EASTER Celebration - Shields Date Garden

 If you're looking for the perfect place to wander a beautiful garden while you reflect on your blessings during Easter, then the Shields Date Garden is the perfect place to stroll down gorgeous garden paths while viewing statues meant to celebrate the life of Christ. It's not a difficult hike, and there are places where you can sit and reflect.

Plus, there is a wonderful cafe where you can grab something to eat and drink. And there's even a gift shop, so you can bring home some delicious dates with you. 

Adult Jesus Statue

Child version of Jesus

Jesus Loves the Little Children

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Jesus died for all the children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus died for all the children of the world

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Jesus loves the little children of the world

Songwriters: Georg Frick Root, Woolston

For non-commercial use only.

Data from:Musixmatch

Lazurus

Male Date Plant

A beautiful Salad at the Shields Cafe

Nativity Scene

See the ladder going up the tree? People actually climb these to bring us Dates

The Child Jesus in the Temple

The Woman at the Well

Flosstube Episode and Easter Egg Crafts

I finally finished my first ever cross-stitch pattern and hung it up on the door for Easter. It isn't perfect, but what in life really is ;D

I'm happy to have finished something that was new and creative for me to try out. 

I like the the little saying of "Don't Worry Bee Hoppy" because the world seems to be filled with a lot of worry and perhaps with good reason, but I wanted to do something that was  challenging and fun and whenever I create, it makes me  happy and manages to take my mind to other  places. So, if you're like me, and you like to craft, you might enjoy my little YouTube on cross-stitching and making Easter Egg crafts to decorate the yard and home. 

DIY Easter Garland

I love decorating for the holidays - all of  them and these are a couple of the Easter garlands I've made this year to spruce up my house for the holiday.

These are super simple crafts you can make with some material you might have sitting around the house. Plastic Easter Eggs can be strung together to make a fun and decorative garland for your front door. I even made this fun little bow for my door bunny. And, if you're interested in seeing how I made this garland, click on the link down below or visit my YouTube channel. And, if you do make your own garland, please share it with me. I'd love to see it. 

Click on the movie below to watch how I made the  garland.

Bunny Cake

Easter 2020 Bunny Cake

I've always loved to bake but I've had more than my share of baking fails. In fact, I had a near disaster with this bunny at the very beginning - but more about that in a minute. 

First, I wanted to see if there might be other people out there that like to bake, make and create. If so,  please share links to your blogs in the comments so I can pop over there and see what you're making.

Anyway, I thought I'd share how I made this bunny cake.

First I baked the cakes (3 of them) in 6 inch baking tins. And, right away I had problems. I was trimming one of the tops of the cakes to make them all level and I got distracted because I was boiling eggs at the same time. I was checking on the eggs as I was leveling the cakes and...I trimmed the top off the cake horribly. 

You can see how it broke apart. But I just wedged it back together and used a little butter cream (I've added a link to my butter cream frosting recipe) to "glue" it together. My point is, don't give up because of one set back.

Then I crumb coated the cake in homemade butter cream (which is simply powdered sugar mixed with butter and maybe a tablespoon of milk or cream). I always crumb coat on a silpat so I can easily slip the cake off and onto a cutting board. (Crumb Coating - is simply covering the cake in a thin layer of frosting and then putting it in the fridge to set).

Then I rolled out my fondant on  a little cornstarch - to keep the fondant from sticking to the table. TIP: don't do this on a hot day because cooking is like picnicking. The weather plays a big part in your success. And I've had some fondant fails due to weather.

Then I put the fondant over the crumb-coated cakes and trimmed it around the edge. Adding a ribbon around the bottom makes it looked finished and almost professional.

Then I began decorating.

I used Fondant to make the facial features and "glued" them on using buttercream and  meringue paste. 

The finishing touch was the ears but I had another problem there. I thought I had gum paste but I didn't. So, I took some left over fondant and made ears. I stuck them on bamboo skewers and put the in the freezer to harden up until after dinner. Then I pulled them out off the freezer and stuck them in place. But even then, I'd forgotten about the whiskers until my son pointed it out. Luckily, I had some toothpicks in the kitchen. I sprinkled some jelly bean eggs around the edge and Voila the cake was finished.

The family said the cake tasted good … and I believed them but no one wanted to eat the poor bunny's face. And, probably because the fondant was pretty thick there, just look at the nose and cheeks ;D

So this cake was a fun family dessert that everyone enjoyed - including me ;D I had a piece too but I'm always a little biased so  I like to see what  the family thinks.

But, this wasn't my first bunny cake. Over the years I've made a few other Easter cakes.

These bunny cupcakes are a fun, easy project. This bunny is diving down into the hole. So, he was super simple to make

I was looking back  over the years and I guess I've made more than my share of cakes. If you've made some fun cakes too, please share a link to your blog or send a picture, I'd love to see them.

I hope you all stay well and enjoy some creative days, making, baking and creating :D

5 Kid Friendly Crafts to Keep Busy

Are you going a little stir-crazy?

(WHO ISN'T?)

Well, Easter is only a little over two weeks away, so why not put this time to good use by making some holiday crafts, treats, and tasty dishes to keep the kids and yourself busy? 

