Cake Pops!

Easy easy easy!

Vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World, baked in cake pans. Some vanilla frosting from the same. Tear up the cake into small bits, mix with frosting, chill. Melt chocolate chips with vegan shortening (1 tablespoon shortening to 6 oz chocolate) in a double broiler. Roll cake mix into balls, roll in chocolate and decorate. Use the lollipop sticks (got mine at Micheal's Crafts) if you want, or just place them on a baking sheet and let the chocolate set in the fridge.
The youngest loved helping decorate these. Which made it a nice spring break project.
 

Maple Butter Cream

I baked for the first time in quiet a while. The result was tasty. Simple vanilla cupcakes and even simpler Maple Frosting. The frosting is honestly just softened Earth Balance margarine, powdered sugar and maple syrup (1 cup, 3-4 cups, and 1/4 cup respectively). That is it. It is similar in flavor to a doughnut.

We have all been sick, so I am hoping to catch up with everything this week. We will see how much actual energy I have. I have been down with an inner ear issue, so standing is tricky at best. There is just so much to take photos of around here!

Another yard project

Yep, they never end. We had torn up ivy and are going to plant some beans and zukes and melons back there instead. However, because of the semi-circle of retaining wall just yanking out the ivy left the area looking unfinished. Can't have that. So we built a single layer retaining wall. The twist, because you know I need a twist, is that every other paver, we flipped. They had had hollows in them to keep the weight down and I thought what a great little planter for annuals. Below is the result.

The pavers are just hiney sized and will add some fun seating. It was a lot of work, but very worth it. And I think, aside from our labor it was only about $21, not including the plants.