Drink Umbrella's

I love any excuse to do a little crafting...how about drink umbrella's for the 4th of July? Why not, they are quick and easy and your guests will know you want them to feel special!!!

You could use colored doiley's but I simply chose to paper punch some red and blue paper stock and glue them on each umbrella.

I bought some 1/4" button plugs to place on the top, how cute is that?

Cut a 2" circle pattern and then trace on paper stock and cut out however many you need. I folded the pattern into fourth's so that I could make a mark on the paper stock where I wanted to cut as can be seen in the above photo.
Glue the paper stock to 4" doiley's (you can find these at craft stores).
I used a permanent glue stick for this!
Now, cut thru the doily/card stock to center (as seen in above photo), bend into a cone shape and glue ends together (card stock to the inside).
Hot glue a wooden skewer to the inside of umbrella and allow to dry.
For a finished look, hot glue the little 1/4" button plugs to the top of each umbrella being cautious to not burn your fingers.
If you desire, glue the "dots" or other shapes to the finished umbrella.

These would be adorable for baby/bridal showers...the possibilities are endless.

Peach Martini Cupcakes

Yet another Family Throwdown...just we three ladies signed up for the fruit dessert event yesterday. Caribe made a delicious peach cobbler with a maple glaze, Courtney made a beautiful layer cake with a peach filling, and I made Peach Martini Cupcakes!!!!

The idea for these fun little peach martini cupcakes was not my original idea but that of Hoosier Homemade and she was inspired by the authors of Hello, Cupcake! What in the world did we do before blogs?

As you can see the cake batter is baked right in the martini glasses (that Courtney picked up for me at the Dollar Tree). I used a white cake mix that I doctored up a bit and added fresh, diced peach's to. I filled the glasses about 1/2 full with the batter and placed on a large cookie sheet in a pre-heated oven (325 degrees) and baked for about 23 minutes. I did grease the glasses a bit before adding the batter.

Allow the glasses to cool completely on wire cooling rack.

Now comes the fun part...place a bit of water in a bowl or on a plate and carefully dip the edge of glass (a little at a time) in the water and then dredge in sugar. When this is complete it is time to open a can of store purchased cream cheese frosting...remove from can and place in a bowl that is microwave safe. If desired, color the frosting with your color choice (mix thoroughly). Place in microwave for 10-15 seconds. This allows the frosting to get quite fluid and now spread on the cupcakes.

You can allow your creativity to shine on this particular project...little paper umbrella's are a cute touch. I also had candies and straws on hand but didn't want to over-power the presentation.

Our family has enjoyed the Throwdowns this summer so much that we are going to continue having them once a month.