Baking Contest!

Baking Contest!

Are you ready to create a delicious gluten-free mug cake?  Read below to find out how to enter our very first baking contest at Sparkles and Sprinkles (and find out about the fun prizes)!  Then spread the word to your friends and family so that they can enter the contest or vote for your recipe!

Mug Muffin Baking Contest Rules:

We will accept contest entries from April 28th through June 20, 2022.

You must be subscribed to sparklesandsprinkles.blog in order to participate in the contest (this is so that we can update you with any contest information… for example, letting you know the details about voting and announcing the winners!).  If you are not already subscribed, you may use the link at the bottom of this page to subscribe.  Subscribing is free, and you can cancel at any time.

To make your mug muffin or mug cake for the contest, please do the following:

    • Use our basic mug muffin recipe as a base for your special recipe.
    • Add ingredients of your choice to make a unique and delicious mug muffin or mug cake (for example, cinnamon, berries, or chocolate chips… but don’t let our suggestions limit you!).
    • You may modify the quantities in our basic mug muffin recipe; however, the following ingredients need to be used as the base of your recipe: butter, almond flour, light buckwheat flour, baking powder, Greek yogurt, almond milk, and a sweetener of your choice. (If you do not have light buckwheat flour, you may try another flour, but some flours may not work well for this recipe – we have found light buckwheat is a key ingredient.)

Once you have created and tested your delicious recipe, fill out this form to tell us about your recipe.  You will need to know the quantities of special ingredients in your recipe.  You will also need to give any special instructions for making the recipe.  For example, let us know if you need to use less almond milk or yogurt because you added another moist ingredients like pumpkin or applesauce.  Also, let us know if you add your special ingredients into the batter or if they are used as a topping.

Before you fill out the form, be sure to have a photo (a JPG file) of your mug cake ready.  The photo must actually be of the mug cake you made (not a photo you find online of a mug cake).  The photo cannot show people.  We will post this photo with your recipe on our Website and voting platform.

You will need to give your recipe a unique name of your choosing (for example, “Dreamy Chocolate Mug Cake”).  We will use this name in connection with your recipe and mug cake photo on our Website and voting platform.

You will need to provide your first name on the form.  For privacy’s sake, you can choose to create a pen name instead of your real name.  The name you provide in the form will be used when we post your recipe on our site (we will not post email addresses or last names).  Including your age is optional.

Only one recipe entry per person will be accepted.  (We understand that if more than one person in a family is entering the contest, the email given on the form may be used more than once.)

By choosing to participate in the contest, you give www.sparklesandsprinkles.blog permission to use your submitted photo and recipe on our Website, in email communication, and in our voting platform.  Sparkles and Sprinkles reserves the right to edit your recipe and/or ask you to make changes to your submission before posting your submission if we decide it is necessary.

Any questions regarding contest entries should be sent to this email:  sparklesandsprinkles.yt@gmail.com.  Please put

“Contest question” and your name in the subject line of your email.

CONTEST DATES HAVE BEEN UPDATED (as of May 15th)!

 We will accept contest entries from April 28th through June 20, 2022.

We will post contest entries in late June.

Voting will take place in at the beginning of July.  Once you submit your recipe, be sure to spread the word to your friends and family, so that they can vote!

Winners will be announced in mid July 2022.

The top three mug muffin recipes (based on votes from our readers) will be able to select a prize (see below).

As this is our first contest at Sparkles and Sprinkles, details of the contest are subject to change (though it is not our intention to make changes).

Ready to submit your recipe?  Click here to share your recipe and photo.

 

CONTEST PRIZES

Our top three entries (based on votes) will get to select a prize of their choice from the following fun options:

$ 10 Amazon Gift Card

Spend it on baking supplies or whatever you like!

Sparkles and Sprinkles Tea Towel

Be the very first to have a Sparkles and Sprinkles Tea Towel, made just for us by Amanda Lawley Designs.

Sophie Mouse Books

Choose 2 Sophie Mouse books.  Sophie Mouse loves to bake too!  

Have fun baking!

