Tie Dye Cake

Lately for birthdays, I've just been making cupcakes and putting them on simple little homemade cupcake stands.  I can match the stand to the party's decor and it's a lot easier to frost a cupcake than it is to try to decorate a cake.  However, for my daughter's Tie-Dye Birthday Party, I decided to try my hand at making an actual Tie-Dye cake, instead of just cupcakes.  I happened to find this Shirt Cake Pan in my basement when I was looking for other party supplies in my basement, and it ended up working out perfectly.  Of course a regular cake shaped pan would be just as cute.

Check out our Tie-Dyed Cake...

Pretty cute, don't you think? 

Here's what you'll need (feel free to make any of this from scratch, I just used store-bought supplies)...

* box of white cake mix + ingredients to make it
* 2 containers of white frosting
* shirt cake pan or any other shape (I happened to get mine years ago at a garage sale and it seems Wilton no longer makes them, but you could check Ebay or Amazon (affiliate link)for used ones, or just make your own shape from a regular sheet cake pan)
* food coloring

Here's what to do...

1.  Mix up your white cake mix according to package directions.  Separate the batter into 4 separate bowls, then add food coloring to each bowl to make the colors you want  ( I think I used about 15 drops of coloring in each bowl)

2.  Pour your batter into your greased cake pan.  I just did a little bit of one color here and a little bit there, until the whole pan was filled with random blobs and swirls of color.

 

3.  Bake according to package directions and allow to cool.  Then invert your cake onto the tray that you'll be using for serving.  (Don't worry if the colors look a little brownish and muted, they're nice and colorful inside the cake.)

 

4. Spread a fairly thin layer of white frosting all over your cake, then divide your remaining frosting into separate bowls and tint with food coloring.

5.  Use a toothpick to sketch a rough tie-dye swirl design in your frosting.  (My photo of the toothpick sketch was too faint, so I've drawn on the design I followed)

 

6.  Add your tinted frosting to your cake following the swirl design you sketched.  I put all my colors on first, then filled in the sections so the colors were touching.  (Notice my fancy cake decorating plastic spoon, I told you I don't decorate cakes often! ;)  )

7.  Finally, use the end of your fancy cake decorating spoon to draw the color from one swirl to the other, wiping off the spoon after each time.

 

8.  That's it!  Stick in some candles, serve your colorful cake to your birthday kid and be proud of your handiwork.

Oh, and things were way too hectic at cake serving time to get a well-photographed shot of the tie-dyed inside, but here's a quick, somewhat blurry, photo I grabbed before the girls came back inside and I had to start cutting seconds.

You can read about all the other details of our Tie-Dye Birthday Party HERE!

Make-Your-Own Lollipops

We made these yummy lollipops at my daughter's recent Tie-Dye Birthday party.  They were a fun little treat for the girls, but they were so easy, they'd be a fun little treat to make anytime.

Check them out...

Now look at how easy they are to make!

Here's what you need...

* Hard candy (photo shows Jolly Ranchers and Lifesavers, but I found that the Jolly Ranchers "melted" the best)

* parchment paper (affiliate link) - found in the baking aisle

* a hard object (to smash the candies)

* sturdy plastic bags (small freezer bags worked great)

* lollipop sticks (affiliate link) - found in                                                   the cake decorating section of most craft stores




Here's what to do...

1. Unwrap your candies and separate by colors in your plastic bags.  Close up your bags then use a hard object to smash your candies into smaller pieces.  ( I used a large wrench ).  You don't want to pulverize them into candy dust, but a variety of smaller-sized chunks.  

2.  For our party, I put the crushed candies in a divided tray so the girls could easily scoop out each color, but you could just go straight from the plastic bags if you want.

3.  Cut a piece of parchment paper to be the size of your cookie sheet, then draw circles with Sharpies to be the guidelines for your lollipop size and placement.  (they do spread out a decent amount, so leave some room between each lollipop)  Flip your parchment paper over so the actual marker circles are underneath, but you can still see the shape - that way the Sharpie doesn't bleed onto your actual candy.

 

4.  Preheat your oven to 225*.  Then allow the kids to scoop out the colors/flavors of the choices and mound them onto the circle shapes.  If you're doing this with more than one kid, allow them to write their name in Sharpie next to their lollipops.

5.  Put your tray into your preheated 225* oven for approximately 10 minutes, or until candies are melted.  

6.  Carefully take out your tray and immediately add your lollipop sticks, rolling them in the melted candy to completely coat the top part of the stick.  Note:  The lollipops will harden quickly, so move pretty fast with this step.

You'll notice that some lollipops were unevenly melted, that was the Lifesavers candies.

