Do It Your Freaking Self - Baking with Babies Archives

Easy Monster Cookie Cake

on October 17, 2017

This easy monster cookie cake is a super simple dessert to make for all of your Halloween parties! This giant cookie is an adorable crowd pleaser!

I was sitting at a friend’s BBQ over the summer and the topic of party desserts came up. As in, we were talking about all how our parents grabbed a cake from the store and had them put our names on it, or they picked up a ton of cupcakes. These days, especially living in LA, I have seen it all. Ice cream carts, cotton candy artists (yep, those exist), mini desserts that look like a mosaic…. and these are at KIDS parties. One of the things we missed most were those giant cookies; you know the ones I’m talking about. Chocolate chip cookies the size of your head (or bigger) instead of a cake. We’ve pretty much had them at every gathering since and I’ve gotta be honest… BEST DECISION EVER!!!

MAKE IT: Halloween Glow in the Dark Slime

This particular project, how stinkin cute is it?!? I had the candy eyes left over from my Hank the Octopus bark last year and then I thought I lost them and was about to buy more until I realized they were in a prop box – Someone help my unorganized self! Anyway, I found them and decided, yep. This is happening.

You really can’t mess this monster cookie cake up and I had very few dishes to do at the end so kitchen win!

Cake Mix Monster Cookie Cake

Time: 45 min start to finish
Cost: $5-10
Spooky level: Not at all – but super cute!

Ingredients:
1 Box cake mix – white or yellow
2 eggs
1/2 c room temp butter
Added sugar sprinkles for color – Green funfetti anyone?!?

Decorations:
1/2 can white frosting
Purple food coloring
Candy eyeballs
Sour gummy worms
Sprinkles!

Supplies:
Medium mixing bowl
Round pizza pan
Baking spray
Wooden spoon and Spatula

To make:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a round cake pan with baking or non-stick cooking spray.

Mix all cake ingredients together until fully incorporated. Use the back of a wooden spoon to make break up any lumps. Spread it evenly onto the pizza pan leaving 1/4 inch space from the edge – the cookie will expand!

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Let cool.

To decorate:
Mix white frosting and purple food coloring and spread evenly on top of cooled cookie cake.
Add sprinkles, candy eyeballs and sour gummy worms!

Are you in love with this as much as I am? PIN it to your Halloween or Party boards to save it for later!

SaveSave

ByChelsea

Strawberry Candy Bark with Valentines Treat Boxes

on January 12, 2017

This post may contain affiliate links. Purchasing through them helps support this website. Disclosure: I’m a proud Oriental Trading Blogger, and I received free products to faciliate today’s post. The opinions are my own.

Valentines day is just around the corner… or as I like to call it “Singles Awareness Day” or SAD for short. Because this year especially, it gets sad around these parts. But thankfully… a wonderful woman named Leslie Knope has given me something else to celebrate! Let me introduce you to Galentines Day.

“Oh it’s only the best day of the year. Every February 13th, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair, minus the angst. Plus frittatas.”

Basically it’s like Valentines Day, but instead of getting smoochy with your significant other, you’re spending it being awesome with your favorite gal pals. Get with it! The inspiration for today’s 3 Ingredient Strawberry Candy Bark? Well, I love the taste of strawberry and milk chocolate together and well, when I’m sad I’m eating chocolate. So this more of a selfish project, but who doesn’t want to eat chocolate for breakfast when they’re sad or celebrating? Win Win guys! I’m also giving these away as party favors for our Galentines day party this year!

For my Galentines Day Party, I teamed up with Oriental Trading to help you guys with all of your party planning needs. If you’re in need of some cool boxes, craft items, or valentines for the kids Oriental Trading has your back with their Valentines Shop! Stay tuned for the full party reveal soon!

