The Best Peach Cobbler Known To Man!

Yes, I know, that statement is a bit ballsy, but hey, I can't help what's true, haha!  I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks their cobbler recipe is the best, but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I debated sharing this recipe for a while.  It was one of my mom's.  I've shared another of her cake recipes here before, but this cobbler recipe has memories.  Of summers long ago.  In this house, actually.  So it's a little precious to me.  Ok, a lot more than a little precious.

My Top 13 of 13

I know traditionally this is done at the end of the year, or the very beginning of the new year, but I've debated about doing a post like this for a while.  In the end, I swayed myself to do it.  I love a good reminiscing.  (:

So, here's what ya'll were loving in 2013 from {be made designs}:

A "Stache" of Cookies

I hope you have had a chance to check out the cutest mustache party evah!  And if you did, you probably missed one element of the party.

Missed it because I didn't show a pic.  ):

Unless you have x-ray vision.  Then you saw.  Yay! (:

The goodie bags contained a mustache element that I wanted to share because it was super easy to make.  And I thought you might enjoy checking it out.

Ok, remember the birthday cake?

It was a blatant take-off from this pin.

When we were still in the planning stage of the party, I saw these mustache cookie cutters and thought how CUTE mustache cookies would be.  But my practical side of me kept saying: "When would you use that cookie cutter again?  Mustache cookies at Christmas?  Or maybe for every guys' birthday you know?  No, probably not.  Don't buy it."

So I didn't.  But I really, really liked the idea.

And then, light bub!  {Don't you love when they light up all unexpected like?!}

Why couldn't I take the cake concept and use it on a cookie?

So, as a secret surprise, I set out to make mustache cookies {sans a cookie cutter} that we could put in the goodie bags.

There may be better ways to do this, but this is what worked best for me with what I had on hand.

I started with your basic store-bought sugar cookie dough stick/roll/tube.  Whatever you wanna call it.  The "slice-and-bake" stuff.

The directions on this particular brand suggested you cut them into 1/2" thick slices.  Do not do this.  I quickly discovered this is much too much dough.  Go with probably 1/4".  I didn't measure.  Just sliced. Sorry.

I kept my slices in the refrigerator to keep them stiff.  If you've ever used this dough before, you probably know it will get sticky and difficult to work with.  I also used a piece of parchment so when the dough did get a little sticky, it wouldn't stick to the work surface.

Once I realized the thicker slices wouldn't make good mustaches {baked up too fat}, I rolled my slices thinner, which also helped to make them more of a circle shape, since the package ended up like a oval combined with a rectangle.  {Not sure what you would call that, rectoval? Ovangle? Anyhoo...}  After I rolled the dough slightly thinner, I used a knife to reinforce the circle shape.

I used the same knife to cut out the mustache shapes.  This is where all that doodling in junior high comes in.  You remember.  The yin-yang?  I had that thing drawn on everything!  Notebooks, folders, backpacks....everywhere.  Ugh.  And I was so good at it, ha ha.  But that was like, 15 years ago, so my yin-yang skills were slow to return.  Not quite like riding a bike.  But thankfully I didn't need the training wheels.

So you draw your yin-yang, then separate the two pieces.  You'll have to flip one of the over to get your mustache shape.

The join them together in the middle by just mushing a little.

My cookies weren't perfect, nor uniform, like they would have been had I used a cutter.  But I think maybe that made them funner.

One side a little bushier than the other.

Or one curl a little curlier than the other.

I baked them according to the package directions, although I did keep an eye on them time-wise since they were thinner than the package recommended.  Once they were cooled, it was time to frost.

I found a great sugar cookie frosting that tastes so good {my hubby compared it to the chocolate donut frosting}, hardens quickly and only takes 4 {or 5, in this case} ingredients:  powdered sugar {2 cups}, milk {added by the tablespoon as needed}, light syrup {1 Tbsp}, vanilla extract {or almond}{1 tsp} and cocoa {1/2 cup}.

I filled my piping bag and used a plain tip to pipe the 'stache.

So cute!

And really yummy!

Once the icing had hardened, into a plastic bag they went, then into the goodie bags.  Unfortunately, I had made more cookies than bags, so we had leftovers.  Ok, so, not so much unfortunate.  Well, for my diet it was ha ha!  

Ah, the perks of a do-it-all party planner, ha ha ha ha!

Hope you found a little inspiration with this easy-peasy yummy project.

TTFN!

