graham cracker sandwiches....!

....these are so ridiculously simple that they hardly need a post....but they came out cute...so why not?....you'll need:

• frosting (i had a little bit of left over frosting from these cupcakes and hate to waste perfectly good homemade buttercream!)
• graham crackers

....slather some frosting in between graham crackers....and ta-da....you are done....

....and don't worry if the graham crackers break....just make mini sandwiches.....they are so cute and the kids loved them....i kept them in the fridge so the icing didn't squish all out when you bite them (well for the little bitty ones, that's not a problem since you can just pop them in your mouth)....

....and you get some super simple graham cracker sandwich snacks....i love using up stuff without wasting it...this is a recycled treat....and so is this.....and i know it's just frosting, but there's a lot of love that goes into making it...!

...happy thursday!

tidy mom works for me wednesday

vanilla cupcakes with fruit glazes...!

....so ever since seeing these cupcakes in an issue of martha stewart's living...they've been on the "to do" list....the glaze colors are so pretty!

...these are homemade vanilla cupcakes from the magnolia vanilla cupcake recipe.....the glaze icings are cantaloupe, blueberry, strawberry, and mint....and the color is all natural...only from the color that comes from the fruit (or mint).....i love that as i tend to use a lot of color in my stuff (well because stuff looks more awesome with a lot of color!) but if i can get the same cool look without adding the extra coloring gels...even better....

...the blueberry, strawberry, and mint glaze icings are made like in the ms recipe....decided to add a cantaloupe glaze because we had a super ripe melon that the kiddos probably wouldn't eat (you know kids, kinda mushy fruit and it's "yucky")....so cut it up and food processed it into a mush....

...then added a little sugar (maybe 2-3 tablespoonfuls) and heated it until it reduced and thickened a bit....then strained out all the big particles....

...and you are left with a super condensed and thick cantaloupe syrup....

...i did all the fruit syrups ahead of time and stored them in the fridge til i was ready to use....for the mint syrup (we have a small herb garden so it was great to use some of the ton of mint we have growing!).....make sure you blanch really quickly in boiling water to brighten the green color...then puree with a small amount of the blanching water.....then follow the ms recipe...it works great and has such a great fresh mint taste!.....

...then just add some powdered sugar to the syrups until you get the glaze consistency you want (thick enough for dipping the cupcakes so it keeps the color without becoming transparent through the glaze).....

...the strawberry, blueberry and mint glazes' flavor are definitely yummy and pretty concentrated....cantaloupe is tough for a fruit flavor because it's so subtle....using really ripe fruit and concentrating by cooking it down definitely helped....you do get a cantaloupe flavor from this glaze icing but it's not as intense as the strawberry or blueberry....the mint is my fav though and i love the color that is ended up being (oh and the mint syrup is great for drinkee drinks too..!).....

....then just dip (or drizzle the glaze) over your favorite cupcakes....and you get some super moist vanilla cupcakes with a bunch of au natural colored and flavored glazes....!

....i need to figure out something to do with the left over glazes....i'm sure they'd be great on a lot of things....thanks for stopping by, and have a great 1st week of august....!

tidy mom works for me wednesday

"watermelon" and "apple" waffles....!

...so when you think summer....don't you think watermelon???.....i've done watermelon cupcakes before, but was looking for some other fun "watermelon" treats....

.....i totally got this idea from random thoughts of a supermom....they were just too fun not to try....

...just use your favorite waffle batter or mix....and tint some pink and green...then throw in a few chocolate chips for "seeds" (although what watermelon these days has black seeds??)....

...or tint some red and leave some non-tinted....throw in a few chocolate chips for "seeds" and you have some "apple" waffles...

.....the kiddos loved these and didn't even ask for them to be drowned in syrup as they usually do...!

tidy mom works for me wednesday

cupcake tower wedding "cake"....!

...so this was my first attempt at a cupcake tower for my aunt's wedding a couple of weeks ago....with a 6 inch 4 layer cake on top....

...roses piped on with a wilton #1M tip and then topped with large pearl non-pareils.....

.....the cupcakes are iced with vanilla buttercream tinted green, pink, or left plain white (make sure you use clear vanilla or you'll get off white buttercream)....some were also iced with chocolate fudge icing (store bought and mixed with about 2 cups of the vanilla buttercream).....all iced with the same wilton #1M tip.....

...for anyone who may need to make a ton of cupcakes (i made about 150), this was my plan of action....started baking batches (30-40ish) of cupcakes that monday (wedding was on saturday).....as soon as the cupcakes were cool, put them into large zip lock bags (get as much as the air out of the bag)....then immediately freeze....did this on tuesday, wednesday, and thursday too...on wednesday, thursday, and friday made the icings.....i batch for each color (this ended up being the perfect amount...1 batch iced about 35-40 cupcakes).....on friday defrosted all the cupcakes and then immediately iced and topped with the same pearl non-pareils as on the cake....

.....these had to be transported about 2 hours so the best "container" i found were those big costco cardboard boxes they give you to carry all the bulk items home....pack the cupcakes tight so there's not a lot of room to slide....i finished icing all the cupcakes on the friday before the wedding so covered the boxes with plastic wrap and stored in our cool basement area overnight....

....i used a cupcake tower to display them on and assembled everything once we got to the location....the cupcake tower is just sturdy white cardboard...the edges are not finished so i covered it in ribbon (secured with white pins).....pretend you don't see the ribbon coming off the edge in the pic below! oh and if you are going to re-use the cupcake tower just know that the cardboard may get some stains because of the cupcake liners or if any of the frosting gets on it too....(think it's fine tho because you just cover the stain up the next time with more cupcakes!)

...this was a lot of fun and for me it wasn't too stressful to make so many cuppies since i planned it pretty well and i wasn't up til 3 am frosting cupcakes (that said if i needed like 300 i may have been a lot more stressed!)....and most importantly....

CONGRATULATIONS SUSIE AND EBB!!!

thanks for letting me play a part on your special day!....(last photo by PB n' J Photography....they were AWESOME!)

tidy mom works for me wednesday