These easy homemade lego candies are the perfect topper for cupcakes and add something fun to the table scape at a lego themed birthday party.
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I made these lego cupcakes for my son's 7th birthday party. They were super cute, but I made a yummy chocolate butter frosting that was not strong enough for the weight of the lego candies. They were sliding off and we had to reposition a few of them when distributing the cupcakes to party guests. I would suggest either refrigerating cupcakes frosted with a butter frosting prior to your party or using a frosting made with butter and shortening.
I bought some candy wafers for melting at Hobby Lobby. You can find these in many colors at most craft stores. I ordered Lego silicone candy molds from Amazon (affiliate link).
I followed the simple microwave melting instructions on the candy melts package and spooned the melted candy into the molds. I then put them in the freezer until firm. Once firm, they easily push right out of the candy molds. Start making these a day or two before your party so that you have plenty of time to make multiple colors and the quantity that you need.
I used extra lego candy pieces to decorate the party table.
I had a hard time finding anything lego themed for the birthday party that wasn't super expensive and only available online. I was able to find the silicone molds on Amazon (affiliate link), but couldn't find much else. I went with neutral themed bright colored tableware that I bought locally and on sale. If you have any awesome ideas or resources for a lego party please share in the comments.
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I thought I would share some ways I like to use leftover mashed or baked potatoes. These recipes are delicious and often requested by the boys. Sometimes I even make extra potatoes just to use as ingredients later in the week which simplifies meal planning. These recipes are all pretty budget friendly too since the main ingredient potatoes are inexpensive.
I posted this recipe back in 2011 and it was in dire need of some updating. This is an old favorite. The boys love it and it is pretty simple to make. It does take awhile to cook so give yourself at least an hour, but most of that time, it is simmering so you can multitask. American Chop Suey
5 tsp. olive oil (I don't really measure here) 1 pound (90% lean) ground beef or venison (I use 1 lb. beef or venison because we have discovered we like it better with less meat. The meat can be too overwhelming if there is too much. The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 pounds. Be sure to use lean ground beef so this dish doesn't get too greasy) 1 onion chopped medium 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped medium 1 rib celery chopped medium (Money saving tip: You can omit the red bell pepper if you like and use 2 ribs celery.) 2 garlic cloves minced Salt 1 15 ounce can tomato sauce 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes (You can also dice 3 large Roma tomatoes and measured them to get 14.5 ounces which was a little more than 3/4 cup. I have made this both ways and thought it was better with the fresh tomatoes.) 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth 8 ounces elbow macaroni (2 cups) pepper 1. Heat 2 tsp. of the oil in a large skillet (I use a wok because this recipe makes a lot) over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown beef breaking it up with a wooden spoon for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a bowl. 2. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp. oil to the empty skillet and return it to medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, and 1 tsp. salt and cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. 3. Stir in the tomato sauce, tomatoes with their juice, the broth, and the browned beef, scraping up any browned bits. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the beef and vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. 4. Stir in the macaroni and continue to cook over low heat, covered and stirring occasionally , until the macaroni is tender, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Buttered Green Beans 2 - 16 oz. cans green beans 1 T. butter 1/2 tsp. garlic salt 1/2 tsp. pepper 1/4 tsp. garlic powder Drain liquid from 1 can of beans. Put both cans of beans in a covered saucepan. Add seasoning and heat through. American Chop Suey is adapted from the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. One of my favorite cookbooks of all time. Chocolate curls are one of the easiest things you can make to dress up a simple cake or dessert. Use your favorite chocolate bar (leftover solid chocolate Easter bunnies work well too) and a peeler and simply curl the chocolate towards you. If your chocolate is room temperature in warm weather, it will make beautiful curls. If your chocolate is too firm, microwave for about 7 to 10 seconds until it is soft enough to curl. Firm chocolate makes great chocolate shavings if your goal is small shavings of chocolate. It's always fun to sprinkle a few chocolate shavings on top of homemade whipped cream too. Here are some of my favorite cake recipes.
Celebration Cake Chocolate Cake Slow cooker Chocolate Cake Almost Flourless Creamy Chocolate Cake Molten Chocolate Cakes Looks like we really LOVE chocolate around here.
We planned a train party for my son's 3rd birthday. This is such a fun theme. We found our paper products, Thomas stickers, table cloths, adorable train track table runners, train centerpiece, Thomas favor pack for the pinata, a red divided tray, and train suckers for cupcake toppers at Oriental Trading Company.
Disclosure: I received products for review purposes only. Any opinions are honest and are my own.
The Food:
I didn't really have a theme as far as food was concerned. Just good food that would be enjoyed.
It was a really hot day so it was nice to have a cold offering. The jello cups were a hit and were easy to make. In keeping with the train theme, I layered green, then red, then blue jello in each cup letting each layer firm up in the fridge before making the next layer. I chose green, red, and blue since they are common colors from Thomas and his Friends.