I'd recommend just sticking with the Jolly Ranchers, or doing a test batch 

with other varieties of candy.

7.  The lollipops will be cooled and hardened in less than 5-10 minutes.  Just peel them off the parchment paper and they're ready to enjoy!

Sharing our lollipops at:
Tatertots and Jello
The Frugal Girls

Trix Krispie Treats

I made these yummy treats for my daughter's Tie-Dye themed birthday party because the colorful swirls had a tie-dye effect.  However they were really yummy and super easy, so I know I'll be making them often as just a regular treat.

The recipe is really simple because they're basically just Rice Krispie Treats, but with Trix cereal instead.

Here's what you need...

* 6 cups Trix cereal ( I used the swirls one)
* 1 bag of marshmallows
* 3 Tbsp. butter






Here's what to do...

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the marshmallows and stir often until they're completely melted.  Remove from heat and stir in the cereal.  Using a greased spatula, press the mixture into a greased 9 x 13" pan (or you can use a smaller pan for thicker treats).  Allow to cool, then cut with a sharp knife.

And here's the finished treats - easy, colorful, and really good! 

Tie Dye Birthday Party

Last week my "baby" turned 8!  To celebrate, we had a small party here at the house with a tie-dye theme.  My birthday girls and her friends had a fun time, had some yummy and colorful treats and left with some cool little projects.  In this post I'll share an overview of the party's projects and treats, with links to full posts with all the details.  (Click on the photo or the links in the descriptions for the full posts!)

First, let's start with the food...

Though I have very little cake decorating experience and have been just making cupcakes for all of our recent parties, I did make this tie-dye cake that turned out pretty cool.  

I just used boxed cake mix, canned frosting and food coloring and I only used a regular rubber spatula and spoon for the decorating, but it turned out well enough to impress a bunch of 8 year olds.  The inside of the cake is even "tie-dyed" as well ~ pretty cool!  (Full post HERE)

 I also made some Trix Krispie Treats.  They were super easy to make and much more colorful than regular Rice Krispie Treats (yummier than the regular ones too!)  They even had a tie-dye effect with the swirls in the cereal pieces.   (Read the full post HERE)

Our next treat was actually a combination of a party activity and a yummy sweet to take take home.  We made our own lollipops.  They weren't quite tie-dye, but they were colorful and fun to make.  (HERE's the full post with the easy directions)

Finally, to counteract all the sweets that we were going to be eating, I served some fruit too.  Since I was already using my divided container for the make-your-own lollipop station, my daughter and I decided to use the shirt cake pan as a fruit tray.  She even helped me arrange the berries and grapes in a tie dye pattern.

If you squint your eyes just right, it kind of has a tie-dye effect, doesn't it? ;)

Now of course, a tie-dye party wouldn't really be a party without some actual tie-dying, right?  For the main event, each girl had the chance to dye her own t-shirt, pillowcase, and pair of socks.   I wanted to make sure everything would be ready to take home at the end of the party, so using regular dye was ruled out.  ( Most dye kits require pre-soaking, then waiting several hours after dying before unwrapping and rinsing. )  Instead, we used watered-down acrylic paints as our "dye".   We were able to choose from a whole variety of colors, we didn't have to use 100% cotton items, and everything was ready to go at the end of our 3 hour party!  (Full post with directions can be found HERE)

Check out the fun...

Get all the directions for tie-dying with acrylic paints HERE!

Overall, the party was a huge hit.  The girls were happy with their finished projects and they enjoyed all the little treats.

 Sharing our party at:

Tatertots and Jello
The Frugal Girls

Make-Your-Own Mini Pies (for Pi Day or any day)

Yesterday was Pi Day ~ an unofficial "holiday" celebrating the mathematical expression of pi ( the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and approximately equal to 3.14)  Get it?  March 14th is 3.14.  Now my kids aren't so far along in their math studies that they've actually worked with pi, but they eagerly accepted any excuse for a fun little dessert.

Check out these fun, individual-sized pies...

I made it super easy for us and just got some premade pie crusts and three different kinds of fillings ~ apple, blueberry, and cherry.

 

Making the pies was really simple and the kids liked choosing their fillings and adding some little designs to the tops of their pies.

 

It's really pretty self-explanatory, but this is how we made our mini pies...

