Such a great combination of flavors and so perfect for summer.  You can check out these muffins with a tropical twist over on Foodie.com.

Would you like to come up with your own recipe creation using Dole Fruits? Dole is Calling All Cooks as part of their California Cook-Off Contest. Enter your original starter or appetizer recipe using at least one cup of any Dole product for a chance to win a trip to Los Angeles where you’ll have the chance to compete in the 2012 Dole California Cook-Off. The winning contestant will also receive a cash prize of $10,000 and two runners up will each win a cash prize of $1,000.

Want in on the fun but don’t have a recipe to enter? Don’t worry – there is an option for you as well! Enter for a chance to win the sweepstakes prize which is a trip to Los Angeles to be the Dole Fan Judge! In addition to the trip, the winner will also receive a cash prize of $500. Head over to Dole’s Facebook Page to enter!

Compensation was provided by Dole via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the Love From The Oven and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Dole.

These work perfectly if you want to use CD Sleeves as treat holders.  My labels are slightly different as I made them specifically for my daughter’s school with her colors.  The free download ones will be a bit more flexible than a yellow and blue combo!   The super cute papers used in creating these are from Mel Stampz.

For mine I used these labels and these sleeves.   The fun cookies in CD sleeves idea came from Intimate Weddings.   You can also find a super cute free printable on her page.   I love how she used the scallop scissors to cut hers.  Darling!

Head to the free printables page here at Love From The Oven for these printables as well as others.  Enjoy!

I’m going to step up on a soap box for a moment here…  One thing I think is very important is to remember the non-teachers at our schools.  I’m sorry but is there anyone who works harder than a school janitor?  I can barely clean up after one kid, much less a full school of them!   And nurses and duty aides and office staff and and specials teachers and the cafeteria workers… without them our schools wouldn’t be the same.   So if you’ve never brought in a little something to say thank you to the support staff, please consider doing so.   We have done this since my daughter was in kindergarten and I do not think I’ve ever seen bigger smiles over something as little as a cookie or a pretzel.   Not only do I think it’s important to show these people how much we appreciate them, I also want my daughters to grow up knowing that everyone makes a difference and should be recognized.  Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox and put my apron back on now and make some cookies.

And these are some GOOD cookies.

Chocolate chip cookies are a funny things, the recipes are all so similar yet somehow produce different results.   I keep reading about these great Jacques Torres’s chocolate chip cookies, how they are the BEST ever.   The number one chocolate chip cookie recipe – famous and amazing.  Well they might be, but after hitting two stores and not finding bread or pastry flour (but 398 brands of all purpose, grrrr) and the fact that the dough needs to chill for 24-72 hours, they were just NOT happening.  Between one kid with school and activities and the other with a slew of special needs therapies, tracking down ingredients is a challenge and planning ahead 24-72 hours… yeah, never happens.    Keepin it real.

So I did some digging and came across this recipe for the Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie and figured I’d go with it.    It’s a winner.   Reader Melody pointed out that this recipe can also be found at America’s Test Kitchen.   This is absolutely a recipe that will stay in my chocolate chip rotation.

The ingredients are straight forward (I doubled the recipe, which is why you see a larger amount of ingredients in my photo).   Do take note that you MELT THE BUTTER and I brought my eggs to room temp (my quickie way is to put them in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes).   Also take note that you use an egg and a yolk.

I used a combo of semi sweet chocolate chips and the Pound Plus Dark Chocolate Bar from Trader Joe’s (which is my personal chocolate nirvana).

Yum yum yum.

The dough was delightful.   One has to test.

I made mine pretty large – about six fit on a cookie sheet, where I’d normally have about 12.

Oh how I love cookie dough.

Simple and straight forward with no extended dough chilling necessary.

Now to package these babies up.   I found the cutest idea over at Intimate Weddings.

Not only does she share this cute ideas, but she also has a super sweet free printable for the labels. I ordered some full sheet labels from Amazon as well as some CD Sleeves.   I packaged my cookies in plastic wrap first, with the amount of butter in these I was worried about the sleeves getting a wee bit greasy.

I made up my own version of the labels, as I wanted to use my daughter’s school colors.  Here are five different colors that you can download and use.

It took a bit of time but we had a whole batch of these ready to head to school this morning…

Hopefully the staff will enjoy these today.

