Pixie Crayons

Last week, my 3 year old cutie-pie cousin had to have his appendix out :(  He is doing well now, but I wanted to send him a get-well care package.

I was originally going to make him some special Christmas crayons, but with the turn of events, he got some cute "pixie" shaped crayons yesterday.

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures during the process. I bought a box of crayons (48 count) and made 12 pairs of two colors each to make some fun swirly combos.  You could also chop up broken crayons and stubs, but I didn't have any. Unwrap each crayon and cut enough 1/4 inch pieces to fill your mold.  Mine was tiny, so I used half the length of each crayon.  A larger mold could take more of each color or a combo of three or four. Use any kind of cute cookie/muffin/cake pan you like.  Set the oven as close to 150 degrees as you can (mine will only go to 170).  The crayons took about 15 minutes to completely melt.  Cool them on a wire rack until you can handle the pan without a pot holder.  Put them in the freezer for about 30 min and you will be able to pop them right out.

While they were cooling, I was making a pitcher of crystal light and used the last mix in the container.  With my hand over the trash, I realized that it would make a great container for the crayons.  I cut out "gabe's crayons" on my cricut and glued them onto a piece of scrapbook paper that I pre-measured to fit the crystal light container.  Glue the paper on and fill with your cool new swirly pixie crayons.

I'm linking up with Kimba@A Soft Place to Land:

Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes

Sometime last fall I fell in love, hard, with salted caramel.  So when I saw these in Martha Stewart Cupcakes I died.

Step One:  Make Cupcakes

I made these on Saturday while I was doing the pumpkin cupcakes and left the decorating til Sunday.  The recipe for the batter was very simple, but filling 60 liners took a while.

60 mini cupcakes waiting to go

Step Two:  Prep Cupcakes for Filling

Cut little wells with a paring knife.  Martha says to discard scraps.  No way, those are snacks for hubby (and me, too)

Step Three:  Don't Burn the Caramel

It took me three tries to get a good caramel.  The first time I followed  the directions and tried to get the caramel to 360 degrees.  At around 330 degrees it started to burn.  The second time, I messed with the candy thermometer and somehow the reading was off, so burnt sugar again.  The third time, I watched it very, very closely, which brings us to...

Step Four:  Caramel Sauce

Success!! and oh so yummy!  I had plenty left over after filling the cupcakes and it is delicious on a spoon.

Step Five:  Fill the Cupcakes

hollowed, filled, and a little fleur de sel sprinkled on top.  I'd recommend letting the caramel cool and become a little hard to pour.  The easier it is to pour, the more it will soak into the cupcakes and make the liner hard to remove.

Step Six:  Frost the Cupcakes

mmmmm.  The frosting was a little complicated.  It involved melting cocoa powder and melting chocolate chips, but it didn't require 30 minutes of beating like other buttercreams I have made.  The recipe in the book makes 5 cups!!  I halved it and had the perfect amount.  I also made the frosting before beginning the caramel sauce so it would be ready to do as soon as they were filled.  Finish off with another sprinkling of the fleur de sel.

Step Seven:  Eat the Cupcakes

add little pig decorations for boss' birthday (said boss loves pigs)

pumpkin cupcakes

mmm... pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and a candy corn on top.

The recipe came from the October issue of Real Simple .

This was the first time I made cupcakes that weren't completely from scratch.  Yellow cake mix dressed up with pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice.  These were really quick to make since there were so few ingredients and hardly any measuring.  Enjoy!

Numero Uno

Hello and welcome.  If you'd like to hear about my baking and crafting projects, stick around.  Also, I'll be chronicling my attempt at starting a party planning business - pixie dust parties.

See you around