Easter Goodies

As I've said before, I should not be allowed online. I can get into too much trouble.


My latest craft craziness? Cake Pops and Cake Bites.

We host an Easter Egg hunt the Saturday before Easter, and I thought the Bunny Pops and Chick Cake Bites would be a fun dessert for the kids (and the adults, too). Because, you know, there's never enough sugar at an Easter Egg hunt...

It's a fairly time-intensive process, but can be done over a few days. I made the cakes one day, shaped them the next day, then dipped and decorated over the next couple days. The Bunny Pops took the longest time, because of the ears, eyes, nose and mouth. The Wilton edible pen I bought didn't work very well on the candy coating, so I ended up drawing with black gel frosting and a toothpick. Next time, I'll try to find the Americolor edible ink pen at the cake decorating store. For the Chicks, I used the colored chips for both the eyes and beak, giving some of them brown eyes and some blue.

Everyone loved looking at, and eating, the bunnies and chicks. It was definitely worth all the effort to see the kids' faces when we brought them out.

Key Lime Mousse Pie and Homemade Samoas

Ohhhh, yaaaaaa'lllll. I was at the gym and one of the TVs was set to Food Network, which is either brilliant or completely insane. I usually just watch with my eyes glazed over, but this time Paula Deen made me want to run home and make this right away.

It's a Key Lime Mousse Pie, and, being Paula Deen, is crazy rich. I tried to make it less fattening with low-fat cream cheese and low-fat whipped topping. I also cheated by using bottled key lime juice, but, really, we don't get them a lot here in Colorado. Judging by the moans of delight from my friends, no one minded a bit.

I'd originally planned to bring Homemade Samoa bars, at least until Paula derailed me. I think I like the Samoas just a bit more than Thin Mints, although it's a close race. So, I was thrilled when I found a recipe to make them at home. I was ecstatic when I found the bars variation.

Because I'm lazy, I melted the chocolate on the shortbread base, which was a suggestion from one of the comments on another site. I just put some chips on the cookie base, right out of the oven and used the residual heat to melt them. Worked awesome.

Next time, I'll only make two changes: use a larger pan so the shortbread is a bit thinner and make my own caramel so I can have a higher caramel-to-cocnut ratio for the topping.

Oh yes, there will be another time. For both these recipes.

HotPatterns Weekender Sunshine Top and Dress

I just got back from a family trip to Cabo, Mexico. It was wonderful, although it did have some stressful moments, as you do with small kids. In preparation, I made a couple of HotPatterns Weekender Sunshine Tops, and also made a dress version.

It's very easy and fun to make. And by easy, I mean I could probably cut out, interface and sew one of them during a decent naptime. How awesome is that? It did take me a couple tries to get it right.

The first time, I used an interlock knit, which was definitely not flowy enough to really work. Then, I had to figure out which neckline size to use so my other "girls" wouldn't be on display. I ended up using the size 10 neckline (and top of sleeve), a size 16 around the bust and for the back, and tapered the waist to a 14 just on the front, to take away some of the excess volume.

I'd watched the YouTube videos and saw that Trudi had made a dress as one of the variations and, knowing I'd want a comfortable, pretty dress for Mexico, decided to try it. I found a really cool black and white sequin trim at JoAnn's and went with a black poly knit for the fabric. It turned out really well.

I put in an elastic waistband to give me a bit of definition. I tried just using a zig-zag stitch to attach the elastic directly to the fabric, but it was a massive fail. So, I did a bit of a cheat and used a 1/2" bias trim as a casing for a 1/4" elastic. I cheated again, sewing the top of the casing, fitting the elastic closely to the top stitching, stitching the bottom of the casing, leaving a couple inches open, tightened and secured the elastic, then closing the casing all the way.

It's a really cute, comfortable, casually elegant dress. With some cute gladiator flat sandals (from Target), it was the perfect outfit for the trip.