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Emoji Movie Cookies Using Foodstirs

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So, my daughter Zoe loves baking and she loves working with Foodstirs. Sarah Michelle Gellar’s company Foodstirs created baking mixes that are organic and it’s wonderful. They are easy to make and come out looking great. image

This time they sent us an Emoji movie themed set. Or at least that’s what they asked us to create, so Zoe accepted the challenge and I love what she came up with.

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A lot of people love what Zoe does because it’s not perfect. It’s cute and adorable and you can tell it’s made by a kid.

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Previously we’ve made Flower cookies. They gave us everything we needed for this batch. We received the cookie cuter, the dye and the baking mix and icing mix.

 

And the time before that we made Valentine’s Day cookies. That time we also received everything we needed including cookie cutters and mixes.

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oh and one time she made egg nests.

Easter Egg nests made from @foodstirs #foodstirs #sample

A post shared by Louise Bishop (@momstart) on

We also love to make videos. Here is Zoe unboxing the EMOJI movie Foodster box:

Here is Zoe opening her flower kit foodstir box>

You can see that this one looks more like a monthly subscription box than what we most recently received. I think that if someone wanted to get my daughter a gift a year long supply of Foodstirs would be right up her alley. And here is the very first box we received from Foodstirs.

 

About Some of the Foodstir Products:

Quick & Easy Gluten Free Immaculate Baking Mixes

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Samples Received

I love to bake but can’t always find the time to bake. Cooking from scratch sometimes takes more time because you have to first have all the right ingredients, then second measure them all out, put them all away and it can be a process. Boxed or prepared mixes are reliable and convenient. But when you bake from scratch, you know exactly which ingredients were used to create the cakes, cookies and other baked goods your family and friends are consuming. It’s a choice.

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Just in time for the busy holiday baking season, Immaculate Baking now offers eight new scratch mixes that marry convenience and great taste with simple and carefully selected ingredients. Their scratch baking mixes include the same ingredients you would choose if baking from scratch.

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I’m super excited they sent me these mixes because I haven’t had time to bake and I’ve been craving some cookies. I have been sick since Wednesday and on Sunday I was REALLY craving some cookies. I picked up the Gluten Free Chocolate Cookie mix, added two eggs and some oil and voila instant cookies. Easy to clean up too, just put the bowl and cookie sheets in the dishwasher when finished baking and my kitchen was clean and I had good cookies with little effort.

The new offerings, made from wholesome, natural ingredients include:

• All Natural Chocolate Cake Scratch Baking Mix

• All Natural Yellow Cake Scratch Baking Mix

• All Natural Brownie Scratch Baking Mix

• Organic All Purpose Flour

• Organic Pancakes & Waffle Mix

• Gluten Free Double Chocolate Cookie Mix

• Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

• Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Mix

All of Immaculate Baking’s convenient baking solutions are made without use of GMOs and have been enrolled for Non-GMO Project Verification. Currently, over half of Immaculate Baking’s products are Non-GMO Project Verified; Immaculate Baking anticipates its entire lineup will be Non-GMO Project Verified in the near future.

ABOUT Immaculate Baking:

Immaculate Baking began with a cookie. While some kids were forming garage bands, Scott Blackwell used his garage to manifest a simple dream with dogged determination. He resolved to create, perfect, and share his mouth-watering, wholesome, homemade cookies, like the classic Chocobilly. Welcome to Immaculate Baking.

10 Halloween Inspired Cookie Recipes

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Halloween is the beginning of baking season and that’s my favorite time of year. Here are 10 different Halloween inspired cookie surprises.

Halloween cookies

  1. 1.  MONSTER COOKIES
  2. 2.  Gingerbread Vampires
  3. 3.  Halloween Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
  4. 4.  “Candy Corn” Cookies
  5. 5.  Pumpkin {Shaped} Cookies
  6. 6.  Chocolate Peanut Butter Spider Cookies
  7. 7.  Candy Corn Cookies
  8. 8   Jack-o-Lantern Oreo Pops
  9. 9   Gooey Monster Cookies
  10. 10 Witch Hat Peanut Butter Cookies

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

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Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Compensation provided for this post.

