Friday, June 28, 2013

Craft Corner: DIY Patriotic Hanging Medallion


Here is a super easy and kid friendly craft DIY for your upcoming 4th of July celebrations. The list of supplies is very short and the costs are minimal. Gather the following materials in whatever color combinations you want. I chose to use red,white, and blue supplies for a Patriotic theme but these could be made for anything.

You'll need:


First you need to mush the centers of the paper straws as flat as you can get them and cross them over each other alternating colors and fanning them out in a complete circle. I put double sided tape in between each one but you could use hot glue as well. 

 


Once the straws are done, set them aside and begin the baking cups. I folded each one back and forth from edge to edge like a roman shade then folded each one in half. I taped each edge to the other of the next cupcake liner in order until i had the full circle done as well. You could certainly use more baking cups but i only used 4. 
 


This is the step where i tied a little baker's twine around the center so i could hang my medallion. I then taped (or you could hot glue) the liner medallion over the center of the straws. From there I designed a quick Happy 4th graphic that i then punched out with a scalloped edge paper punch. You could also have your kids decorate a punched out circle before you tape it over the center then hang it up for all to see. 
 


This could be made with any paper supplies you might have laying around or ones that you plan on coordinating with for a styled party. The possibilities are endless! 
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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

I spy..... VeeV Vitafrute

We are so honored to have our fun, bright striped paper straws included in the VeeV VitaFrute launch party in New York for VeeV Spirits. How fun is this Style Your Own Cocktail setup? This would also be a super fun idea for any kind of party with options for drinks, sweets, or even favors! 


      


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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Craft Corner: Easy DIY Straw Flag



I love to give away freebies and our party straws flags are one of those things. After doing my daughter's pastel princess 2nd birthday party and cutting out each one of those straw flags by hand, I realized that it's kind of a pain in the butt actually. It is cute but pretty time consuming and after pulling an all nighter because the stomach virus hit our family at the exact wrong time, I wanted to use a whole different and so much easier one next time. After all, who has time to waste?

So, here is the easiest straw flag you will ever make! Here is what you need: pretty paper straws, patterned paper or designed graphics if you are into that sort of thing (which i am!), scissors, pretty washi tape, and this oh so easy and cute flag paper punch. I got mine from Hobby Lobby but they also have this one on Amazon. It is my most favorite recent purchase.




Print out your graphics if you chose to go that route and take that or your patterned paper and insert it into the paper punch and punch away. You'll instantly have as many flags as you want. See where the whole cutting by hand is skipped? From there, cut a piece of super cute washi tape to match and tape it on your straw. That's it! See, i told you it was easy and really how adorable is it? These would even be cute as easy cupcake toppers or skip the straw and use the flags for cake bunting. So may easy ways to incorporate this!




Enjoy!



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Sunday, April 28, 2013

How to fill and bake cupcakes evenly

The most common question i get is how i would recommend to fill our liners so that the cupcakes bake evenly without adding a lot of extra time to the baking process. Although this certainly does not just apply to our baking cups, those are the ones i have experience baking in. I don't use those silly cupcake pan fillers, piping bags, or even measuring cups. My method is simple, easy, and fast. In addition to the usual (mixer, batter, and cupcake liners), I use a rubber spatula that has a flat side and a medium OXO cookie scoop. 



I fill the cookie scoop completely and run the rubber spatula over the top to scrape off any extra batter. This gives me constantly the exact same amount of batter each time. 



From there, i squeeze the handle of the scooper and drop the batter into the cupcake liner and I do this twice with the medium scoop. 
 


This particular scoop I found works better with two scoops than the batter in one large scoop because it is too much batter. You can experiment with your own and find the perfect fit for you. You may like a little more batter than I do. That's it! It's not difficult or any more time consuming than trying to measure or wipe out the spoon/scoop to make sure all the batter gets out. This cookie scoop has a mechanism inside of it that scrapes the scoop for you.

I have found this to be the easiest and most effective way to fill the pans for uniformly sized cupcakes. The key here is to scrape the top with the spatula since not doing so could allow inconstant amounts of batter into the liner depending on how much is sitting on the scoop once you remove it from the batter.


 
 
It sounds simple i know but it's the most common question i get regarding our liners and the result once the cupcakes are baked in them. We care about the quality AND look of your cupcakes.



