Bond With Your Kids

It’s best to forge a bond with your kids when they are still very young. Unfortunately, many new parents overlook this because for a new family, money is often very tight. This means two or even three jobs for Mom and Dad and no time for quality time with the kids. The day is often a whirlwind of dropping kids at school, juggling day jobs, picking the kids up and doing chores, and bedtime – no time at all for family activities.

You don’t really have to spend entire days to matter in your children’s formative years. in fact, the simplest gestures and examples of affection means a lot to a child and they remember those things. Hanging that macaroni art or participant ribbon like it’s an Olympic gold medal will stay with the child forever. So do the memories of a seemingly simple dinner out when they get good grades.

You don’t really have to spend a lot to be a good parent. Inexpensive picnics out in parks or even just the front yard can go a long way into showing that you care. Bring home-cooked meals and have a blast outside. Speaking of home cooked-meals, a great way to bond with children is to make them help out in the kitchen. You can do your favorite chocolate cookies and cupcake recipes to give them the job of decorating these little treats. As children are on a school break during the holidays, enlisting their help making cupcakes cups for Christmas is a great way to spend quality time together. You can make a fun game out of it and see who can come up with the best cupcake decorating ideas.

Bills have to get paid and you are working overtime for them after all, but you must slow down from time to time as well. Make them feel important by listening to them and showing a real interest in the things that interest them – their hobbies, heroes, and aspirations are all important matters that you should know. When they are old enough, you have to start explaining to them the major decisions that affect your family like moving to a new place – even better if you consult them before you make the decision.

You have to balance rewards with punishments in raising a child. Making them learn lessons in a “tough love” sort of way is a good way to bond, believe it or not. Just be sure to make them understand the reason behind why they are being punished and be consistent in dishing it out. To make the lesson stick, the punishment has to be harsh enough that it becomes a life lesson. But be careful in this area because if a kid feels that what you did was excessive, he or she may harbor ill feelings towards you and the bond you are trying so hard to make will be unraveled. Be sure to show respect for them as feeling and thinking individuals even if they are still small and you will enjoy your time together more.

Why Everybody Enjoys Cupcakes

In today’s generation, everybody wanted to have or get what is in fashion or the latest craze. The fashion repeats itself. New fashion ideas are based on the old ones; it’s just a new look applicable to the modern times. One example of this fad is the growing popularity of cupcakes, a simple confection that has been in existence for two hundred years. From a simple cupcake, known as “patty cakes” in Australia, “fairy cakes” in England, and “les petits gateaux” in France, these cute little iced cakes have definitely made a mark around the globe. What makes it popular? Here are several answers:

Convenient and Compact

For someone who is busy and on the go, cupcake on its small and compact size can be very handy. You can have it matched with your favorite coffee on break time or anytime of the day. Kids definitely love cupcakes for their snacks. Even young at hearts once loved cupcakes in their younger years. In every shopping mall, bakery or patisserie, they certainly have cupcakes to sell in different designs, flavors, and colors. They are more convenient to eat and can be bought anywhere.

Simple and Easy

Cupcakes can be easily done without requiring much time and effort when baking. For someone who is a first timer on baking, cupcakes are one of the projects you should start with. There are ready to mix cupcake recipes available and can instantly bake it. Making one is easy and can never go wrong. Because of its popularity, there are several cupcake blogs where you could find easy and on the budget cupcake frosting recipes to make your cupcakes more appealing and delicious. You can also make snowman cupcakes for a starter to the detailed black forest cupcakes for experts.

Can Enhance Creativity

The popularity of cupcakes does not only rely to the designs and tastes but also with the obsession of the designers of the cupcakes to create more than what is usual. The possibilities are endless and it is only up to you on how to do it. The taste, designs, styles and the way they express their artistic side on their cupcakes is like a creating a canvass. The continues study and showing off their craftsmanship on making this simple confection to something extraordinary makes it a craze in today’s generation.