Loving this red serving tray from Oriental Trading Company. I'm sure I will use this a lot when entertaining. And look at the train track table runner peeking through. So cute!
I set up an art table for everyone to decorate their loot bags. You can really see the train track table runner here. It might be my favorite party decoration ever and it makes a great table weight holding the table cloth down in the wind. The train centerpiece was perfect for the art table. And the train tickets came in the favor pack. I just set them on the table for kids to put in their loot bags. So much cute stuff all from Oriental Trading Company.
Full view of the awesome train track table runner.
Our pinata was so heavy with candy and party favors that it only took one blow to bring it down. The kids didn't care. They excitedly gathered up candy and Thomas toys (from the favor pack from Oriental Trading Company) to fill their loot bags.
I decided on cupcakes because they are so easy and I knew these train suckers from Oriental Trading Company would make great cupcake toppers. Look at the detail, they are amazing. They came individually wrapped and in tiny bubble wrap too so that they wouldn't break during shipment.
Red and blue cupcakes to fit in with the Thomas theme. I made this cupcake recipe with vanilla frosting which was delicious, but the icing started melting quickly in the heat.
1, 2, 3 birthday candles!
Blue icing bliss... What more could you want?
This is a really easy formula that I came up with for making gravy from the flavorful broth that is left after slow cooking meat. 1/4 cup water 4 Tbsp. flour or 2 Tbsp. corn starch* 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups broth (leftover from roast chicken or beef, when cooked in a crock pot there is a lot of broth) 1. Mix 1/4 cup water with flour or corn starch. 2. Pour broth into skillet. 3. Add water-flour mixture. 4. Cook and stir on medium heat until thickened. 5. Salt and pepper to taste. *Use flour to make a cloudy gravy and corn starch to make a clear gravy. Use half as much corn starch as you would flour b/c corn starch has more thickening power than flour.
We spent some time traveling and visiting family a couple of weeks ago. My husband got up early one morning and took the early risers to see the lake.
We had a great time at my 20th class reunion. I love this silly picture. They had a great photographer, Creative Edge Photography.
Best cast picture ever. This tough little guy continues to amaze me. He caught lots of fish, rode the 4-wheeler, and ran rampant on Grandpa's new play-set.
So much fun playing on Grandpa's playground!
My Dad started building this amazing playground two years ago for his grandkids and finished it this summer. The boys had so much fun playing with their cousins.
You are amazing Dad!
Our first tomatoes of the season.
Getting the cast off on his birthday!
Looking a little unsure after the cast came off. It didn't take long for him to get back into the swing of things though.
We celebrated a big 7th birthday. Wow, 7 seems so big.
I baked Zucchini Chip Cupcakes for an extra camp snack on his birthday. The boys said they all sang Happy Birthday.
One of our silkworms came out of its cocoon and started laying eggs.
The boys were fascinated.
Last summer we gave our oldest a fun backyard birthday party. He picked a Transformers theme and we had a lot of fun with it.
My husband has become quite the pinata maker. The year before, he made a Dr. Octopus pinata for a Spiderman themed birthday party and then he made this amazing Soundwave pinata for the Transformers birthday party. He used balsa wood to construct a frame and covered it in paper mache. He put so much detail into making this pinata. He even made a "cassette tape" and "tape deck" that opened. Finally, he painted the pinata to look like Soundwave. Well done, Honey!
Who's ready for some pinata action? I don't know much about Transformers, but apparently Soundwave is a Deceptacon which means that he is a bad guy so he is a perfect candidate for a pinata (since pinatas get beat up).
Dive in!
I was trying to be clever here, but I am not educated in the language arts of Transformers. Also, I didn't realize at the time that I put a Deceptacon (bad guy) image on the container. It was however, a nice way to distribute loot bags and make sure that names were on the bags. I bought solid color bags at Dollar Tree and glued on a transformer image that I found online. The bags were sold in 10 packs for $1.
I was really proud of my Transformer wrapping job and then found out that I unknowingly glued a Deceptacon on the package instead of an Autobot. Oh well, the colors are really pretty together.
My cousin loaned us this awesome bounce house for the party. The kids loved it and played for hours.
And lastly the menu... I don't have any fabulous food pictures to share. To simplify things, I combined a few homemade dishes with some easy store bought snacks. I used paper products form Oriental Trading Co. Another fun blog post if you haven't read it already. Oriental Trading Co. sent me some great Transformers products to review. They have a nice selection and my son was thrilled.
