How to Make Mini Flower Cakes

5 / 1 / 176 / 22 / 17

Happy May! Mother’s Day is just around the corner and I’ve got the perfect recipe to whip up for the special Mom in your life: Mini Flower Cakes! They’re pretty simple to put together and can be replicated in a variety of colors or cake flavors. To save time, I made mine using a doctored vanilla cake mix, but you can use the cake recipe or flavor of your choice.

Mini Flower Cakes

You will need:
• (2) 9×13 Baking pans
• Circle cookie cutter
• Disposable decorating bags
• Wilton 1M decorating tip
• Wilton 2D decorating tip
• Wilton 18 decorating tip
• Wilton 2A decorating tip
• Wilton 104 decorating tip
• Wilton color right coloring system
• Cookie Spatula

Ingredients:
1 box Duncan Hines French Vanilla Cake Mix
1 (3.4 oz) box French Vanilla Jell-O Pudding mix, dry
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
4 large eggs
1 batch Buttercream Icing

Buttercream Icing:
• 2 cups margarine
• 2 cups Crisco
• 4lbs powdered sugar
• 4 tsp clear vanilla
• 6 tbsp milk

1. Combine the margarine and Crisco in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium until smooth, about 2 minutes.

2. Add half of the powdered sugar and mix on low speed about 2 minutes or until mixture is creamy, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add remaining powdered sugar, vanilla and milk, and beat until frosting is creamy and fluffy about 2 minutes.

Baking and Assembling the Mini Cakes
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 9×13 pans with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat the cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil and eggs on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Scrape sides of the bowl and mix again until all the ingredients are incorporated.

3. Pour 1/2 the batter inside each of the prepared pans.

4. Bake cakes for 15-17 minutes each, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

5. Remove pans from the oven and place on wire cooling racks for 25-30 minutes to cool. Run a knife around the edges of the cakes, flip the pans over and gently extract the cakes. Let cool completely before decorating.

6. Make buttercream frosting while waiting for cakes to cool.

7. Color frosting in shades of your choice. Fill each decorating bag with icing, fitted with the variety of spring flower decorating tips.

8. After cakes have cooled, using circle cookie cutter cut 12 circles from each cake (or more depending on the size of your circle cutter).

9. Using the filled decorating bag fitted with a Wilton 2A tip, ice the tops of 6 cake circles.

10. As each circle is covered in icing, top with a cake circle. Repeat until you have stacked three cake circles on each.

11. To decorate the last and top of each mini cake, use a decorating bag fitted with a 1M tip. Holding your bag upright with the tip placed near the edge of the circle, begin squeezing the bag while applying equal pressure and swirling around in a clockwise motion, swirl around to create a rose.

12. Using decorating bag fitted with Wilton 104 tip and holding the wider side of the tip closer to the base of the cake top, draw a squiggly ruffle about an inch long next to the rose. Draw a second squiggled ruffle to layer over the first.

13. Using decorating bag fitted with a Wilton 2D tip holding your bag upright, squeeze bag and twist your wrist as you create a dot resembling a hydrangea. Dot 3 or 4 hydrangea petals on the cake.

14. Finish mini cakes using your bag fitted with a Wilton 18 star tip. Holding your bag upright, squeeze icing using even pressure as you pull up to create a raised star. Fill in any holes in your cake tops with raised stars.

15. Using a flat cookie spatula, move mini cakes to desired serving tray or pedestal.

The best part about these mini flower cakes is you can color the icing to coordinate any event or party! Display them on a beautiful raised cake pedestal or serve as individual desserts at a dinner party. Your guests will love them!

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Photos by Kelly Clare Photography

Original project made for Jo-Ann Creative Spark blog in partnership with Jo-Ann Craft and Fabric Stores.

Jenny Cookies Spring DIY Terrarium Workshops

4 / 24 / 174 / 25 / 17

I’m thrilled to be hosting FIVE Jenny Cookies Terrarium DIY Workshops this May in Washington AND California!

Join us for a terrarium building workshop filled with treats and succulent inspiration. Each attendee will create their very own terrarium to take home and enjoy throughout the spring season. Delicious desserts and refreshments will be provided.