(Below are some tried and true crafts/recipes I've done-and their links-so happy crafting)

1)

HOW TO MAKE PRETTY EASTER BASKETS WITH PAPER

The prettier the paper – the better

But white paper will work 

Simply color, paint, draw or even paste magazine pictures to beautify your baskets

The stiffer the paper – the stronger

If you have cardstock – all the better

Staple, tape or even glue – use what you have around the house 

2)

MAKE SOME FUN AND EZ TREATS

These are simply cupcakes with coconut frosting but if you don’t have coconut, simply scoop your frosting into a baggie and cut the end off to pipe “grass” on top. 

If you have questions let me know in the  comments.

3)

MAKE YOUR OWN MINIONS

If you have food coloring and eggs, you can make your own minions. If you don’t have jiggly eyes, simply draw them with a marker or paint them with food coloring.

4)

CREATE RICE KRISPY EGGS

If you have rice krispies and marshmallows – you can make easter eggs! If you don’t have marshmallows, you can make your own.

5)

CREATE BEET JUICE EGGS

If you have a can of beets and some eggs, you can color eggs the natural way. This is safe (except for the obvious staining issue). Put on an apron, tie a towel around yourself, or simply wear old clothes for this project. 

It couldn't be more simple. Just dunk your egg in the juice - then let it sit - it takes longer than food coloring but it comes out pretty.

I hope you enjoyed these five simple ways to have some fun with things you probably have around the house.

Stay well and happy creating!

PENGUIN POPS

If you want to make these fun Penguin Pops, just follow the EZ steps below. 

Of course you need penguin pop molds, which you can get at candy making supply shops like Blake's Decorette Shop in Portland, Oregon

Then you need some white chocolate and some food coloring: Orange and black will do. You also need a food quality paintbrush...or two. All you do is paint the food coloring onto the mold.

Then spoon in your melted white chocolate.

Put your molds in the refrigerator to chill for a couple hours and voilÃ.

Penguin Pops

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Cake Fail for Easter

Everything doesn't always turn out.  We all have failures in life and this can apply to writing, working or even baking. And sometimes I have absolute fails and I've had my share when it comes to making cakes. I like to think it's just because I tried to do too many things in a day. But that's just an excuse because after putting in the time to bake a cake and  attempting to decorate it...well,  let's just say it's not fun to have a fail. But it happens.

The last two cake fails I had were because I tried to add something to the recipe and obviously it didn't work out. The one above was because I cored out a portion of the inside to add a pudding filling for that fun-family surprise. But the hole damaged the "structural integrity" (yeah who even says that when they are talking about cake...I guess just cake nerds--like me) and the cake started to implode. Of course my son said,  "didn't you learn from the last time you did this?"

I guess not.

He is right. There was another cake fail where I added pumpkin to the batter...and not just a little but a LOT. That extra-added pumpkin damaged the structural integrity of my bear cake...(see below).

Not so pretty but he tasted just fine.

Still I had to remake him because he was for a birthday party.

But that's not the only cake fail I've had. There was also the sad turkey cake for Thanksgiving.

He sure didn't look happy for our festive family feast. So I had to take another do-over. This time with cupcakes because they sure cook a whole lot faster than an entire cake.

Luckily, those little guys turned out pretty cute, at least in my mind. 

But there are still more fails in my past. Like the time I saw something on the Food Channel and  thought, "hey I can do that". 

"Not!"

Sculpting a person out of rice krispies sounds EZ Smeazy but, take it from me, those people on the Food Channel are there for a reason. They have talent. Something I must be lacking because look at this sculpted figure of my brother-in-law Bo.

Yeah,  it doesn't look anything like him. At least I had the Bee and the Hive cake as backups and they turned out ... sort of. . . so we still had a party-with cake--for his birthday. 

Plus he was interested in the Beekeeping book, so that took his mind off the horrible fail...I hope.

I'm not saying all my cakes have been horrible fails. Some have actually turned  out. 

But it's always the fails that keep me striving to get better. Like this cake fail, where I tried to make my fondant out of marshmallows...yeah marshmallows - what was I  thinking?

Okay maybe it doesn't look so bad from  far  away but let's  get a  close up shot so you can really see.

Okay,  so maybe this one should be called a "fondant fail" because at least the cake  tasted good. And that cake in the background really did turn out...so 1 out of 2 isn't so bad...I'm hoping.

So, what is the point of this post? I just wanted all the homebakers out there to know that you aren't alone in your burnt, botched or under-baked disasters. We all have them...at  least I hope so. Otherwise, I'm the only one who has those disasterous moments in the kitchen. But just to prove that the motto "If at first you don't succeed,  try-try again," is a good one to keep in the back of your brain anytime you're testing new recipes at home, I wanted to show you that I took another do-over to make my little Easter penguin (yep, Easter penguin) cake and he actually turned out--at least  I like  to think so. (Okay the nose is a little large, but so is mine, nothing wrong with having a BIG nose... right?

And, if you want to see  how I  made him,  just keep on reading.

First I baked the cake in a pan shaped like a sphere

Then I cut off all the excess and used it to cut out little feet and wings ... and that BIG penguin nose. I used some frosting to glue the two halves together then I started frosting the ball.

And I kept frosting...

And frosting. . . until:

Plus it doesn't hurt (at least that's what I think) to throw those white chocolate penguin pops on the table,  to prove sometimes things turn out for me...even if the penguin cake does have a BIG nose.

(And, if you want to see how I made the penguin pops...come back later this week to see how EZ those little guys are... and, if you like to bake, or write,  or read you might want to think about subscribing to my blog so you will get notified when I have a new post ;D )

Thanks for taking the time to read about my Easter Fail. I hope it gave you a smile.