Monster High Party Decorations

As I said in a previous post, our family experience March Madness in terms of birthdays.  We have one nieces birthday party one week and another the next

Elsa had her Camping party and a week later Brooke had a Monster high party

I didn't know a damn thing about the show.  I ended up watching short clips of it on Youtube just to gather some basic knowledge of it.  The Boy would come home from work and I was always watching Monster High....he was convinced I was enjoying it too much

Anywho....we made some cool decorations

One of the most recognizable things about Monster High is what they refer to as the "Skullette"

We decided to make a few on our own.  We found the image on the internet and projected it onto the wall.  This way we could trace it onto foam board

Then painted them with acrylic paints

We also did the Monster High school logo just like this

I bought some stickers to give Brooke as part of her gift and ended up using them as inspiration to make some more decorations

Each heart represented a character

While I was watching videos I saw these penants

So I of course made knock offs

We mixed our DIY decorations with some store bought and some ones from the party store

Balloons on the garage in a "6"

Streamers in the cut out

And that's a Monster High party for ya!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

My husbands best friend is getting married in a few short weeks.  Bachelor party #1(yep...there were 2) consisted of some of the guys going up to my inlaws cabin for a weekend full of boyish shenanigans.  In an attempt to keep the costs relatively low I sent them with some food so they wouldn't have to buy so much when they got there.  One of them was these Chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. 

 I know cupcakes aren't exactly the most manly things in the world and definitely not what comes to mind when you hear the words "bachelor party" but I didn't get any objections

I guess this post is really more just a peanut butter frosting recipe.  The cake is from a box.  Yes.......a box.  I think boxed cake mixes can be great. They can serve as such a great base to build onto.  Sometimes I add chocolate chips, cherries, coffee in place of water etc.  This time I went simple and  just used milk in place of water for more richness.

And while I have never tried a peanut butter frosting that was bad, they just weren't quite peanut butter enough for me....so I developed my own. If I'm having a chocolate peanut butter cupcake I kinda wanna get punched in the face with peanutty goodness...ya hear? I used a whole jar of peanut butter.  I don't mess around man.

Peanut Butter Frosting

18 oz jar Peanut Butter

1 Cup Butter

4 1/2 Cups powdered sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla

4 TB. Heavy Cream

Cream together the peanut butter, vanilla, and butter until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl periodically.  Slowly add in your powered sugar about a cup at a time, also scraping down the sides for even mixing. Add your cream to reach desired consistency

*You may use more ore less of the powdered sugar and heavy cream to reach the consistency you desire whether it be for a spreading consistency or piping. 

Add a cute little peanut buttercup on top for garnish

 

Disney Easter Eggs

And no...I'm not referring to the hidden finds in the movies...which are also called "easter eggs"

I mean the actual from a chicken eggs...and dye....and crayons....and stufffff

The last 3 weeks have been so insane.  We have been to multiple ER and vet visits for our furry little love which resulted in little Momo getting surgery last Thurday....so needless to say last week was chaotic and intense.  

This mass chaos and stress resulted in no Easter spirit whatsoever...no eggs and no baskets.  I thought it wouldn't effect me as much as it did.  I think because I have ALWAYS made The Boy an Easter basket.  We started dating right around Easter and after our 2nd date I made him a basket....the same one we still use.  So I guess the whole Easter basket has a deeper meaning for me

Anyways.....Last night (easter night) after work I just couldn't bare the thought of not doing anything so I set up a "day date" for use to have a nice lunch and dye eggs together

Of course being the Disney Peeps that we are...a Disney theme quickly came to be

We have.........

(cue Disney intro music)

Like my fancy shmancy egg holders? Cut up toilet paper rolls.  As you can see we have big budgets over here at The Busy Broad.  

