Mickey & Minnie Mouse Cupcakes

     In keeping with the Minnie and Mickey theme for my cousin's baby shower, I decided to make mini cupcakes looking like everybody's favorite mice hehe.  They went perfect with my mini cheesecakes! :)

     Since I was making lots of stuff and planning quite a bit for the shower, I went simple with these and just used a Betty Crocker german chocolate cake mix.  The only thing I did different than the instructions on the box was add a bit more water.  It makes the cakes nice and moist.  The frosting however, could not be bought from the store.  I don't ever, ever buy frosting in a container.  I use this recipe for the best. frosting. ever.  Seriously, it's that good!  Not too sweet, light and fluffy, easy to decorate with, and delicious.  Best frosting combo ever :)

Frosting:

1 1/2 cup shortening
1 packet of Dream Whip (about 3 Tbsp) -in the baking aisle, comes in a box of 4
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp butter flavoring
1 tsp almond flavoring
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
2 lbs powdered sugar (yes this may sound like a lot, but I promise, the frosting isn't insanely sweet!)

     To make the frosting, you first cream together the shortening, Dream Whip, vanilla, butter flavoring, and almond flavoring for 2 minutes.  Actually cream it for 2 minutes, it makes the frosting nice and fluffy later.  When I made the frosting this time, I skipped the almond flavoring just in case of allergies at the baby shower.  I simply added a bit more vanilla to compensate.
     Next, dissolve the salt in the water.
     Add 1 lb of powdered sugar and half of the salt water mixture and cream for 2 more minutes.  Start out slowly when mixing this part, or you will have powdered sugar everywhere!  Trust me, I've done it more times than I care to admit!
     Last, you'll add the last lb of powdered sugar and the second half of the salt water.  Cream another 2 minutes, starting out slowly again :)
     This recipe makes enough frosting to frost and decorate a 9x13 size cake with some extra.  I had plenty for my cupcakes.  It will keep in the refrigerator for 3 or so weeks.  I haven't tried freezing it yet, so not sure how that'll work.  If anybody tries it, let me know!

it's entirely possible that we eat a 'little bit' of frosting before it can make it to the cake ;)

     I colored most of my frosting a bright pink with Wilton food coloring.  I kept a bit out to make the faces on the Oreos.

     I bought lots of Oreos, and I mean lots to decorate my cupcakes.  In case you were wondering, a cake mix for a 9x13 makes a TON of mini cupcakes!!

I had three bags of the bite size Oreos and two packages of the regular ones

     To decorate my cupcakes, I used a decorating bag and a tip to pipe frosting onto the top of the cupcakes.

     

     The Oreos wouldn't fit on the cupcakes without being on an angle, so I piped a line of extra frosting along the backs to tilt the large Oreos.

     There wasn't really any specific way that I put the large Oreos onto the cupcakes.  I just stuck them on at an angle I thought looked good.

     The mini ones had to go under the large Oreos a little bit to stay in place, but the frosting does most of the work.  It acts like glue and keeps them on the cupcake.

     Then I piped on faces with the leftover white frosting and a tiny decorating tip.  Not all the faces are the same to give them a bit of character ;)

     I accidentally forgot to take pictures before I added the bowties and 'hair' bows, but after the faces I decided they needed a little something extra to make them just right.

     They turned out so cute I didn't want to eat them! :)  Hope you enjoy making them as much as I did!

Happy baking friends!

    -Katie

Quiet Book Matching Game

     For this quiet book page, I wanted to do a game of some sort.  I decided on a matching game and I think it turned put really cute!  I haven't decided on what the background color will be for this page yet,  but here's what I have so far :)

     First I cut out all my pieces (my favorite part haha) and laid them out so I could see what I had and where to start.

after cutting out the pieces

When I was finished cutting everything out, I had:

2 red hearts

2 green triangles

2 orange circles

2 blue squares (small)

2 yellow stars

2 black 'x's

24 white squares (large)

     I started with pinning each of the colored shapes onto a large white square.

     Once they were all pinned to  white square, I sewed each of the shapes down.

first two done, woohoo!!

     When I was finished, half of my white squares had shapes sewn onto them and half had nothing on them.

