4th of July treats!

We are slowly recovering from an amazing 4th of July weekend. I'll say it again, we have an amazing and very fun neighborhood. We had a block party both Sunday and Monday....giving me a good excuse to make lots of fun treats.

My sister wife Erin made these little sammies. So easy yet so yummy! Toasted some bread, spread a mixture of cream cheese, fresh dill, sour cream and mayo and then topped it with red onion, cucumber and tomatoes. Perfect fresh treat!

I continued on with my new found love for whoppie pies and made red velvet whoppie pies with a cream cheese filling. Added some blue sparkles to be festive and they were a big hit! I found the recipe through an online blog that has become one of my new favorites, check it out here!

I also did some funfetti cupcakes with a buttercream frosting. I got the cupcake wrappers and decorations on sale at Sur La Table, they were so cute!

For Monday I did a different variation of the rainbow cake I had made for Amelia's birthday and did red, white and blue. I did a lemon buttercream frosting and it was yummy as well as really cool when we cut it!!!

The kids had a great time all weekend....us adults managed to fit in some fun time as well!

Between all the sugar, swimming and fun the kids were exhausted (as am I!) but had a great holiday. Hope you and your family did as well!

It's a sweet, sweet Christmas

This past weekend it was as though the Sugar Plum Fairy visited our house, and left all of her sugar. My mom and I were the amazing baking duo this weekend baking toffee, fudge, cookies and cake. My kitchen is covered in sugar and flour, as am I, but we have so much to show for all our hard work. We made some old favorites as well as some new recipes that turned out quite well if I do say so myself!

Every year it isn't Christmas until the gingerbread cookies are made so that is what we started out with. My cake decorating classes really helped in decorating the gingerbread and sugar cookies this year!

Next we tried out a new recipe by Martha Stewart (if interested in it please click here). They are Peppermint Meringues with a chocolate ganache filling. The secret to getting the striped look is to paint the inside of the piping bag with red food coloring. They turned out great!

We also made Russian tea cake cookies that are another favorite childhood cookies of mine.

I am hosting my Christmas bunko group this week so in my final cake class this week I made a cake for bunko that turned out pretty cute. I was proud of learning how to make simple roses!


As though all of this sugar load wasn't enough, I also decided to make cake pops for the first time. My mom had bought me Bakerella's cake pops recipe book and I just had to try out the Santa hat cake pops, they turned out so cute, especially for my first time trying them!
Besides cleaning and getting to the gym this week post sugar high, I will be working to finish up the last touches to the house for our Christmas party! The holiday season is in full swing...I love it!

Halloween treats!

We have been celebrating Halloween in our household for a little over a week now and man oh man are the treats adding up! We started with a little Halloween themed movie night last weekend. I baked up some Halloween goodies to compliment the including Mummy dogs, mozzarella eyeballs, pumpkin creme stuffed brownie bites and carrot finger dip. We got a Halloween themed movie for the kids and us, however the Giants game started taking over....but a good time was still had by all! Especially by Alex and his new gal pal (don't call her his girlfriend or he gets so mad...!) Makayla. They are darling!!



This past Saturday Alex had his last soccer game and went out with a bang! He scored 3 goals during his last game!!! Very exciting, hopefully it continues over into next year so he plays again. Although now he is already talking about basketball. After the game we had a little pizza celebration. How cute is this monster themed cupcake cake?!

We were pretty low key for Halloween last night, just stayed around the new neighborhood and trick or treated. Very fun though and Alex ran into some school friends. Amelia really got into the trick or treating and had a blast running up to the houses. She was a darling ladybug and Alex was a great vampire. Paul even dressed up as a Chilean miner, so creative!

Happy Halloween everyone!!