Support Susan G. Komen® and the American Heart Association by getting crafty!! Donate $25-$30 for a ticket and enjoy treats made by Jenny Cookies Bake Shop, DIY activity and a goodie bag with select offers and treats from mall retailers. 100% of the ticket price benefits Susan G Komen and the American Cancer Society.

Northgate Mall
Thursday May 11th at 6pm
Click HERE for tickets

Tacoma Mall
Saturday May 13th at 1pm
Click HERE for tickets

The Shops at Mission Viejo
Saturday May 20th at 10am
Click HERE for tickets

Del Amo Fashion Center
Friday May 19th at 2pm
Click HERE for tickets

Brea Mall
Saturday May 20th at 3pm
Click HERE for tickets

DIY Rainbow Surprise Cake

3 / 9 / 176 / 22 / 17

Skip the green beer this St Patrick’s Day and treat your friends and family to a rainbow surprise cake! Underneath clouds of ruffled buttercream icing hides a gold treasure.

You can use your favorite white or vanilla cake recipe, or save a little time with a doctored cake recipe. I’ve listed mine below!

What you’ll need:
• (6) 8” cake pans OR (2) Wilton Easy Layers pan sets
• Wilton Color Right System
• Disposable Decorating Bags
• Cake Turn Table
• Cake Cooling Racks
• (6) 1A Decorating Tips
• Large Star Decorating Tip
• Angled Cake Spatula
• Small round cookie cutter
• 8” cake board
• Gold Sprinkles (available in-stores)
• Gold Sanding Sugar (available in-stores)
• Gold Pearls
• Wilton Bake Easy Spray
• Dritz Ezy-Hem Gauge

Rainbow Cake:
• (3) boxes vanilla cake mix
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup oil
• 2 boxes Vanilla Instant pudding
• 12 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 8-inch baking pans with cooking spray or grease and flour the pans, tapping out excess flour. Set the prepared pans aside.

2. Using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the cake mix, pudding, mix, water, oil and eggs on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again until all the ingredients are incorporated.

3. Pour equal amounts of batter into 6 cereal sized bowls. Using Wilton Color Right system, color each bowl a color of the rainbow.

4. Pour batter into prepared pans, filling each approximately 3/4 full.

5. Place pans in the preheated oven. Bake cakes for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Depending on the size of the oven, you may need to bake this cake in two batches.

6. Remove the pans from the oven and place on wire cooling racks for 25-30 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the cakes, flip the pans over and gently extract the cakes. Return the cakes to the wire racks and finish cooling completely.

7. While the cakes are cooling, make a batch of buttercream frosting. Reserve 1/2 of the frosting into a separate bowl for filling and crumb coat. Separate remaining frosting into 6 bowls. Using Wilton Color Right System, color each bowl of frosting a color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple).

Buttercream Icing:
• 2 cups margarine
• 2 cups Crisco
• 4lbs powdered sugar
• 4 tsp clear vanilla
• 6 tbsp milk

Directions:
1. Combine the margarine and Crisco in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Assembling the Cake:

1. Using a serrated knife, remove crowns of each cake. With a small, round cookie cutter, remove one circle center from the middle of each cake. Repeat with each cake layer.

Place an 8” cake board onto a cake turntable. Place the purple cake layer on board. Spread a thin layer of icing on top of cake using an angled cake spatula. Stack blue layer on top. Spread a thin layer of icing across the top of the blue cake. Repeat steps with green, yellow, orange and red layers. After final layer is stacked, pour gold sprinkle mixture (made up of gold sanding sugar, crystals, and pearls) into the hole in the center of the cake.

3. Use angled cake spatula to cover the cake completely with a very thin layer of white frosting (or crumb coat) to help reduce the amount of crumbs in the final coat of icing. Set the cake aside for 20 minutes to “crust”.

4. Fill 6 Wilton decorating bags each fitted with a 1A decorating tip with rainbow colored frostings. Fill 1 bag fitted with a tip with white icing.

