Birthday Pandas!!

I'm what most people would call easily amused. How so, you ask? I'm that person. You know the one. The one who is the first to laugh at jokes. I laugh at little things that others don't find funny. Facial expressions that I find amusing, certain tones, awkward moments... I just like to laugh and have such a dry sense of humor. Which is why I love goodies that have cute faces. When I make goodies like my Cookie Monster cupcakes, chick cake pops, or even my jack-o-lantern cookies, I can't help but giggle because well....they just look like adorable little armies of cuteness!!! Gah, so cute! So it comes as so surprise that when I saw Bakerella's panda mini cupcakes, I knew I'd have to recreate these little guys. I mean, come on. They just REEK of cuteness. REEK of it. So of course I had to recreate them for my little sister's 16th birthday. I used a box of cake mix for the cupcakes (end of the semester=laziness), but I did use Bakerella's recipe for easy buttercream frosting, which you can find here. Ok seriously guys, who knew simple buttercream could TOTALLY hit the spot?? Buttercream I've made in the past was purely for decorating class purposes...and we were required to use Crisco/lard instead of butter for some reason. And that didn't even compare in taste to butter. I don't...I can't...Seriously?? HOW did I not even put together that butter=better buttercream. BUTTER IS KING. Ok, maybe it's queen. We all know BACON is the real ruler in foodie land. Anyway! Cupcakes! Here's mine!

Bwahaha! I can't even help myself, they're just funny to look at. And they tasted GOOD (Butter in buttercream. My new mantra). And that poor panda with the candle...doesn't even know what hit him. Just look at his face, poor guy.

And finally, I just have to show off my little spokesmodels!! They're just perfect! These are my daycare girls and they just LOVED these cupcakes! Look at them working those cupcakes! Thanks for being the cutest advertisement I've ever had, girls!!

It's that time of year again...

You know, the time of the year which is second best to Christmas. You know what time that is? No, not Valentine's Day, that's towards the bottom of the list. It's....GIRL SCOUT COOKIE TIME!! Woo hoo!! In honor of cookie season fast approaching, I made something I've been meaning to make since last cookie season. Serious slacker status over here. I've literally had a box of cookies that I bought last year just hanging out in my freezer waiting to be used for this very purpose. Whoops. Anyway, I finally got around to making these Thin Mint Truffles I found over at Cookin' Cowgirl, here are the instructions. They are SUPER easy.

I mean, come on guys. These have THREE ingredients: Thin Mint cookies, cream cheese, and melting chocolates. If you're a Thin Mint lover, or lover of the chocolate/mint combination like I am (I'd be pretty much addicted to my favorite candy, Junior Mints if I could), this is a MUST TRY. Needless to say, you know what Girl Scout cookies I'll be ordering this year!! Well, I mean, in addition to Samoas. Those are my absolute favorite! How about you? What's your favorite Girl Scout cookie?

On a small, unrelated side note- today is my 6 year anniversary with my awesome boyfriend, Broc! Time to celebrate with yummy food- here's to 6 wonderful years and many, many more to come! =D

My favorite Christmas tradition

Generally speaking, I hate winter time. I'm a California girl at heart- I love the sunshine and absolutely HATE the cold. The only good thing about winter is that it contains my favorite holiday. That's right folks, I'm talking about Christmas...still. You know the best thing about Christmas for me? The family traditions. I love them. From getting Starbucks before walking this HUGE court to look at the lights, to my parents giving my sister and I pajamas every Christmas Eve, and making my grandma's cheeseball recipe and sharing it with our loved ones (HUGE hit. You all would love it). Even getting up at ridiculous times to open presents with my parents (this year my sister and I got up at the ungodly hour of 3 am). I love them all. But you know my favorite tradition? Every Christmas Eve, my sister and I bake Christmas cookies with my dad. It's a tradition my dad started several years ago, and it's one of the things I look forward to most when December rolls around. And we don't just make a single batch of sugar cookies. Oh no. We make a day of it, and bake loads and LOADS of cookies. That being said, better prepare yourself now for a loaded post. You've been warned.

