Stars & Stripes Loves

Nothing says "God bless America" like some star spangled baked goods and a bottle of cold  prosecco.

We celebrated the citizenship of one of our office-mates this afternoon with a red, white and blue themed happy hour. The amazing crafter Ms. Sarah Goldschadt created adorable cupcake flags for the occasion. They tied the party together with a patriotic punch! (not to mention they were completely hilarious) Check out her website to take a peek at the crafts she working on. There's a link to her Etsy store as well. You should really take a peek. 

My contribution was the baked goods. Clearly. Although I also "styled" the table with the blue check print and ice bucket that I found in our closet AND I made towers out of paper cups. Yeah, yeah, yeah...enough about the party, get to the sweets. I know! This afternoon, we nibbled on: 

RED Velvet Cupcakes

BLUE Berry Bars

5-Layer Bars (they're our friend's favorites!)

5-layer bars are a funny little treat. This super simple recipe packs in a lot of flavor, and it can't get much easier than melting some butter, added morsels and pouring sweetened condensed milk into a dish. It may go against everything I believe in, but these bars are delicious and they're yours to customize. If you don't like butterscotch chips, try peanut butter or white chocolate. Hate coconut? Use cocoa puffs, marshmallow fluff, whatever. You have the freedom of layering on the flavors you enjoy the most. Also, there's no reason why you cannot turn your 5-layer bars into 6 or 7-layer bars. Have fun with it! Took keep the recipe in working order, reduce the cup size of sweets you're adding in with each new layer you invent, otherwise the crust will never hold!

The 5-layer bar recipe that I used this time was developed by Paula Deen. Find the recipe here,  on the Food Network Website. 

Paula Deen's 5-Layer Bars - Food Network.com

• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup butterscotch morsels
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 jar Five Layer Bar Mix
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

'

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

 Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press into bottom of a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle remaining ingredients of mix over crumb mixture. Pour sweetened condensed milk over the layers. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into bar

YES THEY'RE THAT EASY! ENJOY.