{Baking} Experimenting...

...with cupcake skewers this weekend! And I'm so glad I did a trial run with these things. I made some BIG mistakes that I will not make again...

We were headed over to our friends' house this evening for the Eagles game and dinner. I figured it would be a great time to try out these cupcake skewers I've been seeing everywhere. So, I made the mini cupcakes, piped vanilla icing on top, sprinkled with cookies & cream crumbles and green jimmies {for the EAGLES}, tied some green and black ribbon to the skewer/lollipop stick, and stuck them in their base. All fine until...


...I tried to transport them to G & A's. Ughh...these little guys were not meant to be moved! All the bumping and moving from the drive over and they were a wreck! Some slid down the skewers, others completely fell off. Oh well....you win some, you lose some :-}


I had a little extra batter so I made a few regular sized cupcakes and decided to try the pumpkin look with the orange icing, orange sanding sugar, and a little pretzel as the stem. Kinda cute and really easy!

{Recipes} Pumpkin Apple Muffins

I made some of these yummy pumpkin apple muffins last night to bring into school today for my teammates. A little Friday pick-me-up if you will :-} This is a great fall recipe passed down to me from my fav cook of all time, my very own MAMA! If it weren't for her, my recipe box would be empty :-}


Ingredients:
~ 2 1/2 cups flour
~ 2 cups sugar
~ 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice {I did not have any of this on hand so I used a combo of cinnamon & nutmeg}
~ 1 tsp baking soda
~ 1/2 tsp salt
~ 2 eggs, lightly beaten
~ 1 1/2 cups pumpkin
~ 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
~ 2 cups finely chopped apples

Directions:
~ Combine flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda & salt in one bowl
~ In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin & oil. Then add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients until moist.
~ Stir in apples
~ Spoon into greased muffin cups
~ Bake on 350 degrees for approximately 35-40 minutes
~ Sprinkle tops with powdered sugar once out of oven
~ ENJOY!


As you can see, I piped cream cheese frosting onto some of my muffins. I also found these cute school themed buttons at JoAnn's the other day and stuck one on the top of each frosted muffin. I thought they'd be a cute back-to-school treat for my teacher friends :-}


TGIF!!! Have a FAB weekend!!!

{Baking} Brownie Pops

I've been seeing "pops" of all sorts all over the blogosphere and I'm in LOVE! Tonight I tried some "pops" of my own using brownies. Super simple...just brownies from a box {I like mine extra chocolately so I threw some chocolate chips in the batter}, popsicle sticks, and a little ribbon as an embellishment. I'm sure these could have looked a whole lot cuter if I had been in a more creative mood and maybe added a little icing or sprinkles or something fun! However, my boyfriend napped a total of ONE hour today, so I had my hands full with an extremely cranky little cutie!


I can't wait to experiment more with "pops"! As a matter of fact, my Cake Pop book from Bakerella is due to arrive next week and I'm hoping to get some fun ideas/recipes!!!