This year we made chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, and my favorite, oatmeal scotches!! So let's get started with the recipes already. First up, Chocolate chip!

These are seriously so good. Nice and chewy, not too soft, and not too crunchy. We use the same recipe every year, it's from...well it's from a cookie cook book. I honestly couldn't tell you what cookbook it is because it is OLD and ratty, and the cover is missing. Seriously people, this cookie cookbook is VERY well loved. We usually double the recipe, but I'll give you the original recipe. Y'all may not want crap-tons of cookies like we do.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C margarine or butter, softened
1/2 C shortening
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375° F. In large bowl, beat brown sugar, sugar, margarine and shortening until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. Add flour, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° F for 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown.

Next up is my dad's personal favorite: snickerdoodles!

These are great; soft with just the right amount of spice. We use my mom's recipe, which usually makes about 5 dozen.

Snickerdoodles

1/2 C soft shortening
1/2 C butter
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 C flour
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 400° F. Mix shortening, sugar, and eggs together. Blend all dry ingredients together and stir into egg mixture. Roll dough into small balls. Mix 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon together; roll dough balls into mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes.

And finally, my favorite. Seriously, I hate oatmeal. Hate it. Like...it's the devil. But these oatmeal scotchies?? Delish.  Maybe its the butterscotch chips. Butterscotch is one of those amazing things that is sort of underrated, am I right?

So here's the recipe we used, from the back of the butterscotch chips. I suggest you go out now to get some so you can make these!

Oatmeal Scotchies

1 1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 C butter, softened
3/4 C sugar
3/4 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 C oats, uncooked
1 12oz. package (2 Cups) butterscotch flavored morsels

Preheat oven to 375° F. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside. In large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract until creamy. gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and butterscotch pieces. Spread the mixture into a greased cookie sheet and bake for 18-22 minutes, or until golden brown. 

The recipe says it's supposed to yield 4 dozen bars...but as you can see, we made ours ginormous, so....needless to say, we didn't get that many out of it. I love making all of these cookies every year; you should give some of these a try sometime! You can probably see why this is my favorite holiday tradition. =)

That wraps up my holiday catch-up posts, lets move on to normal treats!!!

The stockings were placed on a tree plate with care...

in hopes that my family likes the goodies I share.
Boom! Look at THAT! Shel Silverstein status over here!...No, not really. Not even close. Don't worry folks, I won't be quitting my day job...night job...whatever.
Do you guys know what I JUST noticed?? This past year was the first year I've made Christmas goodies, other than our annual tradition of making cookies every Christmas eve with my dad (post to come later). Seriously, self?! The time of year where pretty much all diets go out the window! Well, regardless of my YEARS of slacking in the past, this year was pretty productive. Everybody received a plate of decorated cookies this year! Between school garbage, work, and FINALS, these were a freakin' Christmas miracle. Take a look:

My thought process behind these was to use the marbling technique to give the stockings a knit or crochet feel to them. I promise, one of these days I'll branch out and try NEW techniques...but this one is clearly one of my faves. What cool technique should I try next? Hmm...

I've heard it said that "The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear", a la my favorite holiday movie Elf. I disagree. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is plates of cookies. I've heard some horrible singing, but I've never met a cookie I didn't like. =)

Catchin' up on holiday crap...

I know, I know. I'm like the worst food blogger ever. Holiday time, the time when I should be baking/blogging non-stop because you guys HAVE to see holiday goodies during the HOLIDAYS...and I'm totally MIA. Combination of finals (which didn't end until RIGHT before Christmas- what the frick) and HARDCORE getting ready/baking/wrapping for Christmas totally killed me. Anywho...Happy 2013! I'm so glad to see you all survived the apocalypse of 2012, and had a safe holiday. Although the holidays are over, I finally have some time to share my holiday goodies with you. Kind of lame, but hey, late holiday goodies are better than no holiday goodies at all, I think.

So first up on my list...Holiday cake balls!! Actually they aren't as exciting as they sound (way to start the new year with a bang, self), but they were tasty nonetheless.

