Whipped Cream- Buttercream Frosting

'

I wish I had better pictures of this cake, it was dark, and my camera is acting up, 

But believe me when I say this is THE lightest, fluffiest frosting, 

And Perfect for a smash cake.

Whip 1/2 cup whipping cream

until it forms soft peaks, 

Set Aside.

Combine

1/2 cup butter, room temp

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 c milk

4 c pwd sugar

Beat well. Add more milk or powdered sugar as desired/needed.

Gently fold in whipped cream.

The Sugar Coma

Forest Friends First Birthday Party

I love birthdays. Especially little kid birthdays. I love having a day to celebrate one person and let them know how loved they are. I love all the little things, like balloons and treats, that make a birthday wonderful.


Easton loves being outside, and he loves animals, so this Forest Friends party was born.

I've had the big pinecones for years. We gathered them in Southern California. 

The Bunny was a thrift store find that I spray painted, it's one of my Easter Decorations. 

The Native American basket was my great-grandfather's. 

The fox is one of Easton's favorite stuffed animals. 

The buffalo-check table runner is actually my scarf.

Hedgehog Cheese Ball

Instructions and Inspo Here.

S'mores Brownie Cupcakes

 You find the instructions here.

The Ham and Cranberry Wrap instructions and Honey Garlic Lil Smokies Recipe can be found Here

The fake plant came off of my kitchen shelves, it's from Ikea.

The Rabbit puzzle was made by my grandpa.

The moccs were a baby gift to Easton from my grandparents.

The cloud is made from a wire hanger.

The bird-house was a gift to my 3yo from a kind man at the grocery store.

The big fox is Easton's very favorite stuffed animal, both foxes came from Ikea $7.99 for both.

The wheat came from the family farm.

Cute parties don't have to be expensive. The only things I purchased for the party were the balloons, the pennant banner (oriental trading) the pictures, and the food (about $3/person).

I hot glued string around pinecones to make a banner, then stuck it to the wall with push-pins.
For the picture banner I simply laid the pictures out face down, ran a piece of string across the back and taped it on with scotch tape. I can easily remove the tape to use the pictures in his bedroom or give them to grandmas.

White cake from a mix with Whipped Cream/Buttercream Frosting (recipe here)

The brass deer I found at an antique shop while I was pregnant with him.

Find my "Pin-spiration" Here

Honey Garlic Lil Smokies and Cranberry Ham Wraps

For the wraps, I mixedGarlic and Herb Seasoning, Craisens and Cream cheese and spread them on a wrap with Ham and Mozzerella Cheese.

See my inspiration Here.

Honey Garlic Lil' Smokies

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1- 8 oz can tomato sauce

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

2 pkgs Lil’ Smokies

Place All ingredients in crock-pot, cook on low 3-4 hrs stirring 1-2 times.

Brownie S'more Cupcakes

Forest Friends First Birthday Party.

Instructions corrected for my mistakes ;).

I made these with a box mix.

Tip: the best brownie mixes are Duncan Hines and Pillsbury.
I've tried them all.

Use 1 brownie mix for every 12 cupcakes.

Also. Brownies are sticky. Don't use cupcake papers.
It took some persistence to remove the papers.

In the future I would just grease the pan.

After the brownies are baked and cooled, remove from pan and place them on a baking sheet.
Next use a spoon to press a hole into the top of each brownie.

Then insert a marshmallow into each hole and place the sheet of brownies under the broiler for 1-2 minutes until marshmallows are golden brown (watch carefully).

If you want to frost over the marshmallows and put graham cracker crumbles on top, only place half a marshmallow into each brownie.
Otherwise the marshmallow will be too tall to frost over, I learned that the hard way.

After allowing the marshmallows to cool, frost each cupcake.
Then add graham cracker.

The Milk Chocolate Frosting Recipe I used, plus another take on the S'more Cupcake can be found Here.

My initial plan was to frost over the marshmallows and then sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs (like the two in the middle of the top picture), but the marshmallows were too tall so I ended up frosting around the marshmallows and adding a graham cracker, this was much more difficult than simply frosting the whole thing. 

Cheddar Bacon Ranch Cheese Ball

Stir together 

3 pkg cream cheese (softened)

3/4 c. Crumbled Bacon

2 Tbsp. Hidden Valley Dry Ranch Mix

1 Splash Worstershire sauce

1 c. Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Shredded

Form into a Ball

Cover with almond slices if desired.

Refrigerate or Serve Immediately

For Hedgehog:
See my inspiration Here.

Form into an Football shape, rounding the face. 

Press 3 Craisens on for eyes/nose.

Insert slivered almonds in rows to create spines.

It's even cuter in real life.

Saving Money: Birthday Edition (Part Three)

Spend Less, Give More

The gift that keeps on giving

As parents, it can be very tempting to want to give children lots of STUFF. Stuff they need, stuff they want, stuff you want, stuff they don't even know they want. Fulfilling my 3 year-old's wish list this year, would have cost roughly $1,000,000. 

Nope, not a typo. Along with a squirt gun, toy cars, a Buzz Lightyear with wings and a laser, a golf glove, a birthday cake, and plenty of other things I don't remember. 

He also wanted a four-wheeler, a tractor, and a combine, and he didn't mean toys or power wheels. 

I purchased a few of the things that were reasonable, but less than I could have, and far less than he wanted.

He did get the "Red Combine" cake he wanted, thanks to a little spray paint:).

Most of us have financial constraints that limit what, and how much we purchase for our children. 

I'd like to suggest setting a budget of how much you can spend on your child, and then spending less than that. If possible, significantly less.

Before you draw the conclusion that it doesn't seem NICE or FAIR or GENEROUS. Hear me out.