     I took one shape/white square piece and one blank white square and set them aside until they all had a blank buddy.  Then I stacked them all with their partner shape, just because I wanted them organized somehow (and they were taking up a large portion of my table).

     Next, I sewed each of the colored shape/white squares to their blank buddy.  I did this so the shapes couldn't be seen through the back of the white squares when playing the game.  No cheating allowed!! Hehe

stacked up with their partners again :)

     Now they're all set and ready to play the game!

Happy sewing friends!

    -Katie

Mini Cheesecakes

     These last few weeks, I've been working on planning my cousin's baby shower.  We ended up doing a Minnie and Mickey mouse themed shower and I thought, perfect!  Minnie (mini) cheesecakes!!

I have this really easy cheesecake recipe that I've wanted to try and didn't have a reason to.  Since it was Valentine's day a few days ago, there are more than enough goodies in our house as is!

I got home from work and this amazing surprise was waiting for me! I have a wonderful boyfriend :)

     Anyway, on to the cheesecake!

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup oleo, melted

Filling:

3 (8oz.) cream cheese

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

OPTIONAL: fruit preserves (I used strawberry and raspberry)

     First, preheat your oven to 350°.  For the crust you just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and it will end out like this:

     The filling is just as simple, mix everything together until it's well combined:

     At this point, if you want to just make one cheesecake, you would pat the graham cracker crust down into a 9x13 pan.  Once the crust is flattened, pour the filling over top.  Bake at 350 for 30 min or until the center is set (it will probably crack a bit in the center, that's how I always know it's done)

     **I baked my mini cheesecakes for 18-20 minutes, so the 9x13 will probably have to go longer than 30 minutes**

     Here I put cupcake liners in my mini cupcake pans and filled them about halfway with the crust.

before being pressed down

after being pressed down

   

     After being pressed down, the crust came maybe about 1/3 of the way up the cupcake liners.  I then filled each of them about 3/4 of the way full with the filling.

     When I finished filling all 72 of the cupcake liners, I had finished the filling and had some of the crust left over.  I baked the pans for 18-20 minutes.

yum!!

     I left them in the pans for about 5 minutes and then took them out and put them on a cooling rack.  After the cheesecakes were cool (about 15 minutes total), I used a decorating bag and tip to fill the centers with fruit preserves.

 

     I piped the preserves into the center like this:

     Once the cheesecakes were full of preserves, the tops began puffing up a bit.  As soon as they puffed up, I stopped filling them.  I used strawberry in some of the cheesecakes, raspberry in others, and some I left plain.  They were sooo yummy!!!

Aren't they cute?! Somehow it seems that mini anything is cuter than the original!

Happy baking friends!

    -Katie

Rice Krispie Chicken

     This is probably one of the easiest chicken recipes I've ever made.  Bonus: it's delicious too!

     What you need:

     Rice krispies (I don't have an exact amount, just whatever it takes to cover your chicken)

     Cooking spray

     Jelly roll pan, or cookie sheet

     A bowl of some sort to crush rice krispies in

     6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

     **serves 4-6**

yes, I did forget to take a picture before I started making dinner

     Preheat your oven to 375° and grease the jelly roll pan before you begin.  Crush the rice krispies in your bowl.  The finer the pieces, the less crispy your chicken will be.  I crushed mine so that some of the pieces were nice and small and would stick well to the chicken.  Other pieces were a little larger:

Before crushing, as you can see, all the pieces in the middle are large

After crushing. The pieces in the center are still somewhat the same size. The ones on the edge are smaller

      In the second picture, some of the pieces have sunk to the bottom because they are very fine.  After crushing the krispies, coat the chicken in them.  I didn't need to dunk the chicken in any liquid beforehand because they had thawed in my fridge overnight and were sitting in their own juice.  If your chicken is dry, dip it in some milk and then the krispies.

     Once the pieces are covered, place them on the greased jelly roll pan.  After I had all my pieces on the pan, I added a few more rice krispies to each piece just because I didn't think there was enough :)

     This is what my chicken looked like before it went in the oven.  I stuck it in the oven for 45 minutes.  When my chicken came out, it was cooked all the way through, but I think it was a bit too dry.  Next time, I'll cook it a few minutes less and just check it until it's cooked all the way through.

Mmmmm!

                                      

     I hope you enjoy!! :)



Happy cooking friends!

     -Katie