Sunday, May 24, 2009

Happily Ever After

I made a wedding card during thsi long weekend and I'd love to share it with you all! :)


I was so happy! I finally got the chance to use the vellum heart patterned paper that's been sitting with my other scrapbooking paper, at the bottom of the pile. But, thsi weekend, it was put to good use!


~Baked with Love ♥

The Gourmet Scrappers

Monday, May 18, 2009

Monday Munchies

Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches:

Once again, this week we are dealing with ice cream! (Don't forget to vote on our poll to the left of the blog just under the "Welcome" segment) This cute little treat can be made just for an after school snack, or something more elegant, as you can see from some of the pictures below.

We made a few 4th of July ice cream sandwiches, some baby shower themed ice cream sandwiches, and a couple birthday ice cream sandwiches. We also made some just for a regular snackin' day!

Ingredients:

*Cookies
*Vanilla Ice Cream
*Sprinkles, pecans, candles, etc.**

**optional!
Directions:

1. If cookies aren't already made, bake them! (We used store-bought cookie dough to make the process much faster!)

2. Place a scoop of ice cream on one side of the cookie. (The side that was on the baking sheet.)


3. Put another cookie on top and smoosh together so that the ice cream spreads out to where you can roll on sprinkles, etc.

4. Pour sprinkles, etc into a (very) small bowl. Roll side of ice cream sandwich into bowl of sprinkles, pecans, etc.












Or if you are trying a birthday sandwich, stick a fun candle in the middle of the ice cream sandwich!


5. Enjoy! :) (Or put in freezer to store.)


The 4th of July one is a little deformed because I didn't take the picture fast enough when it started to melt :) but you get the picture!

Note~ Feel free to let your mind soar with creative ideas on how to decorate these! We've just given you a few ideas! :)
These are rated with an:
@ Easy

~Baked with Love ♥
The Gourmet Scrappers

Sunday, May 17, 2009

KWerner Color Challenge #52

Thinking of you...

I think these colors were my favorite to work with out of all the color inspiration challenges we have participated in! I loved these colors, but I don't exactly know why. Haha. I think it's because these colors remind me of a beach :)

Anyways... I made a card with all these colors and here it is:


Here's a picture zoomed mostly on the flower:


Tell us what you think! We'd ♥ LOVE ♥ to hear it! Just comment on this post below :)

Baked with Love ♥
The Gourmet Scrappers

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Craft Corner

Have you ever been to Cold Stone Creamery? If you have, you'll know that everything about it is simply deliscious! But if you haven't, and you have no idea what I'm talking about...
*

Cold Stone Creamery is an ice cream shop. They have tons of ice cream flavors with tons of toppings, too. (They also have milkshakes, smoothies, etc.) You pick a size, pick an ice cream flavor, and pick any toppings you want. Then, they scoop out the flavor of ice cream that you wanted and put the topping you chose onto the (clean) counter. Hehe :) Next, they take two big spoons and mix it all together to make it creamy and delectable. There you go! Your own online tour of Cold Stone Creamery! :) But for even more, go to http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/

*
BTW... This is why this week's TGiF poll is about ice cream! :) And don't forget to vote for your favorite ice cream flavor! (The TGiF poll is always on the right of our site, just under our 'Welcome!' segment.


The first creation I tried, was a 'Strawberry Pie' Cold Stone:



First, I cut up some strawberries into pretty little pieces.



Next, I scooped out some vanilla ice cream and sprinkled crushed graham cracker on top.
*

This is the ice cream with strawberries and graham cracker atop. We're ready to mix!


This is me mixing it all together, getting it 'creamified'. :)


The second Cold Stone creation we tried was your standard 'Cookie Dough'.


You put a few pieces of cookie dough on top of the vanilla ice cream you scooped. (I used 'Nestle Toll House Mini Cookies' Cookie Dough.)

Once again, mix it all up...
*

This one was very yummy... as you can tell by this photo. All gone!
*

@ Easy

Baked with Love ♥

The Gourmet Scrappers

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

For You Mom... Late

Here is the card carly gave to her mom on Mother's Day. The one Blair gave to her mother has not yet been photographed, but as soon as it is, it will be posted here for all to see! With this card, we used the rub-letters and a little handwriting of our own. This card was actually really small... just a little bigger than your standard tennis ball.