1.  Preheat oven to 425*.  I also used some parchment paper to cover my cookie sheets.
2.  Using a small bowl or cup, cut circles out of your premade pie crust.  (Ours were about 5" or so).
3.  Spoon some filling into the center of your crust circle.
4.  Make an egg wash by putting just an egg white into a bowl and whisking it slightly.  Then brush the wash around the edges of your circle. (It'll help to act as a "glue" to seal the top and bottom crusts). Put on the top circle of dough and gently push together the edges to seal.  Then use a fork to help further seal the edges.
5.  Using the extra scraps of crust, cut little shapes or letters out of the dough (we had initials, footballs, cherries and more).  Brush some of the egg wash over the whole top of your pie, put on your shapes, then brush a little more egg wash on.
6.  Bake until the pies are golden brown.  Our pies took about 12-13 minutes.
7.  Allow to cool a bit and serve with ice cream!

Yummy!

I was a little more literal in my interpretation and made my pie with the pi symbol!

As I mentioned, my kids haven't had to actually calculate the area of a circle or do any other problems with pi, but they are familiar with the term from one of their favorite movies ~ Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian.  We love watching it before we head down to DC to visit the Smithsonian Museums.  In the movie, Ben Stiller's character has to crack a code and gets the answer from the Einstein bobble-heads in the gift shop at the Air and Space Museum.

As we were eating our pies last night, my kids kept shaking their heads as they tried to say all the numbers from the movie (3.14159265)  Here's a little clip.

Sharing our fun desserts at:

Walking Tacos (aka Tacos in a Bag)

I first saw these "walking tacos" at an amusement park concession stand several years ago.  It's such a smart idea ~ putting the taco fixings in a snack size bag of chips.  However, I'd pretty much forgotten about them until my oldest went to a birthday party recently.  She came home telling me all about the "tacos in a bag" that she'd had and was begging me to make them for our family.  Well, her wish came true for dinner last night when I made them for me and the kids.  We ate ours sitting at the dinner table, but this would be the perfect food for a bbq, tailgate or any time you're on the go and don't want to have to sit down to eat.

Check it out...

So simple!  All you need are individual bags of chips, taco meat, and fixings.  (We liked Doritos for our chips, but Fritos, Sun Chips or other similar chips would also work.)  Crush the bag slightly to break the chips into smaller pieces, then add your fixings, grab a fork and enjoy!

While not the healthiest dinner, they were definitely yummy and a fun treat.  I'm sure we'll be making them again, especially in the summer when we have friends over and we're in and out of the pool.

Sharing at:

Sun Scholars 
I heart Naptime 
Today's Creative Blog 

Hidden Heart Cake

As soon as I saw this recipe for a Peekaboo Pumpkin Pound Cake on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to give it a try.  I figured Valentine's Day would be the perfect time to try my own version with a hidden heart instead of a pumpkin.  For awhile there, I thought I'd have a big Pinterest Fail on my hands, but it ended up working out okay and the end result was cute enough to impress my kids for a special Valentine's dessert last night.  (Of course, anytime they get cake for dessert they are excited, but I thought this treat was particularly cool.)

I'll include a few tips to help you avoid a potential fail in this "do as I say, not as I did" post.

Check out this cute cake...

Isn't that cute?  Red velvet cake hearts that are revealed when you slice into a white cake.

Here's what you need:  (NOTE: I'm not a "from scratch" baker, so I used all box mixes and premade frostings, feel free to make your own if you'd like)

* box of white cake mix
* box of red velvet cake mix
* eggs, water, oil, etc. to make cakes
* loaf pan
* heart cookie cutters
* frosting (not pictured)







Here's what to do:

1.  Check the size of your heart cookie cutter and make sure it's small enough to fit into your pan.  (This was my first potential problem when I realized my cutter was too big and I had to run to Target to get a set with a smaller heart.)

2.  Bake your red velvet cakes in the loaf pan.  I made two of them because I had plenty of batter.  Allow your cakes to cool.  

NOTE:  After re-reading the initial recipe (after I was done), I realized they recommended refrigerating the cakes for a little while.  I think this will help the cake hold it's shape better when cut.

3.  Cut your cake into slices and then use the cookie cutter to cut out the heart shape.  

NOTE:  I think thicker slices held their shape better than the thinner ones I did in this photo.  Make your slices about the same thickness as the cookie cutter.

4.  Put a little bit of your white cake batter in the loaf pan, then arrange the heart slices down the center.  Pour the remaining batter along the sides and top of the row of hearts.

NOTE:  Here's where things got a little tricky and I thought the whole thing would be a fail.  Because I was trying to balance the hearts on their points (versus the wider base of the pumpkin in the inspiration recipe), they tended to tip over and the thinner slices started to split down the center.  Then, I had enough white cake batter to cover the hearts in one loaf pan but not the second.   Therefore, I'd definitely recommend making thicker slices of the red velvet and refrigerating them to firm them up.  I'd also either use two boxes of white cake mix or make only one hidden heart cake and use the extra batter to make a smaller cake.