5. Starting with the purple icing bag held in a horizontal position, begin applying purple icing around bottom of the cake with even pressure while turning cake table with opposite hand. Repeat layer with blue icing and continue through remaining rainbow colors.

Using a Dritz Hem Gauge (my favorite cake smoothing tool), begin to scrape the side of the cake as you rotate the turntable. Scrape excess frosting off and repeat until cake is smooth.

Decorate the top of the cake with white icing bag fitted with the large star tip. Swirl circular motions around the top of the cake to create a cloud look. Continue until the entire top surface of the cake is covered.

Since the cake is supported with a cake board base, you can move the cake to any pedestal or cake stand of your choice! Place cake on something special for cutting and prepare your guests for a fun surprise of gold in the middle. Happy St Patrick’s Day!

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THIS IS A SPONSORED POST. JENNY COOKIES HAS RECEIVED PAYMENT, TRADE AND/OR PRODUCTS FROM JO-ANN FABRIC AND CRAFT STORES IN EXCHANGE FOR PROMOTING, HOWEVER ALL OPINIONS STATED ARE MY OWN AND I ONLY PROMOTE PRODUCTS/COMPANIES I LOVE.

Photography by Kelly Clare Photography

Jenny Cookies Bake Shop Renovation

2 / 23 / 177 / 18 / 17

I feel good about life at 36. I’ve been to college, birthed two children, owned a successful coffee business, written a book, renovated a farmhouse, worked with some of my favorite brands, had hard conversations, lost friendships, gained friendships, survived 13 years of marriage (ha), baked more cookies than I could ever count and finally opened a bake shop.

The opening of Jenny Cookies Bake Shop is at the very top of my proudest accomplishments list. It was single handedly the most difficult thing I’ve done. Yes, I’ve been baking for 11 years. No surprise there. But opening a brick and mortar business from start to finish was one of the most daunting tasks I’ve ever taken on.

In January of 2016 we found an existing cupcake shop seven miles from our house that was interested in selling. The owner was looking to condense her multi location business into one location. Perfect for us. The Lake Stevens space was small and off the beaten path, but just the right spot to take custom orders and finally say yes to huge corporate orders I’d been turning down for years. We had a deal.

For several months I continued working on blog projects, partnerships and seasonal campaigns with brands while keeping up with our life at the Keller Farmhouse. Two kids, three goats, four cats and five acres can keep ya busy! We finally got started on our bake shop remodel in May. And when I say started, I think we tore a tv off the wall. It was a slow process.

My sister’s fiance Andrew (of Eylander Tile) took on the many hats of renovating a bake shop. He went from custom tile to architect, designer, builder, tiler, electrician, painter, you name it, he did it. The only thing in our entire shop he didn’t install were the marble countertops. Everything else, Andrew. He is the most talented and creative artist I know.

The shop transformation took a little longer than I had anticipated. We had originally hoped to open by Aquafest, the town’s annual summer celebration. I laugh just thinking about being open by the end of July. I think we had gutted the floor by July. Then came August. Didn’t happen. September was out because of back-to-school and then October flew by. In early November I said we have to open in December.

I spent November working day and night, sleeping from 3am-5am. Sure, there were a million things going on leading up to this month, but nothing like the month of November. Hiring, ordering, recipe testing, stocking, planning, marketing, shopping, organizing, scheduling, forecasting…my to-do list was basically until eternity. I won’t complain about how little I slept, how frustrating things could be or how many times I said “This is insane for one person to take on!!!” I’ll just say this. It was a lot of work and it continues to be a lot of work, but I’m really proud of Jenny Cookies Bake Shop.

My favorite part of any project is the transformation. I love a good before and after.

What do you think?

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Photography by Solie Designs

Swans, Sweets and Spa Treats | How to Host a Spa Party

2 / 6 / 177 / 31 / 17

What a year age 10 was. My daughter Ally went from hoarding My Little Pony everything to asking Santa for a Clarisonic and lip gloss in a matter of 12 short months. Age 11 has brought a newfound love of all things girly to our life. Ally is passionate about fruity smelling beauty products, YouTube hair videos and any errand involving a trip to the mall.