Can Be A Good Investment

Because of the increasing rate of demands for cupcakes may it be used for daily consumption, a perfect giveaway on special occasions or a gift for holidays considering the small amount as a capital and equipped with cupcake decorating ideas, this can be a good business. People nowadays are conscious of being economical. For example, instead of ordering a big cake, they now prefer two or three layered cupcakes with edible toppers designed just like the big cakes where every guest will take its share instead of slicing the big cake into pieces. Guests can take it as a souvenir or a give away from the host.

Show Faith At The Dining Table

The holidays are based on tradition that has its roots in religion. As you prepare for the cooking and baking that lies ahead of these joyous times, it’s good to consider what religious décor you will incorporate. There are loads of edible Christian motifs out there that will allow you the freedom to choose the route you will take in showing your faith through the food you cook and the goodies you bake.

Using color is one of the simplest and most subtle ways to add a Christian touch to food. You can easily use food dyes to bring color and meaning to frostings and icings used in cakes and pastries. You can use pristine white cupcake icing coupled with red and green to commemorate the occasion. Just use your imagination to produce Christmas ornament cupcakes to get everyone in the mood for the season.

The Christian faith is ripe with meaningful symbols that you can use in your culinary creations: doves can stand for peace or purity; the cross stands for Christ Himself and the sacrifices He did for mankind; the Bible too can be used along with images of fish, lambs, and other things of significance. You can place these on a backdrop of pure white and you’ll end up with a cake that will gather a lot of praise. They can also serve as wonderful pieces to commemorate an occasion – a cake frosted with light blue or pink icing and laid with doves can be the perfect cake to celebrate the Christening of your little angel. You still have lots of options in the form of nuts, candies, sprinkles, and icing to make your designs as personal as you like them.

If you are feeling a little more adventurous, you can try depicting scenes from the Bible. You can easily recreate the nativity with just store-bought farm animals and some colored icing for the manger and the surrounding scenery. Figures that can stand in for the Holy Family and the three wise men can be had if you know where to look. Everything can then be easily put together to great effect.

Easter has a lot of images based on edible things that you will have even less problem decorating for it. Easter eggs are the staples of this occasion and you can either place the chocolate varieties on a cake or arrange them on a basket to amaze kids and adults alike. The Easter bunny is a simple figure to recreate and he can grace your cakes, pies, and even individual cupcakes and pasties if you are more experienced in baking. If you are particularly bold in going all out with your baking, you can even make an entire cake shaped like the lovable symbols of Easter as a bunny or egg is shaped simply enough if you know how. Now that will impress anyone! If you don’t feel particularly brave in experimenting or can’t spare the time, there’s always the store-bought variety. At the end of the day, all that’s important is that you are with family during the holidays.

How The Christmas Tree Came To Be

Experts believed that the practice of decorating trees for Christmas originated in Germany around the 16th century. Then, pious Christians would decorate trees and display wooden pyramids and candles to celebrate the occasion. It gained ground and became popular in England when Prince Albert and Queen Victoria once decorated a tree in Windsor Castle with fruits and gingerbread.

America saw its first Christmas tree when German settlers put one up in Pennsylvania in a bid to raise funds. Up until the 1850’s, the display of Christmas trees was seen as a symbol of paganism and the practice was often met with outrage. But things are quick to change and by the 1890’s, the popularity of the Christmas tree is booming. The Americans put in their own personal touch as they replaced the traditional fruits and berries with homemade trinkets. With the advent of electricity, lights soon became the popular choice when it comes to Christmas tree decorations. Before long, every important building and many houses were adorned with Christmas trees.

There was a legend that Martin Luther once became so enamored with the sight of stars shining through the branches of a fir tree that he set out to recreate it at home. Using candles placed on each branch, the founder of the Protestant faith had his own take on the tradition. Many more legends exist – some even pertaining to spiders of all things. No matter what tradition you subscribe to, it is ultimately up to you on how you decorate your tree.

