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Cupcake Crazy With Bettie’s Cakes

Posted on September 15, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

It is no secret that I really like making, baking, decorating, and even buying cupcakes. The unfortunate part for my waistline is that there are a bunch of amazing cupcakeries in the area. One of them was even featured on Cupcake Wars on Food Network the other day.

On the night that we should have been dining at Disney World, TechyDad and I went out to dinner while the kids stayed with Nana and Papa. After our amazing meal, we both wanted something special for dessert. So we went to try some sweet treats from Bettie’s Cakes at the local mall. Yes, there is actually a cupcake stand in the food court. Insert drool here:

In the end, TechyDad and I were eyeballing the monster cookies. Of course, we HAD to try a cupcake. We agreed to get a Rasberry Zinger to split between us. Check out the amazing packaging that gets the cupcakes home safe and sound:

Are you hungry yet? No? Well, I think we need to remedy that with some more cupcake photos when the Rasberry Zinger and cookies made it home.

Although the cupcake was moist, delicious, and the frosting really great – my heart skipped a beat for the cookie. It was ooey, gooey, and amazing. My only complaint (which others will scoff at), is that it had a bit too much chocolate in it for my taste. I know the horrors – right?

On Sunday, we took the boys to Hoffman’s Playland for what will likely be the last time this season. In front of Hoffman’s is a new location for Bettie’s Cakes. Yes, there are three locations, plus two cupcakery vehicles including their double decker pink bus. After going on some rides, we went in to check out Bettie’s ice cream or baked goods for a treat.

The three boys opted to have a small ice cream (which was rather large). Each ice cream comes with a topping of your choice.

JSL picked Death By Chocolate with gummy worms.

NHL picked Bettie’s Three-Ring Circus – which was cotton candy flavored. He added marshmallows on top.

TechyDad had Cookie Bookie and topped it with Reece’s Pieces.

I was not too enthused with the ice cream choices. The cupcakes looked interesting, but well there was something else that really caught my eye. Here she is:

The boys loved their ice cream, and I took half of my cookie home even after sharing with everyone. Check the boys out. I think you can tell they were very happy:

It was not something we do often, but well worth it for some delicious family fun and together time. Thank you Bettie for this experience that we will always remember.

Do you have cupcake places by you? Do any of them deliver or have special flavors like Blueberry Pancake, Chocolate Covered Pretzel, Chocolate Covered Cherry, or Boston Cream (all coming later this week)? Would love to hear about them since I really do adore cupcakes. The weekly flavors at Bettie’s are always listen online – which is a great perk.

Disclosure: I wrote this post as a customer of Bettie’s Cakes. We went there and bought our items both times. I wanted to share our experience and toot the horn of a great local business. I reserve the right to drool upon reading this and wishing for another visit soon.

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baking decisions food glorious food fun jsl Local Business nhl photos TechyDad yummy

Rally for Recess with Danimals

Posted on September 12, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

I have to admit something right now. When I was teaching, recess duty was one of my least favorite parts of the day. You see, recess meant heading outside with the kids, often freezing while they ran around and got rid of some much needed energy. Living in the northeast, even on those cold and snowy days, we were outside. There were only certain temperatures and wind chills that would keep us inside. On those days, I could see the importance of recess. It was a time for the kids to run, play, and get stresses out. They would walk around the track and chat with buddies, or chase each other around and climb on a playground. It really didn’t matter what they did – it was their free time to move their bodies before heading back inside to work for the rest of the afternoon.

Now, as the parent of two children in school, I watch to see if they have recess every day. In addition to this, I want to know if they will have PE and or time in the gross motor room (that’s the preschool indoor room). I know the days that my older son has PE. He seems more focused and still adores learning to play sports and I hope he keeps this throughout his lifetime.

When I received an e-mail from Mom Central telling me about the new Danimals ‘Rally for Recess’ Blog Tour, I immediately signed up. If I could help to spread the word about this great project they have I wanted to. We were sent a giftcard to purchase our own Danimals products. I would share a picture, but, well, they gobbled the Smoothies before I was able to get a photo.

So what do you do?

Purchase specially marked Danimals products that have codes on them.
Sign up online and enter codes for credit
Help your school earn the most points in their league

The top five schools will win a $20,000 playground makeover and ultimate recess day. There are also instant prizes and other details available on the Rally for Recess website. The programs runs through February 8, 2012. You can find codes on Danimals packaging (or free by mail) to enter and register schools online. The top school in each of the five categories (based on size) with the most codes registered wins!

Be sure to tell your school about this opportunity. With recent budget cuts, they can use your help to try to revamp their recess equipment. Lots of families probably purchase Danimals for yogurt snack options and can take a few moments to register their school for possible prizes. Imagine the smile on the faces of the children if your school wins the big prize.

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Danimals and received a gift card to facilitate my review. In addition to this, I received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate. All opinions are 100% mine and in no way influenced.

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Blog Tour food glorious food school yummy

Birthday at Buca di Beppo

Posted on August 27, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

Your birthday was a few weeks ago. One of our traditions for birthday celebrations is to head out to dinner where you like on your special day. Daddy and I were pretty sure we knew where you would pick, but you do have a few places that you really seem to like. Sure enough when it came time to go, you wanted dinner at Buca di Beppo.

When we arrived Buca’s you immediately announced to the people that it was your birthday. Then without skipping a beat, you asked if we could sit in the kitchen for our meal. That is when I recalled that I had not called the restaurant to reserve the special table. I told them not to worry because I had messed up. The man and woman told us to wait a minute. They looked and there were no reservations, so the table was ours!

