Last weekend my husband wanted some nachos after we got done playing tennis.  Normal craving after playing a sport right??  I think nachos is pretty much code for wanting a vast amount of cheese and a chip is what you use to get that cheese in your mouth!  So to curb that cheese craving I remembered a Beer Cheese Dip recipe I came across the week before that I pinned to my Appetizers, Dips and Drinks board on Pinterest.

This recipe is super simple and has 3 ingredients:  beer (I used Bud Light), cream cheese and pepper jack cheese.  You can find out how to make this yumminess at A Spicy Perspective.  You make it on the stove and takes just a few minutes.  It tastes great and has a good smooth creamy consistency.  We just used the dip with plain tortilla chips but it would be great to drizzle (or saturate) a platter of nachos with ground beef and all the fixings.  With football season in full swing this would be perfect for a party or after playing tennis like we ate it! ; )

What’s Cooking is a section on my blog where I share various recipes I've tried and liked!  I always love to find a good recipe to add to my arsenal for the dreaded question: What are we having to eat?  Hopefully you'll like what I find and share.  Most recipes come from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been cooking go here!

Last Friday I had my wisdom teeth removed which left me with very little food to eat for a few days while I was told to be on a soft diet.  You know what that meant right?  Eat as much ice cream as you want, well maybe not as much as you want but you get my point...no ice cream eating guilt, I was told to eat ice cream! My husband ran out to get some "soft food" groceries for me and I told him to pick up some grape juice, I was getting sick of just drinking water.  When I was helping him put the groceries away I saw the grape juice and ice cream sitting together on the counter.

My childhood came calling back to me saying "Amy, make a purple cow!"  So here you go...a Purple Cow!

Scoop some vanilla ice cream in a glass and pour grape juice over the ice cream and you have a purple cow!  So you might be asking where did you come up with this awesome concoction?  I have to give all the credit to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood!  Yes, I learned how to make these from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood when I was a kid.  I must say they are totally yummy, makes a cool purple color and I have now become a little addicted to them.  If grape juice isn't your thing you can add whatever juice you want to the ice cream and make up your own _____cow float! Thanks Mister Rogers for making my wisdom teeth removal a little more enjoyable! ; ) What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

Looking for a pretty Fall recipe to use those candy corns in instead of throwing them directly into your mouth or with a few peanuts that make up a pretend PayDay candy bar?  ; )  This bar has all the goods in it:  candy corn, marshmallows, peanut butter and peanuts!  Get the recipe from Dulce Dough here.

Happy Baking!! What's Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I've been making and baking!  I've loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I've made up myself and some are things I've made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I've been baking go here!

I've had a Pillsbury pink lemonade cake mix and frosting that's been sitting in my pantry since the beginning of this summer and needed to put it to use!  Since the frosting was pink I thought I'd try out a rose frosting technique that I've always wanted to do.

These cupcakes are mini size.  Most of the time when I make cupcakes I make them mini size.  Why?  Well there are a few reasons:  Making minis doubles the batch of 24 regular cupcakes to 48 mini ones so you get double the quantity out of the mix.  I feel more people are likely to grab a mini one being served at a function because its a smaller portion and less calories than a regular sized one.  They're just a little cuter in mini form and I'm personally a little partial to mini ones!  : )

So how do you do this technique?  I turned to a video online from Created by Diane.  Diane shows how to do this rose technique in 20 seconds, YES 20 seconds.  It's that easy!  Check out the video here.  I wasn't sure if this technique would turn out on a mini cupcake since there isn't as much square footage to work with as a regular sized one.  I think they turned out pretty good though.  I'm not sure if mine look like roses but it looks like some kind of flower and pretties up the cupcakes a little more than just frosting with a knife.  These really are super easy to do after you watch the video, I swear.

Tips for the rose frosting technique to be a success: 1. You'll need a 2D icing tip like this (left side of pict. below) and an icing bag. 2. Sometimes it's a little hard to hold the icing bag and scoop your frosting in it at the same time, you sometimes feel like you need a third hand.  Enter your third hand...use a tall glass and put your empty icing bag with the 2D tip in a glass and fold down the top of the bag over the glass and begin to put your frosting in it (right side of pict. below).  This is one of the best tips I've learned over the years to fill an icing bag and not create a mess!  3. You need a fairly stiff but squeezable frosting when doing this technique so the rose will keep it's shape while you are piping it on the cupcake.  If you are making homemade frosting just add a little more powdered sugar to your frosting to thicken it up.  I used a can frosting for these and I feel most of the canned frostings are a little soft to work with when piping on frosting for the shape to hold up.  To help the frosting hold it's shape better while piping put the frosting filled icing bag in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or so to firm it up.  You can also mix in a little powdered sugar to the canned frosting to thicken it up too. 4. When working with an icing bag the heat of your hand will kind of "melt" your frosting.  If you notice the frosting isn't holding it's shape as well as when you started put your filled icing bag in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to stiffen up again. 5. It took 1 1/2 cans of frosting to frost these (48) mini ones.  I think piping frosting on vs. using a knife uses up a little more frosting.  If you're making homemade frosting you might want to make 1 1/2 batches and if you're using canned frosting pick 2 up so you don't have to go back to the grocery store...like I did!  FYI if you have some leftover frosting it tastes awesome on graham crackers...just sayin'! ; ) 6. Loosely cover your cupcakes up after you frost them.  If you store and seal up your cupcakes in an air tight container the moisture of the cake will start to loosen up your frosting and the beautiful work you did will start to lose shape and your frosting will kind of look like it's melting.  I just put the cover on kind of crooked so a little air can get in the container and help the frosting keep it's shape. 7. Don't get too critical of your work.  I wasn't sure if the first ones I frosted looked very good.  I can become a little critical of myself...anyone else have that issue?  Anyways when I looked at them individually I wasn't sure if they looked very good, but when they were all placed together they looked fine.  (I think tip 7 is mainly a tip for myself in general! #selftherapy ha ha) 8. Now go try this technique and WOW all your friends!