Linking up here:

The Best Blog Recipes * The Shabby Nest * Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Liz Marie Blog * Thirty Handmade Days * Just Us Four
Lovely Crafty Home * Be Different Act Normal * Too Much Time
Sumo's Sweet Stuff * Craft-O-Maniac * DIY Showoff
Alderberry Hill * Uncommon Designs * Mad in Crafts
Home Stories A to Z * The Farmhouse Porch * Today's Creative Blog
The Winthrop Chronicles * Sugar Bee Crafts * The DIY Dreamer
Ella Claire Inspired * Lil' Luna * Sugar and Dots
Someday Crafts * SNAP! Creativity * House of Hepworths
The Shabby Creek Cottage * 52 Mantels * live laugh rowe

The Outside-In Bundt Cake

That looks like a plain-jane bundt cake, doesn't it?  Well, I promise, it's not.

 

This was a recipe of my mom's.  Once she discovered it, she made it a lot, and it was really, really good.  But it was a recipe I never got from her, and after I lost her, I thought it was just one of the many things I lost with her.  But thank goodness my mom was a pack rat {a trait I most definitely inherited from her}!  In going through some random papers, I found that recipe she had quickly scribbled down.

 

To me, this is the perfect cake for travel.  I always hate taking iced baked goods anywhere because my perfectly applied frosting never arrives perfectly intact.  With this cake, no need to worry about the frosting getting all over your plastic wrap or cake carrier.  Why's that, you say?  Because the frosting is on the inside.  And I don't mean as a filling between cake layers.

 

It is BAKED on the INSIDE!

Party for Baby J

Hopefully you've seen by now that I've done several sets of birthday invites for kids, had a birthday luncheon for my gran and baked and decorated a few yummies.  But for the first time I got to do all three for one party.  Can we say EXCITED?!  I gave a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Tiffany, who is expecting their second child, a boy, my nephew, in mid-July.  (As of the shower date, his parents hadn't chosen a name, so he will be referred to as Baby J.)  He will be welcomed home by big brudder Matthew -- you can see his birth announcement here.  At first, my mind was running in circles with ideas, and once I settled on a theme and did my research on what all I would need to pull this shower off, I quickly got overwhelmed.  But I got myself a spreadsheet and lists and lists and lists, and felt a little less overwhelmed.  But just a little.

I decided on a nursery rhyme theme.  I like to think of myself as a little bit old school and I wanted to do something a little more classic, but give it a slight modern twist.

 

Instead of working with just one rhyme, I decided to focus on six {because I can rarely just pick one thing!} and chose ones that were a little more boyish.  And for each rhyme, I had an invite, a food and a game.  I also started with the idea of having a centerpiece for each rhyme, but as details grew and grew I quickly realized it would make things a whole lot easier if I just had 6 of the same centerpieces.  But I'll get to all that later.

First things first, my six featured nursery rhymes:
Humpty Dumpty
Little Boy Blue
What Are Little Boys Made Of
Rub-A-Dub-Dub
Old Woman in the Shoe
Hey Diddle Diddle

The Invitations

I designed six different invitations, each featuring one of the rhymes.  I keep seeing chevrons everywhere and knew I wanted to incorporate them somehow.  Be trendy and all, ha ha.  I thought that would give it that modern twist that I was hoping for but I still wanted it to lean a little towards vintage.  I found these great drawings of each rhyme that were perfect for that vintage flare.  I printed the invites on white card stock, then layered them on varied brown card stocks.  In keeping with the theme, I cut out squares of Kraft paper and folded them into envelopes.  I also designed address labels that coordinated with the invitations.

Each invitation included a map to the party's location, a note to bring a pack of diapers to be entered in a raffle for a prize (a game inspired by Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Three Men in a Tub -- "Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Fill Up the Tub With Diapers"), and the guestbook card.  I asked each guest to sign their card and then write down their favorite nursery rhyme.  My plan is to take these cards and compile them into an interactive reminder for Tiffany of the shower.

The Party

There aren't many options in my small town to hold a nice party, and my house is too small for the number invited, so I opted for our local Chamber of Commerce meeting hall.  The space was the right size and, except for the paneled walls and past Presidents' pictures hanging on the wall, it wasn't bad.

I placed six tables in a U-shape, covered each with white tablecloths, then diagonally layered blue and green tissue paper as a runner along the entire U.  Each table had a centerpiece of a mini-galvanized bucket filled with mints.  The bucket's ribbon handle had three balloons tied to it.  A picture frame featuring one of the six rhymes sat next to each bucket.

I also used glass milk bottles as vases filled with Baby's Breath.  The bottles were wrapped in burlap ribbon, then overlaid with a satin ribbon featuring a toile-like nursery rhyme design.  How perfect!  That was probably my most exciting find!