Don’t forget you can find the recipe here!

Yeah, pretty darn delicious.  The only changes I made to previous recipe were using chocolate cake mix in place of white or vanilla, I added in 2/3 cup cocoa (I went with dark cocoa) and I cut back the flour to 4 1/2 cups instead of 5 cups.   Aside from that the directions are identical.   I went with a straight vanilla frosting on these, but it would be fun to try other flavors out as well.

I will admit, for whatever reason I am not a huge fan of combining cinnamon and chocolate.  I don’t know why, I love them both on their own, but together they aren’t my favorite.    I still loved these, but I really want to try them and break out of the “cinnamon” roll thing, and use something in place of, or just omit, the cinnamon.  I mean chocolate rolls on their own sound just fine to me.

If you are a bit hesitant to try and make cinnamon rolls (as I was for MANY years – I’d see the word “yeast” in a recipe and run the other way), I really encourage you to try these – in the regular or chocolate version.  For a true cinnamon roll these are as simple as I have found.   Simple enough that I won’t mind making them myself on Mother’s Day.

What are you making or hoping to have made for you this Mother’s Day?   My husband is a big waffle maker, and I’m thinking we may need to try the cake mix waffles in a chocolate version.  Oh my heck that sounds good.   Yum yum yum.

I absolutely can’t take credit for this brilliant idea – it comes from one of my favorite bloggers – Kristan at Confessions Of A Cookbook Queen.  She shared it at Living Locurto last year and I was sold – they are too cute (and easy!) to pass up.

I made some of these last year, along with some free printables to go with them, and it’s safe to say they were a big hit at my daughter’s school.

I was thinking of making them again this year.  My daughter is at a different school, so they wouldn’t really be repeats.   When I ran into these cute little ice cream cups at Michael’s, my mind was made up, I had to make some.

These cups were a bit smaller than the ones I used last year which actually worked out better as they are more suited for a standard sized cupcake.

To package them I just slip the cups into a cellophane bag and tie on some ribbon and finish with a gift tag.  Really easy.

To make these you need a batch of cupcakes that you’ve baked up, some frosting, melting chocolate, sprinkles and a topper (M&M’s or gumballs work perfectly).    This is one of the times that you want your frosting on the thick side, because you are going to scoop it on to the cupcake the same way you would when you scoop ice cream.

For my full step by step how to make these, make sure to check out this post that I did last year.

Cupcakes.  Frosting.  Gumballs.  Polka dots.  AHHHH I love it all!

I made up some free printables for you to use with these.   Again, I found the cups at Michael’s.  If you can’t find them, you could use the clear plastic cups like I used in the Apple For The Teacher cupcakes.

Now go out and bake some cupcakes and show some teacher appreciation!   Happy Friday!

Don’t forget to head to the free printable page to print off your gift tags!

A cupcake apple to be specific!  Heck, it doesn’t need to be an official teacher appreciation day or week – teachers work so hard and do one of the most important jobs that anyone could ever do.  They need to be appreciated each and every day.  I can’t take credit for this cute cupcake idea, I’ve seen them all over Pinterest and wanted to make a batch for my daughter to take to school, so I figured I’d share them with you, in case you had a special teacher (or teachers or entire school) that you want to share them with.

These sweet treats are SUPER easy to make and I have some free Teacher Appreciation printables for you to use with them.

Start off by making a batch of cupcakes – I used a yellow cake mix from Duncan Hines.  If you have red cupcake liners, they would be perfect.  I did not have any, and that’s how the free printable cupcake wrappers came to be.  Bake your cupcakes according to the directions on your package.   Once your cupcakes are cool, it’s time to frost.   You can use homemade frosting or canned – your choice.  You could easily color your frosting red and skip the sprinkles – it’s completely up to you – either way would be cute.   Heck, you could color the frosting red and cover with red sprinkles.  They are cupcakes – no rules here!

After frosting each cupcake I immediately covered them in red sanding sugar.  Don’t wait around, your frosting will start to set and your sprinkles won’t stick.   I used a big tub of sanding sugar sprinkles and poured them right on the cupcakes, with a bowl below to catch the extra sprinkles.   If you want to see how I do this, check out my video in this post where I am covering pretzels with sprinkles.  I literally dump my sprinkles on.