Happy baking!

 

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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Giveaway: Your Cup of Cake Cookbook!

We finally got our beautiful Your Cup of Cake Cookbook and looky there, we bought two! One for me and one for you! This gorgeous book is full of mouth watering pictures and recipes as well as some tips and tricks so you can make cupcakes just as beautiful and delicious as you see in the cookbook. We have been patiently waiting for ours since it was being made and now we are sharing it with you!



I am so honored to have our beautiful cupcake liners featured in Lizzy's cookbook including our elegant damask print liner right on the title page of her book! Happy to admit I squealed with delight at seeing them there. Here is a sneak peek.  You will not want to miss out, I promise!



If you happen not to be the luck winner, you can still get your very own cookbook here. Entering is easy. There are also extra chances to win below by liking a few of both of our pages and pinning your favorite Sweets & Treats baking cup and favorite Your Cup of Cake cupcake recipe. Contest going on through the weekend. Good luck!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Sunday, March 10, 2013

Real Parties: Pastel Princess 2nd Birthday Party

My sweet little girl is turning two and when trying to decide what to do for her party, i just had to go with a Cinderella inspired birthday because she is quite obsessed with all things Cinderella and Disney princess. I thought blue was a bit too boyish so i incorporated some purple in the theme to make it a little more feminine. Our local inflatables shop had a Cinderella castle so i booked that, booked the face painter, and got to designing the printables.




This party was a little rushed since it's only been 4 weeks since i had my newborn son so things have been a little lot hectic around here. I was looking for the perfect carriage that i could keep as well and found this little gem. Isn't it precious? 



Other blue and purple decor goodies are from the ever amazing Hobby Lobby.

I wanted to use plastic mason jars and plastic kiddie cups so i wouldn't have any broken glass to clean up. There is just too much commotion at birthday parties to have to worry about that. 



I designed party circles which we used on our gumball favors and on the table banner as well as the tent cards for food labeling and water bottle labels around mini bottles. All candy was purchased from Oh Nuts, our favorite candy supplier.

 
 
 
  
Our adorable cupcake/straw pop stand came from our friends at Cupcake Stand. isn't it perfect? You can use however many tiers you need and each shelf is reversible to go from cupcake stand to straw pop stand in just a turn of your wrist. What an amazing idea!




To match the printables, we use the stripe light purple, stripe light blue, and stripe gray paper straws along with the chevron light blue and dot light blue goodie bags and damask aqua and damask purple baking cups. You can find the Pastel Princess printables online in our shop.
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Friday, February 22, 2013

Recipe Share: White Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Yum. Seriously, YUM! These cupcakes from Shugary Sweets look amazing. Loving the white chocolate with these instead of the usual chocolate you see teamed up with it. Our Chevron Lime cupcake liners look fantastic with these - just in time for St. Patrick's Day festivities! You can find the full post here.



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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Recipe Share: Strawberry Colada Cupcakes

I am a sucker for anything with coconut in it but strawberry too? I'm sold. These cupcakes look delicious and oh so pretty baked in our Rugby Stripe Pink baking cups! Another mouth watering cupcake from Lizzy at Your Cup of Cake. These are easy to make and different enough that they aren't the standard white or chocolate cupcakes you bring to an event. These are a refreshing flavor combo that is sure to please. How great would these look out on a table at a bridal shower? Love them! Find the full recipe here.


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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

New Product Alert: Chevron Paper Straws

We are beyond excited to introduce our newest pattern of paper straw: Chevron Paper Straws! They have thicker lines of color and thinner lines of white making up the chevron pattern. They come packaged just as our other straws come packaged, in a clear 25 count box as pictured below.


We have 12 colors with more on the way! Red, Orange, Yellow, Lime Green, Mint Green, Teal Green, Blue, Light Blue, Pink, Light Pink, Black, and Gray are currently in stock and available for immediate shipment. See the color comparisons below. Mix and match with our current straws for your party decor.


Our paper straws are thicker thank most and extremely sturdy. They are used by many companies all over the world and trusted to hold their sweets up without bending. Our paper straws are perfect for cake pops, cookie pops, marshmallow pops, party decor, pixie sticks, cupcake toppers, and of course drink sipping! You can find our entire paper straw offering here. We sell bulk paper straws starting at a 40 pack minimum.

