Where has November gone?

Wow it's already a third of the way though November. How did that happen? Our November started off busy at the Bacon residence with two birthdays. Mr. Bacon turned another year older (all I'll say is he's still older than me!) and the very next day Little Miss Bacon celebrated her birthday too. In true Bacon family tradition Little Miss Bacon picked out the type of birthday cake she wanted this year too. (in case you missed it I talked about budget birthday cakes here ) There was no surprise my princess wanted her favorite princess cake this year- Ariel. So I set off to get the creative juices running and remembered that we were leaving to go out of town the next day. Hummm.. I needed a cake that dazzled a princess, but wouldn't leave me with lots of leftovers that would go to waste.

I decided on cupcakes. Perfect for her big day, and gave me a solution to the leftover problem. Little miss Bacon LOVED her cake.

Notice the halloween cupcake wrappers? No. Neither did Little Miss Bacon! I got them on clearance too!

To make the Ariel cake I poured some cake batter in a greased ramekin and baked it slightly longer than the cupcakes, until the toothpick test came out clean. Once cooled I made a hole in the middle of it. I used the Ariel pocket sized doll Little Miss Bacon already had in her room for her special cake. (here's a tip, wrap the doll in plastic wrap before putting it in the cake, makes clean up and melt downs go a lot easier!) I frosted the cupcakes with the homemade frosting I posted about here. I even broke out the decorator tips and made the princess cupcakes fancy! They were a big hit! Add in a trip to Cabala's to look at the fish (Gotta love when the kids ask to go there for their birthday, nothing beats free fun!) and a trip out to dinner at her favorite restaurant... in all it was a great birthday for her. And as for the left over cupcakes, well I decided to bring them will us and share with the Grandparents. But my first thought was to freeze them! Yes you can freeze cake, with frosting too. So next time you have lots of left over cake, first pat yourself on the back because there usually are not left overs here! And then cut it into pieces or leave it whole and place it in a container with a nice tight fitting lid and toss it in the freezer.

Now that the sugar from that frosting has worn off, I have to tackle the next sugar problem in the house. If you are like me there is LOTS of these left laying inside the halloween bucket.

It's way to tempting to leave them in the bucket. They seem to wander into my mouth somehow if I do. What to do with them? Make some cookies! Unwrap them, chop them into small pieces and use them in the delicious cookie recipe I posted about earlier here. I have to say I love this basic recipe. It's so easy to change what to put in them. And every time they still turn out yummy!

Well the month may be a third over and we've kept busy. I've saved myself some money already, Little Miss Bacon had a great birthday, and I'll still keep Mr. Bacon's age a mystery!