For the stems and leaves I used pretzel sticks and green chocolate melting discs that I cut in half.    If you don’t have access to green melting discs, you could use a variety of candies.  Some that come to mind are green gumdrops, jelly beans, M&M’s, fruit roll ups or even gummy worms. If it’s green, it’ll work. 

After covering your cupcake in frosting and sprinkles (or just red frosting if you prefer), add your leaves and stems.   Next comes packaging.  These are optional steps really – it’s up to you how much you want to do.  If you are making these for every teacher in the entire district, you may want to skip the printables and call it good.  But if you want to do something a bit more, here is what I am doing…

Print off your cupcake wrappers.  The papers I used for these cupcake wrappers are from Mel Stampz.  She has the most AMAZING digital papers I have seen, and shares them for free, which makes her like the coolest person ever.

I just taped mine closed.  I’m sure there are fancier and prettier ways to do it, but this was quick and easy – both of which I’m a fan of.

I then placed the wrappers in my clear plastic cups (so the wrappers are pretty much for decoration and are not serving a functional purpose) and then added my cupcakes to the cups.

I like to package cupcakes in cups if I am taking individual cupcakes somewhere.  It holds them still and allows them to reach their destination.   The cups fit nicely in the cellophane bags you can pick up at craft stores (sometimes even Target and Walmart).   Add a gift tag and some ribbon and voila – a sweet little teacher treat.  That’s it!  These really are easy peasy treat to whip up.

I often get asked how to get the cupcakes out of the cups without getting any frosting on you.  Um, carefully?   I usually quickly pop them out on to a napkin and then flip them over.  The frosting is usually set enough that it’s not that messy, especially if it’s covered in sprinkles.   And if one gets frosting on their fingers, I see this as a good excuse to eat frosting.   I hate going through the trouble of making cupcakes only to have them jostle around on the car ride and look like crud upon arrival.   So yes, they may be a tad messy to get out of the cup, but it’s the sacrifice I’m okay making in order to keep their cute little looks preserved.

So sweet.   I did these while my daughter was at school, but having the kids add the leaves and stems would be a great way to let them help out.  They get to turn the cupcakes into apples!

I’ve made a few different printable cupcake wrappers for you.  One is plain and the other two have teacher specific text on them.   I’ve created some in both red and green – so you can pick your favorite apple color to use.

All of the free printables are available on the printables page.

Enjoy and share some with a teacher!  Also make sure to check out the super cute free digital papers over at Mel Stampz.

Here is what most of my batches of frosting start off with…

I loosely follow the recipe on the back of the C&H Powdered Sugar box for Five Minute Buttercream…

The recipe is as follows…

One 1 pound box of C&H Pure Cane Powdered Sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) softened butter
1/4 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Combine all items and whip with a mixer.

Some of the alterations I make to this include…

Using a mix of butter and vegetable shortening.  If I want a pure white frosting, I will use shortening.  If I’m taking my cake/cupcakes somewhere hot in the summer (hello, Phoenix here!) I make sure to use some shortening as it seems to hold up to the heat a bit better than butter.  Otherwise I tend to just use butter.

Using whipping cream or half and half in place of milk.

Adding a teaspoon of salt (I prefer my sweet to almost always be cut with salt).

I up the amount of vanilla.

I typically do not measure my milk/whipping cream.   I start with a small amount and start mixing, and slowly, approx a tablespoon at a time, add in more until I reach the desired consistency.   Sometimes you may want a softer frosting, which I prefer if I’m covering the frosting in sprinkles, or a stiffer frosting when I am going to be piping the frosting on.

If I want to make chocolate frosting, I cut back a bit on my powdered sugar, and for this size recipe I’d use about 2/3rd of a cup of cocoa.   I am a dark chocolate fan, so usually that cocoa will be Hershey’s Special Dark.

90% of my cakes, cupcakes and any other frosting needing treats are frosted with these basic recipes.  Sometimes I do make Cream Cheese Frosting, and use the recipe I shared in this post for green (or any color!) velvet cupcakes.

I’ve never (in my life!) made a cooked frosting – I will someday!   If I was going to try a Swiss Meringue Buttercream, I would follow Rosie’s tutorial over on Sweetapolita.

And if you want an exact measurement recipe for buttercream frosting, I LOVE Rosie’s Sugary Birthday Buttercream Frosting.    Sweetapolita has so many great cake and frosting recipes, make sure to take a look around the site.

