Frito Dip

Best new dip ever! Cream Cheese Chili Dip.

 

I've made it several times for a varieties of parties and it is always a HUGE hit!

 

And the best part... there are only 2 ingredients in the dip. That's it! When people taste it and try to guess... they always guess many more ingredients than are actually included. Chili and Cream Cheese. That's all you need! And of course something to transport this delicious dip to your mouth!

 It's so easy to make. You can make it on the stove or you can make it in the microwave. You want to use a high quality chili... I like the Hormel Chili with Beans best. And then cream cheese... you can even use the low fat kind to make it a little less guilt inflicting when you are eating it. Put them together in the pan or bowl and heat them up. Make sure to stir it a few times while you are heating it up and then you are done. Pour it into a serving bowl (or eat it straight out of the pan)

{{Chili Cream Cheese Dip}}

 

(printer friendly version...click here)

1 (8 oz) block of softened cream cheese

1 (15 oz) can of high quality chili (Hormel or Dennison)

Warm ingredients until blended in a pot on the stove or in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. Serve with corn chips (Fritos).

Enjoy!

Sunshine Cupcakes

So the sun's not shining much these days....Blech. **big sigh**

It's killing me to see the days getting soooo short. Sunrise is about 7:30 AM and the sun is going to bed way too early, around 5 PM. Oh that is not okay with me. I LOOOVE me some sunshine, so these cupcakes were perfect to add a little brightness to a otherwise un-sunny day. You don't need the sun shining to make you smile... these cupcakes will just make you feel happy inside and out.

These require the candy corn candies which are only available to buy during the autumn months, so I think they are the best way to bring some summer sun into the mi.

For Young Women’s I have been making a yummy treat every month to celebrate the girl’s and leader’s birthdays that month. They have to come up front, we sing to them and then everyone gets a treat. This month I made these A-DOR-ABLE sunshine cupcakes. I’d found an image of them on Pinterest, but no tutorial. Not that a tutorial is really needed. I created my own then. I made them suuuuper simple.

1-Boxed yellow cake mix, made as directed on the box. Made about 22 cupcakes.

2- Then I used a container of pre-made white vanilla frosting, colored it yellow with some food coloring and spread on a nice layer using a knife.

3- Next I had a bag of candy corn and using about 9 candies, I put them around the outside edge of the cupcake to represent the rays of the sun.

4- 2 mini chocolate chips are the eyes. I pushed the pointy end into the frosting of the cupcake.

5- I had leftover yellow frosting that I added more red food coloring to, and it became a pinkish orangey color. Instead of putting it into a cake decorating bag with a tip that would have to be washed, I put it into a plastic ziploc sandwich bag and snipped a teeny tiny hole in the bottom corner and used that to pipe a cute little smile on the cupcake.

6- Then they were done! See Super Simple! and SUUUPER Cute!

Thanksgiving Table Centerpiece

Here's an idea for your Thanksgiving Table... or a Food Table or just a decoration during the holidays.

First take a fresh pumpkin. One from the garden. One from the store. Any size pumpkin will do. You know those pumpkins that are lazy and grow laying down and end up having a flat side? Those sweet little pumpkins are perfect for this.

It can be a big pumpkin or a smaller pumpkin. You'll want to start by laying the pumpkin on its flat side. I think it is cuter to have the stem of the pumpkin still attached and showing, but if you want, you can use a pumpkin standing up straight and cut the top off like you would when starting a Jack-O-Lantern.

 

Then using a knife (or carving tool from Halloween) you'll cut a hole in the side of the pumpkin. Scoop out the seeds and set aside. (Maybe use this recipe to make some roasted pumpkin seeds??? They are yummy!)

I like to use a handful of fake Fall flower stems and grass stems, such as mums, sunflowers, etc. Then fill up the hole with the flowers. Voila! You're centerpiece is ready to go! It takes maybe 5-10 minutes from beginning to end.

