Janie's New Dish =)

Janie's New Dish

Recently my family and I discovered this little paint-your-own pottery shop in downtown Bay City. It's an adorable little place that you can pick out a piece of blank pottery, and melt the hours of the day away painting it. They glaze and fire it for you, and then call you when your project is ready to be picked up. I LOVE THIS PLACE! We went as a family for Easter, and I returned a few weeks later to make a new dish for Janie.


So with Janie by my side, I sat for a few hours and painted her dish. Pink (of course) with black specks, lettering, paw prints, and bones.


As I was painting, there was a kid's birthday parting going on in the next room. Half of the kids kept coming in to the painting room to pet and play with Janie. Tired of having to keep calling the kids back to the party, one of the parents asked if Janie and I could join the party for a minute or two. So we spent a while playing and talking with some kids, and I put her through her tricks. The way this dog interacts with children melts my heart.

After a while of the party, we sat back down, me painting, Janie chewing on her bone. The final touch of paint was Janie's actual paw-print right in the center of the dish. She didn't understand the whole 'paint on the paw' deal, and we left a few paw prints on the art studios floor (oops).

I LOVE the way this dish turned out. I brought it home after they were done firing and glazing it, and thought it needed 'something more'. I figured you can't ever go wrong with bling, so I glued on little rhinestones. It's adorable!


I brought it home to show Jonathan, his first reaction was "Where's the one for Baxter?" (Jonathan loves his cat) Guess I have another trip to the studio in the near future!

Cookies n' Cream Cake

Cookies n' Cream Cake

Gotta love those Oreos! I'm a big fan of these little cookies, even the vanilla version. They are super fun to bake with, because they have so much flavor. I made this recipe both as cake and cupcakes, and both versions were AMAZING. The cupcake version had a white buttercream filling and whole oreo on bottom of each cupcake. WAY YUMMY. (Both versions I took into work. Bless my co-workers for always trying out my experiments!) Here is the cake version, as I neglected to take pics of the cupcakes when I made 'em, and lord knows there HAVE to be pictures =)

You will need:

For Cake:
* 1 box of chocolate cake mix
* 1 cup sour cream
* 30 oreo cookies, crushed (NOTE: Double stuffed Oreos do not work as well. Major bummer.)
* 1/2 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 3 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Frosting (this is a double batch, due to frosting in between layers of cake):
* 2 sticks margarine at room temp.
* 6 cups powdered sugar
* 6 to 8 Tablespoons milk
* 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
* 30 MORE crushed Oreos! (You can't get enough of a good thing!)

TO MAKE:

*Pre-heat oven to 350

Cake:
* In a large bowl combine cake mix, sour cream, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Blend on low for about 1 minute. Fold in crushed oreos and mix well.
* Pour batter into 2 round cake pans that have been sprayed with non-stick baking spray. Cook on 350 for as long as cake mix box says for the round cake pans.
* After they are done, set aside to cool completely. (Frosting the cake while its still warm will (duh) melt the frosting that is made out of BUTTER. Had to learn this the hard way. Go figure, I am a blonde after all.)

Frosting:

* Split the quantities in half, making two separate batches. This way it will be sure to come out nice and fluffy.
* Beat the margarine on high until fluffy.
* Reduce mixer speed to low, and add in Vanilla
* Slowly add in powdered sugar
* Add in 3-4 tablespoons of milk. (Adding more milk will make frosting more light and fluffy)
* Hint: you can't over beat butter cream frosting. The longer it mixes, the fluffier it gets! Let 'er mix like crazy!
* Fold in crushed Oreos

To Assemble:
* Take first cake out of pan and place bottom side down onto cake plate. Frost top LIBERALLY with frosting
* Take second cake out of pan and place bottom side down on top of first cake. Frost top and sides of cake LIBERALLY =)
* Decorate with Oreos that have been cut in half around the top and base of cake, using one whole oreo in center of cake. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top of cake.

Grab a glass of milk and ENJOY!!!

'Wine and Cheese' cupcake recipe =)

It was recently my friend Lindsay's birthday, so I made cupcakes to take in to work to celebrate. She loves wine, so I thought up this 'Wine and Cheese' cupcake recipe. I know it sounds kinda like 'how could that be good?' But trust me, its sinful. The only challenge I had while making them was not drinking all of the Champagne. Here is what it intales..

Pink Champagne Vanilla Cupcake with Cream Cheese and White Chocolate centers and Champagne Butter cream Frosting
It's ridiculous. They are so amazingly sweet (not to mention cute when you decorate them with little sugar 'bubbles' and clear sparkles to simulate the bubbles of the Champagne.

Here's the Recipe:

You will need:
For the Cupcakes:
* 1 box white cake mix
* 1 1/4 cups champagne (any kind will do, even the cheap stuff)
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 3 egg whites
* 4 or 5 drops red food coloring
For the Filling:
* 6 oz cream cheese (softened)
* 1 egg
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 1 tsp Vanilla
* 1/4 cup White Chocolate Chips
For the Frosting:
* 1/2 cup butter or margarine (softened)
* 4 cups powdered sugar
* 1/4 cup Champagne
* 1 teaspoon vanilla (try to use clear vanilla extract to keep frosting white)

Directions:
* Pre-heat oven to 350
* Mix dry cake mix and champagne. Add oil, eggs, and food coloring. Use as many drops of food coloring to achieve 'pink' color.
* Beat with electric mixer for about 2 minutes on medium speed.
* Fill muffin cups (I find that using the silver cupcake liners are really cute for these cupcakes)
* Set aside and prepare filling

* In a seperate bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and 1 egg, until smooth. Fold in white chocolate chips.
* Place one heaping tablespoon of mixture ontop of each filled cupcake cup. The filling will sink into the cupcake while it is baking. (amazing)

* Bake cupcakes for 17-22 minutes until tops are light-golden color. Let cool.

* Prepare the champagne butter cream frosting.
* Beat 1/2 cup butter or margarine (I always use margarine, it tastes just as good)
* Add in 1 tsp. vanilla, and slowly add in 4 cups powdered sugar, and 1/4 cup champagne. (I add these little bits at a time, changing from champagne to powdered sugar and back again.)

Once the cupcakes are cooled, use Wilton 1M frosting tip and pipe out frosting onto cupcakes. Decorate with Wilton's edible pink pearls and clear decorator sugar crystals.

The final product is so cute, not only from the outside, but from the inside as well. The white frosting, pink cake, and white center is adorable after you take the first bite and see the inside.