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If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at making a special Easter bunny cake, this year you can. Why not make an Easter bunny-shaped carrot cake? You’ll need a good pan and a good recipe for carrot cake. And you’ll want to use all fresh ingredients for your batter. Oh, and when it comes to the frosting, don’t skimp. It’s the best part!

First, search online or in a hobby and craft store for a bunny-shaped cake pan. Many online retailers sell bunny pans. You can use a traditional flat pan with a bunny shape, or one that has more raised surfaces and details. Just be sure that you prepare the pan by greasing and flouring it so the cake won’t stick when you unmold it.

Follow the directions below for making the batter and the icing. But add your own flair when it comes to decorating your Easter bunny cake. Use coconut for fur by sprinkling it all over the frosting. Then do a ribbon out of licorice and eyes out of jelly beans. You can make the bunny appear to be sitting on grass by coloring coconut with green food coloring, or by placing shredded wheat across the bottom of the plate after you frost the cake to make it look like he’s in a hay field. Use pink frosting for the inside of the bunny’s ears and cute little bunny nose. It depends on how fancy you want to get, but you can bake a 3D version as well. Wilton is one company that offers a 3D bunny pan. It’s less than $15 and worth a try if you’re creative. When working with a 3D cake, you’ll need to pipe the icing on with a bag and icing tip to get the fully decorated effect.

Make it a tradition each year to bake up a tasty bunny carrot cake. It’s one that’s sure to please young and old folks alike.

Carrot Cake III (courtesy of Allrecipes.com)

Prep Time: 30 Minutes

Cook Time: 1 Hour

Ready In: 2 Hours

Servings: 18

INGREDIENTS:

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

2 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup butter, softened

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:

1.            Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour pan.

2.            In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar, and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

3.            Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

4.            To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

So you want to whip up something special for Valentine’s Day this year? Why not try making a heart-shaped cheesecake and heart-shaped cookies? They are tasty sweets that don’t take much time to make but do show just how much you care.

The heart-shaped cheesecake appears everywhere come Valentine’s Day. You’ll pay upwards of $50 in some cases for this little dessert. But you can spend just a few dollars at the grocery store for some ingredients and spend the remaining cash on a gift instead.

Kids can help bake the Valentine’s Day cheesecake every year. It can become a new tradition. It’s an easy enough recipe that doesn’t have complicated steps. But, depending on their ages, you may still want to supervise the activity.

Here’s a recipe from bellaonline.com for a delightful heart-shaped cheesecake.

Heart Shaped Cheesecake Recipe (courtesy of bellaonline.com)

Guest Author - Brandii Lacey

This fun Valentine’s Day treat is simple enough for kids of all ages to help prepare. From crushing the graham crackers into tiny crumbs to pouring the warm topping over the finished product, this cheesecake recipe has something for everyone!

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces of cream cheese, softened

• 2 large eggs

• ½ cup of sugar

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• Strawberry pie filling

• 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs

• 4 tablespoons of butter

• 1 heart shaped baking pan (if you don’t have this, simply use a regular baking dish and after the cheesecake cools, you can use a heart shaped cookie cutter).

Directions:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spray the heart shaped baking pan with a non stick cooking spray.

3. Crush the graham cracker crumbs in a sealed plastic bag, and pour into
a bowl.

4. Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add it to the crushed graham cracker crumbs. Mix well.

5. Spread the crumb mixture in the heart shaped pan.

6. In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

7. Pour cheesecake mixture into the pan and bake for thirty minutes.

8. Heat the pie filling in a small sauce pan.

9. After the cheesecake cools completely, top with strawberry pie filling.

10. Place any leftovers in the refrigerator.

Tips for the recipe:

If you don’t have a heart shaped pan, simply use a regular baking dish. After the cheesecake has cooked, let it cool, and then place in the refrigerator for an hour or two. Use a heart shaped cookie cutter to make individual heart shaped cheesecakes. You can also use the end of a spoon to carve your own heart shapes.

