Homemade Cake Pops

Gather:

1 box cake mix (my favorite is red velvet)
1 container cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1-2 packages chocolate melts (white if you want to add dye)
sucker sticks
single pop bogs
ribbon to tie

Then:

1. After cake is cooked and cooled, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with frosting, mash with hands.
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls, lay on cookie sheet.
4. Chill for an hour or so in freezer.
5. Melt chocolate in microwave, on a lower power lever (if possible.)
6. Place stick into cake ball, gently roll in melted chocolate.
7. Top off with sprinkles
8. Stick cake pop into foam block to keep neat and up-right
9. After dry / place pop bags over top / tie ribbon around
10. Serve chilled / store in refrigerator
Makes approx. 60 pops

Lavish Sweets Boutique

I found these on etsy and thought they would make such a nice gift idea. Don't you think?

The Fourth

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Since I was a kid, every year when the 4th of July came around, we typically had a big BBQ with family, good friends, and lots and lots of food. My dad was always in charge of the grill while my mom would make some sort of 4th of July themed dessert. However, since my dad moved to San Diego, and my mom's currently in New York visiting family, this year wasn't at all the same. Everyone is much more grown up and have jobs and busy schedules, so it's harder to get together. Since my favorite part was always the dessert, my sister Catie & I decided to keep up that tradition with a strawberry & blueberry shortcake! Neither of us are amazing cooks or anything like that, so we just looked up how to make the biscuits from The Serendipity Cookbook, then added vanilla ice cream, strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream on top!

ingredients:


2 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder


2 tablespoons sugar


1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces, plus extra for the pan

2/3 cup cold milk


1 large egg


1 tablespoon heavy cream

Granulated sugar, for dusting
(we used sugar in the raw)

1 pint heavy cream,

1 can whipped cream for serving

1 gallon of vanilla ice cream

2 containers of strawberries

2 cups of blueberries

1. Preheat your oven to 425ºF. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Process briefly to blend; add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 15 to 30 seconds. Add the milk and process until just incorporated; the dough will be dry.

2. Working the dough as little as possible, turn it out onto a clean surface and bring it together with your hands into a ball. Press the ball flat to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Cut out biscuits with a sharp 2 1/2-inch round cutter and place them on a buttered baking sheet, 1 inch apart. (we just did triangles instead)

3. Lightly beat the egg in a small dish, add the cream, and stir. Brush each biscuit with the egg wash, and then sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 10 minutes, until golden brown and puffed. Transfer to a rack. Keep warm for serving.

Makes approximately 8 biscuits.

Once cooled down, top the biscuits with your choice of vanilla ice cream, cut up strawberries, blueberries, and a dollop of whipped cream.

Meet my younger sister, Catie. She's 17 years old and just graduated high school! Her and I are pretty much as close as sister can get. We're always there for each other, and I don't know what I'd do without her, and I'm sure she'd say the same for me. If you'd like to check out her tumblr, you can do so here > what catie likes. It's really cute, and I'm sure you'll be able to tell she's a big fan of food while scrolling through her posts. Her and I also started our own tumblr, here :).

Peanut Butter Spelt Cookies

 I discovered a food blog entitiled green kitchen stories and fell in love with it after reading a few posts; especially being a vegetarian. It's always nice to stumble upon a blog of this nature with so many mouth-watering recipes. Here's how to make them if you'd like to try it out yourself:

2 cups spelt flour


1 tsp baking soda


1 tsp sea salt


1 cup natural peanut butter


1/3 cup tahini


1/2 cup maple syrup


1/3 cup olive oil


1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Set the oven to 350F. Mix 1,5 cup of the spelt flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine peanut butter, tahini, maple syrup, olive oil, and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour the peanut butter mixture over the flour mixture and fold them together until combined, try not to over work the dough. If it is too loose, you can add some more flour to it. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Press down on each one gently with the back of a fork. It’s a loose batter, Bake for 10-12 minutes, don’t over bake or they will be dry. Let them cool for  few minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

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