If you are looking for other great tried and true frosting recipes, I highly recommend checking out the amazing recipe round up over at Best Friends For Frosting.   This post features 16 Favorite Frosting Recipes From Popular Dessert Bloggers.   Talk about a gold mine!  The gold probably being butter…

For store bought frosting I stick to Duncan Hines.  Sometimes you need something quick, and it does a great job.   My daughter’s school (well, the health dept) does not allow us to bring in anything homemade, so I always bring canned frosting to school for holiday parties where I run a cookie decorating station.  I love the new Frosting Creations line, it opens up so many creative options for bakers.   If you are one who is a hard core homemade frosting maker, and just won’t do canned, don’t hesitate to try out the flavor packets in your vanilla frosting.   While the flavors were made especially for the Frosting Starter, you can certainly experiment – it opens up a whole world of flavor options for the home baker.

At the end of the day – HAVE FUN – IT’S FROSTING.   It’s pretty hard to mix butter and sugar together and not have it taste great.  One of the things I love with the basic recipe I use is that I can keep adding to it.  If I make it too runny, I add more powdered sugar.  Too stiff?   More milk (or a generous helping of vanilla).

Do you have a favorite frosting recipe?

I’ll start with one of mine from last year…   This idea was not mine, it was the work of the amazing Kristan from Confessions Of A Cookbook Queen.  She shared it over at Living Locurto, and I had to make up some of my own.

I made up a free printable to go with these.  Feel free to download it right here.   I hope to have a new printable up for you in the next day or two, so stay tuned!

Now let’s check out what other bakers and bloggers are making to show their appreciation for all of those hard working teachers out there…

Let’s start with a darling free Teacher Appreciation Countdown Printable from Eighteen25 (love their printables!).

Milk + Cookies Teacher Appreciation Printable  By Paper Crave At The Sweetest Occasion

Super cute and quick Treat Jar Toppers at Eighteen25

Teacher Appreciation Cupcakes From Cookies & Cups

Rice Krispy Apple Treats From Gourmet Mom On The Go

Chocolate Chalkboards From Hungry Happenings

Caramel Apple Teacher Appreciation Gift From Makoodle

Rice Krispies Treats School Books From Hungry Happenings

How about packing up your treats in these darling Recycled Plastic Bottles Apple Shaped Boxes from Creative Jewish Mom.

Mini Apple Oreo Pops From The Crafting Chicks at Skip To My Lou

A slightly different take on the Mini Oreo Apple Treats from Giggles Galore

Teacher Appreciation Treats – Candy Apples With Free Printable from Lisa Storms

Oreo Biscotti Gifts For Your Favorite Teacher From Mom Advice

Teacher Appreciation Printable Candy Bar Wrappers From The Celebration Shoppe

One Smart Cookie Teacher Appreciation Gift at Gluesticks (printable from Eighteen25)

 Apple Caramel Cupcakes In A Jar by TidyMom at Skip To My Lou

POPular Teacher Cupcakes from Bake At 35o and Domesticated Lady

Teacher Appreciation Candy Bar Box From Domesticated Lady

A Bouquet Of Cinnamon Buns From Glitter To Gumdrops

Apple Cookies From Sweetopia

We Need S’More Teachers Like You from Domesticated Lady

You Take The Cake Mini Bundt Cakes By Make It Do at Skip To My Lou

You Deserve Chocolate From Eighteen25

My Teacher Is Aw-esome From Eighteen25

Teacher Appreciation Cookies From Sweet SugarBelle

Teacher Appreciation Cookies From Janis Cooks

So Fortunate To Have You Cookies From Eighteen25

Smart Cookie Download From Eighteen25

You Rule Cookies From Bee In Our Bonnet

Teacher Appreciation Ruler Cookies From Cookie Dreams Cookie Co.

Candy Apple Cake Pops From Bakerella

Apple Shaped Cupcakes From Make And Takes

Inside Out Chocolate Caramel Apples From Hungry Happenings

Oh boy, these were good and received RAVE reviews in this house.   I think the only way these could be easier is if they were frozen waffles.  They are THAT simple.

I started with a vanilla Duncan Hines cake mix.  I think a yellow would work just as well and a spice would be great.

