An Apple a Day Keeps the Teacher At Bay

See? I'm getting a little more creative with the titles here! This blog is already working its magic!

So here I'm going to share with you a super easy and cute recipe I found online that makes a great gift for teachers! I made them last year for teacher appreciation week, and this year they will probably be my daughter's Christmas gift to her teacher. The best part is they are so inexpensive and you can almost guarantee no one else will be gifting the same thing.

Ingredients:
Cupcake mix (of your choice) & whatever the box calls for (eggs, vegetable oil..)
white icing (vanilla, cream cheese, whatever you prefer)
red food coloring
red sugar crystals (in sprinkle section)
tootsie rolls
green jolly rancher fruit chews
chocolate donuts (I prefer the Hostess brand)
red cupcake liners

 

 

Step-by-Step Instructions:

 

1. Follow directions on cake mix box and make the cupcakes. Then let cool.

 

2. Mix red food coloring with the white icing.

 

3. Dump red sugar crystals onto a plate or in a bowl.

 

4. Put a thin layer of icing on the tops of the cupcakes.

 

5. Cut a little bit of the donuts off across the bottom, so that their bottoms are flat.

 

6. Place the cut donuts ontop of the cupcakes, to give them a rounded effect like an apple would have.

 

7. Cover the donut cupcakes with the red icing and smooth.

 

8. Gently dip and roll the cupcakes in the bowl or plate of red sugar crystals, until every spot is covered (but incase you missed a spot, it's red underneath and won't be as noticeable).

 

9. Cut a tootsie roll in half length-wise and place ontop of the cupcake for the stem. There will be a spot it'll fit into perfectly in the middle, where the hole in the donut is.

 

10. This part takes a little bit of effort. Take the green jolly rancher fruit chews (can use green tootsie rolls too) and roll and flatten with a rolling pin. This candy is incredibly sticky so you'll constantly have to carefully peel it off of the rolling pin.

 

11. Take the flattened piece of candy and use a knife to kind of shape it into a leaf. Use the non-sharp side of the knife to make a line indent in the middle of the candy leaf, and use your fingers to pinch the tip to help mold it to look like a leaf. Then place on the cupcake.

 

 

Around Thanksgiving I found some apple tissue paper on clearance at Target, so I bought that and I'm going to get those little baskets from the dollar store, line them with the tissue paper, and place the apple cupcakes in them with a ribbon tied to the handle. :) And since you only need a handful of tootsie rolls you'll have plenty left over to munch on.

Introduction

Creative title post right? I have another blog, www.stinkerchronicles.blogspot.com , which is my creative outlet to the frustrations that children often cause doing things that fall into the "stinker" category, but I wanted a blog where I can post anything that has to do with being a mom.

Like most moms these days, I don't have much free time. Even as I'm typing this I'm getting bombarded with like 5 different requests. It pretty much took me 20 minutes just to type that little bit, but I think .. ok nevermind. I was going to say, "..but I think the kids are held over for a little while," but I was just interrupted by my oldest, saying that her little sister, Rayna, age 2, spilled her big sister's sprite all over her t.v. My point I'm trying to make, is that we barely have free time as it is, let alone time to bake goodies for holidays or make treats or projects for a school function. If you're a working mom like myself, then forget it. We dread the night before a cookie exchange at the kids' school, because we know that means once we get home from work, do the whole dinner/bed thing, we have to stay up until midnight baking cookies, then rush into bed hoping to get at least 6 hours of rest before having to wake up and start the day all over again.

That's why I decided to title this blog, "Cutting Craft Corners". Amongst other things, I will include my tips to cut corners, whether it be to save money or time. Please feel free to chime in with any suggestions, or email me any of your tips or cute/yummy creations!! The best recipes I've come across on the web come from moms. And even if you aren't a mom, there'll still be some pretty nifty things in here so just check back from time to time! :)