How adorable are these cupcake picks!  After Lauren created the cutest contest graphic ever (I am in love with every font she used in the Sweets for Teats title image) I asked her to also create a free printable of cupcake toppers for you to use along with your baked treats.  I LOVE that these fit right in with the theme of the party but could also be used for so many other types of party/holidays too.  And in order to take pictures of them, I needed to make a dessert to put them in, obvs.  Here is one of my favorite desserts my mom made for us growing up.  It is called Strawberry Dessert (that is what is on the printed recipe from the cookbook my mom put together for me of all our fave family (stolen from somewhere) recipes.)    

It is not the prettiest dessert I’ve ever seen.  So it is great that the 1″ cupcake toppers can also be made in to a super easy cake banner to cute-ify the final product. 

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I am a lazy tutorialist and don’t get too crazy with my photo staging.  I am also a lazy cook.  This recipe and “craft” is perfect for me.  Super cute, totally easy.  What you may not know is that I sometimes lack focus in the kitchen.  Many a recipe has gone awry because I like to not read recipes all the way through before I start.  The day I made this was no exception.  What should have taken about ten minutes to make, took me about an hour.  You may also have noticed that there is a Bigfoot hanging out with the ingredients.  This is my youngest son’s new toy.  He is scared to death of it.  And loves it at the same time.  It is creating quite the internal struggle for him.  He wants the toy turned on (Bigfoot is awesome.  He does tricks including somersaults and throwing tantrums.  Did I mention he’s loud too?) but once its on, my son will not get anywhere near him and ask me to turn him back off.  His battery was being charged in the kitchen and so I found myself moving Bigfoot around as I was trying to get the stuff together for this recipe.  Finally I just decided he was easier to include.  All you need for the dessert is a pre-made Angel Food Cake, a container of Cool Whip, Frozen Strawberries and Strawberry Jello, Bigfoot is optional.  Boom. My kind of recipe. 

This is my houseguest/known since junior high friend, Kayla.  Oh and there is Bigfoot.  Kayla was highly offended by the fact that this dessert didn’t have a more creative name.  She came up with Marilyn’s (my mommy) Extraordinary Strawberry Parfait Casserole.  When my fancy friend, Taryn, saw the dessert she called it White Trash Strawberry Shortcake (since she makes her own shortcakes from scratch and may be a bit of a baking snob).  I decided to not punch her in the face and instead eat some dessert.  You decide which name you like better.     

First you take half of the Angel Food Cake and tear it in to chunks and put in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.  Next you dissolve the strawberry jello in boiling water and add the strawberries…

Now I want to bring you in to my world for a minute.  I hate ants.  Like, for real.  I don’t tolerate them anywhere in the house but especially in the kitchen.  And wouldn’t you know that as I began making this recipe, I started finding ants in this cabinet.  Cooking had to be put on hold as I took every item out of the cupboard, ant-chalked the shit out of it and left it open so I could have an ant stake-out.  So much for whatever focus I started with.  To top it off, many of my mom’s recipes lack instructions.  See, she has common sense in the kitchen so she knows what to do.  Me?  Not so much.  

Which is why this part of the dessert ended up looking a little bit awful.  I think I curdled the Cool Whip.  But I will let you know right now that with all the chemicals in the Cool Whip, the flavor is not affected negatively at all.  That’s a solid product right there; one that can stand up to kitchen messes and still come out pretty much unaffected.  You pour this mixture over your first layer of angel food cake, put a second layer of torn angel food cake on and then pour the rest of this amazing strawberry goo on top.  Chill.  Eat.  Repeat.

Here is the finished, chilled dessert.  So you can see why it needs a little decorating.  

Here is all you need to make these adorable cupcake picks.  The download prints out a page of 48 one inch circles.  TomKat Studios suggest the EK Success punch so that is what I bought.  She wasn’t kidding, best punch I’ve ever used! So run out and get one of those, use a punch you already have, or if all else fails, cut out the circle with scissors.  As you can see from the picture of the banner, I only used about 5 circles.  Not that time consuming.  And for the picks, you only need to cut out enough for each guest in attendance (or sometimes it is super cute to just have a few – adds pizazz, excites the guests and half the work!)

Cut the skewers with the scissors to whatever size you prefer.  Feel free to use toothpicks or some other type of stick.  I loved the thickness of the skewer with the proportion of the circle.  And I made these different heights to add visual interest.  I do stuff like that.  I’m all artsy.  Use your Glue Dots product of choice to adhere the cut out circle to the skewer.  I used both the Mini and Micro and both worked great.

I think they are so cute!!! Huge thanks to Lauren for creating them and letting me share them with you.  

To make the banner, all you would need is some ribbon, yarn, string, thread, you get the idea – as well as the above materials.  Simply tie the string to two uncut skewers and use the Glue Dots to adhere the circles right to the string.  

By the way, I am currently eating this dessert as my breakfast.  So. 

FULL RECIPE:

STRAWBERRY DESSERT AKA MARILYN’S EXTRAORDINARY STRAWBERRY PARFAIT CASSEROLE AKA WHITE TRASH STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

Ingredients

-1 ring store bought Angel Food Cake

-1 large package strawberry Jello

-1 small container Cool Whip THAWED (not the jumbo sized – a nice normal sized Cool Whip)

-1 large package sweetened frozen strawberries – NOT THAWED (these will have sugar and liquid – not the whole berries frozen in a bag)

Break 1/2 angel food cake into chunks and put in the bottom of a 9×13 pan.  Put Jello powder in a bowl, pour 2 cups boiling water on top and stir to dissolve.  Add frozen strawberries and stir to help thaw and cool down the Jello mixture.  Stir in spoonfuls of Cool Whip until mixed.  Spoon 1/2 mixture over cake. Repeat layers and set in fridge several hours to chill.  Cut in to squares to serve. 

Notes:  While the dessert holds its shape pretty well on a plate, it isn’t quite stiff enough to use a knife to cut and serve. A spoon works much better.   

YOU HAVE UNTIL TONIGHT (TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2011 AT MIDNIGHT) TO ENTER TO WIN A PINK KITCHENAID MIXER SPONSORED BY DEL WEBB.  ENTER HERE!

Sharon

All pictures are mine.