Last month, I hosted a dinner at my house and wanted to bake a carrot cake, so I pulled out one of my favorite vintage cookbooks, Favorite Recipes of America: Desserts. This cookbook was published in 1968, and as far as I’m aware it’s not in print any more, but there are several used copies available on Amazon, which is cool! I love this cookbook and refer to its carrot cake recipe any time I make one. This cookbook compiled recipes from people all over the country, and this tasty recipe was submitted by Sharon A. Longaker, who won a blue ribbon at the Kentucky State Fair for her efforts. Because I wanted to make this recipe sugar free, I made a few adaptations to it, including the fact that I baked it as cupcakes rather than using a tube pan. This way, I was able to frost some cupcakes and leave the others plain.

 

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Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
 
Sugar free carrot cake cupcakes, adapted from a classic recipe!
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups vegetable oil
  • ¾ cup Truvia Baking Blend
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 4 egg whites
  • 5 TBSP hot water
  • 2½ cups flour
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground cloves
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1½ cups grated raw carrot
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, cream oil and sugar together. Add egg yolks to the mixture one at a time, followed by the hot water. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, mixing thoroughly. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then fold into the cake batter.
  2. Place cupcake liners into two trays and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spoon batter into liners - an ice cream scoop works well for this - and fill liners with batter. Depending on the size desired, you can fill each cupcake liner ¼ to ⅔ of the way full. My first batch was slightly larger than the second, so my total yield was 23 cupcakes.
  3. Bake cupcakes until a toothpick tests clean in the center. I forgot to write down the time I took mine out at, but it was maybe 45 minutes - the original recipe calls for 60-70 minutes when baked in a 9" tube pan. I also goofed and baked them at 250 degrees for the first 20 minutes because I read the dial wrong! Bottom line, this recipe is resilient, so adapt it to suit your needs!
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Sugar Free Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Since this is a stout cake, I left half of the cupcakes plain so that they could be enjoyed almost like a muffin. Eaten plain, these cupcakes should be suitable for those with diabetes. This recipe was created 40 years before Truvia Baking Blend was invented, and it worked great – so it’s easy to adapt any classic recipe to work with Truvia. Try toasting one of of these cupcakes with butter – mmmm!

Carrot Cake Cupcake With Frosting

I used a traditional cream cheese frosting on the other half, for those who can consume sugar. The frosting recipe for this cake in the original cookbook calls for 3/4 of a margarine stick, 4oz cream cheese, 2 teaspoons of vanilla and 1 box of powdered sugar. Since my margarine was in a tub rather than stick – not to mention my powdered sugar being in a large bag rather than the standard small box this recipe called for – I just improvised and “Eyeballed it”, especially since I didn’t need as much frosting with only half the batch getting any. I used all the same ingredients in proportions that “Looked about right”, and it worked out great!

Do you use vintage cookbooks? Have you ever adapted one of the recipes?

Make Your Own Gift Basket: Cake Boss Mixes, Frostings and Baking Pans #cakebosscakes

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I received some products from the new Cake Boss Line to review and to giveaway.

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The cake and icing are amazing and I liked them so much I thought it would be fun to give them away as well in a home made gift basket. I included a few extra thins in my basket as well, including Truvia, Nestle Chocolate chips and Wilton icing. It’s very easy to make your own gift basket.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN GIFT BASKET

Purchase the supplies you would love to bake yourself like the Cake Boss Cake Mixes and Frostings

Buy a basket

Fill the BasketIMG_9672

Wrap the basket with cellophane and a ribbon

how to make a gift basket

 

ABOUT CAKE BOSS Mixes & Frostings & Pans

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A fourth generation baker and star of TLC’s hit TV series Cake Boss, Next Great Baker and Bakery Boss, premiering in December, Buddy shared his knowledge, expertise and love for baking as he developed his line of Cake Boss cake mixes and frostings. To deliver the authentic taste and quality of Carlo’s bakery, Cake Boss cake mixes and frostings are crafted in partnership with Dawn Foods, who has been supplying Buddy’s bakery with high quality ingredients for decades.

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“Not everyone has the time to whip up a Cake Boss approved dessert from scratch,” said Valastro. "I want to arm home bakers and baking novices alike with the supplies to produce a mouthwatering cake, and my new mixes and frostings provide that bakery quality taste.”   