This recipe can easily be adapted to a finger friendly treat! Instead of pouring the graham cracker crumb mixture into the heart shaped pan, spread a little bit of the mixture into a mini muffin pan. Divide the cheesecake mixture into each of the muffin sections, and bake for twenty five minutes, or until cooked through. Let cool completely, and then store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

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For heart-shaped cookies, you can take the easy way and use store bought sugar cookie dough. Roll out the dough and cut with heart-shaped cookie cutters. Decorate with a simple royal icing frosting or your favorite store bought flavor and sprinkle with red dusting sugar.

Depending on which era movies you prefer, you probably have some favorites when it comes to romantic movies. And there are some classics out there that everyone should watch at least once. If you have a romantic evening in planned, rent a few of these DVDs and set a romantic tone. Even the guys will find themselves involved in the plot and chuckling at all the right places. These movies are modern classics in their own rights. They have snappy dialogue, witty characters, intelligent scripts, and amazing actors. You’ll want to see each one at least once so you can be in on the discussions at cocktail parties. These are today’s favorite love stories and romances.

Fortunately, these films have been preserved and are available on DVD and accessible. Some of these films are such genius that it would be a crime to lose the last copy of them. Enjoy a night filled with intrigue, romance, double entendres, scoundrels, and beautiful ladies. Go back to a time when men were men and women were women. A time when decorum ruled and elegance was expected.

Romeo and Juliet

When Harry Met Sally

Love Story

Annie Hall

Vertigo

Camille

The King and I

The African Queen

It’s a Wonderful Life

Wuthering Heights

Beauty and the Beast

It Happened One Night

An American in Paris

West Side Story

Roman Holiday

The Way We Were

The Shop Around the Corner

On Golden Pond

Now, Voyager

Pillow Talk

Dirty Dancing

Bridges of Madison County

Notorious

Morocco

The Goodbye Girl

Bonnie and Clyde

A Streetcar Named Desire

The Apartment

Reds

A Place in the Sun

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Jezebel

Woman of the Year

Way Down East

Jerry Maguire

Double Indemnity

While You Were Sleeping

Before Sunrise

Say Anything

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

An Officer and a Gentleman

Ghost

Casablanca

Only You

Pretty Woman

Serendipity

Sabrina

The Notebook

Titanic

Gone with the Wind

Doctor Zhivago

The English Patient

An Affair to Remember

My Fair Lady

The Princess Bride

Love, Actually

500 Days of Summer

Lost in Translation

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Hitch

Pretty Woman

Runaway Bride

As Good as it Gets

Valentine’s Day

You’ve Got Mail

50 First Dates

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Something’s Gotta Give

The Break Up

Failure to Launch

Sweet Home Alabama

Shakespeare in Love

He’s Just Not That Into You

The Ugly Truth

Two Weeks’ Notice

Moonstruck

Boomerang

Bridget Jones Diary

The Wedding Singer

27 Dresses

Groundhog Day

Shallow Hal

Splash

Letters to Juliette

The Holiday

The Wedding Planner

The American President

Life as We Know It

One Fine Day

Kate and Leopold

The Mirror Has Two Faces

Sense and Sensibility

Manhattan

French Kiss

Blind Date

About Last Night

Roxanne

Pretty in Pink

About A Boy

Because I Said So

Working Girl

Bewitched

Down to Earth

The Secret of my Success

Morocco

Coming Home

The Awful Truth

The Sheik

Quiet Man

Harold and Maude

Porgy and Bess

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Wings of the Dove

What Women Want

Rent a film on DVD tonight and make your Valentine’s Day extra special. And who says it has to be a once a year holiday? Show your sweetie that it’s Valentine’s Day every day with you.

Football fans unite over the Super Bowl every year in January. If the party’s at your house this year, liven up a gray winter month with colorful decorations, delicious food, and a fun party atmosphere.

When it comes to Super Bowl parties, the guys want hearty food. So, save the dainty finger sandwiches for another time. Plan to have a buffet that can sit out all during the party. Have chili in crock pots—try different flavors. Bring out some rolls and cold cuts, chips, dip, hot dogs, burgers, chicken wings and of course football decorated cookies. Ask guests to bring their favorite appetizer and you’ll have your party work half done.