Strawberry Candy Bark
Cost: $10 or less
Time: 30 min
Skill Level: Ridiculously easy

ByChelsea

New Years Eve Dessert Chocolate Bark

on December 27, 2016

Ya’ll!!! 2016 is almost over! And it couldn’t come soon enough. Go home 2016, you’ve been drunk, hung over, and now you’re drunk again. Anyway, I promised myself I wouldn’t work over the holiday break – I’ve had a lot of plates spinning this year, and not all of them the same color/size/type if you know what I mean. I think one of them was a bowl or something – but I made this New Years Eve Dessert Chocolate Bark for a friend’s pre-New Years Eve photoshoot and it was too cute and festive not to share!

Not to mention that I found the mini-marshmallows that usually come in hot chocolate, you know the ones, yeah, those get sold separately. They’re called Mallow Bits and they are the new staple at all of my parties. Hot chocolate bar? Mallow Bits. Chocolate pretzel station? Mallow bits. Anything with s’mores? Mallow Bits. Cupcake bar? Yep. Mallow Bits. I’m having them on everything and you can’t stop me. Day = made.

New Years Eve Dessert Chocolate Bark
Cost: $10 or less
Time: 30 minutes
Skill level: Beginner – Make it with kids!
Continue reading

ByChelsea

How to Make Oreo Peppermint Bark

on November 3, 2016

Is it officially okay to order peppermint everything? Because it is seriously beginning to be my favorite time of the year! Now, of course, I absolutely do NOT start Christmas prep until after Thanksgiving… because I actually really like Thanksgiving.. BUT I adore peppermint. And this is the time of year that it all comes out of hiding. I totally stock up. Anyone else a flavor hoarder?

Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t offer you some tasty peppermint treats right? So here is some fun Oreo Peppermint Bark to help get yourself into the holiday spirit (even if it is 85 degrees out right now!) Planning on giving some edible gifts for the holidays this year? Try some fun and easy bark recipes!

Time: 20 Min + chill time
Cost: $10
Festive level: 9

ByChelsea

Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies with Pic’s Peanut Butter

on August 8, 2016

When I was a kid my dad worked with the 4 Tops. Yes, those 4 Tops. Allow this song to be your jam while baking today.

While he was with them recording their Christmas album, my sister and I would bake cookies for them. I was probably around 7 or 8 at the time, but I very distinctly remember one phone call with my dad where the 4 Tops road manager and long time partner Fred Bridges very loudly asked “Who’s been eating my peanut butter cookies”. To which we all laughed and then sent Fred his own box of crunchy peanut butter cookies. It is due to this incident that peanut butter cookies will forever remain linked to Fred.

I recently came into some deliciously crunchy Pic’s Peanut Butter, this was all I could think of! I really like Pic’s because not only is it all natural, it has a TON of roasted peanuts so there’s a lot more crunch to it. The company also makes cashew butter and almond butter if you’re into that kind of thing.

ByChelsea

4th of July Firecracker Bark

on July 4, 2016

One of the things I absolutely love about the 4th of July is of course, fireworks! I have very vivid memories of going fireworks shopping with my dad and lighting off bottle rockets when we lived in the country. I remember going to the county line to get the really cheap ones and armfulls of roman candles. When we moved to the suburbs (and to Shelby County where home fireworks were illegal) we would always go to the church picnic and celebrate there. Even now in my adult years I enjoy the fireworks shows… and I, being the Disney fan that I am, adore Disney’s fireworks. I especially love having them year round!

Now that I’m an adult and work with children, I’m really enjoying seeing the wonder for the first time. Yes, there are a lot of “Holy Crap” moments, because who doesn’t freak out a little bit at loud noises, but overall the 4th of July is almost magical in it’s own right. This Firecracker Bark gives you all of the pop and surprise of a firework, but without the accidental burn if you get too close. (Yep, I’ve done that too) And it’s a really quick impressive dessert for when you forget to make something for your friend’s 4th of July party.

Do you have a favorite 4th of July memory?

ByChelsea

Hank the Octopus Bark

on June 22, 2016

Make this fun Hank the Octopus Bark for your next Finding Dory party! Fun and colorful party snack kids can help with.

This post contains affiliate links. Please consider shopping from them. It helps support my craft supply addiction.

