Hemispheres, Earth Cake

Yesterday we hosted my son's third birthday party and my nephew's sixth birthday party.

Our theme was space, so I wanted to make a planet cake of some sort. I made a chocolate chip cookie sheet cake with stars as a base.

Then I used a Wilton Sports Ball Pan Set.  

Photo found here.

We left the cake separated. That way each kid had a spot for their year.

I made the cake, put on the blue frosting and mixed up all the others. My husband put on the details. He's an artist, and you can see his work here. He's super into geology. If you looked at this cake up close, you can spot out most everything on the world. My Dad and Brother-in-law were like, "There is Madagascar!" and so on.

 

Top View

Calabsas Candy

I love the art of making sweet treats!

Check out these yummy looking eggs by Calabsas Candy!

These look like glycerin soap. I don't mean that in a bad way!

Kostiuk Crew is hosting a giveaway for one winner to win $20 worth of candy from: Calabsas Candy!

Cakesters

Candy Stick Lane inspired me to make these Caksters. They are yummy!

How to make them:

In a mixing bowl mix 1 box of any cake mix, 1 egg, 1/4 Olive Oil and 1/4 Buttermilk.

*If you have no Buttermilk, here's a substitute: This makes 1 cup, so you can cut it in 1/2 depending on what you are making. 1 Tablespoon lemon juice plus enough milk or plain yogurt to fill a cup. Let stand 5 minutes before using. I used this alternative recipe to make Buttermilk to make the Cakesters.

The dough will be stiff. Roll the dough into 1/2 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. You can make different sizes, but in this case I like a smaller size.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

I found that they were a little soft when I got them out of the oven, so the first time I made these I didn't think they were done. I didn't over cook them, but they were not as moist as the second time that I made them. Just insert a toothpick to test if they are done. If the toothpick comes out clean, they are good to go!

Frost them and sandwich.

Here is the Red Velvet Cake with the Cream Cheese Frosting:

Here is the Lemon Cake with the Lemon Frosting:

I make some things like this to get rid of frosting. When I ran out I really didn't want to open another container. I made a few ice cream sandwiches. My boy's LOVED them! You have to work QUICK.

Wilton ROCKS!

Two of a Kind Working on a Full House is hosting an Wilton Easter product giveaway! I love making spring cookies!

This is all the stuff you can win:

More Ice Cream Cones

I made these for our work's, preschool and for my sister that watches my boy's today.

Vanilla, Chocolate, Lemon and Strawberry

 They are those flavors of frosting too. I put a slight amount of coco baking powder in the mix of these sugar cookies to make the cones darker. Before I baked them I painted egg on them and sprinkled sugar {I used white, but have used brown}.

I bought Valentine M&M's on clearance. They worked perfect for the cherries on top!

Vanilla

Chocolate

Lemon

Strawberry

What flavor would you choose?

Wordless Wednesday - Ice Cream Cone Cookies

You'll need homemade sugar cookie dough and an ice cream cone cookie cutter.

To frost ice cream cones you need vanilla {I use Cream Cheese}, Lemon, Chocolate and Strawberry frosting's. I mixed Lemon Extract in with the Cream Cheese and added yellow food coloring.

I melt a little butter, mix in brown sugar and paint it on the sugar cones before they bake.

After they are frosted.

Baby Shower Cookies

My cousin doesn't know what she's having. This would have totally driven me nuts. I had to know!

I decided to make heart cookies because in our family, we love our babies. I made pink ones for girls and blue ones for boys. Then added the girl and boy symbol to them.

Winner of the CSN | Stores Giveaway!

I said that I'd mention the winner of my CSN | Stores giveaway once she responded.

She responded pretty much right away.

Congratulations Alicia!

Thank you for entering!

Winner of the CSN | Stores Giveaway!

I picked a winner for the CSN | Stores Giveaway!

I will announce the winner as soon as they respond to my email.

Thank you to those that entered!

Basket o' Books Review

I was happy to review a basket of my choice from Basket o' Books!

Just a handful of the many categories on their site are:

• Wedding
• Baby Boy / Girl
• Valentine's Day
• Mother's Day / Father's Day
• Birthday
• Movie Night

I chose Movie Night because I wanted something our whole family can enjoy. Basket o' Books personalized our basket to fit our interests.

Our basket was loaded with goodies. They lasted well past one movie! 

Candy, candy and more theater candy!

Plenty of popcorn and crackers! Our kids loved watching me pop the popcorn in the microwave!

The best surprise of all was the movie How to Train Your Dragon. It was a hit with the whole family!

Basket o' Books really gave us something we needed, time together as a family. They truly think out of the basket!

Disclaimer: The opinions on this post are my personal take on the products. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. If you have questions about this post please contact me at: alissa4illustration@hotmail.com

Conversation Heart Cookies

My son Mica is in two preschool's. He has an August birthday, and just wasn't quite ready to go to kindergarten when he turned 5, so he's going when he just turns 6. We thought the variety of two preschool's would be good for him. I'm glad we chose to do that. I just wish that he would of been able to start kindergarten right after Christmas. I think he was ready then.

Being in two preschool's means two Valentines Day parties. I decided to make conversation heart cookies. Each child gets two cookies, one with their name, and the other with "Cool" for the boy's or "Cute" for the girl's.

The longest name was Josephine. I actually did well on that one. Later Mica told me that Josephine goes by "Joey". I should have asked about that, but I wrote all the names out while he was in bed.

Between both schools there is three Landon's. It must be a popular name for that generation! a's and o's are hard to write with frosting. I was thinking towards the end that I should have used the edible markers. That would have been too easy. ;)

I made a lot more cookies then the pictures show.