Although we have eaten at Buca di Beppo many times, we had never eaten in the kitchen before. You were SO excited to see the chefs and other members of the Buca staff making the meals before your eyes. It is a really big and busy kitchen.

While you looked at everything around you, JSL colored/played with Wikki Stix, and of course Daddy sent out a picture to Twitter and his blog.

There were a lot of cool items to look at on the walls around us. Daddy thought it was funny to see Gene Simmons, Sylvester Stalone, Carrot Top, Danny DeVito, and Charlie Sheen eating together with other celebrities.

When our food arrived it was fantastic as usual. JSL had Macaroni and Cheese, you had Linguini Alfredo, and Daddy and I shared Eggplant Parm.

Our server asked if we would be having a dessert to celebrate. We told him that we were heading to Nana and Papa’s to see them and have the cheesecake that you had requested. Even without the dessert a bunch of the staff came to sing to you and there was a fun surprise with candles too!

It was a fun meal out with good food and a new experience sitting in the kitchen. I hope you have many memories of this day for years to come.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

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Sweet Temptations Surprise

Posted on August 20, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

Sometimes surprises are the best thing. Wednesday, we went and picked up Daddy for lunch to celebrate NHL’s birthday together. After lunch, we were going to go shopping for a few things, but then I had an idea. I thought we would head over to one of your favorite ice cream spots. Both of you love Scoops because they have amazing ice cream and you can watch the cows while you eat. When we pulled up, they were closed. I guess I did not realize that they are not open during the day mid-week.

Not to worry. I quickly recalled that a cake shop was right down the road. We had seen their truck over the weekend at a Farmers Market. We did not buy anything from their colorful truck because cousin SG would not be able to eat anything. Your disappointment over the ice cream quickly went away when we pulled up to Sweet Temptations and went inside.

Since it was a special occasion, I told the two of you to pick whatever you wanted from the case. Dangerous thing to do, but I had an idea what you may select. Here is a look at the items that we brought home.

NHL, you immediately homed in on a dragon creation. It was two chocolate chip cookies combined with a large amount of icing inside it’s mouth and on top. When I picked it up out of the box, I was floored with how heavy it was. There was no doubt that you loved it since you kept “mmmmmm-ing” as you ate it.

JSL, you had one item in mind. You wanted something chocolate. It was the chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing, of course. One minute I saw the cupcake in your hands, the next it vanished. Since you were the only one that tried it, you must have really liked it since I have never seen you gobble up a cupcake like that.

Since Daddy was not with us, I did not have any idea what kind of cupcake to get him. After making cupcakes all weekend, I was in the mood to try something different. I opted to get the cookie sandwich to share with him. YUM! The chocolate chip cookies were gooey, fresh, and amazing. The frosting inside was the perfect amount and not too sweet. Half was the perfect amount for me to splurge on.

Little surprises like this during the summer have been so much fun. I hope that we get back to Sweet Temptations again soon to show Daddy all of the fancy cupcake creations that they have.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

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baking birthday Dear Kid Saturday decisions food glorious food jsl Local Business nhl photos summer TechyDad yummy

Lion Cupcake Construction

Posted on August 18, 2011 12:13 am by TheAngelForever

When NHL asked me to make his birthday party an animal, specifically lion, theme I did not cringe – well not right away. First, we went to the craft store, party supply place, and I went to Google to see what was out there. Thanks to a quick search on YouTube, I found a fun video and was all ready.

Let me take you on an adventure as I got ready for my practice run of the lion cupcakes. First, I had some of my items set to start. No comments about mixing Pillsbury and Betty Crocker items please.

Cake mix – Or, if you want, use a from scratch recipe
Frosting – I had two cans so I could have plenty of the two colors I needed to make
Black icing – Note: This did not work well. Thanks to this, I bought Wilton black sparkle
Food coloring – To make 2 shades of orange for the lion face
Popcorn – We now wonder if popcorn from our Whirly Pop with some salt may have been better to add a salty/sweet contrast

Not seen in the photo:

Pretzel sticks – lion whiskers
Mini chocolate chips – lion eyes
Cheerios – lion ears
Eggs – We did not use eggs because my niece is very allergic to them. I used the item below.

When making the practice batch of cupcakes, JSL wanted to help me out. He had a lot of fun making the “eggs” and mixing everything else together.

Then, the cupcakes were ready to head into the oven.

Thanks to the egg replacer, they bake faster and are still a bit “squishy” when they come out of the oven. While I was waiting for the cupcakes to cool, I set up an assembly line of sorts. For some reason, I took the photo before the cheerios were here. Then, my hands were full of icing and I never went back. You get the idea.

First, you use the darker orange to cover the entire cupcake and then put a smaller light orange circle within that.

Then, JSL helped me to put the popcorn mane around the entire cupcake.

Up next were the Cheerio ears and pretzel whiskers.

Then, we gently placed the mini-chips for the eyes and drew on the nose and smile.

Here are my practice lions. You can see the blobs that happened with the original black icing that I bought.

The boys were not upset with the blob faces on the lions. They thought they were quite fun and delicious.

When I made them on Sunday, I tried a few different things to make them a little easier. Although I liked the ease of the Wilton gel, it was runny and the faces did not stay the way I made them. Perhaps if there was room in the refrigerator that would have helped. Still, they came out cute. Here’s a view from the party:

If you are curious about the video I used, or the other animals here it is. The Howdini video: Jungle Animal Cupcakes: Monkey, Lion, Tiger, and Zebra Cupcakes.