All Things Lime

These women at the Secret Stitch Club are so cute! I LOVE the stuff they make. Sign up for a chance to win a free apron.

I love lime. With a sweet passion. Or a tart passion. Whatever way you see it. The color, the flavor, the fruit...I love it all. I've had this idea in the back of my mind for awhile to make Key Lime cupcakes with a Key Lime filling. Key limes were on sale so I picked up 20 for $1 and started searching for some good filled Key lime cupcake recipes. I found quite a few, but none were quite was I was looking for. So I combined and adapted recipes to fit my taste...a Graham cupcake (by Vanilla Garlic )with Key Lime curd filling (by Coconut & Lime) and a lime whipped cream cheese frosting (from allrecipes). I so loved the final product and wanted to share! Oh, don't worry. It's not just a recipe...if you make it to the end there's a giveaway too! Lime themed. :)

Filled Key Lime Cupcakes

Graham Cupcakes by Vanilla Garlic
Makes 20-24 cupcakes / 350 F oven

What You’ll Need...
1/2 cup of butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 cup of milk
1 cup of flour
1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt

What You’ll Do...1) Beat the butter for about 30 seconds until well creamed. Add the sugar and mix for 3 minutes using a paddle attachment until light and fluffy. 2) Add the eggs, one at a time, being sure to beat for 30 seconds for each egg. 3) Place graham crackers in a food processor or in a plastic bag and beat the crud out of them until it's been ground into small crumbs and powder. 4) Sift together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda and powder, and salt. Add about 1/4 of the mixture to the butter mixture, then add some of the milk. Continue to add the ingredients in a dry-wet-dry method, ending with the dry. Continue to mix until just combined. 5) Scoop into cupcake papers, only fill half-way, and bake for 15-18 minutes in a 350 F oven or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Key Lime Curd adapted from Coconut & Lime
3 eggs
6 TBLS butter
¾ cup sugar
½ cup key lime juice
1 tsp lime zest

Directions:
Over low heat, melt butter in saucepan. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk continuously for 8-10 minutes, or until mixture becomes a custard. Allow to cool. It will thicken as it cools. Pour into a jar or bowl, cover and refrigerate.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting (with added Key lime zest) from allrecipes
1 (8 oz package) of cream cheese
1 cup of white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups of heavy whipping cream
1 tsp lime zest

In a small bowl beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form; set aside. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Fold in whipped cream with cream cheese mixture. Add lime zest.

Putting it all together--

I use a really long tip (Wilton 230) to fill cupcakes. Just jab the tip into the middle of the cupcake and squeeze the curd into it. You know you have enough when the cupcake starts bulging on top. You can also cut a hold in the cupcake, fill it with the lime curd, and replace the cake.

Filled cupcakes.

Top it with the whipped cream cheese frosting and eat!

It seems like a lot of work, but it's really pretty easy. I made the key lime curd and the frosting the night before, so the next day all I had to do was make the cupcakes, fill, and frost. It's so worth it!

Now, in celebration of all things lime-y (is that a word??), we are giving away a Key Lime apron. Trimmed in ric rac, with a sweet bow and a pleated ruffle, this apron is perfect for baking (and eating) some Key Lime cupcakes in! Check it out:

You have three chances to win.

#1. Leave a comment telling us anything your heart desires. (Personally, I'd love to hear what your favorite cupcake flavor is...but whatever you wanna say, we'd love to hear!)

#2. Post on your personal blog about this giveaway and then come back a leave another comment telling us where to find it.

#3. Check out our Etsy site and then leave a comment telling us what you love. There are some new items up now, and more to come in the following weeks!

You will need to leave three separate comments to be entered three times. We will be using the Random Number Generator to determine the winner! You have until next Monday, July 6th at 11:59pm to enter. Good luck!

BONUS GIVEAWAY: Hey... this is Maren. I found this darling apron that I made for Etsy & decided it was too lime-a-licious to miss out on this fun limey giveaway so I decided instead of selling it I will just give it away for FREE (to celebrate me joining Etsy & Christie selling kids aprons). We will have a winner for Christie's green and white scrumptious apron above, and another pint sized winner for my "Cherry Limeade" child's apron. This is for a child size apron 2t-4t.

#4 - To enter for kid's apron, just leave a comment with your favorite summer drink and an email or way to contact you if you win!! Good Luck! Giveaway closes Monday July 6th 11:59 pm.

Free Giveaway

There is a Giveaway over at There is Fun to be Done. It is SO CUTE!

How to Boo

Skip to my Lou tells how to start the Boo for Valentines:

I can already feel the anticipation and excitement in the air—-days are cooler and Halloween is coming. One of our favorite traditions is “Booing.” I look forward to creating special “BOO” treats while my kids look forward to the ‘ding and dash’. As I watch them stealthily move across the front lawn only to hurriedly (and haphazardly) fling my creation at the front door—clearly I realize we get different things from this activity. We do all have a blast!

