rainbow ice cream cone cake bites....!

....so to occupy some time during hurricane irene this past weekend, made these goodies!......which were made with some left over frozen cupcakes....and didn't really feel like making a new batch of buttercream just for these....so instead of cake bites made with crumbled cake and frosting...they are made with marshmallow fluff...!....and you may be thinking....."where's the rainbow"....?

...inside of course....!...so really these are faux mini ice cream cones made with multi colored cupcakes, fluff, and vanilla candy melts.....

...i only used one cupcake for each color (because that's what i had in the freezer!)....and mix with about 1 tablespoon of fluff....(or just add enough fluff until you get the consistency of the regular cake/frosting mix for cake bites---don't add too much or it's too sticky).....

...then roll each color into a "ball" and freeze for about 1/2 hour or so....

...then slice each into 6 pieces.....(hence the need to freeze them!)....

...then mix and match the slices to get rainbow "balls".....

...take off the first inch or so of a sugar cone to make it smaller for the cake ball....add some melted candy wafer to the edge of the cone and pop a cake/fluff bite on top.....then re-freeze for about another half hour or so....

...then dip in the vanilla candy melt and add some cool sprinkles and a mini red m&m on top....and you get some really cute mini rainbow ice cream cone cake n' fluff bites....(that's a mouthful....literally and figuratively...!)

.....and one of these was a much better view than my backyard after hurricaine irene!....hope everyone else on the east coast made out ok after the storm....we lost power for about a day (which is so fun with 3 kids under 7!)....what's next after an earthquake and a hurricane on the east coast..?...volcano eruption in nyc,?...bring it on!!

....thanks for stopping by and have a great week....!

tidy mom works for me wednesday

monster cereal bark (i'm guest posting!)....!

...so i'm guest posting for the first time ever...woohoo!...over at alli n son for sweet tooth friday....alli recently had baby#2 so she's got her hands full and some of us are helping virtually by bringing her some "sweets"....

.....i used the monster cereals again from this post to make some monster cereal bark....so hop on over and see how to make it...and while you are there link up any sweets you made and check out all the other awesome posts too...!

...have a great weekend!...we have part 2 of our star wars party this saturday!

death star cake and star wars cupcake tower....!

...so my oldest turns 7 this month....!...i'm not sure how that's possible as it seems like he was just a tiny little thing not so long ago.....

...i've been making his cakes since he turned one......and he's definitely a huge star wars fan (probably because we have a 40+ year old star wars freak in the house too)....so the request this year was for a star wars cake....originally it was for a 3-D standing jango fett cake.....needless to say i quickly talked him down from that....because some 3-D cakes are not my friend....but a death star "ball" i can handle....

...plus i've been meaning to do some star wars characters for awhile now.....and there are so many to choose from that it's fun to try doing them in edible form....(note: some turn out better than others!!)...

...the toppers are made from candy melts/wafers....same technique as i always use....print out some images (i got mine from mighty muggs since they are all about the same size and cartoon like so it was easier to do them in the candy melt this way (if anyone needs just the heads in a word doc, email me as i have this and can share it).....do all the detail first (stock up in black candy melt at halloween time as it comes in super handy....if you don't have black, just use dark brown....nobody will really care....well maybe those super star wars freaks like my 41 year old kid :) ...and let the detail dry about 5-10 minutes....

...then fill in with the other main colors....have some toothpicks handy so you can smooth out the candy and get it into any tiny crevices....

...simple enough right....?......

.....here's captain rex, boba fett, darth maul, and r2d2.....

.....and yoda, chewbacca, the wampa, and commander cody....

....and luke skywalker, general grievous, lando calrissian (i <3 lando), and c3po (i have found 3po is tough in food form!)....

.....and admiral ackbar (he may be my fav), an imperial guard, princess leia (she is NOT happy!), and a storm trooper.....

.....and darth vader, darth maul (sorry i was in a rush and forgot who i included in the pics already), jango fett, and wicket the ewok.....

.....and luke (again!), han solo, a scout trooper (or maybe a ghost!), and captain rex (again!)....