The welcome table featured a simple arrangement of Baby's Breath and white Peonies.  The vase was also wrapped in the burlap ribbon then overlaid with a simple blue ribbon.  The "guestbook" was a bulletin board covered in brown fabric then edged with the same blue ribbon.  I then strung twine across the board and provided mini-clothespins for guests to hang their "favorite rhyme cards."  It was a great display to see everyone's favorites.  I also provided a book of rhymes, just in case anyone needed a reminder.  :)

See that awesome easel?  My hubby made it (:

The welcome table also featured the first game, inspired by "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe."

"Just How Many Children Does the Old Woman Have?"

 Other games included:

Inspired by Little Boy Blue:  "Don't Wake Little Boy Blue!"

Each person that brought a gift was given a whistle.  One of the whistles had been disabled.  As Tiffany opened each person's gift, they were asked to blow their "horn."  If their "horn" sounded, they had unfortunately woken Little Boy Blue.  But the one person who's horn didn't blow claimed the prize as the person who didn't wake the sleeping boy.

Inspired by Humpty Dumpty:  "How Many Humpties Does it Take?"

Guests were asked to divide into groups of two or three people.  Each group was given a bag of eggs.  Each egg was filled with pictures of essential parts to a nursery, i.e. crib, rocker, etc.  Each group was also given a pack of crayons, glue and blank paper.  Even though all the king's men and all the king's horses couldn't put Humpty together again, guests were asked to put together Tiffany's new nursery.  In 10 minutes, they had to design a nursery that Tiffany would choose as winner.

Inspired by What are Little Boys Made of:  "Baby Boys are Made of What?!"

Guests were asked to list as many baby things as they could using the letters from the words snips, snails, and puppy dog tails.

*Note on this game:  the preparer {i.e. me} should have checked to see what and how many baby words could in fact be made using those letters.  Apparently, not many.  But I think everyone had fun trying.  :)

The Menu

Each nursery rhyme had a corresponding food.  This most definitely took some imagination.  There were certain foods I knew I wanted to make because I knew the guest of honor really liked them.  So tying them to a certain rhyme was a feat, but I think it worked out well.

"Humpty Dumpty's Deviled Noggin"
*no Humpty's were harmed in the making of this dish*
{ranch deviled eggs}

"Snails & Snips Chips & Dips"

"The Candlestick Maker's Taper Crackers"

"Jumping Cow's Cheese"
"The Butcher's Best Cuts"

"Puppy Dog Tails Sandwiches"
{turkey and pesto jack cheese wrapped in mini crescent rolls}
*They kinda look like puppy's tails, right??*

The sweets called for quite a bit of creativity, but none so much as the strawberry dessert.  Tiffany had seen this idea on Pinterest and really wanted to have them at the shower.  So did I, ha ha!  But figuring out how to work them in with the rhymes I had made my brain really work.  

But I think I found a pretty good solution:

"Why the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon"
{strawberries stuffed with cheesecake, dipped in crushed graham crackers, and served on spoons}
And as good as these were, I can see why the dish took off with the spoon!

"Little Boy Blue's Haystacks"
{pecans & brown sugar finely blended together with butter, wrapped in pie crust}

"The Baker's Cream Delight Cupcakes"
{chocolate cupcakes filled with cheesecake, topped with whipped cream cheese frosting}

To quench our thirst, we had "The Old Woman in the Shoe's Sweet Broth," a punch recipe I've had nearly forever that we used at my wedding, parties, Tiffany's wedding and everyone loves it.

The food was yummy in our tummies, if I say so myself. :)

The Favors

As a parting gift, I didn't want to do typical favors.  I wanted to give something that wouldn't immediately end up in the trash can when the guests got home.  And I hope I achieved that.  I also struggled with a favor that coordinated with my selected rhymes.  But it occurred to me, maybe I could introduce one more rhyme, and maybe it should be that one obvious rhyme you think of with babies:  Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake.  So after some brainstorming, and a little Pinspiration, I came up with these:

The candles smelled sooooo good and so vanilla-y that I knew they would make the perfect "cake."  I think this was my favorite element of the whole shower.  But it took a lot of baby food to make these happen.  Good thing my other half will eat just about anything. ;)

Thankfully, I timed the shower just right.  Not even a week after the shower, little Zachary Robert made his appearance on July 5.  Welcome to the family cutie pie!

I really couldn't be more pleased with how it all turned out.  Of course, not everything went according to plan, but that's the problem with planning, right?