To make sure that you have the very best Christmas tree you can have year after year, you have to start with the tree itself. Make sure that it gets plenty of water. Especially when it is freshly cut, it can absorb several quarts in a week and you have to make sure that the reservoir is always filled during this crucial time. You can also purchase added insurance in the form of a fertilizing preservative specifically made for Christmas trees.
It’s a good idea to start from the inside and work your way out when laying out the lights. This way, you start with the strongest part of the branch and avoid accidental breakage. Continuing with this, it’s a good idea to start weaving the lights from the base and work your way up.

For a more balanced look with a lot of depth, you should place ornaments on the inside of the tree and not just on the tips of the branches. Use traditional ornaments that are not too complex when doing the fill for your tree. Solid balls make great fillers and you should figure around at least a dozen for each foot of your tree’s height. After you have the lights and fillers in, it’s time to really go all out with your chosen theme.

If you decorate a tree according to your personality, it will be beautiful no matter what. For a novel way of decorating, try to place Christmas ornament cupcakes at the base of your tree in place of gifts. You can also tie strings to edible Christmas toppers like cookies or pastries and hang them instead of the usual ornaments. Experiment and adapt a whimsical mindset!

Some Ideas in Decorating Your Cupcakes

The seemingly tiny surface on top of a typical cupcake can frustrate some who aspire to use it as a “canvas” for their artistic side. You should not think this way as there is little limit as to what you can do with cupcakes
– all you need is some creativity! Go ahead, try a few and you too will discover that it’s a lot of fun.

You have a lot of option when it comes to decorating materials. The most common and versatile is still cupcake frosting. You can cover the top of the cupcake with it, shape it, and make it into little letters… Don’t let conventional thinking stifle your creativity and just go for it.

Food that is suited to the occasion enhances the festive atmosphere of the event. Edible cake toppers are an easy and accessible way to achieve this. A child’s birthday party can be made merrier simply by using the right cupcake decorations. You can make them as simple or as elaborate as you want with figures, animals, and other designs taking shape right before your eyes.

Parties for adults too can stand to benefits from thoughtfully-decorated cupcakes. Hearts for Valentines, initials for birthdays, and other decorations that commemorate momentous occasions are all possible through cupcakes. If you know your guests well enough, you can even personalize one cupcake for every person.
The holidays are a perfect time for using edible Christmas ornaments to spruce up your cupcakes. Mostly made of sugar colored and shaped to resemble mistletoe, pinecones, elves, reindeers, and Santa, these allow you to express joy about the occasion using cupcakes.

If you really find cupcakes too small to fit the design you have in mind, why not use them as a pieces to a puzzle. Decorate each so that when properly arranged, you end up with a design that will amaze anyone and would make the perfect centerpiece for your holiday feast.

When your creative juices run dry, you have a lot of places to look for ideas. Books and websites about cupcake decorating abound – all you need is some patience in searching. Inspiration can strike at any moment so just keep your eyes open to some designs you can copy and make your own.

If you are running short on time, don’t despair. Instead of baking cupcakes from scratch, you can buy some plain ones. These come in boxes all ready so all that’s left is decorating them. Also, you can buy cupcake decorating kits that contain everything you need including edible decorations and some ideas to get you started.

Everybody loves cupcakes and for those wanting to make their own, the process can be extremely gratifying. The mere planning and anticipation is enough to get some giddy with excitement. Many find it good therapy as their creativity is unleashed without apprehension as to how the final product will turn out. And when their cupcakes are completed and then gleefully eaten, many find joy in bringing pleasure to small children and adults alike in giving them pretty and delicious cupcakes.

Get-Well Gift Ideas For Hospital Visits

It’s not easy to decide on an appropriate gift to take to a friend who is hospitalized. You want your gift to be practical and to help cheer up your friend, but you also don’t want to go against any rules and embarrass yourself by bringing a totally inappropriate gift. Sometimes, worrying about which present to take with you can even make you postpone your hospital visit!

