Homemade Marshmallow Fondant

Yesterday I had some fun making homemade marshmallow fondant. I've worked with fondant before--and everyone knows fondant isn't the greatest tasting.. but I'd heard that marshmallow fondant tasted way better. I didn't realize how easy it was to make! Literally 3 ingredients: mini marshmallows, powdered sugar, and water. Viola, you have homemade fondant. I made carrot cake cupcakes, frosted them with cream cheese frosting, then decorated them with my homemade fondant flowers.. and I think they turned out really cute! Here's how to make the fondant:

Ingredients:
16 ounces of mini marshmallows
2 lbs of powdered sugar
2-5 Tbsp of water
A little bit of Crisco (for kneading)

Directions:
1. In a large pot, melt the marshmallows and 2 Tbsp of water. It should be almost liquid.

2. Next, add 3/4 of the bag of powdered sugar and mix thoroughly. Knead the rest of the powdered sugar in. Note: be sure to grease the counter and your hands before kneading.

3. Now add your color, then knead knead knead! Knead for about 7 minutes until fondant is soft and pliable--if it starts feeling dry, add a tablespoon of water at a time.

4.For storing, first grease the outside of the ball, then double wrap in saran wrap and put in a Ziploc bag to keep moist. If you're using it right away, then you can just skip this step.

5. If you're using it right away, then sprinkle some powdered sugar on your workspace and start rolling it out--then cut whatever shapes you need.

SO easy! I was so excited about how this turned out.. and I love my little flowers!

Rolo Ritz Crackers

The other day I told you how Joe suggested we bake some desserts to cheer me up. I shared the pumpkin chocolate chip brownies recipe with you, but I haven't shared this one with you. This is just about as easy it gets. Quick and tasty--the perfect combination.

For this "recipe" (if you even want to call it that), all you'll need is some Ritz and some Rolos.

First, preheat your oven to 350°.

Next, on a cookie sheet, lay out however many ritz you want to make. Place a Rolo on top of each Ritz, then put in the oven for about 3 minutes--Just enough tinge to get the Rolos soft, but not melted.

Take out of oven then place another Ritz Cracker on top of the Rolo and press down, creating a sandwich.

Eat right away.

And there you go--SO easy and a delicious sweet-and-salty snack. Yum!

Open for Business!

After seeing my "announcement" post on Facebook, you guys were expecting me to say I'm pregnant, right? Well sorry to disappoint--I'm not. But I AM open for business now!

I have fun banking cakes, cupcakes and cookies, I've taken cake orders for friends and family and made cakes for their events, and I've got the time to do it, so why not?!

Each cake order is unique in its own way so you'll have to email me for a price quote, but keep me in mind next time you have a birthday party, housewarming party, or any event for that matter. You definitely won't pay bakery prices with me! ;)

Check out my website!
www.frostingfanatic.com

Business cards are designed and just need to be ordered, I'm all set up on yellowpages.com and yelp, and I'm ready to go!

Send me an email if you're interested! frostingfanatic@live.com

I'm excited for this new venture and I hope you'll all keep me in mind! :)

Growing Up

When did my sweet, innocent little Maverick turn into a disgusting little boy--and I mean that with all of the love in the world. Its as if a stitch was flipped, and he's no longer my well-behaved little guy.. now he just constantly burps and farts--then laughs hysterically. Its disgusting. I know that "that's what boys do" --but that doesn't mean it's an excuse for him to be rude. Of course he says "excuse me" every time, but that's not enough for me. I'm currently in major damage control mode. Its ridiculous.

And while we're on the subject of not being a little boy anymore, I just heard him telling Madison to do something bad. Madison said "no, mom will get mad" and he said "yeah, but it'll be funny." Uhhhhh. I told him that if he tells Madison to do bad things, he gets in trouble too. That shut that operation down quick.

Is this what having an older brother is like?! Them burping and farting on you, then telling you to do bad things to get you in trouble? Obviously I have two sisters so I have no idea, but I've heard stories.

