Rainbow Sprinkle-fetti Cookies

Soft & thick cake mix cookies are loaded up with rainbow sprinkles & then topped with a perfect buttercream frosting in these Rainbow Sprinkle-fetti Cookies...

As some of you all may recall, my daughter turned four last month. (Yes, hold me. I can't believe how quickly she is growing up!) 

Her birthday happened to fall on one of the days of the week that she attends preschool, so I asked her if she would like to bring in a special treat to share with her friends at school that day. Of course, she was absolutely ecstatic about it. 

And to be perfectly honest, I was pretty excited about baking up a fun sweet treat for her classmates as well. ;) 

You see, my son is an August baby. And his actual birthday is always towards the end of summer break, so I never really got to bake anything for him to take to school and share with his class.

When I asked Little Miss what she wanted me to make for her class for her birthday, she had just two requirements- she wanted cookies and she wanted pink frosting on them. Okay. That was something I could definitely handle. :) 

Cake mix cookies happen to be one of my favorite cookies to bake. They are soft & thick, taste like cake, and happen to be crazy easy to make. 

So, I took a basic cake mix cookie dough and loaded it up with LOTS of rainbow sprinkles (because you can never have too many rainbow sprinkles!). Then I topped each of these cookies with a perfect pink buttercream and even more rainbow sprinkles. 

Let's just say that these Rainbow Sprinkle-fetti Cookies were a HUGE hit with her preschool friends and teachers...

Handmade~Homemade Birthday Celebration Giveaway #1

Good morning all!!  Yes, today is the day.  The one I have been waiting 35 years for.  ;)  It is my birthday! 

I wanted to share in my birthday celebration with all of my incredible followers out there.  Soooooo.... I put the word out there and got some crazy talented and creative (and generous!) fellow bloggers and etsy shop owners to donate their skills and crafty goods (and in some cases, a few gift cards. ;) ) to the party!  Be sure to tell ALL of these lovely ladies thank you!  Without them this awesome giveaway would not be happening.  

In fact, I had so many bloggers & small shop owners respond to my giveaway request that there will be TWO Handmade~Homemade Birthday Celebration Giveaways on my blog this week!  Yep.  This is only the first of two! (Be looking for giveaway #2 on Monday.)  

But before I get to the giveaway goodies, I have decided to give you all a little extra something for my birthday week. ;)  Until Saturday September 8th, you can get 35% off any of my A Bushel or A Peck sized ad spots with the promo code YAYBIRTHDAY.  Plus at least one of you who purchase an ad spot this week will get 30 extra days of advertising for FREE!  (I will pick a winner at random from the bloggers/shop owners who purchase an ad from today until next Saturday.)  Okay, now back to the giveaway and those fabulous handmade~homemade prizes...

So, what will the ONE big winner of Giveaway #1 get?  

(Yes, ONE winner takes all, folks!)

Just look below!  And also check out what each of their favorite birthday gifts are. ;)

I am giving the lucky winner of this giveaway a jar of my homemade Vanilla Spiced Peach Jam!  Yes, this is the same jam that I blogged about earlier this week. ;)

Looks towards the end of this post to see what one of my best birthday presents is. 

Amy from Rational Designs is giving our winner a set of 6 blank notecards featuring a large Chrysanthemum pattern printed in warm gold ink.

I'm sure I got some awesome presents when I was a kid, but by far my favorite present (that I still enjoy on a least a weekly basis) is my KitchenAid stand mixer.  A few years after my grandma died I was trying to re-create her recipe for Easter bread and having a crazy time of it, partially due to a lack of proper equipment.  (The other part is that I was, at that time, a baking novice.) A few months later he bought me a beautiful white 6-quart stand mixer that has seen countless batches of bread, cookies, and other goodies in the eight or so years since."

Ginny from Gems by Ginny is giving our winner a pair of her handmade lampwork bead earrings with pink and white roses.

"My favorite has to be my digital camera."

Karen from Patching Hearts is giving the winner a $5 Starbucks e-card to help fuel those late night crafting (or baking!) sessions.

