Long, long ago, before I had a blog and still took pictures of people at parties, instead of decor, my baby girl Maddie turned one and we had a cupcake themed birthday party to celebrate. There aren’t a lot of pictures of all the fun cupcake details from this party, but there is one shot I would like to share with you, our cupcake buffet.

I made chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter and coconut cupcakes. There was chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, mocha and cream cheese frosting. For toppings there was chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, sugar, coconut, smarties, peanut butter cups, chocolate covered espresso beans, crushed Oreos, gummy worms, cherries, and strawberries.

Along with all these options, the menu included some “House Recommendations” for how to combine them:

Everyone loved creating their own signature cupcakes, and I highly recommend a cupcake buffet for any party.

I can’t believe my little cupcake is already 4 going on 5!

Fall is here, and apples are in season. My husband and daughter, Paige, love apple anything. So the other day I thought they like might to try some apple butter. I went to my favourite recipe website, www.allrecipes.com, and found a recipe that sounded good -and that I had all the ingredients for.

This is a slow cooker version of apple butter, you can find the original recipe here. I made a smaller batch, and ended up with two small jars of apple butter. Here’s my slightly modified version:

Apple Butter

Ingredients:

5 apples – peeled, cored and chopped
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
pinch of salt

Directions:

Fill a slow cooker with diced apples, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Cover, and cook on high for 1 hour. Reduce heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 6 hours, or until thick and dark golden in colour.

The original recipe calls for 12 hours in the slow cooker, but I thought it looked nice and thick after 6, especially since it thickens more as it cools. My family loved it, and tried it on toast, and zucchini muffins. The best part of this recipe though, is how great your house smells afterward. If you have some apples around, this is a great and very easy recipe. Enjoy!

I told my daughter that a little woodland fairy brought me these beautiful glitter acorns, but I think she spotted my glitter and glue on the table. Maybe I was helping the fairies a little on this one! I love, love, love my glitter acorns, and want to share with you how easy they are to make.

I bought this perfect pack of glitter-well actually three packs, at Dollarama, and it had all the right shades for fall.

I painted the bottoms with glue, and dipped them into glitter, one brown, and one bronze.

After they dried, I did the tops in a silvery brown.

I love how they look piled up together this antique amber glass pickle dish.

I also decided to make an acorn garland with them. I chose the acorns with the best stems, and carefully tied them to some simple brown thread.

I hung the glitter acorn garland over the mirror above the fireplace, with some brown ribbons.

Here’s the final look, with the bowl of glitter acorns, and few other fall accessories. It’s a nice change from last years all white autumn mantle, check it out here.

Here’s a really easy, cute idea. Use your scrabble tiles to spell out a seasonal word.

I made one more sweet garland, and added it to my hutch in the dining room, along with the “give thanks” garland I made last year -check it out here. (Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up fast!)

Hope you’re enjoying these early fall days as much as I am, and perhaps, if you’re lucky a little woodland fairy might visit and leave you a few glittered acorns too!

This post is linked up at Somewhat Simple, the idea room, The Shabby Creek Cottage, WipperBerry, Fingerprints on the Fridge, and Tatertots and Jello.

Yes, that’s right my friends, you can make funnel cakes at home! You don’t have to wait until the next fair, you can make it yourself and impress all your friends and family -and let me tell you, they will be impressed.

My funnel cake adventure started when I spotted this amazing contraption at Bulk Barn one day. It’s a funnel specifically made for making funnel cakes, although you can also make it with a squeeze bottle.

And here’s the inside view. This funnel is designed with a stopper, so you can add your batter, and when you’re ready, remove the stopper and let the desired amount of batter flow out, then replace the stopper to stop the flow.

I found a great recipe here, and modified it a tiny bit. Here’s my version.

Homemade Funnel Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 cups vegetable oil
• icing sugar

Directions:

1. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar to a mixing bowl and whisk.
2. In another large mixing bowl, stir together the eggs and the milk.
3. Add flour mixture to the egg mixture, and beat until smooth. The consistency should be thin enough to run through a small kitchen funnel.
4. In a deep fryer, heat the oil to 360 degrees F (182 degrees C).
5. Using the funnel, or even a squeeze bottle release 1/2 cup of the batter into the oil while making a circular motion. Fry until golden brown. Use tongs and wide spatula to turn the cake over carefully. Fry the second side one minute. Drain on paper towels, and sprinkle with sifted confectioners’ sugar.

These are best served nice and hot. Top them with a combination of ice cream, fresh fruit, maple syrup, and whip cream, or whatever your favourite is.

With homemade funnel cakes on the menu, life really is a party! Enjoy!

I shared this post at Blue Cricket Design’s link party, This Chick Cooks, WhipperBerry, Fingerprints on the Fridge, and Tatertots and Jello.

I was inspired by Anna on her blog Take the Side Street, and her amazing pumpkin scone recipe. I wanted a fall recipe to share with my girl friends at a get together and these looked so good! Find her recipe by clicking here. I added a maple glaze to mine, made with icinig sugar, maple syrup and a little half and half. It tasted so good drizzled over the top!

They were a major hit with my girl friends, they even asked me to make them again for our up coming women’s ministry event.

Enjoy!

This post is linked up at WhipperBerry and Tatertots and Jello.