Easter 2011

Happy Easter to all that celebrate this blessed holiday...

Easter dessert was at my house this year. I love decorating the dining room for all occasions, celebrations and parties. For our Easter dessert table this year, I decorated with printables from Anders Ruff's EASTER has SPRUNG Printable Design Collection, and found some wonderful tutorials and great recipes on the internet to make it all come together. I even made a very novice tutorial of my own on how to make a decorative paper wrap for a 6-pack plant container for a quick tablescape decoration.

Follow below to see all the fun tutorials and great recipes ... all great things to use for any celebration...just use your imagination...


Desserts and Colored Easter Eggs to be had later in the day after eating at a local restaurant for an Easter buffet.


Edible Easter Grass...very strange...kinda tastes good...the kids got a kick out of it.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the filling:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
¾ cup creamy peanut butter
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ tsp. vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Cake:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 cup sour cream
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
2 large eggs

For the Peanut Butter Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
½ cup creamy peanut butter
3¼ cups confectioners’ sugar

reheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

To make the cake batter, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; whisk together and set aside. In a liquid measuring cup, stir together the sour cream, milk and vanilla extract. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar, and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix just until incorporated.

Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter and peanut butter until smooth. Slowly mix in the confectioners’ sugar, beating until smooth and well blended. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.

Lemon Angel Pie (this was my favorite)
Recipe from Your Homebased Mom

Lemon Angel Pie

Ingredients:
4 eggs, exasperated
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups whipping cream

Directions:
Beat 4 egg whites, gradually add 1 cup sugar and cream of tartar. Beat until stiff, but not dry. Spread on bottom and sides of buttered 9 inch pie pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes. Cool.

Take 4 egg yolks and beat slightly. Stir in 1/2 cup sugar, 3 Tbsp. lemon juice and 1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind, 1/4 tsp. salt. Cook until thickened in microwave for 4 minutes (stir every 30 seconds) Cool.

Whip 2 cups whipping cream and fold 1/2 of whip cream into lemon mixture. Pour into cooled meringue shell. Top with the remaining whip cream. Chill for 24 hours.

Napkins & Forks (for eating yummy desserts)




Wrapped each yellow fork with a pink paper napkin, then tied a "Happy Easter" tag on each one with ribbon (tags from the Easter has Sprung printable design collection).

Easter Egg Coloring

From this ..



To This..








My daughter's quote on the yellow egg above "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" ... her favorite saying.



Kids working hard on their egg coloring.

Paper Crafting

A few close-ups of how I used Anders Ruff Easter has Sprung Design Printables


For an added touch of Easter-ness, I made some paper covered clothespins withe Anders Ruff printable paper and tags (using my paper covered clothespin tutorial from this past Christmas)



My daughter has quite the collection of Iwako erasers .. she even had a watering can and flowers to add to our Easter grass decoration.


Easy as 1-2-3 Happy Easter banner

From the Easter has Sprung collection, I printed the Easter banner on cardstock and cut out each letter and sewed the letters to some dark pink pom-pom trim and ribbons.









Cupcake Socks

I like to add one handmade gift to my kids baskets. This year it was Cupcake Socks. Seven Thirty Three has come up with an adorable gift idea using those thick cozy socks. Here’s her tutorial on how to make sock cupcakes! For the paper cupcake holders I some of the printable paper designs from the Easter has Sprung design collection. I cut a decorative borders around the 12 x 2.5 paper using my paper border punch.

I made two cupcakes for each of my kids. Each cupcake has 3 no-show socks rolled up, topped with a Dove chocolate Easter egg. I wrapped each cupcake in a plastic treat bag and tagged each one. Each treat bag had a card saying, "This cupcake in not to eat. It was 'baked' with love to warm your feet!" Love, The Easter Bunny (got this from Seven Thirty Three).

6-pack Plant Wrap

I love fresh flowers but didn't have a chance to get Easter flowers so I grabbed a 6-pack of pansies at the grocery store and my plan was to plant them in a decorative container but I didn't get the chance to get that either...so I quickly made this 6-pack planter wrap for the pansies and placed the pansies on some plastic and then put this cute little wrap around them. This worked great since the pansies were only going to be on the table for a couple of days and wouldn't need watering.

Cut a 10 inch x 2 inch piece of decorative paper


Make a decorative border using a border punch






Cut this strip of paper into two pieces so that you have a 6 inch x 2 inch and 4 inch x 2 inch


Line up the two pieces of paper (front to back), punch holes in each corner with a paper hole puncher.


Slide a piece of ribbon through the punched holes in each corner


tie in a knot or bow


Trim the ribbon to desired length


After tieing the sides together, open like a book and you will have something like the above. You will now want to make another one of these and then be sure to tie all the sides together to make a bottomless box.








Place your 6-pack wrap around the container of flowers and then place all on a tray or something that will keep your table from getting wet or dirty from the plants.

Earth Day

Earth Day was on Good Friday, the same day we were coloring Easter eggs. Without doubt there's always an egg or two that don't make through the color process. So I kept those egg shells, cleaned them out and then sowed some herbs in them in honor of Earth Day. (This would be in addition to the 700 plus seeds I have sowed for my gardens this year).

Flower Eggs

Some where on Facebook a DIY tutorial from Pizzazzerie for flower eggs popped up and I was totally drawn to them and HAD to make them!! I SOooooooooo love her blog and I'm in total awe of her talent. I could droll all day reading her blog along with reading Anders Ruff...

Here is what I came up with using her tutorial . Of course I had to make one in every color...they were fun and easy to make and oh, so cheerful.

Happy Easter