Birthday Cake!!

      Last night I made a cake for my boyfriend's mom and it came out great. The cake was a three layer cake, two layers of chocolate cake and the middle layer was cheesecake with a chocolate buttercream frosting. I used a sturdy chocolate cake recipe that I will list below and a plain cheesecake recipe with no crust. I also whipped up some of my favorite chocolate butter cream frosting which is the best recipe for it. Everyone loved the cake!  This cake is a little more on difficult side and takes time/patients.

Here are the recipes I used:  

1.Cake: kitchensimplicity.com/tag.sturdy/

2.Cheesecake:http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1713,146186-243205,00.html

3.Chocolate Buttercream: savorysweetlife.com

DIY washer necklace!

                 
                I made a necklace out of washers and ribbon which is in the pictures above. I took ribbon and wove it through the washers to connect them all together. You can use any size washers you want. I got them at Lowe's for $2.50 for about 20.  This is a pretty inexpensive craft to try! I got the idea from another blogger and had to try it! Here is the link to the blog with the tutorial:
http://tinysparklythings.blogspot.com/2010/01/diy-anni-albers-washer-ribbon-necklace.html

Lasagna for dinner tonight!

               Tonight for dinner I made a spinach lasagna! I am vegetarian so it was a great way to make lasagna. It was very simple to make. I used whole wheat lasagna noodles, and fresh basil from the garden which made it awesome! The recipe only calls for mushrooms, but you could totally add in other vegetables as well! It was a hit with everyone, They all had seconds! This makes a huge amount and you will definitely have some for leftovers or could freeze it.
Recipe:http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spinach-lasagna-iii/

Monkey Bread!

     Here is a monkey bread I made a few months ago. Monkey bread is something my family has always made, and enjoyed. It is a gooey, cinnamon and sugar pull apart type bread (more like a cake). What you need is a bundt pan, you can use store bought biscuit dough (such as Pillsbury), cinnamon, sugar, butter and brown sugar. The actual recipe is below, this recipe definitely takes some time to put together but totally worth it!!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/monkey-bread-i/

Bagels!!

      I made these bagels and they were awesome! I love bagels but usually do not buy them very often. I decided to try out a recipe for boiled bagels (recipe below). I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour. I also added some oats on top. You can add any topping you want on them when they are still warm. You can also add things in the actual bagels (onion,raisons, etc)!


Recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/boiled-bagels/ 

Cookies!

       Here are some cookies that I just made up! I used a chocolate chip cookie recipe and modified it a little bit. I added peanut butter, and pretzels. I called these salty and sweet cookies. They have been a huge hit with my family, and friends! 

Kit Kat and m&m Cake!

     Here is another cake that I made for a friend for her birthday. It is a white cake with vanilla buttercream,kit kats and m&ms. You can use a cake mix or make your own vanilla cake or chocolate cake if you like that better. This is my favorite vanilla buttercream recipe http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/03/buttercream-frosting/. I made my cake a two layer cake and frosted the whole thing with the buttercream. You then stick the kit kats around the side of the cake, and the m&ms on top. I decided to tie a ribbon around the cake just for a little decoration. This cake could be cute for St. Patrick's Day to make it look like a pot of gold, or for any occasion. Who doesn't love chocolate candy on a cake?!