Buy a couple of things that will make your child very happy, but stop before you hit your spending limit, and put the rest into savings for that child.

I started this when my oldest turned One. There aren't many things a one-year-old really wants or needs, but there can be many things a parent wants for their one-year-old. I decided rather than fall into that trap I would buy a few presents and then put the rest of the money I had budgeted into his UESP education fund. It continues to motivate me to shop sales and limit my overall spending, knowing that I am giving him a far more valuable gift than another toy or shirt he doesn't need. We may not be able to pay for much of our kids schooling, I don't know what our financial future will hold, but something is better than nothing.

The type of savings you choose for your child may vary based on your values, goals, abilities, and the age of your child, some people don't want to pay for college or trade school.

Other savings goals may include:

First Car

Down Payment on a Home

Mission

Wedding

Custodial IRA (if your child has earned income. This money could be used for education, retirement or a first home. If you choose to go this route discuss the pros/cons and risks thoroughly with a financial adviser.)

Remember, small amounts add up. Investing just $20 twice a year (Birthday and Christmas), for 18 years at a 6% rate of return, would yield about $1200 upon graduating from high school. Now that's a gift.

More than anything, this gift can teach them the power of sacrifice, self-control, and delayed gratification, and that's a gift that keeps on giving.

View my disclosure here.

Saving Money: Birthday Edition (Part Two)

Yesterday I posted about saving money on birthdays, specifically pictures.
Today I'm moving on to the second item on my list, make the birthday cake yourself.

The first birthday cake I made for my son was one of the most embarrassing failures of my life.

EVERY time I bake a cake we laugh about that cake.

The cake was very moist. 

The frosting was real buttercream.

 It was about 2 feet tall.

 I had no idea what I was doing. 

The cake crumbled. The frosting melted. 

It was definitely an event to remember.

My husband still swears it was the most delicious cake he's ever had.

I've tried repeatedly to re-create it (the flavor, that is, not the beautiful creation itself). I really think it was the Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix, other brands I've tried since haven't been nearly as good.
Since the above disaster, I've become a bit less ambitious. Single layer cakes only for now:)
However, for only a few dollars I've been able to create cakes for only a few dollars that make my birthday crowd just as happy as one from the grocery store bakery.

I search for decorating ideas on Pinterest and then choose a single layer cake that I'm confident I can make without fondant. I bake the cake the day before and then start decorating it first thing that morning so that I have time to come up with a backup plan if it fails.
Below are the links to the original cakes:
Basketball cake
Golf Cake
Combine Cake using these instructions to make the No. 3.

My other secret, is I use a springform pan (the kind used for cheesecake) to bake thick/tall cakes without having to bake multiples and stack them. I use this set, but any springform pan would work, I use the medium size for a single cake, but for the No. 3 I baked 2 cakes in the smaller sized pan.
I just use a cake mix and use the classic Pinterest hack to make a boxed cake mix taste like one from a bakery.
Add an extra egg.
Use Melted Butter instead of Oil and double the amount
Use Milk instead of Water.
(I can't figure out the original source to link to, if you know, I'd love to give proper credit to the person who came up with this idea)

Happy Baking!

Saving Money: Birthday Edition

We recently had a birthday at our house and, since that's what I've been focusing on, I thought I would share a few birthday related money saving ideas.

1. Take pictures of the birthday kid yourself.

2. Make the birthday cake yourself.
3. Set a budget, spend within that budget and put anything left over into savings for that child.

I'll be focusing on pictures in this post, be watching for the next 2 installments.

1. Take pictures of the birthday kid yourself.

I love pictures.

I love the ability to freeze time.
There are times when I like video, but for the most part I prefer still shots. I love looking back on pictures from when I was little. They invoke so many positive memories of my childhood. -
In my dreams I would hire a photographer 4 times a year, OK probably more. But financial constraints make it so that in reality can only hire a professional photographer about once a year, or less.
Having already hired a photographer six months ago for Newborn/Family pictures, and wanting Birthday pictures for my toddler (I refuse to use the word pre-schooler yet) and six month pictures for my baby in the same month, I decided to try taking my own. I had nothing to lose. If they turned out horrible, I would simply donate plasma and pay for a photographer.
Not so simple since I have 2 children and the nearest place to donate plasma is 30 minutes away. Oh and I don't like having blood drawn, and I think I might be anemic again.

Oh yes, pictures...

I grabbed my camera (a point and shoot) and we visited the farm.

I ended up with about a dozen that I like.
They're not perfect.
The coloring isn't perfect.
It's better than the times I've skipped pictures altogether.

I used PicMonkey to do some minor editing on a few of them, though not much because, I don't know what I'm doing.

PicMonkey is a great resource, there are lots of free actions to get you started, and if you find you want more, their "Royale" version is $4.99 for a month with a subscription that you can cancel at any time, far less expensive than purchasing Photoshop, especially if you're not sure the "Momtography" thing is for you.

The best thing about taking pictures myself was that when he became fed up we took a thirty minute treat break and then tried again

 

My Wild Thing

I'm going to leave you with one photography tip, it's the only one I know, and it may be really obvious to everyone reading this, but just in case it helps someone, here it is:
Move Back and Zoom In
Zooming in causes the background to slightly blur, creating a softening effect and making your subject the focal point.
It also does something with the proportions of the face so your picture will look less like a snapshot.
Yep, super technical, life altering photography tips, hope you enjoyed them.And if you're in Northern Utah and taking your own pictures is not for you, I'd love to give a shout-out to two awesome and reasonably priced photographers in the area.
I hope they don't mind.
Leslie Miller Photography

and
Brian Mickelson Photography