When it came time to choose a theme to celebrate her 11th birthday, something involving beauty was an obvious choice. I always try to incorporate some sort of activity or useful DIY into parties. It keeps things flowing nicely and eliminates awkward “what should we be doing” party moments.

I figured these girls are headed to Middle School next year so what a great opportunity to teach them some daily skin care and hygiene regimes in a fun setting. Less princess makeover, more real-life skills that are age appropriate. We settled on a spa party with an incorporation of swans and beautiful flowers and desserts.

Why swans? No reason. I just really like them right now.

I always begin any party prep with a couple inspiration pieces. It usually includes a color palette, a pattern, or in this case, a swan! I found beautiful invitations (at Minted) which help set the stage with a color palette of blush pink, black and white, and pops of greenery. Ally invited four of her closest friends to join her for a morning of Swans, Sweets and Spa Treats.

We set a gorgeous spa table for the girls in the center of the room. Each table setting was prepped for facial success.

We incorporated some of my favorite beauty products into the girls’ facials. I love using Fresh products on my face, not only because they are made with real ingredients, but also because they’re so indulgent and effective.

Each guest had a palette of products laid in fresh rose petals and leaves, set inside vintage serving trays. They doubled as a great way to show the girls correct portion sizing when using products.

Once the girls were dressed in spa robes they settled in at their spa table. I have a great friend, Heather (also part of my bake shop team, lucky me!) who spent years working for Nordstrom beauty. She stepped right up and ran the girls through a quick, informative skin care lesson from washing your face with a great cleanser (I love the Soy Cleanser, AKA once one of Oprah’s Favorite Things!) to the importance of applying sunscreen each day. We all agreed none of us want to look old. Wear your sunscreen!

Multiple times throughout the morning, I daydreamed about being Ally’s friend and not her mom. How fun to be part of this party!! Heather may be teaching this lesson again to my group of girlfriends..

After they washed their faces, they applied a rose petal infused face mask and relaxed with cucumbers on their eyes while the mask worked its magic.

Between spa sessions, the girls took a break to refresh with rosemary infused sparkling water and indulged in a chocolate fountain.

The table was set with an abundance of dipping pieces from rice krispy squares, oversized marshmallows, mini brownies and lots of fruit!

Napkins are always a necessity, especially with drippy chocolate. I found an assortment of fun patterned napkins and runners from Minted that coordinated our invite and party color palette.

After plenty of chocolate, the girls were taught a few simple hair techniques. Let’s be honest, as a mom, it’s really nice when kids can get themselves ready in the mornings! Top knots, simple braids and mermaid curls are great styles for tween girls.

We celebrated the birthday girl with a stunning dessert table of treats fit for a princess.

When I need to purchase decor for parties, I like to invest in pieces we can use after the event, instead of a one time use. For the backdrop of Ally’s dessert table, I used a fabric pinboard (by Minted) that we can use later in Ally’s room or loft space. The fabric coordinated the invites and table linens, which pulled the whole look together.

My talented friend and florist, Kelli (of Country Bouquets Floral) added pops of flowers to the top corner of the board and pinned a few sporadically around the board for a touch of life.

Kelli also added a gorgeous arrangement to the top of Ally’s birthday cake using an assortment of blush pink roses, black and white anemones and eucalyptus. I have to say, this cake is at the top of my favorites list!

Swan shaped sugar cookies and flower crown pb cracker cookies filled the dessert table.

Ally had one request for her party, the bake shop’s pie cookies. We personalized them for her party with a little birthday greeting. She loved it!

We lit sparkler candles, sang Happy Birthday and our special girl made a wish.

For the final pamper session of the party, the girls relaxed with their feet in a hot foot soak filled with fresh flowers, herbs and salts while whispering about all the things 5th grade girls whisper about.

Of course we couldn’t send the girls home empty handed. I love a good party favor! Ally treated each guest to all of the Fresh goodies they used during their facials.

Swans may have been random, but after the party came together I realized that swans were actually quite perfect for this group of girls and the stage they are in. They’re growing, changing and turning into beautiful little young ladies, just like how swans develop as they grow. We are so proud of Ally. With each year she grows into a sweeter, kinder and smarter girl. Happy Birthday Ally!