The menu: Chips and Dip Vegetables and Hummus Watermelon Blueberries Cheese and Cracker tray Honey Chicken Kabobs Pigs in a Blanket Hot Ham Sandwiches Corn and Black Bean Salad
I went really easy with the cake for this party. I made chocolate cupcakes and frosted them with vanilla bean icing and sprinkles in the party theme colors. The link to the recipe is for a chocolate cake, so if you bake the recipe as cupcakes, bake for a lot less time. I think these took around 20 minutes.
We also made an Angel Food cake in a 10" square pan. This is two Angel Food Cakes stacked together to get the desired height. My sister-in-law actually frosted this for me (It's nice having help on party day.) with chocolate frosting. I cut the autobot symbol out of a black sugar sheet I purchased at Walmart. I used a print-out as a stencil and cut the design out with an exacto knife on a cutting board.
Sugar sheets come in this packaging and are usually sold one sheet to a package. I have seen them in craft stores, Walmart, and Meijer. They are versatile, edible, and come in handy when cake decorating.
Disclosure: I was not compensated for anything in this post. All opinions are honest and are my own.
We gave our four year old a dinosaur birthday party this year. To make it extra special, I made a 3-D dinosaur birthday cake. To make sure I had enough cake (we invited my son's entire preschool class), I also made the green dinosaur cupcakes. They were super easy because I found a dinosaur cupcake kit at Meijer. (Thank you Mom for staying up late with me and putting dinosaur heads and spikes on the cupcakes.)
We were in Target a couple of days before the party and I had not decided on a cake recipe yet, when I saw these fantastic cake mixes from Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes. I decided a cake mix sounded great at this point and let my son pick out his favorite. He chose this really cool tie-dye cake. I didn't realize at the time that I needed two boxes of this cake mix to make two 9 inch cakes that would be thick enough to create a 3-D dinosaur. I baked two very skinny cakes and went back to the store and bought 2 cake mixes. I then used one cake mix for each 9 inch cake pan. This cake mix worked well for the cake, just make sure and use 2 boxes.
My husband found the instructions for making a 3-D dinosaur cake years ago and printed them out and we still had them 5 years later.
I love the way the tie-dye looks. You start with a body, by cutting one 9 inch cake in half and putting the flat sides together. Spread a little icing in between to help hold it together and put some icing on your cake board to help it stay in place.
Make a template following the instructions for making a 3-D dinosaur cake. I used the bottom of my cake pan as a stencil and cut out a 9-inch circle of wax paper, then penciled in the cutting lines from the guide online. I then cut out the wax paper pieces and placed them on the cake. I very carefully cut the pieces and assembled them into a dinosaur shaped cake.
The head/neck and front legs were the hardest parts to assemble. I found them difficult to hold in place even with toothpicks so I covered the whole cake in a crumb coat of buttercream frosting and covered the difficult areas with a layer of fondant to help keep them in place.
I used a large star tip to cover the cake with green and purple icing. I mixed purple and green icing in my icing decorator to get a nice mottled look. My favorite decorating tool is a pampered chef icing decorator that I have used for years. It has large tips and is great for cupcakes and less detailed work like this. I ran out of green before finishing the cake and when I made a second batch my green came out much darker, but I decided that was ok because it gave some variation in the color.
I colored some fondant gold and purple and cut out simple triangles for the spikes and random shapes for spots. The eyes are also cut from fondant. I did not leave my fondant pieces out to dry, I just put them directly on the icing while it was still moist and they held in place nicely.
How cool is this? The tie-dye cake was most impressive. So fun for a kids party.
The boys and I made some personalized tea towels for gifts and had a lot fun in the process. Actually, Daddy helped too. He was the Transformers expert. My five year old really got into it, creating Transformers designs. I would love to take credit for this idea, but I saw it on a favorite blog, I Can Teach my Child. To make these towels, you can purchase finished kitchen towels and attach the handmade design or make homemade towels. I made homemade towels since I had lots of fabric on hand. Supplies needed: Tea towels or fabric to make towels Cotton fabric for artistic design T-shirt (fabric markers) Pinking shears sewing machine I bought two natural colored fat quarters and cut them each into 4 sections with pinking shears. I needed 7 pieces of fabric for the boys to color. I used pinking shears to help prevent raveling. The boys had a lot of fun coloring the fabric pieces. Make sure to use t-shirt (fabric) markers so that the drawing will not wash out of the fabric. I used one of my towels as a pattern and cut the new towels out with pinking shears. I folded the edges over once and hemmed them. I figured by cutting the fabric with pinking shears, I would reduce raveling so I didn't turn the edges under. If you have time, I would turn the edges under. I pinned the artwork fabric to the tea towel and sewed it in place with a simple straight stitch.
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Welcome to Home Ec @ HomeHi, I'm Faith, a former Family and Consumer Science teacher turned food blogger. I love God, my family, and food. You can usually find me in the kitchen preparing family friendly, homemade recipes and taking lots of pictures. This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesFan Favorites
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