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Pinterest Fail or Not? If you know Pinterest, you gotta love it!  But all that sparkles there is not gold!  I'm a pin hoarder and for years I only pinned and I didn't actually do anything but organize them.  Yeah, I know, but it was my way of destressing and yeah, procrastinating, too. ;)  But since I've retired, I've actually been putting some of those 15,000 pins to use. (ummm ... no kidding 15,000!)  At first, it seemed all the recipes I tried were Pinterest Fails.  Then I happened on a recipe for Cinderella Pumpkin Cake.  OMG, it was so good and it didn't hurt that I happened to take a really cute pic of it to send to someone.  I was hooked!  So here are some of my Pinterest attempts ... the good, the bad and the ugly! :) Oh, and just because something didn't work for me doesn't mean you shouldn't try it.  Sometimes I may change something that might make a diffence to the end result. As you know, I retired from teaching in May 2014, so I've kind of made it my goal to show support to my teacher friends when I go down to visit/volunteer.  When I was teaching, I always loved it when others went out of their way to show the teachers a kindness ... I was always too tired. :)  So below is my attempt to show teacher support when my friends started school the next year.  I saw similar type apple cupcakes on Pinterest that looked so cute.   Anyway, I made a special trip to get the wintergreen candy leaves and also had to make an emergency trip to get more food coloring.  This is when I learned that making red icing is not for sissies!  The cupcakes turned out cute and tasted good, if you stayed away from those leaves. ;) Blog for original: parenting.com/gallery/best-birthday-cupcake-recipes I have a granddaughter who thinks you can put sprinkles on anything sweet.  So when I saw this Funfetti Sugar Cookie Cake on Pinterest, I thought she'd love it.  Well, I'm not a sprinkles fan and I also wasn't a fan of this cake.  It took a ton of sprinkles to make and just wasn't that good.  Dakota didn't seem to think it was awesome like I thought she would either. Recipe:  sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/05/12/funfetti-sugar-cookie-cake/ Below was another attempt at teacher support ... Apple Cider Pound Cake.  Let me tell you, I am not a beginner when it comes to the kitchen.  I had 4 yrs of Home Economics (back when you actually learned how to cook and sew) and because of family reasons, I've been cooking since I was in 5th grade.  So during all this time I'd never attempted pound cake ... but look at a pound cake.  How hard can it be?  Turns out there is a knack to making pound cake.  Learned this the hard way! :)  The pound cake had a good taste, but I think I over stirred it because it had what they call ripples inside that were kind of inconsistent to the rest.  So before I bite off cooking pound cake again (and I will!), I've got to do some research.  Recipe: southernliving.com/food/entertaining/perfect-pound-cakes/mini-apple-cider-pound-cakes-recipe?crlt.pid=camp.oVb7ZP9JWGsc The apples were for my friends who are diabetic. This little cutie I made into art projects for the kiddos at our neighborhood Fall Fun Day. I saw a similar one on Pinterest that I really liked.  Mine turned out cute, but not as cute as ... My sister, who does my graphics, actually created the hat pattern so that I just had to print them onto construction paper.  (hat pattern) The cheeks are cut using a craft punch (from my card making supplies). I also already had a big bag of styrofoam sunflowers to pull from. Blog for Original: apples4theteacher.com/holidays/fall/kids-crafts/paper-plate-scarecrow.html Cinderella Pumpkin Cake ... you HAVE to try this!  It is awesome and I can't wait to make it again. I made this for Thanksgiving. Recipe: lickthebowlgood.blogspot.com/2011/11/pumpkins-pumpkins-pumpkins.html The invite for my Christmas Bunco: Let's Get Merry At the time I loved them, but now maybe not so much. :D For that same Bunco I made this for a prize.  If you've been on Pinterest at all around Christmas, I'm sure you've seen some form of this project.  All the ladies at Bunco seemed to think it was a success.  I loved that collection of ornaments. Original: adiamondinthestuff.com/2011/12/framed-christmas-wreath.html The same with these pretzels.  Bunco goodies.  They look so simple to make, but tell me how do they not end up flat on one side?  I didn't eat any of them, so I don't know how they tasted. Did not use this recipe, but they were supposed to look somewhat like this: asouthernfairytale.com/2010/07/25/caramel-dipped-pretzel-rods/ This is a cake that I made at Christmas.  I'm not totally sure of the name of this cake, but I think it's a Hummingbird Cake.  And I could have gotten the recipe out of Southern Living, but it is on Pinterest.  So good!  Cream cheese icing and pecans?  How could it not? ;) Recipe: southernliving.com/food/entertaining/hummingbird-cake/hummingbird-cake_2 Peach Hand Pies: made these for my Dad and we both loved them!  Although I used this recipe, I changed it up and used peaches and left off the caramel. Recipe: momontimeout.com/2013/09/caramel-apple-empanadas/ Banana Pudding Cake: I made this for my dad's 89th birthday since he loves banana pudding. He said he liked it, but I wasn't a fan.  The icing was really good though.  I doubled it to get the effect I got. Recipe: thekitchenmagpie.com/banana-pudding-cake-with-cream-cheese-glaze#_a5y_p=3160945 4th of July Red, White and Blue Cheesecake Cake It was difficult to make, difficult to manage and ended up a disaster.  But for a hot minute it looked good and it tasted great except the icing was a little too sweet!  And I really liked the consistency of the cheesecake.  But not something I'd be willing to do again.  And my nephew threatened to post it on Pinterest as a Pinterest Fail after it totally fell apart!  Gasp!!! :) This is a cake that needs to stay refrigerated constantly.  It was starting to fall apart before it was even cut. I am thinking though of trying just the cheesecake part again, but by itself. Recipe: recipegirl.com/2013/06/24/red-white-and-blue-cheesecake-cake/ Mudslide Muffins: Made these for my dad, too.  l'm not a coffee person, so I left out all the coffee stuff and added a 1/2 C of cream instead.  Yum!  Even Dakota will eat them. Recipe: shugarysweets.com/2015/08/mudslide-muffins On game day, we had Chocolate Cobbler!  Even my picky, picky grand kids loved this.  We all did!!  Sooo good!  It made the game loss a little easier to swallow. :) Recipe: bakeorbreak.com/2008/06/chocolate-cobbler/ Reese's Peanut Butter Pie: Made this for my SIL's birthday.  He is a peanut butter lover like myself.  I've never had peanut butter pie, so I have nothing to compare it to.  It has a different taste, not what I was expecting, but it's good. I did change it up ... no butter or Reeses in crust and swapped pecans for peanuts. Recipe: theslowroasteditalian.com/2013/10/best-ever-reeses-peanut-butter-no-bake-pie-recipe.html And last, a couple of things that I've tried that I don't have photos for but you have to try! Blueberry pie filling ... OMG, this is sooooo good!  I used it in Paula Deen's recipe for Blueberry Pineapple Crunch.  So  yummy!!! Recipe: kleinworthco.com/2014/05/blueberry-pie-filling.html/2 Muddy Buddies Recipe: somethingswanky.com/brownie-batter-muddy-buddies/ Are you hungry now?  Pinterest ALWAYS does that to me! :) Later,

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9.29.2015