Most “Booing” involves having to photo copy instructions. We instead create a container that travels from door to door. The only thing the recipient needs to do is enjoy the goodies, refill the container and place on another friend’s door. Some people refuse to pass the container along (you know who you are) so we make a few in hopes they start making the rounds.

I am showing you what we did last year—because this year’s is TOP SECRET! We filled plastic pumpkins with supplies to make caramel apples and then ‘dressed’ it to look like a cat.

Simply cut out a cat face. You may use ours if you like.

Black Cat Mask Template

We cut our faces out of black poster board and then embellished with glitter. Be sure to check the space between the eyes on the plastic pumpkin. I noticed not all of these pumpkins are the same so the placement of the eyes might need to be adjusted. Hot glue the center of the mask to the front of a plastic pumpkin (we bought ours from Wal-Mart).

We attached the following booing poem to the handle.

Am I a jack or a cat that has come to say “BOO”?
All dressed up with treats for you.

Please fill me up with treats galore,
and take me to your friend’s front door.

Sit me down then push the bell.
Run real quick so no one can tell.

As I move from friend to friend,
Good Halloween wishes never end.

You might be interested in our ideas from previous years “Booing”

How to Boo (with PFD booing poem downloads)

So lets get busy and let the “Booing” begin!

You may find other ideas for celebrating Halloween here.

Pretzel Rods

From Life Frosting:


For the past four years I have made caramel and chocolate covered pretzel gifts for neighbors...so I thought Id better continue the tradition!

You will need: pretzels rods, kraft caramel squares, white chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips.

I add a little water to the caramel and then melt it in the microwave, and dip the rods in caramel. I use the back of a spoon to roll the caramel off and leave a thin layer. I lay them down on parchment paper and stick them in the fridge.

I dont add anything to the chocolate before I melt it, I put it in for 1 minute and then add 15 seconds if it needs it. I dip the rods in the chocolate just as I do with the caramel, using the same technique with the back of the spoon.

After they harden I drizzle the opposite color on them and then, WA LA!

Valentine Ideas

from Crafting Chicks:

Pillow Boxes

Another really easy one, I used a project already done at http://www.ggdigitaldesigns.com/. They have lots of darling premade Valentine things. Just printed them, cut out the template, and folded and taped together. Voila. You can fill these with little love treats.



Oh! And I also made these Treat Bag Toppers.

And last, but not least, I made Candy Bar Wrappers!!

Another really simple gift idea for this holiday of love. I made these for Brandon and Annie's school and primary teachers. Again, I used various papers and embellishments from http://www.ggdigitaldesigns.com/ . They are my product endorsement for the day. :) Printed them out, trimmed and used double-sided sticky tape to wrap around Hershey bars.

And I have a treat for you. I made the template to download and use!! I'm sharing the love.

Click here to download: http://www.4shared.com/file/37498495/ef46548a/Candy_Bar_Wrapper_Template.html

So, I also made a template to use on smaller candy bars, specifically the delicious Kit Kat bar. So here's what it looked like when I was done using the template:

I saved the whole thing as a jpeg, printed it as a 5x7 at Costco and trimmed the extra off (the template is a bit smaller than a 5x7 print). Then wrapped it around the Kit Kats. And here is how they turned out:

{I used the "Amore" kit from the free holiday sampler from www.shabbyprincess.com and stitched felt alpha by Dani Mogstad at www.sweetshoppedesigns.com }

So maybe you were thinking, "Hey, I want to make those too!" Well it's your lucky day, because I have made another template to give to you!

Here's the linky:

http://www.4shared.com/file/37440427/df980033/Small_Candy_Bar_Wrapper_Template.html

Thanks for those who leave comments and thank-yous when they download, it's just so nice. :)

And lastly but not leastly. Last year we had a fun little Valentine's Day dinner with the kids, a little scavenger hunt for surprises, and we had lots of fun playing BINGO with these little Valentine-themed bingo cards I made. I was REALLY nesting, if you can't tell. :)

{I made this with the "Schnookums" digital kit at www.ggdigitaldesigns.com }

Again, printed at Costco as a 5x7 and then I laminated each card. I made 4, one for each of us.

We used little candies to cover the numbers. We'll be bringing these out again this year, it was lots of fun. And here's the bingo template!!! Hooray!!!!

Click to download: http://www.4shared.com/file/37440398/a99cd2ec/Bingo_Card_Template.html

If you need help with the digital aspect of the projects, check out the tips and tutorials at Digital Scrapbook Memories:
http://www.digitalscrapbookmemories.com/digitalScrapbookTips.asp

Again, thank you for your comments and thank-yous when you download, it really is nice.

Have a lovely day!

Love, Brooke (www.brookie-wookie.blogspot.com)