I hope you enjoyed this little shower "tour."  My Aunt Shirley asked me if I was going into party planning now.  Maybe.  :)

I'd also like to throw out an amazing THANK YOU to my dear hubby.  He was very much ready for this shower to be over with, ha ha, but he was also SO supportive of my random thoughts and bits and parts laying around the house and such a big help while I was going a bit crazy planning.  I really don't think I could have pulled this off without him!  Although I don't think he minded much being my taste-tester! ;)

ta ta for now...

Yummy Little Graves

I love to bake.  And I used to bake all the time.  I am definitely a much better baker than a cook, probably because of the precision in baking.  I prefer exact measurements to adding ingredients to taste.  But within this past year I really haven't had the opportunity to do much baking until recently, and I didn't realize how much I really missed it.  The joy in creating something that tastes good enough to make someone smile is the part I think I look forward to the most.  But I've always just baked.  Not really decorated things.  My few attempts at decorating weren't awesome. 

So, ok, baking not decorating.  Well, I saw this cake in the October Country Living magazine and decided wanted to try something new.  And have a little fun.  :)



Country Living Halloween Cakes

I used to bake for my husband and his co-workers all the time but now I'm in a job where I can bake for my co-workers, so I thought this would be a fun opportunity to treat them instead.  Sorry sweetie.  So, I have a picture of this cute cake, but I'm more of a cupcake gal.  My head gears went to spinning, and this is what I came up with.  It's really the same idea as the cake, just in individual form. 

First, I whipped up some basic chocolate cupcakes.  I had thought black liners would be fitting, but I live in a small town with limited resources, and since this was kinda done on the fly, these pumpkin liners were it.  But they work.

 

Next, I mixed up a batch of my fav frosting recipe.  It's a concoction of my own that I love to use, but I've never made it chocolate before and....O. My.  It's gooooood.  So I have my chocolate frosting and my chocolate cupcakes.  I opted to spread the frosting rather than pipe in order to create a flatter surface.  But in hind sight, I might have liked piping better.  I didn't get as much frosting on the cupcakes as I would have piping it and I think they needed it since it was a denser cake.

 

I also made sure I would have a little bit of frosting left over to write on each tombstone.

 

 

Once all the little cakes were frosted, I took Oreos and pulverized them into crumbs.  Then each frosted cupcake was dipped into the dirt, because, you know, every spooky graveyard has to have dirt.  I also thought if I made the little piles of dirt like the cake, it would be much too messy.

 

 

Next, I took some oblong sandwich cookies and broke them in half.  Realizing I didn't have much frosting on the cakes to hold the cookie up, I stuck toothpicks in each broken half to help it stand on the cupcake. 

After I placed the remaining frosting in a piping bag, I piped RIP onto each cookie half.  Once they were all piped, I stuck them on each "grave."

Ok, I'm going to divert....just a little.  I really wanted the skeletons on my cakes, just like on the big cake.  But again, I had limited resources.  I was hoping to at least find those really cheap, flat, neon-colored skeletons, because, while they wouldn't be like the CL cake, at least I would have skeletons.  So I went to our local blue box store thinking surely they'll have something.  Nada.  Zip.  Ugh. 

 

So I thought, well, white chocolate covered pretzels could work for skeletons and at least they would be edible.  Nope.  None of those either.  Really?!  At that point I felt defeated because that really was my only option.  Or so I thought.  I had also wanted those pumpkins that are like candy corn, but couldn't find them either.  I had to settle for these marshmallows that were shaped like pumpkins, ghosts and moons. 

 

So I leave with my marshmallow purchase, and on the verge of thinking these are not going to turn out cute at all, my nearly burnt-out light bulb lights up again.  We also have a dollar store.  Maybe, just maybe, they might have something.  So I went, I looked, was about to leave empty handed, when a wee little voice told me to look one more time.  Man am I grateful for those inner voices!  Yeah, that's right.  Voices, ha ha!  Much to my excitement, I find these. 

I scooped them up, brought them home, and broke them apart.  I ended up only using the skulls, arms and legs, but it would have been cool to have bones all over the cakes.  Maybe next time.....

So I have my "graves" with the "headstones," I just needed the bodies.  After strategically placing each bone and marshmallow, I had a yummy little graveyard.

Here they are.  Ready to make smiles.  And boy did we need them.  That day at work ended up being a doozy.

Hope they made you smile.
Happy Halloween!

P.S.  My hubby did end up taking a few to work.  So he wasn't completely left out.  ;)

Ta ta for now....