And I will tell you this- they were easy peasy. Like, even easier than cake pops kind of easy. No stick to worry about? Sa-weet! I did these for our annual ornament exchange Christmas party. The best part? The cake on the inside is Christmas funfetti. I had this genius plan to make white cake and put my own red and green sprinkles, but then I found the Christmas funfetti mix and I grabbed that faster than you can say "Holy easy alternatives, Batman". I love funfetti. And I love these cake balls.

*As a related side note, this is the best picture I had out of like, tons. I am clearly having camera/photo taking issues, and I apologize. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to suggest away. I'm totally open to constructive criticisms/tips/suggestions, as I'm getting ridiculously frustrated.

Til next time!

Alyssa's Spa Mask Cookies

It's occasions like these that make me feel old. Now, I'm not really "old" by society's standards, but when, for example, my cousins' birthdays roll around? Or my baby sister? (She's almost 16...definitely not a baby anymore). I. FEEL. SO. OLD. My cousin Alyssa's birthday is this Friday. She'll be turning nine. NINE. That's almost a whole decade, and it makes me feel ancient! Needless to say, she's now outgrown the days of having character kiddy birthday parties (Boo). However, she is still having a party with her friends this year-- a spa party. So, she asked me to make her some spa mask cookies for her and her friends.

I'm not gonna lie- I straight up traced her party invitation (which were little spa masks my aunt made, complete with ribbons- super cute) onto my cookie template. So I used my usual cookie and icing recipes, courtesy of Bridget at Bake@350. I then drew the colors from her party theme. So I had pink mask cookies with turquoise "relax" on them...now what? They were so...plain. And I didn't have enough turquoise to make accents with it, and I didn't have leftover uncolored icing to use, WHATTHEHECK was I going to do??

Easy Solution. Outline the cookie in the background color, and put some sparkles or sprinkles on it. Sold. So I used some of the [craploads of] white nonpareils I had lying around to make a cute and simple white border around the masks. Almost like they have furry trim or something. What can I say? I'm a sucker for simple solutions.

Perfect for a "relaxing" spa party right? Right? Add a bit of ribbon through the holes (which I made with a straw- my mom's genius idea), and you've got legit spa masks!!

Happy 9th (ohmygad) birthday, Alyssa!!

Spookables and Cuties

Happy Halloween everyone!! Last Friday my family hosted our annual Halloween party, and it was so much fun! And you know what that means...Creepy goodies were to be made. Actually, they were more on the cute side. Let me just make a confession right here, right now- I hate Halloween. I'm the BIGGEST scaredy-cat. Like, EVER. Scary movies? I don't watch them. I hate being scared. I don't even like the TRAILERS for scary movies. And don't even get me STARTED on zombies (More on that here). So, Halloween? Yeah...it's at the bottom of my favorite holiday list. So, when party time rolls around, I always try to steer my mom (who, of course, is the boss around here) to cuter treats rather than gross/creepy ones. So, my mom found some Jack-O-Lantern cookies that she fell in love with in a Halloween Country Living book that WEREN'T creepy, and the rest was history. Halloween party favors for over 40 people? Challenge freakin' accepted.

Here they are. As you can see I had a lot of fun with the faces. Which is surprising, because as some of you know, I have OCD. And if you don't know, Hi, I'm Britt, and I have OCD. You'll notice with my other goodies that I tend to make them as uniform as possible. So when I started making the faces on these, I imagined I was going to have an aneurysm before I was done. Surprisingly, once I got started, I came to accept that each pumpkin needed their own personality. Maybe this means that I'm on the right track to not being crazy? Pfft, yeah, probably not.

This little guy here I made special for my boyfriend Broc. As you'll remember from previous posts, he's...how shall I say it? Nerdy (It's ok, I can say it. I'm nerdy too). So I decided to leave a little surprise on his pumpkin for him to find.

Anybody see it? Anybody? How about any Lost fans? Look real close...you should be able to see certain numbers.....No? Well Broc saw them, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever. Seriously, he LOVES Lost (if you see him, do NOT bring up Lost unless you're ready for a nice long discussion about how awesome it is). It's the little things. And that's why I love doing this stuff for people.

Have a Happy Halloween, everybody!! Stay safe!