Cake pops for the 4th of July

Get started on your baking for this weekend and Wednesday a little bit early!
Cake balls are still popular, and since they're bite sized, they're perfect for your 4th of July activities.

Bring em to a bbq, carry a container to munch on during the fireworks, or put them on sticks for real "pops"!

Cake pops from MyJuiceCup

I can't bake. Yeah, I just can't do it. I'm terrible at it. If it involves flour, theres a 95% chance I WILL mess it up. This may mean there is a shortage of treats in our house. That's probably good, right? The less in the house, the less you eat, and the fatter you don't get? hahahah. Well, since I can't bake, I won't be making these. I will gladly accept gifts though. They look delicious. ;-)

Enchilada Stuffed Mushrooms

 

Last week I turned these lovely baby bella mushrooms into a tex mex meatless treat.

Enchilada stuffed mushrooms.

I found the recipe on another website and went at making it myself.

 I will link to the original recipe at the bottom. I will also note that there aren't any 'real' amounts here because I tend to do everything in the kitchen by sight. That makes for some scary results sometimes, but this one worked out well. I'd say you can use less or more of certain ingredients to adjust this to your tastes. 

I used:
Mushrooms

Cream Cheese

Shredded cheese (parmesan and 'taco mix')

taco seasoning, paprika, pepper

green onion

enchilada sauce

If you like them spicy, add extra taco seasoning, and some extra peppers or spice.

Play with the cheese mixture.

I'm sure there are other add-ins that would be great too! 

I made mine twice. Once to bring to work, and again the next night for dinner. 

Mix, fill mushrooms, top with enchilada sauce, and bake.

The ones I did for work, I baked in the morning and then transferred them to a slow cooker and kept it on low heat throughout the day. They were still great 8 hours later!

Oh, and I had none left. Near the end of the day, a few people ran to grab whatever what left. :-)

Before the enchilada sauce.

I didn't get a photo after they came out, but they looked pretty similar to these ones.

Get the FULL recipe here, at Laurens Latest.

Pinterest Pinday Mini Cakes

Todays Pinday post is centered around mini cakes. 

These things are really neat looking. 

I've purchased the cakes that are baked into glass canning jars before, but these take it a step further.
Mashing up your cake with your frosting?
Baking them in your leftover green beans can from last nights dinner?
Yeah, this takes the cake! (pun intended. baha)

Counter clockwise from top left:

• How to make a single serving mini cake. If you cut the top and bottom off a can and cover the bottom with tin foil, you can fill it up halfway with cake batter and bake it! Once it's completely cooled, flip it over and shake it out of the can to decorate.
  
• You can either decorate your cake easy with some icing on top, or get fancy with it! This person has already decorated this one with a monogram of my initial. Maybe it was meant just for me? haha!

• Bright green and swirl decorated cake pops! Bake a cake, and then crumble the entire thing into a bowl. Take your icing and mix it into the cake crumbles. Yes, you have to use your hands and yes, you will get messy!
  
• Once you have your mix, form into balls and put a stick in each one (if you want them on sticks. you could just keep them as balls and set them in mini cupcake wrappers). Melt some chocolate in the microwave or a double burner and dip the balls into it, placing them on parchment paper to cool in the fridge. The second lovely decorated bunch came from here.