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Monday, February 11, 2013

Recipe Share: “So What? I’m Single.” Cupcakes

Here is a delicious chocolate cupcake filled with marscapone cheese filling with chocolate cream cheese buttercream icing from Lizzy at Your Cup of Cake. We love the unique cupcake flavoring she comes up with for all of her cupcakes. These cupcakes are baked in our beautiful purple damask cupcake liners. See the full recipe here.


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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Recipe Share: PB&J Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes

Betsy from Java Cupcake's birthday is today and to celebrate, she made Peanut Butter & Jelly birthday cupcakes baked in our chevron pink cupcake liners and they look amazing! That is one of my favorite flavor combos. These are definitely a must make. Check out her post including the recipe and mouth watering photos. You can find the full recipe here.



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Friday, February 8, 2013

Tutorials: Frosting Cupcakes 101

Want frost cupcakes like a pro? Check out this how to {video included} from Make.Bake.Celebrate discussing what products to use and even a link to a buttercream recipe perfect for flavoring and coloring. Loving the beautiful purples in this post!! You can find the chevron purple and solid purple baking cups here.



There are so many piping tips, frosting bags, food colors, buttercream recipes, baking cups, and sprinkles out there so it is easy to feel overwhelmed when first starting your baking endeavors. Toni covers everything there is about frosting cupcakes and video tutorials are also included. It just takes practice!


 
 

Happy frosting!



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Thursday, February 7, 2013

Recipe Share: Almond Joy Cupcakes

While i am loving the theme Make.Bake.Celebrate has going with it's candy bar cupcakes recently, this is the one that I just can't do without making. Almond Joy is by far my absolute favorite candy bar. The sweet coconut is fantastic and the little almond adds just the perfect nutty touch. I'm a sucker for anything coconut really so when I saw this post, i knew i had to have it and most importantly, share it with you! You can find those blue baking cups she uses on our site here.

Be prepared, you will drool as soon as you look at this post so grab a napkin and get reading! You can find the full post here.




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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Love Note Sweetheart Shake

Just look at this uber creative idea from Christi at Love From The Oven. Who would have ever thought to use dry erase markers on a glass for a dessert? Loving this and all the creative possibilities that go with it. Just change out the flavors of the shake, sprinkles, toppings, and colors of your paper straws. Birthdays, anniversaries, short and sweet notes for your kids or hubby.... Love this!!


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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Tutorial: Welcome baby! Fondant topper tutorial

We are proud to announce the newest addition to our Sweets & Treats family - a newborn baby boy! Please be patient with us as we will be light staffed for the new few weeks.

In the meantime, what better way to announce our news than to share this adorable baby cupcake topper made just for him from our sweet friend Toni at Make.Bake.Celebrate! Check out her step by step tutorial on her blog! ♥ These would make an adorable addition to any baby shower.



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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Real Parties: For the Love of Chevron

Check out this beyond adorable Chevron Valentine's Party on DimplePrints today styled by EZ Favors Lollipop Shop! I'm a little partial to it for the prints and color combos as well as our gray chevron cupcake liners used. ;) Links to the vendors are included as well. Lots of great ideas!


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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Recipe Share: Butterfinger Cupcakes

Butterfinger isn't my favorite candy bar but how could I not resist trying them if THIS is what they looked like?? Check out Make.Bake.Celebrate's step by step recipe here. This is also the first time I've seen our bright yellow greaseproof cupcake liners baked with chocolate cake. They came out perfect. ♥ I can't wait to see what other candy bar themed cupcakes she comes up with next!


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Monday, January 28, 2013

Rice Krispies Treat Pops

How cute are these quick Kellogg's Rice Krispies Pops from Love From The Oven - Queen of the sweets on a stick straw?! Change up the color sprinkles and our paper straws to fit your theme! ♥



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Saturday, January 26, 2013

Tutorial: How to make Cookie Pops

Want to see how easy Oreo cookie pops are to make? Check out the tutorial just posted by Christi at Love From The Oven. They are a great no bake sweet treat. Perfect for the upcoming school holiday parties if you are running low on time. Read the tutorial here. Christi uses our paper party straws for her cookie pops. They are sturdy enough to withstand the weight and oh so colorful! Mix and match with different color sprinkles for any look to match any party decor!



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