:

We also stopped over at our neighbors happy hour last night. The theme was Cinco de Mayo (the party was rescheduled from last week) so I thought lime cupcakes would be fun to try! Here is what I did:

Cupcakes:

1 box white cake mix

12 oz margarita mix (liquid) – non alcoholic because that is what I had

2 eggs

1 Tbsp grated lime zest

1 Tbsp. lime juice

Lime Icing:

1 container of vanilla frosting

4 tbsp. lime juice

1 tbsp. lime zest

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350º

2. Combine margarita mix, cake mix, eggs, lime zest and lime juice. Stir ingredients together.

4. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full.

5. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Since these have no oil, they will be better lighter than more cooked so they are not dry.

Icing:
6. Mix frosting with lime juice and lime zest.

7. Frost cooled cupcakes and top with a lime.

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• 1 box cake mix – prepared as cucakes (mini or regular size)
• 1-2 c. of sweetened, shredded coconut
• frosting -homemade or from a can
• Robin’s Eggs (whoppers Easter candy)

1. Make cupcakes as directed and let cool.
2. Frost with frosting and dip into a plate of coconut.
3. Use a small amount of frosting on the edge of the egg to make it stick to the “nest”
4. Share with friends!

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Last night Janelle, Brady’s sister, and I had a great date!  We went to Easton to get her shorts and have dinner.  While Brady was at his World Cup Draft we went to dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen.  We split an amazing Grilled Vegetable Salad and I had some veggie pizza while she had asparagus soup.  I was so hungry by the time we ate at 9pm that I just inhaled the dinner without taking pics!  We then stopped at Yagoot for some fro yo!

When we got home, we frosted up the Easter cupcakes I made yesterday!  They were super simple and will be fun to take to Easter dinner at Brady’s parents tonight.  All of his family is in town for dinner today!

Hope you have a great weekend with your family!

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These adorable cupcakes are super simple to make!

1. Bake cupcakes as directed.
2. Let the cupcake cool and frost them in the colors of your choice.
3. Stick gum drops with sucker sticks and tie a bow on the top!
4. With a sharp knife, cut a little slit in the cupcake wrapper and insert the sucker stick!
5. Enjoy!

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Classic Cucumber Sandwiches

Pesto 5 – Cheese Tortellini

Pretzels and Carrots with Hummus

Apple Dip and apples

Ceasar Salad with Chicken on the side

Onesie Cookies

Baby Rattle Cupcakes

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The table.

Cookies made by Jen and I!!

Trying to tie the book club into the shower.

Napkins and hidden underneath the cute pink baby…

Happy Easter! hehe

Cupcakes!

Lots of sweets for Baby Addison

Back to the healthy part of this…

My black bean/kidney bean dip with fresh veggies!

Sarah’s warm wheat flatbread with parm and feta – AMAZING!

Kate’s Strawberry Salad

Natalie’s Apple Almond Butter with whole wheat tortillas – Great Idea!

And somehow I missed the grilled chicken we made. Brady did a great job with the grilling and the simple/sweet marinate was perfect on it.

Balsamic Marinade

• balsamic vinegar
• honey
• salt
• pepper

Delicious!

I have a LOT of baby showers coming up so if anyone has any good ideas for hosting, let me know!!

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Napkin of the night:

B-Day cupcakes:

I wanted to make something easy and fun for dinner since people were coming over right after. Paninis seemed like the perfect thing because Brady loves sandwiches!

We had an assortment of choices:

• grilled chicken we cut into strips
• bacon
• smoked turkey
• Colby-jack cheese
• spinach
• tomatoes
• pickles
• avocado
• apple
• black bean spread (just pureed black beans with red pepper flakes)
• roasted red pepper spread ( pureed roasted red peppers)
• mustard
• mayo

Plus a salad:

And some DELICIOUS roasted veggies (zuc, squash, and potatoes) that Brady made and I somehow missed.

Such a fun night!!

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Update on Valentine Treats tomorrow!

Happy Friday!

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