...the death star is made from the wilton sports ball pan...which i already had....and iced in vanilla buttercream.....

.....and then sprayed with this stuff in silver....

.....there have been some bad reviews of it online....but it worked out great for me.....and saved me a ton of time!...although i'm not sure a can would cover as much as it says it does on the label....or maybe i just used a lot for this project....

.....the detail was done by hand with icing tinted 2 shades of grey.....(arm was killing me the next day....this one seemed to take longer than the brobee cake piping....!)...

....and you get a star wars cupcake tower with a death star top for a pretty awesome 7 year old...!

....happy birthday jack!...you're the best kid ever!.....i hope one day you'll look back and read this blog when you're all grown up and know that i love you more and more each day...it's amazing to watch you grow and experience things for the first time and to see what a great person you are and will continue to be....and you are an awesome big bro to your brother and sister! (hopefully all of this won't be new news to you!).....love you lots....xxoo, mom

tidy mom works for me wednesday

peanut butter pie...!

....so i've only been blogging a short time....but i am so amazed by the love the food blogging community has shown this weekend......

....if you've noticed a ton of peanut butter pies posted....that's because someone lost someone special very suddenly....that person was jennifer perillo of In Jennie's Kitchen and that special someone was her husband, mikey.....she asked anyone reading "to make a peanut butter pie and share it with someone you love, then hug them like there's no tomorrow because today is the only guarantee we can count on"

...those last words are so true, and words i try to live by everyday.....we found out my daughter needed a heart transplant when she was 8 months old....ever since then we try to live every day to the fullest because you just never know...life is so very good no matter what....enjoy it.....

...we can't do peanut butter around here because 2 out of my 3 have nut allergies....but we sat around inside all day on this rainy sunday...laughed and played.....and talked....we talked a lot and we talked about our favorite foods.....each of those are drawn around the "peanut butter pie" we made in spirit for jennifer and family.....

....thanks for stopping by and have a great week with the ones you love....

cake n' cereal treats....!

....so this is kinda like halloween in august...remember these monster cereals...?

....frankenberry, count chocula, and my all time fav....boo-berry (for some reason i love love love blueberry flavored stuff)!...i found these on sale at tar-jay for like $2 a box at the end of the halloween season and had to get them....i loved these when i was a little kid and begged and pleaded until my mom gave in....now that i have kids i totally get why she gave us a hard time on the sugary cereals....but they always remind me of being a kid...so i usually also say no when the kids beg for a box of trix...but randomly i do bring one home for them (although i don't let them eat it for breakfast--just can't do it....but it's a "treat" after dinner....)...anyway.....since i had all 3 boxes i was trying to think of something to do with them....so decided to food process the heck out of them and get some cereal powders to add to stuff....

....the first was cereal and cake bites.....i usually freeze extra cupcakes i make since it's so easy to do a "quick" project/idea with them....for these i used 1 cupcake and about 1 cup of the cereal powder and mashed them up until nice and crumbly.....then added enough icing until moist enough or until you can make a ball/bite that sticks together nicely....(don't these look like multi-colored meatballs??)....

.....then coat in candy melt/wafers like you would do for any other cake bite....and while still wet..... just roll in some of the crushed monster cereals....

.....and you get some really yummy monster cereal n' cake bites...

.....see yummy....!

....or add a stick to them, well because as meaghan from the decorated cookie says...everything is better on a stick (at least i believe that's a quote...!)....

...and you have some very nostalgic monster cereal n' cake pops on a stick....!

....or of course you can add some of the cereal powder to some boxed cake mix batter.....

....and also add some powder to to some of your favorite vanilla buttercream.....

....and you get boo-berry, frankenberry, and count chocula cupcakes....!

....that said you could always just eat a plain ole bowl of boo-berry and pretend you are 8 years old again....

....these were fun, fun, and fun....unfortunately my oldest kiddo told me never to make this kind of cupcake again.... :( oh well....you can't win 'em all...and i enjoyed these probably more than i should have....!

....happy monday to everyone....and a very happy early halloween!

tidy mom works for me wednesday