Holiday Baking, Fix-It With Fran:All Things Faith, Family, Food, Fun and more!

This muffin pan kit arrived just in time for Valentine’s Day! My husband is a pretty simple man, all he desired for Valentine’s Day was his favorite dessert: Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing! Our schedule was jam packed, so I used one of my “semi-homemade” recipes (Cake mix with a little something extra– read through the post to get my baking tip). The cupcake pan is super cute and I loved that this really came with everything you’d need to make cupcakes (short of a bowl and the ingredients).

The liners were attractive and of good quality and I was able to support the pan with a simple cookie sheet or you could choose to use a shallow baking dish or a pizza pan if you don’t have a cookie sheet in your baking collection. This would be a cute gift to send to a college student or a friend for a “galentines day” token of appreciation. Overall, I was very happy with this item.

Here’s my “Semi-Homemade” Baking Tip: I use Betty Crocker Super Moist Butter Recipe Yellow Cake Mix cake when I’m in a pinch– and to make it taste closer to homemade, I add in a box of Vanilla Jello Pudding— nothing extra– just make the cake according to the cake box directions.

The pudding really does make a difference! You’ll thank me later!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I’ve been VERY busy this week and I’m happy to report another round of successful Pinterest experiments. We’ll call this the “Peppermint Parade.”

First up is the “Peppermint Dish” I found on Pinterest. Here’s a link to the recipe.

I started lining my springform pan and quickly realized that this one bag would NOT be enough. We paused the production for a Wal-Mart run.

After returning from Wal-Mart, I then realized that the new mints were a different color. I thought to myself, “I can make this work!” The result is the design you see below.

This took about 96 peppermints.

Per the directions, I baked the mints for 8 minutes and then let the plate cool. You REALLY do have to keep an eye on the oven. You’ll look one minute and it will seem like nothing’s happening. Then you’ll look again and the mints will be melted. It happens QUICKLY.

Next, I made peppermint blossom cookies. My inspiration was this recipe that I also found on Pinterest.

The recipe said to let the cookies set for 15 minutes. I noticed that the kisses were still soft, so I sped up the process by placing the cookies in the fridge.

After both elements were done, I arranged all of the cookies on the peppermint dish. I think this is too adorable. Perfect for the holidays!

I decided to give some cookies as gifts. Thankfully, I’d picked up some cute tins from the Dollar Tree and lined them with these napkins (also from the Dollar Tree).