What can you do to create a super atmosphere for your Super Bowl party? You can make use of the football field as your guide. Think of ways to incorporate the theme of football into your setting. You might bring in some football helmets, line them in foil, and serve chips in them. Or you might buy football shaped drinking cups that the guests can take home at the end of the night. Football shaped cookies make a sweet treat and football shaped ice cubes are fun in the drinks. Decorate your table as a uniform and use big stick-on numbers as the centerpiece.

Guys won’t care much about fancy, but you still want to make it look festive. Hang up team banners, pennants, ads, or any other memorabilia you’ve got. If you have a healthy rivalry going between the two teams that are playing, hang up both uniforms and colors from each team.

Cut American cheese singles into the shapes of football jerseys and write numbers on them with Cheeze Whiz. Or make football shaped meatballs. The more interesting you make the room, the more fun you’ll all have.

If you have a bet going, blow up the betting card and make it the focal point. Set it on an easel or a kid’s chalkboard where everyone can see it.

Bring in some pom poms from the party store and have everyone give their best cheer. Make the guys join in, too, for fun. See who can come up with the funniest or silliest cheer and give out prizes.

Make beer or wine bottle labels that sport your name or your team’s name. You can order these online or you can make them yourself right from your computer using adhesive back paper.

Make shirts that everyone can wear and then take home. Write the team’s name on the front, or use a logo, and write each person’s name on the back of their shirt. Or you can write “The Dawsons’ Super Bowl Party 2011” in fabric paint.

Plan to have lots of cozy seating. If you can, bring in beanbags, inflatable chairs, gaming chairs, or anything you have around the house that’s comfortable. You might move furniture out of the way so guests can make themselves comfortable on pillows on the floor.

While you’ve got the furniture out of the way, why not set up a Wii challenge. During half time, you can all join in and try to beat each other at Wii sports. The worse people are at the game, the more fun it is for everyone who’s watching.

Go all out and make your Super Bowl party a hit this year.

So, you’ve decided to make dinner for your sweetie this Valentine’s Day. Great idea! But if you’ve never really cooked before and are not exactly a pro in the kitchen, you may wonder where to start. Here are some ideas to get you cooking.

First, don’t attempt something so incredibly hard that even a five star chef would be sweating over it. Go with simple and elegant. If you want to make something really nice, go with steak. If your sweetheart is a vegetarian, opt for a nice pasta dish or lobster tails. You don’t have to make several courses. Just one nice main meal and a dessert is more than enough to show you really care.

Choose your menu based on the fresh ingredients you can get. If you can buy fresh lobster tails, go ahead. But just be aware that popular Valentine’s Day foods like lobster, good steaks, and other succulent treats like shrimp are going to be more expensive as demand increases around the holiday.

Another way to go is to mail order the food. You can either order it frozen, as with lobster or steak. Or you can order it already fully cooked and then just warm everything up and serve it. If you have never taken on an entire meal preparation yourself in your life, a great way to impress your date is to have it all brought in. Just transfer the food over to serving dishes once it’s heated and present it nicely. Whether or not you tell where you got it is up to you.

Many mail order companies will deliver right to your door an entire gourmet meal. Choose from rich chowders and soups, fillet Mignon, roast duck and more. You name it and it can be sent out to you in dry ice in time for the big day. Have it delivered to arrive the day before you need it so you won’t be biting your fingernails wondering if it’s going to make it to you on time.

Serve a nice wine with dinner. If you don’t know how to pick a good wine, ask your friendly neighborhood wine merchant. He or she can suggest the best wines for the meal you are serving. And don’t feel like you have to go ultra expensive. You can buy a decent wine now for a good price and still enjoy every drop.

The fact that you are cooking dinner for your loved one is enough of a treat in and of itself. But make it more special by lighting candles, using the best china and silverware you have, using a linen tablecloth and cloth napkins, and serving the food from your best dishes.

Start off your adults only night by playing some romantic music in the background to set the tone of the evening. Have any disruptive pets calmly partitioned off in the other room if they’re likely to snatch your expensive dinner off your plates. Make it as uninterrupted an evening as possible so you can enjoy yourselves to the fullest.

Turn off cell phones and make it a night for conversation. Watch a romantic movie or two and see where the evening takes you. Chances are you will have a Valentine’s Day to remember.