To host your own spa party with tweens, here are a few tips you can relay to your party guests:

-Wash face every Morning and Night or after you get home from a sports activity. (Easy to keep your cleanser in the shower so it is easy to access while they do their morning or evening bathing)

-Wet face with warm (not hot) water

-Use a dime size amount of cleanser and apply gently! Remind the girls how important using gentle not harsh pressure on their delicate skin is.

-Apply cleanser with fingertips using a circular motion

– Once face is clean remove cleanser with warm water and pat your skin dry with a clean, dry towel.

-After you cleanse your skin you want to apply a toner. A toner helps restore the PH balance of the skin that your cleanser and water throws off balance. Without a toner your moisturizer cannot absorb fully.

– After you tone, take a small pea sized amount of moisturizer. These girls are first time skincare users so starting with a moisturizer for all skin types is a great start for them. -A very important lesson for the girls to learn early on is too not over use their skin care products. Start with a small amount and then add a tiny bit more only if necessary.

-The girls also learned how to apply a skincare mask. Masks are great extra nutrition for the skin. Usually left on for 10-15 minutes before you remove and put on your daily moisturizer. A good habit is for the girls to start applying a mask once a week. Perfect for a Saturday night slumber party or on a Sunday night before their big week at school.

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Swans and Sweets and Spa Treat | how to host a spa party | teenage birthday party ideas | birthday party ideas for girls | party ideas for teen girls | spa themed party ideas | hosting a spa themed party | entertaining tips and tricks || JennyCookies.com

Gorgeous Photography: Kelly Clare Photography
Florals: Country Bouquets Floral
Linens & Stationary: Minted

Go-To Holiday Dessert Ideas

12 / 15 / 166 / 22 / 17

Christmas is TEN days away! Eeeek!! I can hardly believe it. If you haven’t already nailed down your holiday baking, I’m here for you!

I’m sharing three of my go-to holiday dessert and decorating ideas along with a few simple ways to present and package them as gifts.

Holiday Sprinkle Cake

You will need:
(2) 8″ baked cakes, leveled/torted and filled and crumb coated with buttercream.
buttercream icing

Materials used:
Variety of Sprinkles: Wilton jimmies, sanding sugar, pearls, etc.
(2) 8”x3” cake pan
(2) Wilton cake boards
icing spatula

Directions:
1. Start with an 8″ baked, filled and crumb coated cake in your favorite flavor, placed on a 8″ cake board. Let the crumb coat dry (about 30 minutes). Using a variety of sprinkles, mix them up and pour them into a jelly roll pan or small pan with an edge.

2. Add a layer of buttercream icing to the sides of the cake.

3. Place the second 8″ cake board onto the top of the cake. Hold in place while you decorate around the sides, to give your cake an even coat of buttercream icing.

4. After all sides have been covered evenly, pick up cake grasping the top and bottom cake boards.

5. Roll cake into the sprinkle mixture.

6. Repeat the rolling motion until all sides have been equally covered.

7. Return cake to turntable. Remove top cake board.

8. Use remaining buttercream to ice the top of the cake. Sprinkle the top of the cake.

Sprinkled Star Cookies

You will need:
Baked Sugar Cookies
Buttercream Icing

Materials Used:
Sprinkles
Disposable Pastry Bag
Buttercream Icing

1. Using a decorating bag filled with buttercream icing, draw a star on the cookie.

2. Hold cookie from the bottom or sides and place upside down into tray of sprinkles. Push cookie down into sprinkles to adhere sprinkles to buttercream icing.

3. Return to drying rack/tray. Continue until all cookies have been decorated.

Peanut Butter Christmas Crunch Cookies

You will need:
Ritz crackers
Peanut Butter

Materials Used:
Wilton Candy Melts
Wilton Warming Pot or microwaveable bowl
Wilton dipping tool
Sprinkles
Cooling Rack
Decorating bag

1. Place candy melts into candy warming pot. Stir until melted.

2. Place crackers on a sheet of waxed paper. Fill decorating bag with peanut butter. Snip tip of decorating bag about 1/4″ and pipe peanut butter onto crackers.

