Shot Glass Case

My Father-in-Law custom made me a shot glass case this year and we got it hung up in February (which is not at all bad for us) and here it is almost all filled up.  I tried to keep them in order (most of them I numbered along the way) but some of them got put with other theme glasses instead of in the order I got them.
So happy with it and now I can't wait to work on collecting even more for another cabinet!

Reagan's finished mosaic

Reagan received this dinosaur mosaic for her birthday and she had a great time working on it.  Mom, Dad and Aunt Jeani all helped to make sure she didn't get the numbers messed up while working to complete it.  She was excited to get another one for Christmas of a gold fish (this one is a dinosaur, if hard to see).

Fun Day Auction Cake Pops

Last year for Reagan's school fundraiser "Fun Day" I entered 2 custom cake pop items into the silent auction...each of them earning $20.  The first one was won by my parents and my mom requested turkey cake pops for Thanksgiving.

I haven't made these for awhile because they are a true labor of love!  The pops themselves aren't bad at all, but the detailing of the faces and the addition of the feathers on the back are tiring.  The legs are broken stick pretzels, the faces are made out of brown pretzel M&Ms with mini colored "kisses" for the eyes and gobble, and then candy corn for the feathers, which are held on by more chocolate almond bark.

I did a better job of them this time, than the first time and was happy with how they turned out.  Mom liked them too as did the kiddos so all was well!

Reagan's Birthday Treats: Part 2

She picked out cake pops long before that November day when we actually took them to school.  I was surprised that after last year's Frogs, she didn't want to do a green pop this year.  She picked out small ice cream cone pops instead!  I loved them and they were super easy to make.

Thanks to Bakerella and her great cookbook for the inspiration for them!  I did use a pretzel M&M on the top instead of a peanut one, since there is someone with allergies in Reagan's class, but after carefully looking I saw that they are made on the same machines, so this didn't really help me and I ended up leaving some without the "cherry" on top.  I made them even easier since I used the kid sized cones, instead of cutting down regular waffle cones to size.  As you can see, I used my mini-muffin tin to hold them while they dried and the only drawback came when I tried to slide it across the counter and it stuck a bit and then gave way making most of them tip over and causing some to smudge!

The only bad part about these was the lack of weight in the bottom!  The were hard to transport since they didn't have sticks to hold them in a carrier and they were so top heavy they couldn't ride very well standing up.  As you can see I used small tea towels and washrags (all clean) to help brace them in the dishes I took.

Next time I try these I think I will pour some candy melts into the base of the cone to give it some added weight!

Reagan's Birthday Treats: Part 1

Reagan had her first "friends" birthday party this year and so she planned for cupcakes for the party, cake pops for school treats and an ice cream cake (which I didn't have to make) for her family party.

She worked hard and helped me to make the cupcakes, which were a Funfetti cake mix with chocolate (I was surprised by this!) icing and sprinkles!  She picked out some adorable purple tulip muffin cups to use!

The finished Product

Past Pops

I made these cake pops in the shapes of apples (with pretzel stems) and pumpkins (with tic tac stems).  I made a lemon cake and a spice cake and took these for the bake sale at Wil's preschool fall festival fundraiser.

Teacher Appreciation

I decided to give the traditional teach appreciation gift a face lift.  I made apple shaped cake pops!  I made them with a lemon cake/lemon frosting mix and they turned out tasting great.  I was planning to use a spice cake to hint at the fall theme of apples, but I didn't get the mix thawed in an unexpected time crunch to get them made.

You can see I used both a red (which I created using some red and pink melts - due to lack of red) and I used a lime green and I think both shades looked good on my apples!  I also used the ends of pretzel sticks to make the stems on the top.