Summertime Party Treat Ideas plus an Easy Blueberry Lemonade Popsicle Recipe (#HABAusa)

Thank you to HABA for providing samples of fun silicone molds for us to base this review upon and for providing additional products for our giveaway prize.  All opinions expressed are our own.

Summer is almost here, and finding easy-to-make treats that cool off hot children is a must. HABA has come out with an amazing line of silicone molds that make cooking even easier. This simple but tasty popsicle recipe is sure to delight children and parents alike.

Easy Recipe:  Blueberry Lemonade Popsicles

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1 cup lemonade

1. Use ½ cup frozen fruit per one cup of juice. We used frozen blueberries and lemonade (not freshly squeezed lemonade) because it makes for a sweet and tart popsicle that we love.

2. Pour all ingredients into a blender and push the “smoothie” (or similar) button.  Continue to blend the ingredients until it is almost completely liquefied. Occasional chunks of fruit are fine...in fact, they make it taste even better.

3. Gently pour into HABA Silicone Popsicle Trays (or Ice Cube Trays), being careful not to over-fill.

4. Freeze on a level surface until completely hardened.

5. Carefully remove popsicles from the silicone trays and enjoy! These do not freeze solid, but instead more of a popsicle texture because of the frozen fruit mixed in.

You can pour these into HABA Silicone Ice Cube Trays too and serve in tea, lemonade, or water for a nice little addition to drinks. While the flavored ice melts, your drink’s flavor starts to change.

These silicone molds are great for parties, barbecues, or just because. The Jungle Snake Silicone Cake Mold was fun to use and we elaborated on our cake by covering it with frosting and decorating it with gumdrop scales, eyes, and a Fruit-By-The-Foot tongue. And we can’t forget the “baby snakes”, aka gummy worms.

All the molds are very well made of sturdy silicone and they are dishwasher, oven, and freezer safe. We look forward to using ours for many years. You can purchase these and all HABA’s amazing products on their website, www.habausa.com. The silicone molds start at $9.49.


Enter to win a set of 5 HABA silicone molds (a $75 value) . . . 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck in the drawing!

This giveaway is open to U.S. entries only. You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address and be age 18 years or older. A random drawing will be held shortly after the contest closing. The winner will be announced here and will be contacted via email. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be drawn.

Easy Recipe: Decorated Dairy-Free Watermelon Cake and Fruit Shapes Platter

School may be back in session, but there is still plenty of warm weather left in many parts of the country.  I wanted to share this all-fruit dessert my husband and I made for Father's Day dinner earlier this summer.  We wanted to bring a dairy-free dessert to dinner because our brother-in-law is allergic to dairy.  I saw this all-fruit cake by See My Footprints . . . on Pinterest and was inspired to make the one below.

Although this is a super-easy recipe, it is a slightly labor-intensive one.  There is a lot of repetitive cutting, but the end result is worth it.

Recipe:  All-Fruit Decorated Watermelon Cake

INGREDIENTS:

whole seedless watermelon

whole strawberries

cantaloupe

honeydew melon

NOTE:  For this recipe, you will need small cookie cutters that are approximately 1-1/2" in size.  I used the Mini Geometric Crinkle Cookie Cutters made by Wilton.  You will also need toothpicks.


Step 1.  Cut watermelon into a cylindrical or an octagonal shape by cutting off the top and the bottom and then cutting away the sides.  It will take some time to achieve the desired shape.  (Remember you can always cut away more, but you cannot add pieces back on.)

(Click any photo to enlarge)

Step 2.  Cut cantaloupe and honeydew melons into slices no thicker than the thickness of your cookie cutters.

Step 3.  Wash and dry strawberries.

Step 4.  With your cookie cutters, cut out as many shapes as you can from your cantaloupe and honeydew slices.

Step 5.  Place your block of watermelon on a platter or a large plate.  Then place strawberries all around the base of the watermelon to create an attractive trim.

Step 6.  Using toothpicks start decorating the tops and sides of your cake.  You can layer the shapes to make your design more 3-dimensional.  (I chose to create a simple pattern around the sides and the top circumference, but then stacked the fruit shapes and strawberries on the top center.)

What to do with your leftover fruit?

You will have lots of fruit leftover and you will likely not want to waste it, so you can create an attractive fruit platter.  Simply cube the watermelon that was cut away to make your cake core.  Then lay it out in rows along with any remaining strawberries, cantaloupe shapes, and honeydew melon shapes.

