Birthday Bliss . . .

Kevin is *31* today. Happy Birthday, baby! :)

Kevin *loves* peanut butter cups. You know, peanut butter on the inside, chocolate on the outside? Of course you do! :) Heck, pretty much anything peanut butter & chocolate, he loves it. Awhile back, I got a comment on my best chocolate cake (ever!) recipe- someone had added PEANUT BUTTER to the buttercream frosting!! :) I *had* to try it. I knew he’d love it.  A chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting?? It’s kind of like an inverted peanut butter cup! :) What more could a chocolate and peanut butter lover wish for??

OMG- this cake.. Since I was making a chocolate and peanut butter cake- I decide to go *all* out. This would be the most decadent, peanut buttery and chocolate cake ever. If you don’t like peanut butter and chocolate you may want to slowly back away now. It’s ok. I understand. But if you do, come on- I’ll tell you all about it. :D

I used my best chocolate cake (ever!) recipe- but instead of the two cups of chocolate chips at the end, I used 2 cups of chopped, miniature peanut butter cups. It took almost an entire bag. I tried taking the easy way out and using a food processor, and then my Pampered Chef food chopper (you know… it’s like the Slap Chop! ;)) to chop up the peanut butter cups, but in the end, it was easier to just do it with my trusty old knife and cutting board. Actually the hardest part was unwrapping all of those babies. :p

OMG. Again. I will have dreams about this frosting tonight. At first I thought the peanut butter buttercream frosting might be a little rich for me- but let me tell you right now that was THE best frosting I have ever had the pleasure of tasting in my *entire* life. So smooth. So light. Just a hint of peanut butter. I think I may even like it better than the original vanilla buttercream!! :O Is that legal??

To make it, all I did was make my regular vanilla buttercream frosting and mixed in a 1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter at the end.

I will definitely, definitely be making the peanut butter frosting again. Hopefully soon. Very very soon. Maybe on the next cake I make. I can only hope. I may shrivel up and blow away if I don’t have this frosting again soon. Thank you, Emily, so much for your decadent, utterly sinful suggestion!! :D

OMG … *moan* … *groan* … This cake was so ridiculous. So rich. So chocolaty. So peanut buttery. Kevin *loved* it. :D

In the end, I ended up using 2 *entire* bags of mini peanut butter cups. Almost a full bag for the inside and the rest for the outside. That’s over 100 peanut butter cups in a single cake. Excessive? Extravagant? Over the top? Yes. Divinely delicious? Yes. :D

Thanks for looking! :)

Filed Under: About Us, Favorite Recipes, Photography • 72 Comments

Add a Signature to Every Blog Post on your Blogger/Blogspot Blog

If you have a blog, you may be wondering how to add your signature after every post on your Blogger or Blogspot blog. This simple tutorial will show you how to do it in just a few easy steps! :) This method of adding a signature will add your signature after *every* post- even posts you’ve already written! This is not like the “template method” of adding a signature, which will only add your signature on the new posts that you make- and not the old ones. Oh and stay tuned ’til the end of the post- there’s also a tutorial on how to add a post divider after your blog posts! :)

So, to add a signature, first, you’ll need to create a signature image like the one above (click here for a tutorial on how to do that) and upload it somewhere like Photobucket, TinyPic, Flickr, etc. Then…

1. Go to your Blogger Dashboard and click on Layout then Edit HTML.

2. Check the Expand Widget Templates box.

3. Click CTRL-F and copy and paste the line below in the search box to search for it in your code.

post-footer-line post-footer-line-1

It may say :

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1>

OR

<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>

Or something similar- either is fine. Just look for that line.

4. Under that line, paste this code and change IMAGE URL to the url address of your signature image (it’s the Direct Link on Photobucket).

<img src='IMAGE URL' style='border: none; background: transparent;' /><br/>

5. Preview it and Save it! You’re done!

If your blog background isn’t white…

This tutorial doesn’t cover the making of the actual signature, but I will give this tip for blogs that don’t have white backgrounds- here’s how to make a signature so it doesn’t have a white background around it and it will blend in with any background! :)

If you use Photoshop, when you create a new image, make sure the “Background Contents” says Transparent. Then create your signature, and when saving, go to File > Save for Web and Devices.

Make sure you save the file as a PNG-24 and that Transparency is checked. The white and grey checkerboard must be around your signature for it to work! :) If you save it like this, then no matter what background you put your signature on, it will blend in (and not have a white background around it).

Want to know how to add a post divider after your blog posts?

Follow this super-easy, thorough, and beginner-friendly tutorial from Megan at Shabby Blogs!

While you’re there, take a look around! :) Don’t forget to check out her *awesome* shabby blog backgrounds and shabby blog extras!! :)

Here’s one of the new backgrounds she just added. Wouldn’t this make the *cutest* recipe blog background *ever*??? :)

If you’ve been thinking about starting a recipe blog, now is the time to do it!! And gosh darn it, send me the link to it ASAP!!! ;)

Thanks for looking!! :)

Filed Under: Tutorials, blog design • 109 Comments