"The best birthday present I have received would have to be a spa day!  With two toddlers, I needed the R&R."

Julie from This Gal Cooks is sending our winner this pretty 7x9 Squeegee Art print. 

"I can't say that I have a favorite birthday gift because I have enjoyed all of them, but I will say what one of my most memorable birthdays was.  It was my 25th birthday, the year after my dad passed away.  My cousins wanted to do something special for me so they invited me over for a little birthday celebration.  They baked a lemon cake for me and iced it with chocolate icing.  It was great!  I had a very good time with them."

Jessica from My Beautiful Life is going to make a custom friendship bracelet in the winner's choice of colors.

"The best birthday gift I ever received was tickets to a concert for my favorite band called BarlowGirl."

Sandra from Lara's Vintage is giving our very lucky winner a Custom Burlap Banner & a $10 Jo-Ann's gift card.

"My favorite birthday gift was my sewing machine."

So, what is one of my favorite birthday presents?

I have received so many wonderful birthday gifts over the years, but this year I received an ice cream maker as an early birthday gift from my parents!  I have been pining for one of these for a while.  Look for the Leave a Blog Post Comment entry in the Rafflecopter below and leave me a link to your favorite homemade ice cream recipe in the Comments section for 2 extra entries! ;)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Chocolate Covered Cherry Coke Cake

Another birthday... and yes, I decided to make another cake.  You may remember my post about my husband's delicious, yet god forsaken ugly Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake.  I swore in that post that I would never bake a cake again unless it was a bundt cake or cupcakes, and I have stayed true to that promise. ;)

For my son's birthday, I decided to combine a few of his favorites- fudgy chocolate and Cherry Coke.

I have always heard about those Coca-Cola chocolate cakes, and it has been on my list of recipes to try.  So, I thought why not try it with Cherry Coke instead of Coke?

I created this recipe from hodge podge of a couple of Coca-Cola chocolate cake recipes and one of my favorite bundt cake recipes, the Better Than Pretty Much Everything Chocolate Cake from the Is This Really My Life? blog.  I kind of pieced it together and prayed that it turned out edible.  Lucky for myself, my son, and our birthday party guests, it turned out decadently fabulous.

What you will need:

For the bundt cake:

16.5oz box of Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix

5.9oz box of Chocolate Fudge instant pudding mix

1/2 cup of sour cream

1 egg

12oz can of Cherry Coke

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

For the Chocolate Covered Cherry glaze:

1 cup of fresh cherries, pitted and halved

3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

3 tbsp of butter

1 tbsp light corn syrup

1/4 tsp vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a bundt pan with cooking spray and coat with flour.  Mix together all the ingredients for the bundt cake except for the chocolate chips.  Mix right away because the pudding mix will quickly make the batter thick.  Once the batter is well mixed, stir in the chocolate chips.  Pour into your prepared bundt cake pan and bake for about 55 minutes.  

Once baked, let the bundt cake cool for about an hour before turning it out onto a serving plate.

Halve and pit about 1 cup of fresh cherries.  I wish that I could tell you that I have a fancy trick for this, but I do not.  Someone told me to try using a straw to poke out the pits.  It sort of worked, but my knife and fingers worked them out way quicker.

Now for the Chocolate Covered Cherry glaze...

Melt the butter, chocolate chips, light syrup, and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often.  When completely melted and well incorporated, add the cherry halves.  Simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes.  Let it cool slightly (maybe 5 minutes), and then pour the chocolate and cherries over the top of the cooled cake.

 And there you go!  Chocolate Covered Cherry Coke Cake! :)  This cake is pretty rich, and oh so sinful.  It was really moist.  I was actually surprised at how much of the liquids were successfully replaced by the Cherry Coke in the recipe.  No oil, no water, and only 1 egg.  

Happy 14th Birthday to my sweet young man! 

Bring your favorite chocolate dessert to Roxana’s home baking #chocolateparty and win amazing prizes from OXO, Calphalon, Keurig, Imperial Sugar, Honey Ridge Farmsand Land O Lakes® Butter