Our 8 year old son actually does not care for watermelon, so he appreciated having the fruit platter.  After dinner, we cut this all-fruit cake and ate it with forks just like any other cake.  The toothpicks did their job and kept all the garnish in place.  This cake was delicious, sweet, and refreshing, plus you can eat a huge piece or have seconds without feeling guilty.  You must remember to remind the guests to remove the toothpicks before eating their cake.

You can also skip the cake and just make the fruit shapes platter.  It really is a nice presentation, but the cake is fun for special occasions.

Frosted Red Velvet Valentine's Day Cupcakes

In honor of Valentine's Day, I decided it might be fun for our preschoolers and kindergartner to decorate cupcakes in Valentine's Day colors. To help me with this, Duncan Hines sent us Red Velvet Moist Deluxe cake mix and Cream Cheese frosting. I love using cake mixes because they are so easy and quick to use. Most only require you to add water, oil, and eggs.

I've never made or tasted red velvet cake before. I was taken aback a little that the batter was actually red. I did not know what to expect of the taste either. Would it taste like chocolate or would it be fruity? It turned out to taste a lot like white cake with maybe a tiny touch of chocolate. It was perfect to use with frosting because it was not too sweet on its own. My favorite variety of cake is butter cake, so next time I make Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake, I am going to try replacing the vegetable oil with butter. Yum!

When the cake was done, it came out reddish brown. I had to let them cool on a plate before I could frost them. It actually didn't take too long at all . . . maybe 30 minutes.

In addition to the Duncan Hines Cream Cheese frosting, I also had pink and white sprinkles and Valentine's Day M&Ms for the kids to decorate with. I applied the frosting just to make it easier for the kids.

After filling the twelve silicone cupcake baking cups, I had some cake batter left over so I made a single layer cake also. I decorated some of the cupcakes and the cake to give the kids an example of the possibilities. I found that, even though the frosting was so smooth and creamy, the sprinkles would not stick to it. So I had to press the frosted cupcakes into a bowl of sprinkles to make them sink into the frosting.

Next I let the kids loose with a bowl of sprinkles and M&Ms. Both the twins took me up on my offer to press their cupcakes into the sprinkles for them, but their big brother decided he would use his own methods.

Here are the results of their decorating . . .

The cupcakes were as delicious as they looked, especially the creamy frosting that was sweet, but not too sweet. If you'd like to give it a try, you should be able to find all the ingredients needed at your local supermarket. To learn more about Duncan Hines products or to find fun recipes, visit DuncanHines.com .

Thank you to Duncan Hines for sending us samples of cake mix and frosting free of charge to try our hand at a Valentine's Day dessert.

Review: Betty Crocker Cupcake Icing

On Black Friday, my family did not hit the stores. Instead, we decided to put up the tree and the other Christmas decorations. To put us in the mood, I baked some cupcakes (butter flavored . . . YUM!) and decorated them with red and green Betty Crocker Cupcake Icing.

This cupcake icing is usually only available in six colors, but during the holidays, you can find Ivy Green and Rose Red in Walmart stores nationwide. These cans of icing retail for $3.99 each and I think it is well worth the price. One can is enough to decorate a dozen regular cupcakes or two dozen mini cupcakes. The best part is that each can comes with four different decorating tips which allows someone like me, who has never decorated a cake or a cupcake before in her life, to decorate cupcakes that look deliciously festive.

I have to admit, I had a blast experimenting with the different tips. The one I had the hardest time with was the narrow one, which would have been perfect for writing or detailed decorating. I would have loved it if my kindergartner could have tried his hand at decorating a cupcake or two, but the tip required quite a bit of strength to depress and I don't think that he could have released the icing while still maintaining some sort of control over where it was to land.

The icing was very soft and pliable, but did not fall like whipped cream would. Still, my husband and I agreed that the frosted cupcakes tasted better chilled.

I found the icing to be quite sweet, so one cupcake would be my limit per sitting. Can you guess what my three children thought of of these cupcakes decorated with Betty Crocker Icing?

To learn more about Betty Crocker Cupcake Icing and other Betty Crocker baking products, visit SignatureBrands.com . Remember, this red and green icing is only available during the holidays at your local Walmart stores.

Thank you to Betty Crocker for sending us two cans of icing to try.