Day 3: Glow in the dark Ghosts Cupcakes!

I just about died when I saw this recipe and I bet you know why! Did you ever think you could get a cupcake to glow?! I remember when I showed this to my husband he thought I was crazy and there's no way glowing food could be good for you! ;)

The secret is "Tonic Water". The quinine in it is what causes it to glow! They sell it at any grocery store and it looks like sprite!

At first I thought this would just glow in the dark.. but unfortunately, you do need a black light to get it to glow! (regular white frosting doesn't glow in black lights FYI!)

Another good tip to know is it doesn't work if you color the frosting. It only works with white!

INGREDIENTS

- 7 Cups Powdered Sugar

- 1 Cup Vegetable Shortening

- 1 Teaspoon CLEAR vanilla extract

- 5 Tablespoons Tonic Water

- Chocolate Chips

INSTRUCTIONS

Bake desired cupcakes and allow to cool. Begin frosting by adding powdered sugar, shortening, vanilla extract and 3 tablespoons of tonic water into a large bowl. Beat on a low speed. Add remaining two tablespoons of tonic water. If needed, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time to bring frosting to piping consistency. 

Day 2: "SpOoKy" block letters

This is one of my most favorite Halloween decorations for a few reasons. One is because I just love the different colors and how sparkly it is! I also love the whimsical look it has, but my most favorite reason is because my grandpa helped me cut out these letters! He was by far the craftiest man I ever knew when it came to cutting wood. He passed away a few years ago so I love having a decoration up that reminds me of him!

Now, I understand not everyone has someone in their life that can cut wood the way my grandpa could, but last time I was at quilted bear I saw a booth FULL of these wooden letters! They were all different sizes and just plain wood so you can paint them however you'd like!

STEP 1:

The first thing I did was paint them black. (everywhere but the fronts obviously) 

Do at least two coats of the black to make sure it's covered!

STEP 2:

Once it's dried, begin painting the fronts. Do one coat and let it dry. 

When you apply the second coat, immediately dump glitter all over it! You want to do this while it's still wet!

ITEMS USED:

Letters: "spooky" (every other letter is large then small)

Three colors of craft paint: (I chose bright orange, dark purple, bright green)

Large glitter: large size bottle and the largest size glitter you can find!

Day 1: DIY Boo Jars!

This marks the first day of the "30 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN" I'm going to be doing! I know its September still, but I hate when I see a cute holiday idea and I don't have enough time to plan and make it! I will be posting different ideas from crafts, decorations to baking and party ideas! Hope you enjoy!!

I LOVE these Halloween jars so much and they really are the easiest things to make! I made these before I had a blog so I didn't think to do step by step pictures, but I hope my explaining will work just fine!

ITEMS USED:

-3 wooden candle sticks

(all the same height or variety, up to you. If you do all the same height, you will need 4 bases because the center one you will use two like mine!)

-3(or 4) wooden bases

-3 jars

-3 knobs for the top of jars

-Letters "b" "o" "o"

-Holiday ribbon

-Orange and black craft paint (I used a deep orange)

-Hot glue!

( I got all of my supply at Hobby Lobby)

(these candlesticks were different height so they didn't need 4 bases)

Step 1:

-The first thing I did was paint all the wooden pieces orange (including the letters). Do at least 2 coats to get it fully covered!

-After its dried, get your sponge brush and dab it into the black paint. Dab your sponge brush on a paper towel until theres hardly any paint on it. Then brush it on your orange pieces, giving it a little bit of a rough look!

Step 2:

-Next you'll paint your jar lids black. This also needs a few coats. 

(It doesn't cover like it does on wood so be prepared!)

-Once the lids are dry, do the same rough look but using orange instead!

Step 3:

-Now that all the pieces are completely dried, you'll start glueing! Glue your candlesticks onto the center of the round bases.

-Next, you'll tip your jars upside down and glue the candlesticks on the center of the bottom of the jars.

-Then you'll glue your knobs on top of the lids

(I glued my letters to the jars but if you'd rather hang them from the ribbon that works great to!)

Hope this was helpful! Sorry for the lack of pictures!!

At Home Workout!

There are many times I'm unable to make it to the gym and fortunately there are several ways you can still get a great workout at home! I would love to get my hands on P90X or Insanity but since i'm even without a great workout video, I found a way to do exercises anywhere! I love to lay my babies on the floor while I do this workout because for some reason they find me jumping around really entertaining :)

 The only thing I use is 10lb dumbbells for my arm workouts. Otherwise, you don't need anything but your running shoes!

