Champagne cupcakes

Dear Betty Crocker,

Thank you for combining a delicious cupcake and champagne and sharing it with the rest of us. I shall be happy to gain 86 lbs eating these.

What you need:

For batter:

1 box white cake mix or if you are Susie Homemaker, your own homemade white cake mix. I just can't tell  you how or what to substitute you're on your own Susie. 

1 1/4 cup Champagne or sparkling wine

1/3 cup Vegetable oil

3 egg whites. 

For strawberry Butter Cream frosting:

1 cup (two sticks) Butter

2 cups powdered sugar

4 tbsp Strawberry jam

1 tsp vanilla

Optional:

Strawberries

Preheat oven to 400º

Combine dry cake mix with champagne then add in the oil and egg whites. Beat for two minutes. Then fill muffin cups 2/3 of the way full. Put in oven for 10 minutes at 400º, then lower the temp to 350º and finish baking for an additional 10 minutes. 

While the cupcakes are cooling, beat the butter until fluffy then add in the powdered sugar. Once it starts to come together add in the vanilla and strawberry jam. 

If you want to get all fancy you can slice strawberries and place them on top of the cupcake instead of sprinkles.

*Cake batter adapted from Betty Crocker

Merry Christmas!

Hope you are enjoying a nice day with family and friends!

Remember, Sleep in tomorrow! And eats lots of left overs!

Katie, Kay & Nicole

Decorating cookies

I decorated cookies with the little bros over the weekend. I'm a little cookied out so I just used one of those cookie mixes that you just add butter and an egg. They were good, probably even better because I didn't really have to do much except mix.

I busted out my holiday sprinkles, a few tubs of frosting, some food coloring and the cookies I had made the night before and we were ready to decorate.

Any one up for some caroling around the christmas tree? I did have Gingerbread men to go with the Gingerbread ladies but someone ate all the men so the women are lonely now. Poor ladies, better get out the milk. 

When I was getting ready to make the cookies I was looking through my cookie cutters and found all my little tiny cookie cutters. I almost forgot I had them. A friend of mine gave them to me freshman year in high school way before I ever thought baking was fun. Mia? How the heck did you know my future would lead to much baking and I would find these necessary to my life someday? 

Look how cute

Oh how adorable these little candy canes look next to the giant one. Is it weird that I think a cookie is adorable? They are also delicious if that makes a difference. Delicious and adorable. 

 

This little Cyclops isn't as cute but I like him. 

Betcha never had a Colonel Sanders cookie. Be jealous. Why is Colonel pronounced Kernel? I never understood that and doubt I ever will. It should be pronounced Colon-ell....wait... I think I just answered my own question. Who wants to be called a digestive system. Sorry this cookie post took an unexpected turn. Disregard everything after "jealous".

This is what happens when little brother number 2 gets bored. He stacks 4 cookies with frosting and calls it a day. 

And this is what happens when I tell he needs to help finish decorating the enormous pile cookies I baked. He piles on the frosting and calls it a day. 

Little brother number 2 also "accidentally" messed up a bunch of cookies he was decorating and had to eat them. He couldn't figure out why he didn't feel good 7 cookies later.

Have you finished you holiday baking yet?

Not feeling up to holiday baking? You could always buy one of those pre-made Pilsbury holiday cookie logs. You know the ones that have the holiday image on them and you just slice the cookies. Actually, I think you don'y even have to cut them anymore, they come in a sheet and you just have to bake them. Just get some of those, a tub of frosting and some sprinkles and your done! Easy peasy.

(via)

Kay

Free Download!!

Here are TWO Free Downloads I've been working on just for you. It should print nicely on an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. I recommend printing them on card stock.

Click here to download Set 1 Christmas Gift tags


Click here to download Set 2 Christmas Gift tags


I'm not good at explaining things so I shall explain with the aid of a picture!

(click to enlarge)

When you click the links for the tags you will be whisked away to Google Docs seen above, click File, then you can Download Original or Print (PDF).  Enjoy! 


Kay

Christmas Colored Ribbon Layered Jello!

Sorry, Nicole... I know you dislike jello, possibly even hate it.  BUT... THIS IS DELICIOUS and it is SUPER EASY TO MAKE!!!!

Serves 10-15 people

2 (3 oz.) pkg. orange jello

2 (3 oz.) pkg. lemon jello

2 (3 oz.) pkg. lime jello

2 (3 oz.) pkg. cherry or raspberry jello

3 (13 oz.) can condensed milk

Lightly grease a 9x13 glass pan with oil.  Mix 1 package with orange jello with 3/4 cup hot and 3/4 cup cold water.  Pour into pan and let set for 30 minutes in refrigerator.  Next layers take about 15 minutes.  Make second package orange jello with 3/4 cup hot water and 3/4 cup cold condensed milk (mix but do not whip: STIR). Pour over first layer and refrigerate.  Proceed in same manner with each package of jello in order given. 

WE used Lemon,  Cherry, and Lime jello for Christmas and topped it with whipped cream!

 MMM... Delicious!  

This makes a wonderful dessert for a party or other occasion!  You can  use whatever jello you wish for your holiday or event!

Baking Tip List - Cookie Week

The final recipe for Cookie Week has been posted, but we're not done yet! We've compiled a few baking tips to help you in the kitchen this holiday season.



1. Out of powdered sugar? You can can make your own if you don't want to brave the stores. Just put regular, granulated, sugar 1/2 a cup at a time in a food processor or coffee grinder and pulse until you have powdered sugar. Voila!


2. If you’re like me, you forget to take the butter out of the fridge for softened butter in recipes. Cut butter into even chunks and microwave on low for 10 seconds. Check the butter and repeat if necessary, be careful to not let it melt. Properly softened butter is the secret to many a good cookie recipe!


3. If you have multiple pans in the oven, do not let them touch. It can create hot spots and the touching spots might over cook.


4. When melting chocolate for dipping or coating, WATER IS EVIL. It will cause the chocolate to separate and that is a terrible thing. Also white chocolate is more prone to burning, so watch the temperature.


5. When I have a lot of chocolate dipping I need to do, like if I am making cake balls, dipping fruit or other food, I use a mini crock-pot for melting. It’s the perfect size, and it keeps a constant temperature.


6. Coat candy or fruit with flour before putting into batter. It will keep them from sinking to the bottom of the cake or cookie.


7. When baking cookies, it's important that they are all the same size to ensure even cooking. For drop cookies, use an ice cream scoop or cookie scoop, like this one, to take the guess work out of evenly sized cookies. (Hint: Do the same thing for cupcakes & muffins!)


8. If a cookie recipe isn't as soft or crisp as you'd like, adjust the baking time. Pulling the cookies out of the oven when the centers are still a little gooey will give you a softer cookie. Leave them in longer if you like more of a crunch (but not so long that they burn!) Also, you can make a cookie softer by swapping in a little light brown sugar for regular, granulated sugar. 


9. Parchment paper makes clean up a breeze. I use it all the time instead of greasing my baking sheet!


And the most important baking tip...
10. Turn the oven off after you're finished baking. We don't want any fires now, do we?


Do you have any baking tips to share? Post them in the comment section!

Gingersnaps!

GINGERSNAPS!

Recipe

       3/4 cups butter

  1 cup sugar

          1/3 cup molasses

1 egg

               2 cups plus 2 T. flour

1/2 t. salt

2 t. soda

                                   1/2 t. cinnamon, cloves, and ginger

Mix the above ingredients together. Chill in the refrigerator 2-3 hours.

3 T sugar- make small balls of cookies and dip into sugar. Place cookies on greased cookie sheets.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen medium delicious cookies.