Valentine's Day

So I have gotten into the habit of making treats and such for the past few holidays.

This past Valentine's Day was no different. I had order for cookies, rice krispie treats & pretzels. My weekend was filled with a lot of chocolate, carmel and sprinkles!

This time around I also decided to add cake pops into the mix! Yum, Yum, Yum!!

My first experience with cake pops was back in October when i made some that looked like Lego heads for my nephews birthday. That 1st attempt was okay, but I definitely have learned alot since then and found recipes and methods that have made the process so much smoother.

It made the prcoess into a cinch!

I decided to make two kinds of pops from some really cool recipes that I found online and tweaked a bit. I went with a lemon rasberry,  dipped in whitch chocolate and Oreo pop dipped in milk chocolate. I taste tested it at work and it was a big hit!

I received orders for 6 dozen sets of cake pops, so I had my work cut out for me.

I used the cutest "Valentine's Day themed lollipop" bags that I found at Michaels to package them in and on V-Day I made my deliveries. 

I don't know how something so small can taste so good, but it just is the perfect amount a sweetness in one or two bites!! 

The  picture are from my "extras" cause you know I gotta make extra for me and my family.

 I think they would be super duper mad if I didnt!

Well, so would I cause I dont like to sample too much while I making them. Just once or twice to make sure everything is as it should ne





The next thing I worked on, were the rest of my orders for V-Day. I made dipped Oreos, chocolate/caramel pretzels and heart shaped Rice Krispie treats.

To get his done my kitchen had to be taken over!!

The counter and center island were full of treats (while the caramel and chocolate was drying). My table was filled with boxes, treat bags, ribbons and trays, cookies, pretzels, caramel and chocolates.

Everthing came really cute and the packaging I used made it really stand out, so everyone was so happy to get their treats!

And after all  of that, I couldn't not make something for my family, so I used my recipe from my cake pops and made lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting topped with fresh raspberries.

Can I tell you that these were by far my favorite and also a big hit with my family. I made the lemon cream cheese frosting super tart so it went perfect with the sweetness of the raspberries!

I will be definitely making this again...maybe just because even!

Well, 'til the next holiday, next  order or just becuase I feel like making something!

The Christmas holiday is here!

About a week before Christmas I received a few requests to make the following:

Chocolate/Caramel pretzels
Peppermint Bark
Chocolate Dipped Oreos
Chocolated Dipped Chips with Cayanne
Chocolate Dipped Rice Krispies

I even made a few trays of my goodies to take to family and parties.

I think I may have gotten about 4 hours of sleep a night for that entire week. Some orders took me a lot longer than I anticipated and since I wrapped and boxed up each order individually it became quite a time consuming process.

It was definitely worth it though, especially when hearing that the people who were receiving the items loved them or when the trays were given that all the treats didn't last even an hour!

Moving on to Christmas...

My Family celebrates together on Christmas Eve, so this year I made a few of the items above (pretzels, oreos and peppermint bark) and I also added some Gingerbread Men, Fudge, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Thumbprint Cookies with Hershey Kisses or Strawberry Jam.

I think the decorating of the Gingerbread cookies was my absolute favorite part. It was something that I got to do with my 4 nephews and they had a lot of fun decorating their cookies. One even made a sad Gingerbread man - he was sad because he was going to be eaten! It was super cute and something that I am glad I got to experience with them. I love being able to include them so we can spend quality time together.

Not too sure what I am doing for the New Year, but will be sure to post more!

The beginning...

And so begins my journey into building up my current skills in baking and candy making.

I've been baking since I was a little girl, started during the holidays with my mom. We would start early in the morning and get to baking all kinds of sweet, yummy treats like cookies, brownies & rice krispie treats. It was always one of my fondest memories of the holiday season. As the years passed by the less baking that went on. I got older and busier and so did my mom. We still bake a bit for the holidays, but nothing like the big production that we used to have.

But that's all about to change!

This year, I am going full force with my baking and I'm adding some candy making to the process!

I will be posting my finished products along with my new ideas on gifts and how I put them all together.

So stay tuned...