CARDIO/LEGS

50 jumping jacks

30 seconds of jump rope

20 alternating lunges

30 seconds of jump rope

10 tuck jumps

30 seconds of jump rope

20 squats

30 seconds jump rope

1 minute of high knees

30 seconds jump rope

10 jump squats

30 seconds jump rope

50 jumping jacks

30 seconds jump rope

30 seconds mountain climbers

30 seconds jump rope

Do this workout 2X

ABS

50 Sit ups

100 Bicycles

50 Right oblique crunches 

50 Left oblique crunches

ARMS

Bicep curl: 3 sets of 25

Triceps: Overhead Tricep Extension: 3 sets of 25

Shoulders: Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 25

(To get my full workout- visit my August post: Body After Babies!)

Homemade Butterfingers!

I always thought a Butterfinger would be something impossible to imitate but I've found a recipe that makes them taste EXACTLY like the real thing! It only takes a few minutes to make and all you need is a microwave! There is only three ingredients and you will die when you hear one of them. CANDY CORN! Yep! Candy corn is what will give the peanut butter center that flaky crunch!

(Don't these look delish?!)

ITEMS NEEDED:

 16 oz. bag of candy corn

16 oz jar of peanut butter

16 oz package of chocolate candy coating

(You can get the candy coating at any craft store, or sometimes at the grocery store in the baking isle!)

STEP 1

Melt candy corn in a bowl on high for 1 minute

stir, and then continue to melt in 20 second intervals until its completely melted

(Once it looks like this, you're done!)

STEP 2

Add in all your peanut butter!

(As you can see, its starting to get that funky texture.)

STEP3

Spread out your mixture on a cookie pan on some sort of foil/paper. 

(no need to worry about it sticking, its loaded with butter in the peanut butter)

Stick it in the fridge to harden!

(This filled up a little over a half of my cookie sheet)

STEP  4

Once its completely cooled and hard, pull out and cut into desired squares.

STEP 5

Melt your chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute. 

Stir, and continue to melt for 20 second intervals until melted

STEP 6

The second your chocolate is melted, start dipping your squares!

The centers aren't as flaky as a Butterfinger but trust me when I say the taste is spot on!

Hope you enjoy!!

Polka Dot Cake!

Is anyone else as excited as me to know polka dots are possible inside cake?! I was thrilled to learn this little trick! And its so easy you wont even believe it! I did Halloween colors because I was kind of doing this as a test cake i'm making next month, but you can obviously choose any colors you'd like!

ITEMS YOU WILL NEED:

Cake  pop pan

Vanilla Cake Mix

Chocolate Cake Mix

Frosting

Food Coloring

(Use any desired cake mix, but that's what I used!)

(This is the cake pop pan I use! Its sold at Walmart for $20!)

Step 1

Mix your white cake mix. You will use this for the cake pops so you actually use a little bit different ingredients. (the cake pop pan comes with instructions on this!)  Whatever the mix calls for with eggs, add 1 more. And instead of water, substitute it for milk (but use 1/2 the amount.) Example. 1 cup water = 1/2 cup milk. You can also add a package of pudding (I didn't) for denseness.

Once you've mixed your batter, color it! I separated mine into two bowls because I wanted two different color cake balls!

Step 2

Next, you'll spray the cake pop pan with cooking spray, then pour your batter into the pan!

(Fill it up until its level!You'd rather they over flow a little then to not have enough because it wouldn't make a ball!)

Step 3

Put the top on and cook your cake pops! The instructions say to cook for around 20-25 minutes. Mine were finished in 13! So maybe set your timer for 13 just to be safe! Once they've finished cooking, they might look something like this. No worries, those little volcano eruptions come off easily! Just peel them off before you open your pan!

(These are the leftovers!)

Some of mine had little bumps on them that looked like nipples! Just slowly peel those off as well!

Step 4

Now you'll make your cake batter! I did a devils food cake mix and added black food coloring! 

Step 5

Here comes the magic! After your cake balls have cooled to room temperature, you will (1st spray your cake pan thoroughly) add a little batter to the bottom of your pan so you can start sticking balls into it. I also cut some in half, added batter to the back and stuck them along the sides of the pan

(like so!)

After all your cake balls are in place, load on the cake batter! You want to make sure its still only 3/4 the way full of cake batter because you don't want major spillage! Cook for the instructed amount of time!

Step 6

Once you've poked your cake about a million times all over to check if its cooked everywhere, pull out your cake and let it cool! I flipped mine over to get a nice flat top because the actual top was really bumpy! (Maybe you can tell in this picture, the bottom looks scary!)

Once its cooled, frost it!!

(My husbands great idea to make it a pumpkin ;)

Step 7

Cut into it and surprise all your guests with how creative you are! They will think

you're a genius!

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