cheesecake cookie cups

I met a fellow blogger {crafty welder chick} at a birthday party last weekend.  She delighted everyone with these yummy cupcakes and I felt it was essential to share.  I haven't made these yet, but I've tasted them and they are GOOD!  I think I will make some for the mr. on valentines day.

{cheesecake cookie cups}

ingredients

12 pieces chocolate chip cookie dough

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 21-ounce can cherry pie filling

steps

1.  Preheat oven to 325 ˚.  Line 12 muffin cups.

2.  Place one piece of cookie dough in each muffin cup.

3.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookie has spread to edge of cup.

4.  Beat cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, egg and vanilla extract in medium bowl until smooth. Pour about 3 tablespoons cream cheese mixture over each cookie in cup.

5.  Bake for additional 15 to 18 minutes or until set.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Top with filling. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

note

{crafty welder chick} made several variations of the recipe.  Don't limit your self to the chocolate chip cookie, try peanut butter or maybe sugar cookies with a complimentary topping!

valentines rag wreath

This wreath represents a personal victory; I bought just enough fabric to get the job done!  I cannot tell you how many times I've bought too much fabric or had to return for more.  So if you've been in either situation you must know how satisfied I am right now.

The process...

Google search {rag wreaths} and you will see there are many inspirations, methods and tutorials out there.  I particularly enjoyed the tutorial on this blog because she used the same box wire wreath frame I used for the diaper wreath.  If its not obvious by now I jump on any opportunity to repurpose an item!

I started with 3/8 yard of each fabric.  There were 4 fabrics in this wreath: 2 polka dot, 1 stripped and 1 solid.  I simply cut my fabric into 1.5" wide x 7" long strips.  These dimension were decided by trial and error.  Experiment with your dimensions to meet the size and desired fullness of your wreath.

After cutting the strips I simply tied them around the box wire wreath frame.  No knot or double wrapping around the wire required.  Here you can see the back of the wreath.

As simple as that!

white sangria

I thought you all might like to have the recipe I used for the white sangria at the baby shower.  I have a feeling this could be a real hit at summer parties.  It's also easily doubled to fill up those larger sized containers.  And as the case is with any sangria, the longer it sits the better it is.

{peachy white sangria}

ingredients

1 bottle white wine {I used pinot grigio}

1/2 cup peach Schnapps

1/4 cup sugar

2 sliced peaches {I used one bag of frozen}

1 sliced orange

1/2 mango peeled and sliced

1/2 liter ginger ale

steps

1.  Pour wine and Schnapps in the pitcher and add peach, orange and mango.

2.  Add sugar and still gently.

3.  Chill mixture for at least one hour.

4.  Add ginger ale just before serving.

cupcake in a jar

At the time I made these cupcakes it was late to bed and early to rise for a whole week.  I'm surprised they even turned out, they were quite the chore.  But when my husband came home and said they were really cute all the hard work paid off.  Here's the inspiration...

my cakies

my cakies

Although the Paula Dean recipe for red velvet cupcakes as you see above sounds delicious, the mommy we threw the baby shower for loves funfetti cupcakes so I opted for them.  I used leftover mason jars from my wedding {more on that later}.  And I was too frugal to buy bakers twine so I found a similar yarn option at Michaels.  And this is what I came up with...

The process...

Using a circle Marvy clever lever mega craft punch {2.5"} I punched out the message I printed on card stock paper.  In this case my message simply said {thank you}.

The next step was to add the message card to the lid of the jar.  I decided to hot glue the pieces together, so when the recipient opened their jar the lid would be one piece.  I don't know it seemed like a good idea at the time...maybe it was an unnecessary extra step?

Next up is placing your cupcake in the jar.  For my test run I followed the directions on my cakies blog.  Unfortunately during the taste test phase I found the funfetti cake and vanilla frosting were just too sweet to layer.  So I decided to place one cupcake in the jar with an appropriate amount of frosting on top. Be sure to fill the cupcake pan no more that 2/3 full, any bigger and you will have a hard time pushing them through the opening of the jar.  With that said, use a smaller jar!  I was determined to recycle the jars from my wedding but there is no need to use the pint size for this project.

After the cupcake was in the jar, I used my Ateco reusable pastry bag without a decorating tip {just the coupling} to apply the frosting. This was relatively easy. I finished off the cupcakes with blue sugar sprinkles.

The final step was to add a spoon and attach a bow using the bakers twine look-a-like yarn.  Again the frugalista in me didn't want to spend the money on the disposable bamboo spoons so I opted for a compostable corn spoon {don't worry, I didn't order a thousand of them}.

shower success

One more item checked off the bucket list; throw a baby shower!  I was very happy with the way everything turned out and most importantly my sister-in-law {the mother} loved everything.  I enjoyed experimenting with some new-to-me crafts for this shower, I will highlight some of them in future blog posts.   Here are a few photos the mr. snapped before the guests arrived and he started his grilling duties.

welcome table

diaper guestbook

food buffet {pre food}

white sangria

diaper cake

answer:109

living room

button flowers

Malakai blocks {diaper wreath in the background}

pennant banner

diy applique onesie

onsie fabric

cupcake in a jar {favor}

the honeymoon

The mr. and I returned from our honeymoon in Nepal last week.  We've had a very busy week unpacking, catching up at work and preparing for our nephews baby shower.  Here's one of my favorite photos; there will be more to come after we sort through all 3,000 of them.

{bouddahanath stupa} Kathmandu, Nepal