Choosing one of the following get-well gift ideas for hospitalized patients should make your hospital visit easier:

- Everyone knows that hospital food is not exactly appealing, and one of the things hospital patients miss most is something good to eat. Bringing your friend a tasty treat is always a good idea, but you should first make sure that he or she is not on a special diet. Women who have just given birth in particular always appreciate a special treat.
Home baked cupcakes make excellent treats for hospital patients. Using cupcake papers in cheerful colors will help raise the spirits of any patient, young or old. If you have time, you could also personalize the cupcakes using special cupcake decorating ideas. Even something as simple as icing your friend’s name or piping a cheerful message on the cupcakes will do. Baking and decorating cupcakes is easy and not at all time-consuming, but a basket of these tiny crochet cakes will have a lasting effect on your friend.

- Older patients who live alone or have no close family will derive great pleasure from a drawing made by your child. Tell your child what the drawing is for, and let him or her use their imagination. The love expressed by such a simple gift will touch the sick person immensely, driving away any loneliness they may be suffering from.

- Hospitalized persons who are too weak to move from bed and too tired to stare at a television screen all day often suffer from boredom. A gift of reading material will cheer them up. Bring a selection of cheerful magazines (even comic books!) and a couple of books. If your friend is not up to reading books just yet, she / he will certainly enjoy flipping through a magazine or two.

- A thoughtful gift to bring to a person that you know will be in hospital for an extended period, is an album containing photographs of family members, friends and other love ones. If no such album exists, make one yourself.

- Depending on the patient’s condition, lending them a laptop or an iphone could be an ideal get-well gift. Persons hospitalized with a broken leg, for instance, will be overjoyed with this type of gift, which will help to pass the time.

Rather than worry about price and how your gift will compare to gifts brought by others, choose a get-well gift that will cheer up your friends, alleviate their boredom and help make them feel less lonely. The ideas listed in this article will do just that.

Indulge Yourself With These Chocolate Delights

When one says sugar and the color brown, what pops in to your mind? Yes that’s right, it’s chocolate! “I never met a chocolate I didn't like” said Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) of Star Trek: The Next Generation and who would contest to that?

Looking Back in the Past
Joseph Fry & Son created the first solid chocolate bars and they were produced way back 1847, now chocolates are being produces everywhere, and I mean everywhere. But do we really know where this pure sweet goodness came from? As a little history fact, some say that the word chocolate was from the word “xocolatl” from the Aztec language Nahuatl. If we brake down “xocolatl”, it means “xococ” (meaning sour or bitter) and “atl” (meaning to water or drink) while some say that it’s from the Yucatec Maya word "chokol" meaning hot, and the Nahuatl "atl" meaning water.

Health Benefits
Since then the chocolate has evolved into different kinds of flavors, shapes and categories but dark chocolate is still the best. Who would have thought that this confection would actually have health benefits? Pure dark chocolate has anti oxidants, can lower blood pressure, elevates relaxation due its smell and improves mood because of phenyl ethylamine.

Simple Solutions for your Chocolate Cravings
If you don’t have the time to prepare extravagant chocolate recipes, try these old but delicious chocolate must haves.

Chocolate cupcakes
Those cupcakes with luscious cupcake frostings in bakeshops are simply mouthwatering. You yourself can definitely make your own cupcakes, you can find a variety of chocolate cupcake recipes in the Internet and video tutorials on how to do it too, simple ingredients can be bought in the grocery as well as those cupcake papers and toppings. You can also customize your cupcake recipe by adding your own frostings.

Chocolate Brownies
Chocolate brownies are everywhere but it’s still nice to try and do it yourself once in a while. Experiment with the ingredients, you can start off by buying those ready to use mixes from the groceries and then just add other toppings and chocolate chunks. For a more personal touch, top with your left over frostings from your chocolate cupcakes.

Hot Chocolate Drink
Will not only soothe your chocolate cravings but will also relieve you from stress and upset stomach. A warm drink after every meal will surely make your sleep better. You can make your drink as rich as you want or make it creamier by adding more milk and cream. Make sure to add whip cream and chocolate shavings on the top of your hot drink.

Every person loves chocolate but with all the warnings about diabetes and obesity we often times try so hard to stop eating them. Depriving yourself with these types of food or dessert is not fair nor is healthy. There is a big difference with an occasional craving and gluttony. We should indulge ourselves with that chocolate sin every once in a while just as long as have self discipline.