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When it comes to a great tasting cake, it starts with the right ingredients. Each cake mix comes with a pouch of bakery crème and that’s what makes it “AH” amazing. Buddy’s secret to making velvety moist cakes. The cake mixes are available in six delicious flavors:  

VA VA VELVET – Moist, delicious and smooth red velvet cake.    
IT’S YOUR PARTY – Fun, festive and full of flavor confetti cake. 
DECADENT DEVIL’S FOOD – Indulgent, satisfying and sinfully delicious devil’s food cake.  
CHOCOLATE TRIFECTA – Deliciously moist triple chocolate cake made with chocolate liquor.  
PRIMO YELLOW – Moist, flavorful and simply delicious cake. 
DIVINE WHITE – Exquisitely moist, rich and delectable white cake.    
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The premium frostings give you a taste experience you would expect to find at Buddy’s bakery. Made with high quality ingredients and zero trans-fat, the frostings pair perfectly with Cake Boss cake mixes. They are available in four indulgent flavors:  

WHOLE LOTTA CHOCOLATE – Made with chocolate liquor and two kinds of chocolate, creating double the decadence. 
VIVA VANILLA – A sweet and creamy taste using vanilla extract. 
MEGA MILK CHOCOLATE – A thick, rich and milk-chocolaty delicious frosting with chocolate liquor. 
CRÈME DE LA CREAM CHEESE – A rich, creamy and scrumptiously sweet frosting with cream cheese. 

Enter to Win:

· 6-Cup Round Cakelette Pan

· 12-Cup Covered Muffin Pan

· 9-Inch Heart Cake Pan

And a cake mix and icing.

To Enter:

Tell me what occasion you have coming up that you would love to use these cake mixes

Extra Entries:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Cook Creative Creations: The Gingerbread House How To by Zoe & Coupon Code

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Good Cook sent us some  really awesome products for us to use this Halloween. The most fun out of the products they sent us was the Good Cook Creative Creations Haunted Halloween cookie Cutters.

IMG_8950 About The Haunted House Cutter Set:

Haunted House Cutter Set makes a chalet that’s fun to decorate. It tastes delicious, too, when you use the gingerbread recipe on the back of the box. Kit includes three cutters (one each for front/back, sides, and roof), plus two rollers and two stamps to make imprints in dough.

  • Cutters make it simple to build the house; no complicated pattern pieces to trace.
  • Fun purple, green, and orange plastic color scheme.
  • Small parts not for use by children under three.

Sweet Creations By Good Cook is their delicious product line designed especially for baking, dessert making, and holiday parties.

IMG_8951 This particular set was very fun for the kids and me. I didn’t want them to help me because I’m a perfectionist, however, cooking should be a family event and perfection should be out of the equation because spending time as a family in the kitchen should

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The recipe is included on the box and for the icing I had to do a Google search. I wanted something that I knew would be stiff and I found a recipe that called for 2 egg whites beaten added to 2 cups of white powdered sugar. It worked great, but my gingerbread house had an accident and turned out like this as this is our experience with the Hunted House Cookie Cutter Set.

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We decided that it makes a great snack holder. Ours is filled with popcorn, candy corn and peanuts.

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Zoe did a video on how to decorate the Gingerbread house:

 

You can’t have a Halloween Haunted Gingerbread House without a dead man. Winking smile We had a lot of fun working together and using the products provided by Good Cook Creative Creations.  I have a 25% off coupon to goodcook.com for any Sweet Creations Halloween product you would like to purchase just . Use CODE: HUNTED23

How to Add Colored Sugar to a Holiday Cookie #HolidayTips @Smuckers

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I created this tip while I was baking cookies in Orville in the Smuckers Test Kitchen. Smuckers paid for transportation and accommodations while I was there. I created this video holiday tip.

 

In the video you will see how I cover a peanut butter with colored sugar.

