Yummy chocolate "shake"

I like to have this sweet treat for breakfast sometimes to get in plenty of fruit 

while having a chocolate fix at the same time.

Ingredients
1 banana
1 kiwi
1 slice of pineapple or orange
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup almond milk
ice cubes

Blend ingredients. Add ice cubes to thicken as needed. Yum! Enjoy!
Makes about 2 cups

Ruffled Pillows From a Shirt

Men's large shirt + pillow forms = ruffly pillows!

To make these find an men's shirt (preferable size large). If your pillows are small then you should be able to get two pillow cases out of the shirt. Trace your pillow (with seam allowance!) twice on the back, cut out, then twice on the front while the shirt is buttoned together, cut that out too. 

The pieces without buttons are the front side of the pillows.

Cut the sleeves open and take the seams and cuffs off. Cut thin strips down the length of the sleeves.

Baste and gather, then sew onto the front !

Pin the front and back of a pillow together (ruffles and buttons facing inward!) and sew all the way around the pillow! Using the button side for the back allows you to take the pillow case on and off to be washed or swapped out! It even has a "cell phone pocket"!

Sugar-free Cream Cheese Frosting

Delicious frosting without the sugar! Tastes just as nice!

Ingredients

Two 8 oz packages of cream cheese
1/2 cup of honey
1/4 maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk or heavy cream
a little corn starch to correct the consistency if necessary

Soften cream cheese to room temperature. Whip. Add honey, maple syrup, vanilla, and milk, and mix together. Adjust consistency as needed by adding more milk or cornstarch.

Makes enough frosting for an 8 inch 2-3 layer cake.

Ruffled Cake

Cute pink ruffled cake I made for a baby shower. Well, the first one was a test version. The second (the cake with the chocolate chip checker pattern on top) was actually for the baby shower.

It was a really fun cake to make. Soft dark chocolate with homemade raspberry jam filling and Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting, which, by the way. is the best frosting EVER.

 That is...until you've "test tasted" it a few too many times and end up having too much...
Then no frosting tastes very good...

Here is the finished cake! It was SO yummy! To be honest I added the milk and dark chocolate chip checkers because I ran out of frosting...oops. But I was very proud of my improv. It added a lot of personality.

(Sorry for the lack of photo editing. I hit a little snag...)

To learn how to make Swiss Meringue Buttercream or frosting ruffles see this link: http://sweetapolita.com/2011/06/ruffles-roses-a-madish-tea-party/
She's got the best tutorial and most straight-forward recipe I've seen so far.