Below is what rose frosted cupcakes look like when your husband takes them to work and brings the leftover ones back home! Oops!!  ha ha

Happy Baking!! What's Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I've been making and baking!  I've loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I've made up myself and some are things I've made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I've been baking go here!

I recently added these Bake Sale and Farmers Market price tag labels to my shop.   They come as a personalized digital .pdf file that will print 12 labels per page that once cut measure 2 3/4" W x 1 5/8" H.  The middle of the label is left blank so you can write in the price for the various items.  You can print them on full size sticker label sheets similar to these or print them on regular white paper and attach with tape to your baked goods.

This design came about when a friend of ours wanted to know if I could make some personalized price tag labels to be used on baked goods and jam that her mother-in-law sells at Farmers Markets.  I got an idea right away to go kind of country with the design and make the label look like a little booth with a red and white check tablecloth for the homemade graphic goodies to sit on and then "built" a wooden sign with the "painted" personalized name on it.  Our friend was going to give the labels along with other supplies that her mother-in-law uses to make and sell her homemade goods to her for a Mother's Day gift.  I thought that was such a great customized gift idea, don't you?

Besides using these labels for individuals you can have them personalized with an organization such as a High School running a bake sale or...

a church or another type of organization.

If you or someone else you know would like to make your bake sale or farmers market items look more professional go order your personalized labels here! Are you hungry for some homemade baked goods now?! : ) What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!!  I don't know about you but my favorite treat anytime of the year is ice cream!  While sketching up some new 4th of July paper product designs I came up with an idea for red, white and blue dipped ice cream cones.  Instead of just keeping them on paper I decided to bring them to life! Here's the happy dipped cone family:  mom, dad and baby! ; )

If you are planning to serve ice cream on the 4th of July you could make a little ice cream bar like this one! When I was little we usually made homemade ice cream around the 4th.  We made it with the older machines that you had to keep adding ice and salt around the container.  I'm not sure why we only made it once a year, but that was usually the tradition.  Did you make homemade ice cream growing up?

Here's the supplies you'll need, they're probably pretty obvious but I'll list them anyways:  ice cream cones, vanilla candy melts in red, white and blue and sprinkles!  Tip:  Navy blue candy melts are kind of hard to find.  I found mine at Hobby Lobby.  You can also use white candy melts and blue candy coloring to make navy too if you can't find navy ones available.

How to make them.  Again it's probably kind of obvious but I'll let you know the steps I took.  I used coffee mugs to melt the candy melts.  I microwave the melts in about 15-20 second intervals, stirring between each time till smooth and melted.  You want to microwave chocolate in small time frames because it can scorch/burn very quickly.  Now you are ready to dip!  If you've ever dipped things in chocolate before you know the first few things you dip usually come out looking bad until you get a little rhythm and system to your dipping.  I thought I'd be able to just dip them the whole way to the line on the cone but that ended up to be too much chocolate.  When I added sprinkles to the chocolate and placed them on wax paper to dry all the chocolate and sprinkles started heading south and began to pool on the wax paper.  So I had to change my method of dipping.  I dipped the cone about half way between the top edge and the line where I wanted to stop then used a teaspoon to apply the rest around the sides while holding it over the mug for whatever dripped off.  In general you just want to cover the cone lightly with chocolate so it's not too heavy, add the sprinkles to it while it's still wet and lay it on wax paper top side down to harden.  Tip:  Half of the reg. size cones I bought were broken on top so you might want to buy an extra box if you want them to look really nice and not look like a bite was taken out of them! ; )  Use those broken ones as your "test" cones to dip first and get your own system down then move on to the better ones.  You could make these cones a few weeks ahead of time and store in an air tight container in a cool dry place till you are ready to use them.

Seeing stars!  I bought this green rubber star mold last year from the $1.00 section at Target.  It was actually labeled as an ice cube tray but I thought maybe I could use it for a chocolate mold.  I used some of my left over melted chocolate to make stars to match my cones.  I used a teaspoon to plop some chocolate in the molds, tapped the mold on the table so the chocolate would level out then added sprinkles while the chocolate was still wet.  I put the mold in the freezer for about 3-5 minutes to speed up the drying time.  The chocolates were a little hard to get out of the mold and took a little coaxing to get out.  A real candy mold would have worked better but this ice cube tray worked for my needs.