Woody and the Alien (making stripes on and egg is harder than I ever imagined...just an FYI)

Marie, Mike Wazowski, and an abstract Snow White

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Cheshire Cat

Remy in his chef, and Eva (or Eve)

As you can see some are dyed and colored and some are just colored.  Of course you can get a much cleaner look using markers but we wanted to go old school just like our childhood where only crayons and food coloring were your mediums

It's worth noting that I also made a Mater, Aurora, Minnie, and Cinderella but they looked like ass so I didn't think they were worth taking pictures.  They will be egg salad before you know it 

Not Disney related but we also did Batman and our little Momo...eyes all pinchy like when she's sleeping

It was alot of fun....I'm already thinking of new characters for next year.  Like why didn't I think of Flounder?  And I need to come up with a better princess strategy....I have 363 days or so to figure it all out

Easter Mini Tree

Yes....this is late.  I am aware.  

But last week was such a crazy hectic week I never got around to posting this and there is no way in hell I am going to wait a year keeping this in my drafts....so just consider this as extra early instead of late.  K?

One of my first goals when I started blogging was to have a wreath for every holiday/season.  Now that I've almost accomplished that goal and I think it's time for a new goal....enter the mini tree

I want a cute little tree for ever holiday.  So far I've only done a St. Patty's tree and now this one.....but we're just getting started

I wish I'd had the foresight to buy a red tree at christmas time to use for Valentines and patriotic holidays....I guess I'll be waiting another 8 months before I can get those :(

I got these glitter foam flower picks at Dollar Tree

Pulled out the sticks, put a dab of hot glue in the hole, and pushed ribbon into the hole to form ornamnets

I had leftover little egg ornaments that I used last year to make my Easter wreath 

And there ya have it

 

Low Carb "Baked Potato"

To many low carbers out there...this is most likely old news to you...but just in case, I thought I would share anyway

In the very beginning of me adapting this lifestyle 3 things quickly became my staples:

Eggs

Cream Cheese

& Cauliflower

As more time passes and I begin experimenting more other things are being added as staples but these 3 were my go tos in the very early days

Now, I already loved cauliflower anyway but once you begin eating LC you realize what an incredibe vegetable it is....it is so versatile

Here is one of my favorite ways to eat it.....as a baked "fauxtatoe"

Here I am having it completely loaded ....bacon, green onion, sour cream,cheese, salt pepper.....all the goods

As you should know low carb means you can eat high fat, so you can have that sour cream, bacon, and that ribeye I have right there and not feeling like you're missing out at all

Just steam (or microwave) cauliflower florettes and eat it just as you would potato. I like to mash it up a little and leave some lumpy...I like the mix of textures

I started doing this alot because at my job we have baked potato bar as an entree every few weeks or so.   It became one of my favorite lunches.  The first time I finally made it at home The Boy gobbled it down and said  "Why have I never had this until now?   We need to do this more often"

I think that means he likes it?.....

Camping Themed Gift Wrap

If you look under my "Creative Gift Wrapping" label (left side of screen) you'll probably notice that cool gift wrap is our thang

Whether The Boy is making  me a Dharma Drop, or we make a Perry the Platypus box we like to keep things in line with the theme....and of course super cool

Since Elsa was having a Camping themed party we thought a camper gift box would be the way to go

I wish I could take credit for this one....but this is all The Boys' hard work.  I was too busy working on the S'mores Cake , so while I baked and decorated, he sat at the kitchen table and whipped this snazzy thing up

Before......

Just a plain old box I brought home from work

Then after some white paper, hot glue, carboard wheels, and some marker action.......................

Notice the purposely uneven blinds? We thought it gave realistic effect

Cute little tow hitch

 

 Sleeping bags strapped to the top

Spare tire, an Oklahoma license plate (the state she was born in) and some creepy eyes looking out the window

The pressure was on as she picked our gift to open first

 

But I think we passed

Giant S'mores Cake Tutorial

My favorite cakes to make.... well...I kind of hate making all cakes now. The fun got completely sucked out of it when it was a side business that completely took over my life and home and made me hate it....alot....but I digress.  

