Tasty Tuesday -- Pinata Cake

I'm not sure about you but I am FREEZING!! We certainly didn't ease into winter here in Illinois. However, with the cold also brought snow. It was a beautiful sight to see, but man, I hate the cold.

Remember the post on my son's Bowling Birthday Party? Click here to find out all about it.

Well, I attempted my first Pinata Cake because thought it would resemble a bowling ball. So, today on Tasty Tuesday, I will show you how easy it is to make one of these! And...how fun it is to eat!

 Even though it looks a bit complicated, 

it really easy fairly simple.

Grab two boxes of cake mix--your choice of flavor. Prepare as directed and place batter into glass bowls. Bake as directed on the box or until golden and set in the middle. Mine took about 10 minutes longer than the box suggested.

 

Allow cakes to cool slightly. Carefully turn cakes over to release from bowl. Allow to cool completely.

Next scoop out some of the center of the cake. About a 1/2-1 inch border around the perimeter of the cake and down into the center of the cake.

 

Next, fill with candy. We used Sour Patch Worms, M-n-M's, candy corn, Skittles and Gummy Bears. Next frost the edge of the cake. Not too much frosting, this is used like the glue for the top and bottom of the cakes.

Now carefully place the top onto the base of the cake.

Frost as you would like. For us, I wanted it to look like a bowling ball, unfortunately, it looked more like a ghost. I didn't want to frost it all black because I didn't want to send all the kids home with black-died lips, tongue and mouth!

I still love how it turned out and I loved the reaction from the kids! This is definitely worth trying for an upcoming celebration!

Have a fabulous day! 

If you liked what you saw, please share it!

SKINNY, but Delicious Chocolate Cake

Low-fat and delicious--could it be so? I whipped this cake up for a celebration we had over the weekend. My mother-in-law's birthday is tomorrow, but we celebrated on Sunday. I know she watches her calories like I do, so I thought I would give this Hungry Girl recipe a try. Have you ever caught one of her episodes on the Food Network? Love the easy swaps she makes to cut fat and calories on everyday recipes. This cake was so simple, super tasty--what more can you ask for?

Low-Fat Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
1 box Devils Food Cake Mix (moist)
1 can canned pumpkin
Frosting (I used Chocolate Cool Whip Frosting)

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine the cake mix and pumpkin and mix together. Don't add anything else. This batter will be very, very thick. Spread into a 13x9 cake pan that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes, check the box to be certain you don't over bake. Check to see if the cake is done by inserting a knife into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, its done. Let cool. Frost and decorate as desired. I took my vegetable peeler to a chocolate bar and make little chocolate shavings all over the cake! According to the Hungry Girl website, the cake has 181 calories and a Weight Watchers value of 4, without the frosting and chocolate shavings.

Have you ever tried to make "skinny" recipes? I have a few more I'll be showing you in the upcoming weeks! And, have you tried the Cool Whip Chocolate Frosting? It's tasty! I could slather this on some graham crackers or on vanilla wafers! Thank goodness we have some leftover!

Have a great week!

Cindy

Tasty Tuesday--Over the Rainbow

Ugh. I'm so ready for Spring. Warm weather. And most of all, no snow. We are expected to get another snow storm today. We've gone most of the winter without snow and then BAM--the month of February shows up and it decides we need that white stuff. I'm ready to wear flip flops and take a run outside! 

Well, maybe my treat I'm sharing today will bring a little sunshine into your life! Today I'm sharing a cake my daughter and I created awhile back for a school event. What a fun thing to do for the upcoming St. Patty's Day celebration!

We baked a box mix, added some food coloring in a frosting tub (I know, I know...its not homemade!) and frosted the cake. Next, we bought rainbow colored Jelly Belly jelly beans. We made a rainbow shape in the rainbow colors, using two rows for each color. Then we added a piled up some marshmallows at each end for the clouds. FUN, CHEERY and BRIGHT!

Do you do something fun with your food/desserts for St. Patty's day? If so, please share!

Cindy

It's a Happy 7th Birthday!

My son is OBSESSED with sports--you name it, he loves it. In fact, he chooses to watch Sports Center on ESPN versus Sponge Bob! What 7 year old does that? He's really into football right now (surprise, surprise--GO BEARS)!

His 7th Birthday was coming up and he wanted the theme to be Football. Done. So when we started planning his party, all he wanted to do at his party was play a football game. But, I couldn't just let them do that, now could I? It took me almost 2 weeks to convince my husband that we should spray paint our backyard and make it look like a real football field. I also convinced him that we needed to make a goal post out of pvc pipe. 

Carson decided on his cake (thanks to some of the PINS I gathered on Pinterest) and agreed  that we needed to do something other than play a football game during the party. We decided we would have a punting contest and a football throwing contest (using that awesome pvc goal post!). He requested a simple menu of hot dogs, chips and Kool-Aid (good enough for me!)
So as party planning was underway, we kept our fingers crossed that the weather would hold out. We've had a dry summer and so far the fall was dry too (Hello--did anyone hear about that drought?). But, as the weekend approached, the rain chances increased.

NO RAIN--WE HAVE LOTS OF BOYS COMING TO PLAY FOOTBALL ON OUR BACKYARD FOOTBALL FIELD! I prayed and prayed for no rain, but we weren't lucky enough. So, onto Plan B...which also meant no football field or goal post. Bummer.

So, what do you do with twelve 7 year olds that were planning on playing football outside? Well, Plan B meant a game of Flick Football (paper football that you flick into a "finger goal post), Pin the Football on the Goalpost, and HOT! Football (like HOT Potato)! (all of these Carson approved of!) But, when it came to party time, all the boys wanted to do was play football...in the house! YIKES! But, they managed to do a good job of not breaking anything! We did get two of the three games in and prizes were awarded! Next, it was time for lunch! Boys. Can. Eat. Then it was time for gifts and before you knew it, cake and ice cream, too! The party was a hit and it seemed like everyone had fun despite the rainy weather conditions! Each boy was sent home with a Football Cup filled with candy, silly straw and football trading cards!

Here are a few pictures from the party:

Carson didn't want anything "written" on the cake, so I made a "Happy 7th Carson" banner and hung it off of two brown and white straws! The goal posts were made from

popsicle sticks, mini chocolates were the players, and we added green sugar to make the field look like grass. Each end zone had to be a Chicago Bears Color.

So glad you stopped in!

Cindy

These boy party ideas were also featured on Spaceships and Laser Beams.

- See more at: http://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/blog/2013/02/party-central/boy-party-ideas-add-yours-to-our-linky#sthash.cDEcwr41.dpuf