3. Top each cracker with a second cracker, sandwiching the peanut butter in between.

4. Candy in warmer should be melted and runny before dipping. Check consistency with a spatula.

5. Dip cracker cookies down into melted candy. Flip and cover each cracker with melted candy. Return to a drying rack (placed over wax paper for easy clean up).

6. Decorate cookies with sprinkles. Allow 30 minutes to dry.

Packaging your treats

Materials Used:
Ribbon
Kraft Boxes
Fabric Scraps
Scissors
Labels and Tags

Presentation is everything! Package baked goods in ribbons, boxes and fun bags. Tie stacks of cookies in ribbon before placing in boxes or wrap desserts in scraps of fabric. Get creative!

What is your favorite holiday dessert to give/gift?

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Photos by Kelly Clare Photography

Tree Top & Jenny Cookies Holiday Party

12 / 14 / 166 / 22 / 17

This past weekend I had the opportunity to host another party with Tree Top, this time to celebrate the holiday season! If you aren’t familiar with the company, you’d more than likely recognize their products. Tree Top is an apple juice and sauce company located here in Washington in the town of Selah. Tree Top benefits more than 1,000 fruit growers in the Pacific Northwest as a grower-owned co-op.

Our party had originally been planned as a family day at a local tree farm…but the weather had other plans. After a site visit a few days before the event, it was clear that it would be too chilly to host the event at the tree farm. We’d all be seeing our breath!

We quickly shifted gears to host in a studio location instead, in the heat. I’m so glad we did because it was warm, cozy and inside, which made all the difference!

As guests arrived, we had a variety of activities to keep the kids entertained. I like to make sure there are a lot of things to keep the kids busy so parents are able to chat a bit without having to hover over their kids.

First on the kid’s agenda was gingerbread house making. The kids absolutely loved it. It was chaotic and noisy, but not a difficult crowd! Each child found a seat and got to work. They did such a great job!

Parents mingled and snacked from the dessert table made up of treats from my new bake shop!

To wash down all of the sugar, we offered guests a hot apple cider and coffee bar. It may have been white and bright in the studio, but it was pouring down rain and dark outside. Hot apple cider was the perfect drink to warm everyone up!

The hot apple cider was made by simply heating Tree Top’s Honeycrisp Apple Juice. Nothing else!! I normally don’t like to drink my calories (I like food) but I sipped down two copper mugs full of it! Tree Top is the only major brand that uses 100% USA apples for all of its apple juice. Super impressive!

The kids moved on to decorating sugar cookies as they finished their gingerbread houses. We baked gingerbread shapes and let them use their imagination for decorating.

The kids decorated cookies to place on the cutest personalized Cookies for Santa plattters (by Arla Creations).

After all the messy cookie and gingerbread decorating, the kids got creative at our crafting station. We made Santa’s Sleigh out of Tree Top’s Apple Sauce Pouches and assorted holiday candies.

Tree Top’s Apple Sauce Pouches provide an easy way for your kids to enjoy fruit on-the-go. They are excellent sources of Vitamin C; contain no high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors or colors; and are BPA free. They are also mess-free, easy to pack and TSA-friendly, making them a delicious snack option if you’re traveling by car or plane to see family or friends this holiday season!

I love a good party favor so this party was no different. Each guest went home with a personalized Santa bag (by Poofy Cheeks) filled with an assortment of my favorite Christmas items.

Highway 3 has the softest blankets, great for cuddling up in this winter. We personalized blankets for our little guests, who were absolutely thrilled to find their names on the blankets.

We also included a Gingerbread Cookie kit by Food Stirs. My sweet friend Sarah Michelle Gellar owns this awesome new brand. Her cookies are delicious! Other items in the bags were personalized Tiny Prints wrapping paper, thank you cards and 2017 notebooks. You can never have enough places to jot to-do lists! With Pinky Up Tea and coordinating spoons, Bissinger’s Chocolates and Gummies, the yummiest smelling candles by Candelles, and cinnamon and apple sauce ornament recipe cards, our guests are now set for a cozy holiday at home!

