Valentine's Day Treats :)

Well, it's Day 1 of this cute little blog?! Don't ya love it? Are you as excited as we are... I knew it :) Anyway what better way to celebrate our "Grand Opening," than with TREATS!?! Heart cupcakes and rice krispie treats...mmmmmm. Ok, So here we go.
(side note: I am not a photographer in any way, shape or form unfortunately. So hopefully you will get the just of how cute these little treats turned out.)


Chocolate Dipped Krispie Valentine Pops:

I found these at howdoesshe.com, but she found them HERE!
Who doesn't love rice krispie treats right? And these are soo cute. I have done them for the 4th of July too but with popsicle sticks. So, first just make your rice krispie's you can find the recipe HERE if you don't already have one.

Does this make anyone else really ridiculously happy? mmm the gooey-ness....

Press the warm rice krispie treats into a buttered 13x9 pan. I like to rub butter all over my hands to prevent them from sticking. Then take whatever cookie cutter's you want to use and press them into the warm rice krispies(but not too warm, there is a middle warm that I found worked best. If they are to hot they will just fall apart.)

These are my cute V-Day cookie cutters. I mostly used the medium ones.... But you can do whatever you want. I think using the X's and O's would be cute.

Next, put a popsicle stick or sucker stick in the middle of your treats. I kinda like the popsicle sticks better because they are a little thicker and hold up the treats better. But sucker sticks work great too. That's what I used this time. Then you put them on a pan and then in the fridge or freezer for 5-10 min. During this time I melt my chocolate almond bark.

This is Almond Bark, you can find it in the baking section at Walmart or probably any grocery store.

Take your treats out of the fridge(the coolness of them will help set the chocolate faster), dip them half way in chocolate, sprinkle them immediately with the sprinkles of your choice and lay them on wax paper or foil... Then DONT TOUCH THEM! Let them set all the way up. If you dont they will fall apart and be ruined... it's tragic. I had this happen and then I had to eat it...darn it! :)
But this is them finished:
I just needed to wrap it in cellophane and put a ribbon on it. Cute right?! And delicious....

(I might be crazy, but I think next time I will add a little bit of peanut butter and a tish more rice krispies....I think that would be super yummy with the chocolate!)

HEART CUPCAKES:
So my cute husband got me these:

I know right!!! So so sooo cute. I love them... I LOVE silicon baking products. Im a little embarrassed how excited I was and am about them. I know you can find them at Walmart or Target for like 5 or 6 bucks. BUT!! A little heart cupcake shaping secret... if your kids have marbles or something like that, put the marble in your cupcake tin and shape the cupcake liner around it. BAM! done, instant heart shape.

Here is my final product of cuteness: :)

Ok, now onto my ultra secret cake making recipe. I honestly don't remember where I learned about this secret. But I have seen the Bakerella do it, so you know it's good. :) and i guess not all that secret...but I think it sounds cool saying it's a "secret" hahaha...so there...

Cake Recipe:
Mix together,
1 (18.25 oz.) pkg. yellow cake mix (you can do chocolate cake too)
1 (3.4 oz.) pkg. instant vanilla pudding (use chocolate pudding if you are doing a chocolate cake. but I have done chocolate pudding in a yellow cake too and it is sooo yummy)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup warm water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, fill your cupcake liners and bake for 22-25 min. Remove from pan. Cool completely, then frost how you would like.

Secret tip #1: Ok, now, you might notice I made mine purple, pink and yellow. So fun right? I do this a lot. Ive made Birthday cakes and cupcakes this way with whatever colors I want. All you do is divide your batter and mix in your food coloring. Then spoon in a little bit at a time. There is really no messing them up. They come out cool and pretty every single time.

Secret tip #2: I kind of hate frosting cupcakes with just a knife or spatula or whatever. One I think it takes forever, two Im a perfectionist and I can't ever get mine perfect the way I want. So enter my pastry bag with tips. I LOVE them. They make frosting cupcakes or decorating cookies, etc easy, fast and fun. Even though I have a pastry bag, I usually just fill a gallon size bag, cut a hole in a corner, and put one of my tips on it. It makes clean up SOO much easier. I can just throw it away :)

Secret tip #3: The little chocolate hearts I have on the cupcakes are from extra chocolate bark I had from the rice krispies. Put your left over chocolate in a sandwich bag, cut a LITTLE, tiny hole in one of the corners. On wax or parchment paper squeeze out the chocolate to make hearts...or flowers, or whatever. I usually just free hand it. But you could draw on your paper and trace it if you wanted. :)

Have a Happy Valentine's Day! I hope the sweethearts in your life will love them as much as mine did :)