These kids, I swear! I'm going to have a full head of grey hair by the time I'm 30!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies

Yesterday was the first day of September! Even though it's still 3 more weeks until it's officially Fall, holiday season has already started at the Hawes household. Autumn decorations are up, the house smells of pumpkin spice (thanks to my Bath and Body Works wallflowers!), and craft and baking ideas are swirling around my head. Yesterday I was bummed out because I wanted to go to our friends' housewarming party, but the kids were being absolutely awful so we skipped the party and put them down for naps instead. Joe, seeing that I was bummed out, suggested that we bake something. This guy really gets me. Normally he doesn't like when I bake (because it means that we'll have sweets in the house and he'll want to eat them), but he knew that it would cheer me up. Once he suggested it, I pulled up my 'desserts' board on pinterest and found a few ideas. We ended up making not one, but TWO different sweets.. and the first one, being that it was September 1st, was pumpkin chocolate chip brownies.

These are very light and only have 1 Tbsp. of vegetable oil in them, so they're not SO bad for you. They're very quick to make and VERY delicious! Enjoy!

Mix your pumpkin, oil, eggs, and egg whites.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients then pour into greased pan and bake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1  whole egg
2 egg whites
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2/3 cup Brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Line an 11" x 7" inch pan with parchment paper.

In large bowl, combine pumpkin puree,  eggs and oil until smooth. Set aside.

In a separate medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, spices and brown sugar. Add wet ingredients and mix until tboroughly incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Last night I made this amazing tilapia for dinner. I was looking through pinterest and thought this looked delicious. It only takes a few ingredients, and literally takes 10 minutes start-to-finish to make this. It was so good, I think I might make it again for dinner tonight!

Ingredients:
4 Tilapia filets
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/8 cup of butter
1 1/2 tablespoons of mayo
1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of fresh dill
Pepper to taste

Directions:
Turn broiler on high and adjust oven rack to the top.

In a small bowl, combine all of the ingredients except for the tilapia. Set aside.

Place tilapia filets on a foil-lined pan.

Broil for 3 minutes.

Remove from oven, flip over, and divide parmesan mixture evenly over uncooked sides Of the tilapia.

Broil for an additional 3-4 minutes, making sure to not over-cook the fish.

Enjoy!

Dirty Windows?!

There are so many things that no one tells you about before you have kids. Sure, we know the obvious: you'll have tons of sleepless nights, change lots of diapers,  have endless laundry to do, have doctor appointments and play dates to chauffeur, and have mess after mess to clean up. But there's more--things people dont tell you about. 

Like your walls. No one ever told me that I would have FILTHY walls because I had kids. It's out of control. What makes it worse is that the previous owners of this house must have had some weird obsession with flat paint; this entire house was painted using flat paint: and we all know you can't scrub flat paint. We've slowly been painting everything using at least an eggshell finish, but this is a big house and it takes time. I never thought that having kids would turn me into Danny Tanner--but it sure as heck has. I didn't even know scrubbing walls was a thing--and I'm not talking about if the kids color on the walls (which my kids have never done.. knock on wood). I'm talking about their dirty, grimy hands getting all over the wall, and just seeing a general discoloration on the wall itself. I hate having to scrub my walls; I feel like a freak when I do it--but it has to be done.

Another thing? Apparently when you have kids, you're never allowed to have clean windows--ever. This rule is not limited to just the house; this goes for your car well. I can't even count how often I clean the windows on my sliding glass door out to my backyard--within 30 minutes, without fail, there are dirty, grimy fingerprints all over my freshly cleaned windows again. This happened in my car too. I bought a brand new car, and the same day I bought it, there were fingerprints all over the perfect brand new windows. 

What gives? At what age do they stop having an obsession with touching windows? I'm getting pretty tired of having to clean them--but it's gotta be done. Does everyone else's kids have obsessions with touching windows?!