Superbowl Football Cake

Last year for Superbowl, I made football cupcakes. This year I decided to go for a cake instead! I looked on Amazon, and decided to purchase the Wilton First and Ten Football Pan. I baked the cake (Funfetti, my husbands favorite!) as normal and then decorated it with chocolate butter cream. It was simple, but everyone liked it!

Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes

My mom and I threw my sister a bridal shower a couple of weekends ago, and one of my duties was to make dessert! Of course I decided to make cupcakes, but I wanted to try something different. I was browsing through one of my many cupcake books, and ran across and idea for raspberry swirl cupcakes.

The recipe is very simple. First, prepare cake mix as directed on the box. I used white, but you could use any flavor. Then, fill cupcake liners (I used these cute Wilton flower pleated baking cups I found at Home Goods). Then, take raspberry (or any other flavor) canned pie filling and scoop 1/2 tsp. into the center of each unbaked cupcake. Use a toothpick to swirl the pie filling around. Then, bake cupcakes as directed. The result is a really cool swirl on top of the cupcake.

To make the frosting, I used the Wilton chocolate buttercream recipe. Instead of water, I used the juice from a bag of frozen raspberries and then I added some chopped raspberries to the frosting. This gave the frosting a slight hint of raspberry flavoring.

Once the cupcakes were cooled and the frosting was ready to go, I frosted the cupcakes and topped with a fresh raspberry and some pink sprinkles. 

In case you were wondering, this is what the inside of the cupcake looks like with the pie filling. YUM!

HGTV House Hunters

I won another House Party! I have written about House Party before, but for those of you who haven't ready my past posts, it is a Web site where you fill out applications to host a party at your house featuring a product. If anyone has not been to the House Party Web site, yet, check it out now! So far, I have won 7 house parties, and each time I got to sample and share fun products!

This time, I won the HGTV House Hunters House Party. Along with a 1 year subscription to HGTV Magazine, my party pack included:

• 1 Bingo DVD
• 1 Corkscrew
• 15 sets of wine charms
• 15 house hunters bingo cards
• 15 dry erase markers
• 15 coasters
• 25 napkins

DIY Monogram Letter

Anyone who has been on Pinterest knows how how many ideas are out there for DIY craft projects. Many of us have hundreds of ideas pinned, and the thought of completing them is exhausting! For myself and a few of the women I work with, completing a DIY project became a reality last night at our first Suburban Crafter (or project posse) party.

After spending countless hours searching for and sharing ideas via Pinterest, my coworkers and I decided we should get together once a month and actually make something we found! For our first party, we decided to make decorative monogram letters. Everyone was responsible for bringing out their own letter and whatever supplies they wanted to decorate with. Once we got settled with our food and wine, the crafting began!

My Inspiration

We all had different ideas on how to decorate our letters. Buttons, twine, book pages, yarn and flowers were among some of our choices. I decided to go with a twine covered letter, embellished with flowers and hung by ribbon. My inspiration came from a letter I saw on Pinterest. To create a hanging monogram letter you will need the following supplies, all of which can be purchased at your local craft store:

Scissors

Hot Glue

Twine

Wooden or cardboard letter

2 yards of ribbon

Flower embellishments 

To begin, I glued two 1 yard strips of ribbon to the back of the letter. Once the project is complete, these two strips will be tied together in a bow, like in the inspiration photo above. For now, I suggest leaving them untied.

Next, I began wrapping my letter vertically with twine. Start by gluing the end of the twine to the back of the letter and then wrapping the twine around, securing it with glue every few wraps or when necessary to prevent it from slipping. This layer doesn't have to be perfect because we will wrap it horizontally in the next step.

As I was wrapping, I realized I would not be able wrap the entire letter evenly without stopping and re-starting to cover the areas in one smooth layer. This is OK, just be sure to secure the starting and ending parts of the twine to the back of the letter so no one will notice when the letter is complete.

Once you get the letter entirely wrapped vertically, begin wrapping in the other direction. This is the final layer, so take care to make sure it is evenly and perfectly covered. Don't be afraid to use too much hot glue to secure the twine on the back of the letter.

Wrapping the Letter

Once your letter is entirely wrapped and you are satisfied with the results, you need to decide where to add embellishments. I used paper flowers from the scrapbook section of the craft store for mine but be creative as there are many options. I suggest laying out your embellishments before you glue them so that you are sure they are exactly where you want them. Once they are in place secure them with hot glue. Tie the two pieces of ribbon together in a bow and trim the excess.

Finished Product

I can't wait to share the suburban crafter's next project! I think our slogan should be: "tackling projects one pin at a time."

Project Posse

New Years Resolutions

It is officially New Years Eve! Time for everyone to think about the resolutions they would like to make for the new year. For me, it was easy to come up with a few things to "better" myself, which is what most resolutions are about, right? Basically, I want to continue my resolutions from 2011, which is the first year that I successfully completed what I set out to do!

First, I resolve to continue losing weight. Since I started Weight Watchers on January 13, 2011, I have lost 52 pounds, about a pound a week. If I can meet that same goal again this year, I will be where I want to be at a healthy weight! It has been hard at times, but for the most part, it has been much easier than I thought! As long as you track every bite, it will work! Considering that I haven't tracked when on vacation, and there have been many weeks where I was over my points, I think 52 pounds is something to be proud of!

Second, I am going to continue letting my husband choose one new food for me to try each month as I did in 2011 (and don't worry, I will blog about them)! So far from I have tried eleven new foods (I know, we are late on the 12th) and overall it has been a great experience. I learned that I like more foods than I thought I would, and most of the things I have tried I would eat again! I know my husband already has a list of foods he is waiting for me to try in 2012 and I am excited to learn to enjoy new things.

So cheers to those of you with resolutions and good luck meeting your goals! I know it isn't always easy, but it feels so good to accomplish something and look back at the end of the year knowing you did what you set out to do!

Month 11 (2011) - Chicken Pot Pie

November's food of the month was Chicken Pot Pie. My husband took me to KFC (yes, that is how lazy we are when it comes to cooking!) to try this food. I wasn't expecting to like it all that much, but I actually didn't think it was so bad. I only ate half (since it was so high in Weight Watchers points) but I could have eaten it all. My favorite part was the pie crust.

I know it is already the last day of December, so the month 12 food (port chops, I think) will be coming soon!

Month 10 (2011) - Stuffed Green Peppers

For October's new food, Greg asked me to try stuffed green peppers. I am well aware that it is December, but we have been so busy the last few months, we forgot to eat new food! So, October and November's food will both be eaten in December. The important thing is that I try 12 new things, who cares if we are a few months off!

We decided to cook this one at home instead of eating out. We already had most of the ingredients to make the stuffed green pepper recipe I found online. All I had to buy was the tomato sauce and peppers! It took over an hour to prepare and bake, but it was well worth it. They had a great flavor, and I liked them quite a bit. We made 4 total peppers, and we each at one for dinner lat night and we each brought one for lunch today. Overall, not my absolute favorite, but good food!

Before Baking

After Baking