Butterfly Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 package Classic Yellow Cake Mix
• 1 cup water
• ⅓ cup Vegetable Oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 can Frosting Creations Frosting Starter
• 1 packet Frosting Creations Strawberry Shortcake Flavor Mix
• 1 can Classic Creamy Vanilla Frosting
• mint cream filled chocolate cookies
• black licorice
• jelly beans
• rainbow ribbon sour candy

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 325°F for Dark Coated Pans. Grease and flour 2 8” cake pan.
2. Prepare yellow cake mix and pour cake batter into the prepared pans and bake.
3. Bake for 26-31 minutes. Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. COOL in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.
4. Cut one 8" cake in half and then cut the side panel of the Duncan Hines box to use as a template.
5. Place the Side Panel template in the center of the cake and perpendicular to the cut in the cake. Mark the cake at this point.
6. While holding the template score the cake on the opposite side of the template at the cake outer edge.
7. Remove the template and cut from the outer edge to the mark made in the center. These cuts will be off centered wedges that form the butterfly’s wings.
8. Pick one cake side and place the curved edges touching so the flat cut center is now on the outside.
9. Separate the wedges and the shape of the butterfly becomes apparent.
10. Frost the cake with your frosting creations strawberry shortcake flavor mix.
11. Outline the wings of the butterfly with vanilla frosting using a sandwich bag with a ¼ inch hole cut in the corner.
12. Decorate with cream filled cookies separated and jelly beans place black licorice in the center to form the body and finish with rainbow ribbon candy for the butterfly’s antennae.

Source:  duncanhines.com

JELL-O Frozen Freedom Pops

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4Qqs6a9ua40?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Ingredients:

• 1-1/3 cups boiling water, divided
• 1 pkg. (3 oz.) JELL-O Strawberry Flavor Gelatin
• 1 pkg. (3 oz.) JELL-O Berry Blue Flavor Gelatin
• 1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
• 2 cups cold milk

Directions:

• 1. Add 2/3 cup boiling water to each flavor gelatin mix in separate small bowls; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Pour each flavor gelatin into separate 8x4-inch loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.
• 2. Unmold gelatins; cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Beat pudding mix and milk in medium bowl with whisk 2 min. Add gelatin cubes; stir gently.
• 3. Spoon into 8 (5-oz.) paper cups. Insert wooden popstick into center of each. Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Peel off cups before serving.

• Kraft Kitchen Tips:
• Substitute:
• Substitute 2 cups softened vanilla ice cream for the prepared pudding.
• Note:
• Place any leftovers in airtight container; freeze up to 1 month.
• Substitute:
• Substitute JELL-O White Chocolate Flavor Instant Pudding for the Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding.

Source: Jello.com

Easter Basket Cupcakes

• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Servings: 24

Ingredients:

1    box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® yellow cake mix

Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

1    container Betty Crocker® Whipped fluffy white frosting

Green-colored sour candy separated into strips

Jelly beans or other desired candies

Directions:

• 1 Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.
• 2 Make and bake cake mix as directed on box for 24 cupcakes. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• 3 Frost with frosting. Use candy strips for handle on each. Decorate with candy as desired. Store loosely covered.

Expert Tips:

Make your fun Easter Basket Cupcakes even cuter! Pick up fun foil or fancifully decorated muffin cup liners at cake decorating or party supply stores.

To make basket handles the same size, use the handle from the first basket to measure the length for the rest.

If you have only one pan and a recipe calls for more cupcakes than your pan will make, cover and refrigerate the rest of the batter while baking the first batch. Cool the pan about 15 minutes, then bake the rest of the batter, adding 1 to 2 minutes to the bake time.

Source:  bettycrocker.com

Bird Nests With Fruity Eggs

• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Servings: 8

Ingredients:

1        tablespoon butter

1 1/2  cups marshmallows

2        cups Chocolate Chex™ cereal

1        box Betty Crocker™ Fruit Roll-Ups™ Blastin' Berry Hot Colors™ chewy fruit flavored snacks

1        box Betty Crocker™ Fruit Gushers™ Tropical Flavors fruit flavored snacks

Directions:

• 1 Spray 8 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray; set aside.
• 2 In medium microwavable bowl, heat butter uncovered on High 20 to 30 seconds or until melted. Mix in marshmallows; microwave uncovered on High for 30-second intervals until marshmallows are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Add cereal; mix until fully combined. With greased hands, add about 1/4 cup cereal mixture to each muffin cup, and press gently to mold into a nest shape.
• 3 Unroll and remove paper from Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups snack labeled Blazin' Blue/Green. Use small kitchen scissors to cut out from green portion of snack for strips of "grass," and place in the nests. Top with 3 "eggs," using Betty Crocker Fruit Gushers snacks of varying colors. Remove from muffin cups, and store covered up to 5 days.

