Easy milk and white chocolate dipped pretzel sticks and marshmallow cones

For the white chocolate I chose to use the microwave. Make sure your microwave is at 50% power. Start with 30 seconds and then go down to 15 second intervals stirring in between until it is melted.

For the pretzels just tip the bowl on its side so the chocolate pools and then dip. Add sprinkles or sugar crystals immediately (they won't stick once the chocolate starts drying).

For the marshmallow cones I chose to break the cone a little bit first so it would be shorter. My marshmallows weren't big enough to fill the cones opening so they kept falling out. The chocolate will cover and chips or unevenness in the cone.

If not serving immediately allow your pieces to cool and then saran wrap.

Cute Mostly Dollar Store Birthday Party

Dollar Store shopping list :

Pink Napkins
Plastic utensils in contrasting color (I chose green)
Gift wrap ribbon
Matching plates and cups
Swirl and ball lollipops
Party platters (they have lots of colors)
Tablecover
Drink pitchers

Target list:
Gumballs (You can get bags of special individual colors in the party aisle)
Straws (sure the Dollar Store has these but Target has tons of cute colors with stripes and polka dots)

Wrap your silverware with your ribbon and napkins for some added charm. :)
I used all mismatching glasses to hold, straws, candy, and extra silverware. I turned out really cute.

I set up my Keurig with coffee and hot chocolate K-cups, marshmallows, sugar, milk, and a bottle of Baileys at the end of my table. I also put a pitcher of water, cute mismatched coffee and teacups from local thrift stores, and a little Dollar Store wastebasket the same color as my serving trays.

I set a veggie tray with ranch and a fruit tray with cheesecake dip on opposite sides of the table. In case you haven't heard of cheesecake dip let me be the first to tell you it's amazing! All you do is take a small tub of cream cheese spread and mix in powdered sugar until it tastes delicious! That's it! A few spoonfuls of sugar and you have the best party dip ever!

I also had chocolate covered pretzel sticks and marshmallow cones but we'll cover that in another post. :)

For my main dishes I decided to go the crockpot route which turned out to be such a great idea. We did chili and a breakfast casserole since our party was early in the day.

Cute Birthday Cake w/ candy rainbow topper

This is the birthday cake we made for my youngest daughter's first birthday.  I wanted something simple that I felt capable of doing myself. I work at a bakery so I figured I had seen enough to do something on my own. I wasn't exactly right. ;)

I used 8 inch cake pans but you could really do any size. I think it would look cuter if it were three layer rather than two.

The icing is a buttercream frosting that I made myself. Follow this link to view the recipe http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/03/buttercream-frosting/ .

It was delicious!

I added a couple of drops of blue food coloring to make it a light sky blue. Remember the more food coloring you add the more bitter it tastes. When you ice the cake try to get it as smooth as you can on top.
Add tons of sprinkles just on the sides (if you put icing on the plate under the cake it will cause the cake to stick to the plate so then you can tilt it sideways to add the sprinkles much easier).

For the rainbow you'll need a candy fruit strip. I took a piece of wire and threaded it through the middle color line of the rainbow and then bent it to get the rainbow shape. Leave enough extra wire to insert in the cake.

Pipe the clouds with a bag and round tip or just use a whip cream can!