Great holiday tip: To add sugar to a peanut butter cookie or just a sugar cookie, or any type of cookie, this video shows you how to add colored sugar to a cookie with no mess. Pour the colored sugar into a glass jar, small bowl, or ramekin then use a cookie scoop also knows as a melon baller to dish out a cookie, drop the cookie dough into the jar of sugar and swish the cookie around. Then turn the ball of cookie dough over and repeat the swishing. Then you have a cookie covered in sugar ready to be baked in the oven.

Poppy Seed Loaf with Orange Glaze Recipe

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Poppy Seed Loaf

By Summer:

I know this is early but we’re preparing you for St. Nicholas Day.

Happy St. Nicholas Day 12-6-2012! The Christmas season is officially upon us and so I’ll start (once again) leaking my family’s holiday recipes!

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Poppy Seed Loaf is the one Christmas recipe my dad always made; all the other goodies were a joint effort or solely my mom’s efforts. As a child I actually didn’t like the poppy seed loaf, I only liked the topping as it was covered in the reduced orange juice sugar sauce. As an adult I do enjoy this poppy seed loaf and make it annually as my parents did all the years before me.

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I don’t know where the recipe came from besides my parents’ recipe box. It makes two large loaves or four small pans, but I can get six mini loaves and a dozen muffins out of it. I prefer to make it with mini loaves and muffins these are small or individual servings, whereas my parents would make bigger batches and slice the bread. However you make it people will gobble it up.

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Poppy Seed Loaf with Orange Glaze Recipe

Ingredients:

LOAVES:
3 cups flour
2¼ cups sugar
1½ teaspoons salt
1½ teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
11/8 cup canola oil
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons almond flavoring
1½ teaspoons butter flavoring
1½ Tablespoons poppy seed
1½ cup milk

FROSTING:
¼ cup orange juice
¾ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond flavoring
½ teaspoon butter flavoring

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350oF. Lightly great and flour baking dishes of choice – 2 large loaf pans, or 4 small loaf pans, or 3 dozen muffins, or 6 mini loaves and 1 dozen muffins.

2. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly which is about 2 minutes using an electric mixer. Fill desired pans ¾ full as contents will rise.

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3. Bake for 1 hour in preheated oven. Cap with foil for the last 15 minutes.

4. During this last 15 minutes make the frosting by heating ingredients in a small sauce pan on the stove top. Don’t not boil, but the ingredients should become translucent.

5. Breads are done cooking when an inserted toothpick comes out clean. While the breads are still in the pan poke tops generously with a fork (great job for kids but give them a number of pokes or they’ll go crazy). Pour the frosting over the breads so they it soaks in. Allow to cool completely. Loosen breads by running a thin plastic spatula around the edges of the loaves before removing from their pans.

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About Summer:

Summer is very active in our Local MOMS Club chapter, she is the mother of two adorable active boys, and is always thinking of ways to help others. She is a friend, a wife, and always busy as all mommies are. She is very active on Facebook, addicted to Geocaching and very interested in organic and green living while cooking up a storm.

Tasty Treat Thursday Cinnamon Raisin Muffins Recipe

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By Summer

Making muffins is a fun and easy way to warm up your morning! Who doesn’t love a muffin with milk, hot chocolate, coffee, or tea? YUM! It warms you to the core as you begin a busy day! Pair your muffins with a protein such as an omelet to keep your body full and ready for the day until its next scheduling fueling at lunch.

If you’re lucky to have a 2-dozen muffin tin then you’ll only need to be bother once to cook these tasty treats (I’m not so lucky … yet … but I’ll let you know if I find a good brand).

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Cinnamon Raisin Muffins Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cups flour
½ cup quick oats
½ cup wheat germ
½ cup ground flaxseed
¾ cup light brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/3 cup butter, soft or melted
2 large eggs
1/3 cup milk
¼ teaspoon of salt
1½ cup raisins
1½ Tablespoons cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350oF. Line or grease your muffin tin.

2. Combine all ingredients in order of appearance into your Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

3. Cook for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

4. Serve warm for the best start to a chilly autumn day!

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About Summer:

Summer is very active in our Local MOMS Club chapter, she is the mother of two adorable active boys, and is always thinking of ways to help others. She is a friend, a wife, and always busy as all mommies are. She is very active on Facebook, addicted to Geocaching and very interested in organic and green living while cooking up a storm.