Expert Tips:

To make mini bird nests, use mini muffin cups, and add 1 rounded tablespoonful cereal mixture to each muffin cup.

Source: bettycrocker.com

Marshmallow Witches

It's getting closer to Halloween and you need to be ready for those trick or treeters'.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vanilla frosting, divided
36 miniature semisweet chocolate chips
12 large marshmallows
1 drop each green, red and yellow food coloring, optional
1/4 cup flaked coconut
12 chocolate wafers
12 miniature peanut butter cups
12 milk chocolate kisses

Directions:

For the face of each witch, place a dab of frosting on the bottom of three chocolate chips; press two for eyes and one for nose onto each marshmallow.
For hair, combine green food coloring and a drop of water in a small resealable plastic bag; add coconut and shake well. Spread a small amount of frosting on sides of marshmallows; press coconut hair into frosting. Place 3 tablespoons of frosting in a small heavy-duty resealable plastic bag; tint orange with red and yellow food coloring. Set aside.
For hats, spread some of the remaining frosting in the center of chocolate wafers; press peanut butter cups upside down into frosting. Lightly spread bottoms of chocolate kisses with frosting; place on peanut butter cups. Cut a small hole in the corner of pastry or plastic bag; insert a small star tip. Fill the bag with frosting and pipe stars around the base of each peanut butter cup.

Secure a hat to each witch with a dab of frosting.

Yield: 1 dozen.

Source: Recipe.com

Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookies

 
Ingre­di­ents:

3 lg egg whites ( be very sure that no yolk remains in the whites, the fat will pre­vent the whites from peak­ing correctly)
3/4 cup gran­u­lated sugar
scant 1/4 tea­spoon cream of tar­tar (egg whites ben­e­fit from a small bit of acid to help them whip right)
A pip­ing bag (cake dec­o­rat­ing bag)
bak­ing sheets lined with either parch­ment or sil­pat liners
Wilton Black Sparkle dec­o­rat­ing gel

Direc­tions:

Sep­a­rate the whites from the yolks. Save the yolks in the fridge for another recipe. Let whites rest on counter until room tem­per­a­ture. Place in a very clean, dry bowl of a mixer. Beat at a low speed until whites look frothy & cloudy.

Increase mix­ing speed to medium and add the cream of tartar.

Mix until whites reach soft peak stage. The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites droop slightly, when the beater is turned off and lifted.

Increase mixer speed to high. Add the sugar at this stage. I added it at a steady stream on the inside edge of the bowl. Beat until firm peaks form. The egg white foam will become smooth, moist and shiny. Stop the beat­ers and then lift them — straight peaks should form.

Now con­tinue beat­ing on high until stiff peaks are formed. Whites will be very stiff and glossy. Make sure they are com­plete to this stage if you want defined peaks at the top of your cookies.

If you need a guide for the size of the meringues, use parch­ment and draw 1 inch cir­cles in pen­cil on one side of the parch­ment. They can be as close as an inch apart as the meringue doesn’t spread as it bakes. Flip the parch­ment over and place on the bak­ing sheet. You should be able to see the pen­cil lines through the parchment.

Pre­heat your oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.

I find that for these ghosts, just using the open­ing of the pip­ing bag instead of a dec­o­rat­ing tip worked best.

Scoop the meringue into the pip­ing bag.

Close and pipe cir­cles onto the parch­ment, fill­ing to fit the cir­cles. Pipe out the meringue in the shape of lit­tle ghosts. Pull up at the end to make the peak. The tips should look like choco­late kisses. Just prac­tice to get this shape. The not-perfect ones still taste deli­cious, and the vari­ety gives the ghosts personality!

When all meringue is used or pans are filled, place into the oven for 1 hour and 30 min­utes. Don’t peek! Let set on pans for a few hours after done bak­ing before dec­o­rat­ing. They are a lit­tle frag­ile, espe­cially at the tip, but so yummy!

When cooled, add eyes and a mouth using dec­o­rat­ing gel. Make them dif­fer­ent look­ing to give the ghosts some charm!

Pretty sim­ple huh? How many cook­ies you pro­duce will depend on the shape and size. These ghosts were about 1 1/2 inches across the bot­tom, and about 2 inches tall.

Source: secretlifeofachefswife.com