First off, let me tell you that I was first in line to see Finding Dory…. well maybe not because I do not deal with large crowds of kids. I went on a Monday and it was mostly to get out of the ridiculous heat or I would have gone later because I unfortunately am really bad at making time for myself. Can we talk about the fact that it was 112 degrees in LA that day? Thank goodness I don’t wear makeup or it would have been melting off. Seriously.

Okay, so Finding Dory. If I had gone at opening night, I would have pictured myself like Moses parting the red sea… of children. I’d be all like “Get out of my way. I need this in my life more than you do.” Because that is how I roll.

Now, I’m not going to give away the movie if you haven’t seen it yet (What is wrong with you?!?) but I will say that next to little baby Dory the breakout character for me was Hank the Octopus (septopus?). I mean, I love octopi (unless it’s like Sharktopus or something) anyway, so his character was a total bonus.

And keeping with my current love of chocolate bark, (Click here for some Dory Bark) I was inspired to make this Hank the Ocotpus Bark. He’s a little salty so I put some pretzels in it and kids will love adding the cute candy eyeballs.

ByChelsea

Finding Dory Bark

on June 13, 2016

Make your own chocolate bark inspired by Disney/Pixar’s Finding Dory. Finding Dory Bark is a fun activity for kids and a fun addition to theme parties!

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Swimming, swimming, swimming!

Oh Dory! I’m so glad she’s getting her own movie. She totally deserves it. I can’t count the times I’ve quoted her when I’m having a rough day. Or just needed a friend. You see, Dory didn’t really have a reason to care about Marlin or him finding his son, but she did. She cared enough to go on this insane adventure for someone she barely knew even when she couldn’t remember what was going on. She just went because her heart told her to. And now I’m excited to see her favor returned.

I mostly love this movie because of the theme of conquering fear. I know a lot of us deal with it. I personally have a very visceral reaction to stepping out of my comfort zone and facing the unknown. Fear isn’t just being in a moment of fight or flight, it can also be a mindset which we see all too well in the character of Marlin and I love that Marlin is able to conquer that fear a bit with a little help from Dory. He could have given into despair, but she unknowingly helped push him to save his son and grow as a fish.

ByChelsea

Red White and Blue Cookies

on June 3, 2016

Red White and Blue Cookies are sure to be a hit both in your kitchen and at your Memorial Day or 4th of July cookout!

Okay guys, normally I would make cupcakes for events like Memorial Day and 4th of July. You know, those events where you’re getting really patriotic and celebrating (or mourning) but I’m not gonna lie, these cookies came out of laziness. Pure and Simple. Problem is though, when you have a blog, people kind of expect you to at least attempt to make things look good and well, I hate to disappoint. It’s a blessing and a curse.

So yeah, these Red White and Blue Cookies came out of laziness. And you know what? They turned out great! Could I have made cool pinwheels or super fancy iced sugar cookies? Probably. But when you’ve worked all weekend (late nights too) and wake up at 10 for a BBQ that is supposed to start at noon, well… fancy flies out the window. SO! If you need a quick cookie recipe that makes a big impression without taking a ton of time, keep this in your arsenal. It makes the easiest softest cookies ever!

ByChelsea

Rainbow Unicorn Cupcakes

on May 26, 2016

Have I expressed my love for Unicorns yet? Because I love them. Even though they are jerks.

I bought these super cute Unicorn party picks from Kikkerland FOREVER ago. I didn’t really have anything in mind for them, just that I liked them. And while I’ve had plenty of opportunities to use them, I’ve never felt the event was special enough.

And lets be honest here, Unicorns do not belong on cheese. There is nothing special about a unicorn toothpick in cheese unless it is the magical kind with zero calories and still tastes amazing (which doesn’t exist, unlike Unicorns). So here’s to some fun and delicious rainbow unicorn cupcakes that are totally worthy of my unicorn toothpicks. I did worry a bit about the heads being angled downward because I STABBED THE CUPCAKE WITH THE HORN!!!

And if you’re looking for a simple easy Unicorn inspired recipe you can do with the kiddos, try this Unicorn Bark.

ByChelsea

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