Paint Chip Heart Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Over the weekend Madison and I went to Lowe's to pick out paint for her bathroom.
It was time for a makeover and she wanted to get rid of the outdated wallpaper.

While browsing the paint chips looking for the perfect shade of gray, I noticed how pretty
the pink samples were.  As our paint was being mixed I picked out a few of the pink and
red paint chip to take home.  I had an idea :)

Homemade Birthday Cake Mini Donuts

Well we survived snow storm Jonas and finally got out of the house for a little today.

We were snowed since Friday afternoon, which really isn't that long, but it was still

nice to be able to get out to visit my parents and then grab a fountain Diet Coke from

my favorite convenience store.  Fountain drinks just taste so much better!

Snickerdoodle Cookie Tarts

I am SO excited to be able to attend the Mixed Food Bloggers Conference again this year! 
It's being held next month and I can not wait. 
Last year I learned cake decorating tips from Duff Goldman himself!
And Marian from Sweetopia taught me how to pipe frosting onto sugar cookies - love her!
You can check out my post about last year's conference here.

Dixie Crystals is one of the sponsors and they are hosting a pre-conference cookie contest.
My pink mixer and I are always up for a baking challenge, so we got right on it!

Snickerdoodles are a fall favorite, so I decided to turn my Snickerdoodle cookie recipe into tiny
bite-size cookie tarts filled with buttercream and topped with autumn colored pearl sprinkles I found at Target.  I think they turned out super cute and delicious. 
Hope you like them too :)

Snickerdoodle Cookie Tarts

1/2 cup butter, softened (I use unsalted)
1/2 cup Dixie Crystals brown sugar
1/4 cup Dixie Crystals granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
cinnamon sugar for topping
vanilla buttercream and sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 24 cup mini muffin pan (I use a Pampered Chef pan) with cooking spray.  In the bowl of a stand mixer (you can also use a hand mixer if you prefer) cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix to combine.
Add the egg and vanilla, beating at medium speed until combined.  Turn your mixer to low and slowly add flour, mixing just until the flour is incorporated.
Using a small cookie scoop, drop cookie dough into each cup of your prepared mini muffin pan.
Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Move pan to a wire rack for cookies to cool.  Sprinkle each cookie with cinnamon sugar mixture.
I made a small indention for the frosting with a Pampered Chef mini tart shaper.
Remove each cookie tart from pan with a butter knife.
Top with vanilla buttercream and sprinkles.
Makes 24 cookie tarts.

Vanilla Buttercream:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3 cups Dixie Crystals powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 T whipping cream or milk

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla for 5 minutes.  Add whipping cream or milk and beat for another 5-8 minutes until light and fluffy.