Another shot of the happy little family!

Dipped cones ready and at attention to hold ice cream!

Baby ice cream cones!  Could they be any cuter?  I've had these in my pantry for awhile and finally got them out to play with!  Great for portion control, unless you eat about 6 of them! ; )

Sprinkles...they just make you smile!

So what's your favorite ice cream flavor?  I'm not sure if I can pick just one but peanut butter and cookie dough are typically my favorites!  Although I'd probably eat almost any flavor you put in front of me! Looking for more red, white and blue fun?  Come follow my 4th of July Pinterest Board! Linked Up At:  SNAP, Tatertots & Jello, Whipperberry What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

Earlier this week I set out to find some 4th of July candy making supplies and had a little trouble finding what I wanted.  So I thought I'd pass along what I found and where I found it if you might be looking for the same things and save you a little time driving everywhere.

1.  Navy Blue Candy Melts - Navy blue candy melts are a little hard to find.  I found these at Hobby Lobby with their candy and cake making supplies.  I've never used the Make 'n Mold brand before.  The color was great but there wasn't much vanilla taste to them.  They worked fine for what I needed them for though. You can also custom make your own navy blue by using white candy melts and candy coloring.  You have to use coloring specifically for candy not the same coloring you use for say cake frosting.  Candy coloring is oil based and will blend well with the candy melts.  If you use regular frosting coloring your candy coating might harden up because there is a little water in the regular coloring.  Candy coating/chocolate and water are enemies, they don't play well together and if you add water to the candy coating it can harden up and become unusable.  I've heard of people using just a very small amount of reg. coloring to get a pastel color but if you go one drop too many it will turn into a disaster.  There is also a product called AmeriColor Flo-Coat Oil Candy Color that you can use with AmeriColor's Gel Pastes (the kind of coloring to use for reg. baking) that will allow you to use the reg. coloring for candy melts.  I've never used this before but my 2 cents would be to just get the specific candy coloring to make custom candy melt colors.  Hope I didn't loose you through all of that! ; ) ha ha 2.  Red, White and Blue Jimmies - These are Betty Crocker brand and I found them at my local grocery store (Fry's Food Stores) with the regular cake decorating supplies right by the cake mixes.  I would think you could find these at your local bigger grocery stores too in the same area or a special 4th of July section. 3.  Red, White and Blue Nonpareils (aka little tiny balls that you will find on your floor for 6 months after you use them!) - I found these at Hobby Lobby.  One would think they would be in a special 4th of July section, right...NO I found these in the themed party supply section with basic red, white and blue patriotic items they carry all year long. I know I could have purchased all these items online but I needed to start on my project that same day and didn't have time to wait for them to be shipped to me. Check back later this week when I show you what I did with these supplies!  Here's what I made with these fun supplies! Happy making and baking! What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

With Cinco de Mayo coming up I wanted to share some margarita cupcakes with you and a FREE lime wedge printable!

I made these awhile back when my husband had a Mexican themed food day in his department.  I needed a recipe that did not contain alcohol since they were going to be consumed in a work environment.  My friend Julie suggested a recipe from Wilton that you can find here.  The frosting is a lime cream cheese recipe that you can download and print here.

To garnish I wanted them to mimic margaritas so I "rimmed" the edge of the frosting with colored sugar and then cut plastic straws into 1 1/2" - 2" sections and inserted them in the cupcake.  For the lime wedge on the side you can use a real lime wedge, a sugar candy one or a FREE faux printable one like I did.  You can download and print the lime wedges from a link further down this post.

I made 2 different lime sizes to choose from.  I made one that is 1 1/2" that works well for mini sized cupcakes (that's the size that I made in this post) or a 2" one that works well for regular sized cupcakes.

To make the paper faux lime wedges download the file and print from the links below.  Use a 1 1/2" or 2" circle punch (depending on which size you are using) to cut out the limes.  You can use a scissors too, but it's much quicker with a punch. If you want the lime wedge to be seen on both sides, fold the circle lime in half, poke a hole in the middle with a toothpick and secure with a piece of double sided tape.  If you just want the lime wedge to show on one side cut the circle lime in half and tape a toothpick on the back side of it.

I also used the paper lime wedges to decorate my cake stand as you can see.

To download the FREE lime wedge printables click here for the 1 1/2" file and click here for the 2" file.  As with any free artwork on my website, please use this for personal use only. If you use these printables please let me know how you used them! For more fun Fiesta ideas check out my Pinterest board here! What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!

Happy Valentine's Day!! I'm sharing some Valentine's Day cupcakes with you that I made a year or so ago.  There is no special recipe just a chocolate cake mix from the box and chocolate and white canned frosting.  I wanted to focus on the fun part of decorating and not fuss with making them from scratch!

A closer view...

Have a fun and happy day! What’s Baking is a section on my blog where I share various items I’ve been making and baking!  I’ve loved to bake since I was little!  Some recipes or creations I’ve made up myself and some are things I’ve made from my way too many Pinterest boards and from way too many bloggers I follow.  To take a look at some other things I’ve been baking go here!