I remember making little May Day baskets when I was little.
I remember the excitement of ringing neighbor’s doorbells.
I remember RUNNING.
Fast.
I think they usually involved plastic cups and pipe cleaners. (Mom?)
I was lucky enough to find this link with printable to make the little May Day baskets above.
It was such a fun tradition and I’m excited to pass it on to my children.
Happy May Day to you and yours!
I think this recipe had me at ‘Birthday Cake’. It also had me at five ingredients.
Tiny word signs popped up in my brain bursting mind. Fun. Kids. Love. Yummy.
And so it was decided.
I printed off this recipe for Birthday Cake Batter Popcorn, gathered the ingredients, and set out to make this too-easy treat. Apparently ‘fun’, ‘kids’, ‘love’, ‘yummy’ are a call to action that cannot be denied. These photos are actually from my Easter batch. The Spring Chicks version were the bright-colored large sprinkles pictured above and a huge hit with the kids.
The pretty pastel Easter Nonpareil version offered more muted tones and were equally delicious.
One cake mix yields two batches. One bag of microwave popcorn measured roughly to six cups, perfect for a single batch. If you have a movie night, rainy day, or just need a reason to share some lovely, yummy fun with the kids in your life (or the kid in you!) – I suggest you start popping!
Melt the almond bark/chocolate in a double broiler (or microwave).
Add the vegetable shortening to the almond bark/chocolate and stir until it is melted.
Then add the cake mix to the almond bark/chocolate.
Pour the coating onto the popcorn and coat evenly. I use 2 spoons and toss it almost like a salad.
Pour the popcorn out onto cookie sheets to cool/harden. Sprinkle immediately with your choice of sprinkles.
Wait until fully hardened (if you can) and enjoy!
I am not usually on the ball when it comes to holidays. I would really like to be. In fact, I try to be. But I never seem to have enough time in the day to achieve everything that I would like to. Instead, I find myself laying awake in bed at night thinking of things I wish I would have done that day or thinking of the things I should definitely accomplish tomorrow. This year, I decided that we would be on the ball for Valentine’s Day and actually make some treats ahead of time. So, last Friday, in addition to the Pretzel Treats, we made my Great-Grandma Congdon’s Rolled Sugar Cookies.
The morning went something like this…
Make dough. Chill dough. Roll dough. Cut out dough. Bake. Cool. Ice. Sprinkle. Eat.
It also went something like this…
Make coffee. Turn on cartoon for kids to watch. Assemble cookie dough. Put cookie dough in refrigerator. Wait for dough to chill. Drink coffee. Do something productive (check Facebook). Dough is chilled sufficiently. Get kids. Roll out dough on cutting board on dining room table so kids can help. Let kids cut out hearts from dough. Be patient. Let them transfer cut out heart to baking sheet with spatula. Be more patient. Praise kids for doing a good job. Put cookies in oven. Set timer. Drink coffee. Get another tray of cookies ready. Begin to wake up. Get a system down. Eva cuts out heart. ‘Good job Eva!’ Easton transfers heart to cookie sheet with spatula. ‘Good job Easton!’ Timer goes off. Remove cookies from oven. Transfer cookies to cooling rack. Repeat cut out, transfer, patience process. Lots of praise exchanged between siblings. Kids are done with cookie factory jobs. Turn on another cartoon for kids. Make icing. Get kids. Spread icing on cookies. Allow kids to distribute sprinkles on cookies. Heavily. Find more patience. Let go of need for cookie to look perfect.
Daughter insists on high fives for everyone.
Kids are having the best time ever.
*heart bursts*
It was such a good morning.
Thankful for my sweet valentines (pictured above at bottom right) and for being on the ball this year.
Cut shortening into dry ingredients (I used an old-fashioned pastry blender). Beat eggs and add sugar, then vanilla. Add dry ingredients to egg/sugar mixture. Refrigerate 20 minutes before rolling. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Makes about 6 dozen depending on size of cut out.
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The icing has almond extract in it. Almond extract is so divine. It is one of my most favorite things on earth.
Icing Note: I ended up making two separate batches of icing since i wasn’t sure about the cookie/icing ratio – you may just choose to double this upfront. Recipe given above is for single batch. Printable Icing Recipe Courtesy of All Recipes
Happy Heart Day to you and yours –
Ang
floating at rottnest 