However, I forged ahead and baked the lumpy, half-covered cakes and hoped for the best.

As you can see, they're lumpy because I didn't have quite enough white cake batter for two, but it was nothing a little frosting couldn't cover.

Make your slices with a sharp knife and check out the fun little heart in the middle...

With the changes I made above in the notes, I'd definitely do this again.  You could do all sorts of different variations with shapes and colors using different cookie cutters and/or food coloring.

Sharing our cute cake at:

Tatertots & Jello 
I heart Naptime 

Snowman Sundae

Here's a cute and yummy little treat for the Winter months.  We made ours at our Cousins Christmas party.

Check it out...

Here's what you need:

The ingredients are really pretty flexible, but here's what we used...

• waffle bowl
• vanilla ice cream
• red Twizzlers cut into smaller pieces
• marshmallows
• orange and black gel icing
• miniature Reese's peanut butter cups
• chocolate chips (I intended to use these for buttons, but actually forgot to get them out of my bag ~ oops!)

 Here's what to do:

So simple, just put a scoop of ice cream into the bowl and let the kids add the snowman's features.  Stick in the Twizzler arms, draw a face on the marshmallow with the gel icing, stick on some chocolate chip buttons, add the Reese's cup hat and then ENJOY!

Cute and yummy!

Sharing our Frosty treats at:

The Frugal Girls 

Saltine Toffee

I love making recipes that are easy and delicious, but have a cool little twist.  I first found this Saltine Toffee recipe years ago in one of those community cookbooks where everyone submits their favorite recipes.  I love making it because it's so super simple, but tastes absolutely awesome.  (I've heard of it referred to as "Christmas Crack" and I can see why, it's really addicting!)  You wouldn't think saltine crackers would belong in a candy recipe, but the slight saltiness and crunch that they give this toffee is just perfect.

Take a peek...

Here's what you need:  (It's only 5 ingredients!)

• saltine crackers (about 1 sleeve of crackers out of a box, plus a few extras)
• 1 cup of butter (that's 2 sticks)
• 1 cup of brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 cups of chocolate chips, either milk chocolate or semi sweet (that's about 1 bag)
• approx 3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Here's what to do:

1.  Preheat your oven to 400*.

2.  Line a jelly roll pan (which is a cookie sheet with sides), with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking spray.

3.  Line up your saltine crackers in a single layer in your pan.  You'll want them close together, but not touching.  You can break some crackers in half if you need to so the whole pan is covered.

4.  Put your butter and brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to a boil, then allow the mixture to boil for 3 minutes, stirring only once or twice.

5.  Pour the mixture over the saltine layer.  Try to pour it fairly evenly over the top, reaching all the way to the edges.  However, it will bubble up and spread out in the next step, so every cracker doesn't need to be completely covered.

6.  Next, put the tray in your preheated oven and bake for about 5 minutes.  The toffee mixture will bubble up and soak into the saltines.

7.  Take your tray out of the oven and sprinkle on the chocolate chips.  Pop it back into the oven for just a minute so the chips soften and melt.  Then use a rubber spatula to spread the melted chocolate evenly over the saltine/toffee layer.

8.  If desired, sprinkle the optional chopped nuts over the melted chocolate layer.  Set the whole pan aside for it to cool completely.  It'll take a few hours for it to cool and for everything to harden.  If necessary, you could put it in the fridge to speed up the process.

9.  When everything has cooled, break the toffee apart into bite sized pieces and enjoy!

Melted Snowman Bottled Water Labels (with free printable)

Need a quick and easy idea for drinks for your kids' classroom party?  Maybe you're having a party at your house this winter and want something cute and simple?  Do you wait till the last minute, but still want something fun?  

Check out how I added a little extra cheer to some regular bottled water...

So cute and super quick and easy.  I made up little labels that I could cut out and stick on the water bottles using regular clear packing tape.  I opted for this method over printing directly on regular sticky labels for a couple reasons.  One, I can never figure out how to get my images the right size to align properly on the labels.  They're always too big, too small or running off one side.  The other, more practical reason, is by using packing tape over the label, I avoid the chance of the ink running and the image being ruined by a drip of water.  I wouldn't put these bottles in a cooler full of ice, but the image should be fine if just a little water spills on it.

All you have to do is pick up a case of water, print out three sheets of the labels on regular printer paper (there's 8 on each sheet), cut them out, and stick them on!  Quick, cheap, easy and you probably have everything you need at home.

Here's a printable of the labels.  (I think I have it set up correctly so if you just click on the image below, you'll have the printable PDF, but let me know if you run into any problems.)

Sharing at:

The Frugal Girls 
Tatertots & Jello