The party was filled with holiday cheer, laughter and plenty of treats. Many of the kids expressed to me that it was the “best party ever!” It never gets old hearing that!

After all the gingerbread houses had been made, cookies had been decorated and the dessert table was wiped clean, we sent everyone home with a snack for the road. There’s nothing fun about leaving a party and having your kid announce they didn’t eat anything but sugar at the party. We packed Tree Top Apple Sauce Pouches, Tree Top Organic Apple Juice, string cheese, goldfish crackers and other little treats to enjoy for the car ride home.

It was such a fun afternoon, I’m already looking forward to next year’s party!

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Photos by Kelly Clare Photography

How to Throw a Family Movie Night | The Secret Life of Pets

12 / 8 / 166 / 22 / 17

This post is in partnership with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

It’s been pretty crazy around the Keller Farmhouse the past couple of weeks. Jenny Cookies Bake Shop opened last weekend in Old Town Lake Stevens with a line wrapped around the building and customers shuffling in all weekend long. To say I’m absolutely exhausted would be an understatement. I could literally crawl in a hole and sleep until next year.

But since I have two small kids, crawling in a hole probably wouldn’t be ideal, so we settled on a family movie night to celebrate the shop opening and spend a little time together as a family.

The kids chose The Secret Life of Pets which just came out on DVD and Blu-ray December 6. They were so excited to cuddle up on the couch and have a movie night.

Even without the never-ending to-do list of the bake shop. this time of year is busy for everyone. It’s nice to take a breather and plan a simple family movie night together.

We organized our movie night menu around our favorite movie snacks. Pizza, soda and popcorn! We ordered pizza from one of our favorite restaurants and had a tray of soda ready to go.

For our snack, I made a huge batch of my favorite movie night popcorn mix. It’s super easy to do and everyone loves it! It’s a combination of sweet and salty treats. (See recipe below).

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS POPCORN MIX

Ingredients:
2 (2.9oz) bags of salty and sweet kettle corn
1 (12 oz) package of blue candy melts
1 (8 oz) package of Snickers bites
1 package of Trader Joes Chocolate Cat Cookies
1 (8oz) package of Twix bites
1 package Pretzel Flipz

You will need:
wax paper
bone/pet paw mold

Directions:

Pop the popcorn according to the package directions. Lay flat on waxed paper to cool.
Lay snickers and twix bites on waxed paper.
Melt the blue candy melts in microwaveable bowl in 30 second increments at 40% power for about 1 1/2 minutes, stirring as needed until smooth. Drizzle blue candy over the popcorn and candy pieces. With remaining colored candy, fill mold cavities.
Once molds have been filled, pop into freezer for about 5-10 minutes. Remove from molds.
Mix all of the ingredients into a large bowl and serve.

We couldn’t leave our pets out, so we made a little snack for them as well. Using a dog bone and pet print mold (found on Amazon) we mixed peanut butter and plain yogurt together in a small bowl. To speed up the time to fill each mold cavity, fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe into each tray. Once the mold is filled, place in the freezer for 1-2 hours to form it’s shape. Once frozen, pop them out of the tray and serve!

Our cat Charlie was pretty excited to find a treat just for him!

Once everyone had their snacks and dinner in hand, we plopped on the couch for our movie.

Ever wonder what your pets do when you’re not home? The Secret Life of Pets is a darling animated movie that features an all-star voice cast including Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Steve Coogan and Albert Brooks. In addition to all the brilliant voices, the new release features nearly an hour of bonus content, including three hilarious mini-movies. Plan your next family movie night and pick up a copy on Blu-ray or DVD this holiday season.

I’m pretty sure my cats sleep most of the day…but I could be wrong! They seem to look like this the majority of the time:

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Photos by Kelly Clare Photography

THIS IS A SPONSORED POST. JENNY COOKIES HAS RECEIVED PAYMENT, TRADE AND/OR PRODUCTS FROM UNIVERSAL PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT IN EXCHANGE FOR PROMOTING, HOWEVER ALL OPINIONS STATED ARE MY OWN AND I ONLY PROMOTE PRODUCTS/COMPANIES I LOVE.