Graduation Cupcakes

Oh my goodness, May has been insane.  Between work, traveling for work, dance recitals, soccer games, and even a little vacation time, it has been a madhouse.  A wonderful madhouse, but still pretty crazy.  So I have been a little MIA.  But I am back...for the weekend before I have to go to a conference.  Haha.  I know all of you have probably had just as crazy of Mays.  And with May comes graduations.  My little ones are too small for graduations, but each year my law clerks graduate from law school & move on into the real world.  One of my clerks turned into a dear friend of mine and when she left, I made her some cute graduation cupcakes.  These are so easy & super cute.  

Here is what you need: 

Cupcake mix

Icing

24 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Chocolate Squares

Mini M&Ms

Twizzlers

I started with cupcakes.  These look chocolate, but are actually the same Guinness cupcakes that I had made for my grandfather's birthday at his 90th Vintage Beer-themed Birthday party.  These are delicious, but regular chocolate would do if that's what you or your graduate would rather have.  It's also a lot less time consuming when you have graduation parties to get to. : ) 

Then you just frost up the cupcakes.  I did use chocolate icing.  The rich fudge kind.  Yummo.

Now the rest is pretty much candy.  Delicious, right?  Take Reese's peanut butter cups & turn them upside down onto of the iced cupcakes.  Take some of the icing & put it onto of the Reese's cup to place a square of chocolate.  Honestly, I should have just bought already squared chocolate because this was the hardest part...breaking the chocolate into even squares.  Isn't that crazy?  But what are you to do when you break a lot of uneven chocolate?  Eat it of course. ; ) 

Anyway, use some more icing & put a mini M&M on top of the chocolate square.  I had then cut up some Twizzlers to make the tassle.  Use some icing to attach it as well.  And there you have graduation cupcakes.  These were a big hit & pretty delicious.  Happy end of May everyone!  I hope your summers are starting out wonderfully!

Southern Ham Delights

For Peyton's baptism, one of the things I served was Southern Ham Delights.  If you have not made this, please go make them now.  You will not regret it.  Here is a list of things you will need:

* Sweet Hawaiian rolls

* Honey Baked Ham shaved (appx 12 slices)

* Sliced Provolone Cheese (appx 6 slices or enough to cover the pack of rolls)

* Honey Mustard (I love Ken's Steakhouse spread in the condiment section over the dressing kind)

* 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

* Poppy Seeds 

* 1 stick of Butter

Preheat your oven to 350.  Then start by slicing all of the Hawaiian rolls in half length-wise to keep all the tops together & all the bottoms together.  Place the bottom rolls into a baking pan & cover with Honey Mustard. 

Then add in your ham.  I used Honey Baked ham, but you can use any of your favorites, as long as it's delicious. ; )

A lot of recipes use Swiss for Ham Delights.  I'm not really that big on Swiss, so I used provolone instead.  You can use Swiss, or even Havarti or Monterey Jack if you want to give it a little kick.

Cover the cheese with Honey Mustard.  Are you sensing a trend here?  : )

Take your stick of butter & melt it in the microwave & then pour in your Worcestershire sauce & shake in the amount of poppy seeds that you are into.  Mix it all together.

Put the top half of the rolls back on & cover the top with the butter mixture.

So delicious.

Bake for 20 minutes until the tops are browned.  Then, just enjoy the deliciousness.

Main Baptism Party Post
Pinwheel Cross Post
Baptism Banner Post
Southern Ham Delights

Peyton's Baptism Banner

I'm back! I know I have been a little MIA, but life & work have just been crazy. So back to sweet Peyton's baptism.  For Addy's baptism party, I did this banner from doilies from the Dollar Tree & I just loved it.  I wanted to do something similar for Peyton's baptism lunch.  

 I started with the same doilies from the Dollar Tree.  You can get 18 of them for $1.  Talk about a deal.  Because I wanted a gold & pink theme, I spray painted them gold.  These are just paper doilies so they spray painted really well.  

After they dried, I took some gold & white patterned papers & cut out 6 inch circles.  Then I used a  Martha Stewart circle edge punch to make scalloped edges.  

Then I used my new Cricut to cut out the pink letters.  I just realized this may be my first banner post after getting my Cricut.  This was my big Christmas present. It was on sale with Amazon over Christmas & my sweet hubby bought me one.  I was so pumped.  It makes cutting letters so easy.  If you don't have a Cricut, no worries.  I used stencils & scissors for a long time & it turned out just as cute. ; ) 

  After gluing on all of the scalloped circles & letters, I used the clear line I use for most of my banners to tie the different letters together & then to pin the words to the ceiling to hang them.  I wish that the lighting had been better so you could read the words in the picture, but it said "God Bless Peyton".  It was a sweet banner for a sweet girl. : ) 

Main Baptism Party Post
Pinwheel Cross Post
Baptism Banner Post
Southern Ham Delights