Birthday Cakes

We have three birthdays in our family within 18 days of each other, intermixed with Christmas, New Year's, my Mom's birthday and our anniversary.  So the end of December/beginning of January is PARTY time at our house!  That also means lots of CAKE.  

I thought I'd share some of those with you.

My husband always loved ice cream cakes growing up.  The price tag on those store bought ones can be really pricey so this year I found a recipe at foodnetwork.com for Ice Cream Crunch Cake that I tried and- WOW! it was good!  It really was easy - you just need time to freeze each layer and room in your freezer.  Mine doesn't look as beautiful as theirs but I'm sure it tastes just as good!

 

My second son requested the Motor Cross cake again this year.  I know he had it at least one other birthday, as well as my oldest son, and my oldest son made it for his Cubscout Blue and Gold Banquet last year.  So this is certainly a favorite around here!  I like it because it's pretty easy and even if you have crumbs in your frosting, you cover it up with cookie crumbs and cocoa puffs and all other kinds of goodies.  We never seem to be able to find the chocolate donut holes so we use peanut butter cups instead.  This year it got a little lopsided but my son thought it was awesome!  Plus he likes that he gets a motorcycle to keep!

 

On my youngest son's birthday this year I came down with the stomach bug and we'd just returned from traveling to visit family so I didn't have ingredients to decorate a cake.  My sweet hubby ran to the store and got some Elmo cupcakes and of course my son loved them!  

But I thought I'd share his cake from last year.  It's from Betty Crocker I thought it turned out cute.  Super easy- I really only do easy- and yummy!

 

What birthday cakes have you made?  Feel free to post a link in the comments section!

Christmas Treats: Rudolph Cookies

As a Cubscout leader at church I get to come up with fun ideas for about twelve 9 year-old boys.  For the Bear achievement 9f they needed to make a dessert for their family.  I couldn't picture us making a cake or something like that without envisioning a chaotic mess so I adapted an idea from Pillsbury.  And it was a fun, yummy and easy dessert.

(Side note:  Later I laughed as I told my husband the scene in the kitchen at church when we first arrived: one scout was scouring the drawers for knives, some were trying to "skateboard" on the pushable carts for serving, another couple were pushing buttons on the microwave and a few were turning on the fan and blowing things around.  This was IMMEDIATELY as we walked in the door.  These guys are busy!)

These would be fun to make with any group of kids!

All you need for ingredients are:  Oreos (or similar cookie), almond bark, cherry sours, mini-chocolate chips and pretzels.

First, melt the almond bark according to package directions. Then dip the cookies in the melted bark until completely covered in white gooey yum.  Fish them out with a spoon and set them on a plate or wax paper.  Stick on a cherry sour for a nose, mini chips for eyes and pretzels for antlers.  (You can break the pretzels if you like.)

You may need to let them harden before eating or handling. (If you can wait that long!)

Watch out reindeers!  We're mass producing Rudolphs! 

I am linking to these parties: