Black Bottom Cups

These are rich little chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese and pecan topping. The original recipe, which came from Bay Leaves, said to bake them in a regular sized, paper-lined muffin tin. I wanted smaller portions, so I baked them in a mini muffin tin.

Black Bottom Cups

1 - 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 egg white
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/8 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz semisweet chocolate morsels

Combine ingredients except for chocolate chips in a small bowl and beat well. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 -1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup oil
1 cup water
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
chopped pecans

Sift dry ingredients together. Add remaining ingredients except nuts and mix well. Fill paper muffin cups 1/2 full with chocolate mixture. Top each with a heaping teaspoon of cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle with pecans. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.
(Note: I actually ended up with some chocolate mixture left over).

Beat the topping ingredients until creamy:

Stir in chocolate morsels:

Sift dry ingredients together:

Pour chocolate mixture into paper baking cups:

Top with cream cheese mixture and pecans and bake:

Easter Basket Fun

I like to use containers for my Easter baskets that are unique and can hopefully be reused by the recipient. I found these baskets with net lids at World Market and decided to use them for Amby and Nathan's Easter baskets.

The purpose of the net is to protect your food from insects and other various uninvited dinner guests. There will be no flies on those Cadbury Mini Eggs.

Nathan likes honey in his tea, so I got him some for his basket. I found this cool burlap bag at Paper Works. I wrapped the honey in tissue and tied it with a rope.

World Market also carries two of their favorite sauces. I found this carrot tissue paper at Pier One and wrapped them in it, then put them into clear bags.


I got Amby some jewelry and put it in a drawstring bag I found at Michaels.

Here they are, ready to be packed and mailed. I hope they like them.

A Woodland Easter Tablescape

I wanted to decorate my kitchen table for Easter, but with a subdued, natural theme. I found a spring tablecloth at Stein Mart and a sort of primitive looking bunny at Pier One, and decided to use them for my table.

I needed place cards to match my tablecloth. I used Printshop, which is the Mac version of Printmaster. I have recommended this software before. It is a wonderful tool for labels, gift tags, cards, etc.

I chose a border that matched my tablecloth, then chose the font and sized it to the proportions I wanted:

I printed them onto card stock and cut them out:

I found this textured copper scrapbook paper and cut it into the size I wanted and folded it. I used 3D dots and attached the cards to the textured paper:

Custom made place cards are a great way to make sure that everything is coordinated.


For the flowers, I wanted something that looked like wildflowers, so I used two of the pots I painted in my Spring Tablescape post from last year. I soaked the oasis in water:

I used purchased flowers from Publix and cut the stems really short. Then I placed the flowers into the pots. I used two of my larger pots for votive candles:

I found these very pretty napkins at Target last year. I pulled them through napkin rings and fanned them out on the top:

The end result was understated and the colors went really well with my kitchen.

Uncommon Easter Tablescape

This is an Easter tablescape which is a whimsical welcome to spring. It would be great for a kid's party, or perhaps for a ladies' lunch.

I found these cute buckets last year (Target $1 each), and used them for fresh flowers, but this year I used them for something else. I decided that they would be perfect to accommodate some freshly baked cookies. (For directions on how to make these cookies go to my post, Cookies on a Stick).

I used some oasis that I already had and pieced it inside the buckets. I like oasis because it is easy to slice with a knife, but you can use whatever foam you might have on hand. You will be covering it, so you don't have to have brand new foam.

I covered the foam with foil:

Then I filled the buckets the rest of the way with Easter M & M's:

After I filled the buckets with the candy, I gently placed each of my cookies on a stick into the foam:

For my tablecloth, I used a white matelesse bedspread as the base and placed a small square Battenburg lace tablecloth on top of that. The crispness of the white is really a fun canvas to use as a base for the pastel colors. I placed the cookies in the center. The tiny chicks came from Pier One. I think they are adorable with their fly-away feathers. Then I chose some pastel plates from my Fiesta Ware.

The M & M's are also cute in candle holders. If you would like to use a different Easter candy, jelly beans work well for this, too. (I got this candle holder at Michael's for $1.99). Of course if it is a day party, you won't need candles, but they are still fun.

I found this colorful cording at Hancock a few years ago. I taped the ends to keep them from raveling. You can also use a product called Fray-Check, which is available at Hancock. I used this cording to tie my napkins and it added an additional touch of color.

This is the finished table:

The cookies would be great to take home as favors.

Cookies on a Stick

This is a fun project that you can do for a child's birthday party, a shower, party favors, or, as in this case, an Easter decoration. In this post, I will show how I make these cookies, and in my next post, I will show how I used them in an Easter tablescape. In the past, I have used craft sticks the size of popsicle sticks, but this time I found these longer, thinner ones (pictured above) and liked them better. I got them at Michaels.

First of all, I prepared the cookie dough. I used the Nestle Toll House recipe on the back of the bag, but used miniature morsels. Then I placed a few pastel Easter M & M's on the top of each cookie. You can also bake M & M cookies if you would rather not use chocolate morsels.

Once the dough is prepared, shape each cookie into a nice thick round shape. Then place the stick into the dough.

Place the M & M's onto each cookie. Allow plenty of room on your cookie sheet. And make sure it is greased.

Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes. The M & M's will crack.

Lay a square piece of plastic wrap on the counter with the bottom corner facing you, and place the cookie in the middle:

Then bring the top corner over to meet the bottom corner:

Wrap the sides of the plastic wrap around the cookie toward the back and pinch it together under the cookie. Tie a ribbon around it:

With only a small amount of effort, you have transformed an ordinary cookie into a very special treat.

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Chips

I found these pretzel chips at the grocery store and thought they would taste good if they were dipped in chocolate. Then I thought that brightly colored sprinkles would be fun for Easter. I tried the colored sugar shown in the photo, also, but it didn't show up well. This would be a fun project to do with your kids. The ones I dipped in the white chocolate were my favorites.

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Chips

1 bag pretzel chips (or you can just use actual pretzels)
1 bag white chocolate morsels
1 bag milk or semisweet chocolate morsels
colored sprinkles

In separate bowls, melt chocolate in microwave at 30 second intervals until smooth. Dip each chip into chocolate, scraping off the excess chocolate on the edge of the bowl. Place on a parchment or wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Add sprinkles. Chill for about 10 minutes. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Toasted Baguette Slices with Fresh Basil and Cheese

I bought a baguette at the grocery store to slice and serve with our meal the other night. I usually just butter and toast it, but I decided to jazz it up a bit. Here are the ingredients I used:

1 baguette (or loaf of French bread)
grape tomatoes
fresh basil
fresh Parmesan cheese (or your favorite)
olive oil

Slice the bread and tomatoes and chop the basil.

Place the bread on a cookie sheet and brush with olive oil.

Add the tomatoes and basil. Season as desired with salt and pepper.

Top with cheese and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.

I served them with corn chowder.