Easter Egg Garland Craft

Easter Egg Garland Craft

It seems we’ve started a little tradition at Sparkles and Sprinkes…holiday garlands to remind us of God’s love.  (Perhaps you made the “Love is” garland or the “Saint Patrick’s Prayer” garland?)  For this Easter season, we made an Easter hymn garland!  Would you like to make one too?

Catholic Easter Garland

This Easter garland has words from the Easter hymn, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today.”  For us, this song brings back sweet memories of meeting with our Making Music Praying Twice group when our oldest children were toddlers.  Making Music Praying Twice has a beautiful version of this song that young children love to sing…and children naturally have so much sweet Easter joy!

Let’s make an Easter egg garland!

These instructions show making a printable version of the garland, available in our Etsy shop.  Our garland is hand-lettered and ready to color!  The garland on Etsy has illustrations to go along with the song verses, plus blank eggs so that you can be creative and add your own drawings.  However, you can make your own in a similar way.  Simply cut egg shapes from cardstock, write verses from the song on some eggs and decorate some eggs with your own drawings.

Print the pdf or draw your own eggs

Print the eggs from our Etsy shop on white cardstock, or pastel cardstock in colors of your choice.  We used white Astrobrights cardtock.

easter garland coloring page

Color the eggs

Color your eggs with colored-pencils, or crayons, or markers.  We think the Botanical Garden colored-pencil set from Prismacolor has a perfect palette for this Easter garland.

Easter egg garland

Cut out the eggs

You can cut slightly outside the black line if you want to have the outline in your garland (our pictures show this option).  If you do not want the egg outline, simply cut slightly inside the egg outline line.

Punch 2 holes at the top of each egg

Punch two holes next to each other at the top of each egg.  We used a standard 1/4″ hole punch.  It is important to punch two holes so that the eggs will face forward when strung on the ribbon or yarn.

String the eggs onto ribbon or yarn

To determine the length of ribbon or yarn, decide on the length you would like the garland to be and add some extra (keep in mind it is easier to cut off extra than to have to restring a garland that is not long enough).   If you are using all the decorated eggs (a total of 18 eggs), the garland nicely spans a fireplace mantel.  If you used a standard ¼” hole punch, we recommend ¼” wide ribbon, or chunky yarn.  This size fits nicely in the holes and allows the eggs to stay in place with the spacing of your choosing along the ribbon or yarn.

Catholic Easter Garland

Decorate your home

Hang the garland in a place in your home to add some extra Easter joy and reminders of God’s love!

HAPPY EASTER!

If you are looking for some Easter basket treat ideas, scroll down for some books we love that might also make nice Easter gifts…

Do you want to do your own hand-lettering?  We love practicing hand-lettering with this beautiful book:  Pretty Simple Lettering by Whitney Farnsworth.  It is such a joy, and brings so much calmness to the day to spend some time with this book.

If you are still looking for Easter basket treats, we wanted to share with you some of our favorite Easter-themed books…

Jan Brett’s The Easter Egg is full of beautiful illustrations, and the story has a sweet message that everyone has unique talents.  Wonderful for your budding artists!

Our children love Rechenka’s Eggs by Patricia Polacco.  Lovely Easter egg art, and a beautiful message of friendship and the importance of caring for others.

Margaret Wise Brown’s The Golden Egg Book is just so fun!  Little children love reading this over and over again.

We love Maite Roche’s books with such sweet illustrations!  The Beautiful Story of the Bible is of course for any time of year, including Easter. 

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

ADORABLE Hatching Chick Easter Card

ADORABLE Hatching Chick Easter Card

Are you looking for a sweet way to say Happy Easter to your friends and relatives?  Come watch our easy-to-follow Youtube tutorial for this adorable card. The front of the card shows an Easter egg, and when the card is opened, there is an adorable hatching chick!

Supplies

 

Click on the video to find out how to make this sweet Easter card for your friends and family. Enjoy!

Do you want to learn to make Youtube videos? Our 12-year-old makes the videos for Sparkles and Sprinkles. She learned how to start a Youtube channel through a great class from Film School 4 Teens. They are a Christian family who offers a number of online film classes.

Note: Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links. Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links. We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.