I followed the directions on the box (for making a cake) but I also add in 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  That’s it!   After that it’s a matter of heating up your waffle iron and baking your waffles.  Mine took about 2-3 minutes a piece.

I told you they were easy, right?     Depending on the size of your waffle iron/waffles, I think you can get about 12-15 large size waffles out of this recipe.

While they would be fine, just like that, why not take them to another level with some cinnamon roll frosting drizzled over the top?

I used Dunan Hines Frosting Creations Frosting Starter with their Cinnamon Roll Flavor Packet.

I combined the two in a glass measuring cup so that I could heat them in the microwave once combined.   About 15-30 seconds is good, depending on how warm you want your icing to be.

Waffles are one of the things that I can easily get my husband to make, so these just might be making an appearance on Mother’s Day morning.    If you are a weekend waffle and/or pancake maker, I highly recommend that you give these a try.   Enjoy!

I often get asked about substitutions in recipes.   I am a huge fan/supporter/advocate of being flexible when you bake, making recipes your own, using what you have and what works for your family.   There are some things I don’t play around with in recipes – things like the amount of baking soda, baking powder, eggs, amount of flour, amount of liquids.   Those I think of as the base items that work together to create the foundation.    But aside from that, I am all for mixing it up.   Many of the treats I post, I think of almost more as ideas than as strict recipes.   If there is one thing I truly hope to convey with my blog and sharing of recipes and ideas, it is that you can be creative and have fun with it.   I’ve yet to find baking laws, and if I did, I’d probably boldly break them.

Let’s take some recipes that I shared this week and use as examples of how you could change them.   We’ll start with M&M Cupcake Cones.

I made these with chocolate cake, vanilla frosting and M&M’s.  But there is no reason at all that you couldn’t make them with white cake, yellow cake, marble cake, strawberry cake or any other cake flavor.  Same with the frosting, anything you like, will work.  M&M’s?   They could be swapped out for chocolate chips, sprinkles, chopped nuts – whatever you like.

Caramel Coconut Chocolate Cupcakes…

Don’t like coconut?   Leave it out!  Caramel isn’t your thing?  Go with another flavor, maybe chocolate almond, chocolate marshmallow, mocha or mint chocolate.   There’s no reason that the cupcake has to be chocolate either.  What sounds good to YOU?

Deep Dark Delicious Chocolate Ice Cream…

For a recipe such as this, I wouldn’t really mess with the base recipe.   Though you could certainly substitute milk chocolate for dark chocolate and regular cocoa for dark cocoa.   I used mini peanut butter cups and chopped up dark chocolate as mix ins, but the sky is the limit.  Any candy bar, chocolate chip, nut… stir in anything!  There’s no rules about what you can put in your ice cream.   While the pretzel cones rock, feel free to use a sugar cone, a waffle cone or stick it in a bowl and call it good.

Cake Mix Cinnamon Rolls…

While I wouldn’t alter the base recipe much, there is no reason that you couldn’t use any other cake mix flavor.  While I used vanilla, I am sure that yellow or spice would be great.   The Frosting Creations Cinnamon Roll flavored frosting is a perfect match, but another flavor would work.   Or plain vanilla.  Or cream cheese.  Or no frosting.  Or homemade frosting.   Whatever frosting you like will work – that is all a matter of personal taste and often what you might have on hand to use.

There are baking ideals and then there is baking reality.  I live in Phoenix, AZ and have a two year old.   I’d be hard pressed to run out to the store at 3pm on an August afternoon to pick up anything for a recipe, and instead would likely find something in my pantry that would work.   I have a daughter with a nut allergy, so many recipes I find I change up so that they are safe for her to eat.  We are a house full of picky eaters, so I often omit or change things to suit our personal taste preferences.   Use what works for you and have fun.   Please, have fun – I truly believe that’s what baking is about!

So what else was sweet this week?   There is still time to enter to win the great prize pack of Cone Guys Cones from Fancy Flours.

And you still have a day left to enter your recipe in the Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Recipe Challenge.  12 Grand Prize Winners will win a trip to the Duncan Hines Test Kitchen for a bakers weekend.   I will be there for the weekend and I would LOVE to see you there!

And finally I shared some of my Mother’s Day Gift Ideas.   So many great gift ideas for bakers!

Have a fabulous weekend!