I should rephrase it to "The cakes that don't make me want to bash my head in nearly as soon into the process" are cakes that are more kitchy and fun like my Giant Hamburger Cake, or the time I made a hairy butt crack cake...or this cake that's a giant Smore.   These are the kind I enjoy more

The cakes that are 2 tiered with stripes, polka dots, little balls, or EXACT replicas of decorations drive me crazy

(Where is this cake anger coming from?  Whoa Nelly)

The second my sister told me Elsa was having a camping themed birthday the image of a giant smore would not leave my head

So I set to work. 

After a long day at work. 

All night. 

Covered in sugar.  

Till 2 AM.  

But it's all good

You will need (2) 3in square cakes and (1) 9 inch round 

If you want to fill your cakes then slice them across the middle and fill. I find that partially frozen cakes are much easier to slice.  Make sure that if you are filling it with something different then just the same frosting that you are covering it with then you will need to "dam" it to keep it from seeping out the sides.

On this layer I did chocolate frosting as my filling and marshmallow butter cream was going to cover the cake

Put the top on and then frosted it with the marshmallow butter cream.  Then I covered the entire thing in homemade marshmallow fondant dyed tan.  This will serve as the bottom graham cracker of our smore

Then next layer was our "chocolate bar"  Take one of your square cakes and trim the sides a little bit so it's a tiny bit smaller than the bottom cake and repeat the process, only this time I did the frostings reversed from the last time.  I cut and filled it with the marshmallow and then covered the entire cake with the chocolate buttercream and DIDN"T cover it with fondant because I wanted to keep that melty frosting look

Now me just being me....I would have stacked the layers perfectly, but The Boy convinced me to put it on a little twisted so it would look more casual....like you just threw this smore together.

Totally not what I would have done on my own but I think I like it 

See those things stuck into the cake?  Those are bubble tea straws....the big wide straws.  I used them as supports in my cake as opposed to just dowels.  They are easier to cut and are awesome at bearing the weight of cake tiers.  Just cut them all the same height right at the cake height

For the next layer it's the marshmallow of course!  Cut and fill your 9 inch round cake.  If you're wondering why I said 9 in when the squares are all 8 inch...let me explain.   

You now how when you make a smore for real once you put the toasted marshmallow on and you push down on it with the top graham cracker and it kind oozes over the side?  Well that's what I was going for.  I wanted it to be a smidge bigger so it would look like it got pressed down in the sandwich making process.  Does that make sense?  A smooshing effect?

If it doesn't make sense at all you can ignore me completely and use and 8 inch round

After I cut and filled it I covered it in plain white fondant  (for that smooth marshmallow look) and placed it on a piece of cardboard the exact same size as the cake . I made a small hole in the middle of the cardboard before hand

Then, I placed a dowel, (or in this case a skewer) in the middle of the bottom two layers of cake and gently lined up the hole in the cardboard with the skewer and pushed it down.  This way the cake "sits" on those straws I put in the cake and doesn't push down on the cake and smoosh it

If I were placing this layer on top of a fondant layered cake it would be no problem, but since this was going on top of a frosted cake I cut out a small circle of waxed paper that would keep the frosting going all over the top cake board

Then I made another graham cracker the same way I did the other one and stuck it on top of the marshmallow

I used some of my old cake decorating tool....the ones with the ball ends (I don't know the names of these things...obviously) to make the little dimples and the one that looks like a little spatula to make the perforated lines

 

With this design I planned that when it came to cake cutting time I would take off the top 2 layers and cut those two layers together as "slices"  then move onto the bottom two layers and slice those up.

It was delicious!  Graham cracker flavored cake, chocolate, and marshmallow.  

Here's the picture I posted on instagram that night of the finished cake along with my poor sugar coated kitchen

Cake messes are the worst because the sugar ends up EVERYWHERE.  And when it's 2am and you're tired and cranky the aftermath will literally make you want to cry....or maybe that's just me

The birthday girl loved it.  In the midst of the cake eating frenzy with her friends she even made a point to leave the table and ran over to me in the other room to give me a hug and say thank you.  I guess that makes the kitchen disaster a little worth it ;)