On the card Blair made her mom, she used something that we've never used before... vellum. If you've ever used vellum, comment below and tell us how you like it. We loved it and thought it looked pretty cool! For those of you who don't know what vellum is, we should have a video up in the next two weeks on how we use it.

The cute green flower button came from our Bag o' Buttons that we recently bought. It is such a cute idea (the Bag o' Buttons.) It contains tons of buttons of dofferent colors. We had a choice of a Bag o' Buttons containing darker colored buttons, or a Bag o' Buttons containing pastel colored buttons. We chose the pastels and you'll be seeing a lot more of our cards, etc. with those buttons. We love them. :)

We hope you like it! Be sure to tell us what you think and e-mail us for anything you have questions about, etc. or the easy way... you can just comment! Haha. Anyways, our email is thegourmetscrappers@gmail.com
~Baked with Love,
The Gourmet Scrappers

Monday, May 4, 2009

Monday Munchies

For today, our snack menu includes an Apple & Cream Cheese recipe! They are super easy to make, and taste delicious!

Here you go!
***
Ingredients:
~1/2 cup Light Cream Cheese Spread
~2 tbsp. Sunflower Kernels, chopped
~1/4 cup raisins, chopped
~6 medium apples, cut in half, cored
Directions:

1. Mix cream cheese spread, sunflower kernels & raisins together.
2. Spread 1 1/2 Tbsp. of the cream cheese mixture into hollow of each apple half.
3. Serve & enjoy!

Yep. It's that easy! So go on... try it!!!
@@ Medium
~Baked with Love,
The Gourmet Scrappers

Friday, May 1, 2009

The Monthly Cookie... or Cake??

This month, (the month of May,) we have a special suprise... not just any cookie. Actually, not a cookie at all! This month, we have a Chocolate Fudge Peanut Butter Cup Cake! The name itself just makes my mouth water! :)

So before I get any further, I'd just like to show you all what this decadent cake looks like:

Oh my goodness... Well this cake is already all gone and just looking at it made me want more :)

Anyways, we got this recipe from http://www.bakerella.blogspot.com/ and just couldn't wait to try it out! So that is why you are looking at a cake right now, rather than a cookie :) Here's the recipe!


***
Makes: 16 servings
Chill: 1 hour
Bake: at 350 degrees F for 34 minutes
Prep: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

~1 box (18.25 ounces) devil's food cake mix
~3 eggs
~1 cup buttermilk
~1/2 cup vegetable oil
~2 cups chopped chocolate-covered peanut butter cups (about 8 ounces), plus more to garnish
~8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
~1 cup heavy cream
~1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line with waxed paper; coat paper.
2. In a large bowl, beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk and vegetable oil on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high; beat for 2 minutes, scraping down side of the bowl after 1 minute. Fold in 2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups.
3. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 34 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let layers cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto wire racks and cool completely.
4. Place chopped dark chocolate in a medium-size bowl. Bring cream just to a boil and pour over chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts. Add peanut butter and whisk until smooth.
5. Trim top of cake layers flat with a serrated knife. Put 1 cake layer on cooling rack and place on a baking sheet. Pour 1 cup frosting on top; spread evenly with a spatula. Top with remaining cake layer. Pour remaining frosting over the top, allowing it to spill over the sides. Smooth top and sides with spatula. Refrigerate 1 hour to set. Transfer cake to serving plate and garnish with chopped candy, if desired.


We accomplished all of this... but instead of dark chocolarte for the frosting, we used milk chocolate... and like Bakerella did, we used twice as many peanut butter cups, so we could put some (okay, a bunch) on the outside of the cake! :)


And just for mouth watering purposes, here are a few more pictures:






Well we hope you enjoyed this post, and definetley enjoy that cake if you decide to bake it! :)

@@@ Hard

**Special thanks to Macy for helping me make thsi cake!**

~Baked with Love,
The Gourmet Scrappers