If you want to use a fresh bouquet of fall flowers, you can! Simply put a bowl of water into the bottom of the pumpkin and then arrange the flowers in the water to help keep them fresh and strong all through the celebrations. This will make the pumpkin heavier and so you'll probably want to assemble it close to where it will be used. Cause when you move it around with the water inside, it gets all sloshy and spilly. And that's no fun.

Another idea.... buy one of those pretend pumpkins... you know the artificial carvable pumpkins that last forever.  Use that, put a hole in it and add the flowers. This could be reused year after year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Edible Image on Cake

For my Grandpa's 80th Birthday we decided to celebrate with a birthday party. It's not every day that you turn 80. I was making a cake for the party and wanted to do something different. I had a picture of my Grandpa when he was younger and serving in the air force. He also worked his career and retired from Disney Studios. I took the picture, scanned it into Photoshop, added some balloons, a Mickey Mouse & some words. I took the picture to our local grocery store, Harmons and in their bakery section they printed the picture out on their edible printer (someday I want to get me one of these). On the left side you see the picture and the frosting edible image on the right. It is an 8x10 image.

You can tell the edible image is not as vivid as the printed picture and it ended up a bit smaller than the 8.5x11 inch image that was printed. 

However it is a great duplication... and went onto the cake nicely. (Check local grocery stores or bakeries for the option to have your image printed cause it makes for a super easy & personalized cake!)

Here is the cake right after I finished decorating. I made a simple chocolate layered cake, covered in a basic white buttercream (had to be a light color so the image would show up). Before I added the blue star border I peeled the image off the backer paper and applied it onto the white background. So easy! Peel & Stick! The edges were super noticeable at first but with time the image blended into the frosting more and more. I didn't really know what I was doing, but it turned out. When they printed the image, there was an ink blur at the bottom and it transferred as well... I should have cut that off. I could have trimmed around the image as well since the cake was bigger than the image and I didn't put the border next to the edge of the image.

I used a large wide open star in blue tinted buttercream for the border.

Grandpa (and Grandma) loved the cake! And that's all that matters. I had bought some camouflage material to use as a tablecloth for our party. The cake cut up nicely when it was time to eat it. I made sure I got a piece with the edible image and it tasted like sugar.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Bat Man Cake

This is a picture of a LadyBug cake that I made 5 years ago for Samantha's first birthday. It was decorated with rolled fondant and I love the way it looks, but it just doesn't taste very good. Most people peel off the fondant and eat the frosting and cake that is underneath... so.....






For Jared's 4th birthday he requested a Bat Man cake. I wasn't sure how I wanted to accomplish this request. I decided that I wanted to make a rectangle cake with the Dark Knight bat symbol on the cake. Instead of making black frosting, I wanted to use fondant, but I wanted to find an alternative to store bought fondant. I found a recipe for a homemade marshmallow fondant that tastes good. It rolled out and worked just like a normal fondant, but it tasted great. No need to peel off the fondant... it all tastes good!

I am anxious to make a larger batch of it so I can decorate an entire cake with the fondant. I think there is another recipe out there for a fondant that is cooked and maybe I will give that one a try.... experiment a little bit.

Here's the recipe that I used:

Marshmallow fondant
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 tbsp water
1 1/2- 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Place marshmallows in a standard 1 cup measuring cup and push down and pack them in. Place in a microwave safe bowl and add the water. Put in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Just long enough for them to soften and puff up. Take out and stir with a spoon until it is combined well. At this point it looks kind of soupy. Then add the sugar and mix and fold until all is incorporated and it is no longer sticky. Take it out of the bowl when it gets to the point where most of the sugar is incorporated and knead it in your hands. This takes roughly about 5-7 minutes. Take a fondant roller or a regular rolling pin and roll out just as you would Wilton's fondant. You can get this fondant almost paper thin and it also repairs well. It's cheap, easy to work with, and tastes great too.

You can make a large batch of this fondant as well by doing this:

Large batch of Marshmallow fondant
1- 16 oz bag of mini marshmallows
2 tbsps water
2 lbs powdered sugar (8 cups)

Do the same procedure as above.