Three Easy Steps to Making Birthdays Magical and Stress Free {with a #MullerMoment Ice Cream Cone Cake Recipe}

#MullerMoment #CollectiveBias #icecreamrecipe #icecreamconecake 

#memoment #recipe #birthdays #birthdaymagic #tutorial #proteinsnacks

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All opinions are mine alone. 

Happy Monday!

I don't know about you, but I am always ready for the weekend to get here. BUT then as the weekend plays out (with 5 kids and all the activities they each have), I am almost just as ready for Monday to get here and to be back in the routine of the week again and kids back to school. 

EVEN if it's a Manic Monday morning! haha

I've got the funnest new recipe and treat to share with you today using Müller® Ice Cream Inspired Yogurt. 

I have to tell you how much I LOVE yogurt. I'm always on the lookout for one that is a bit less in sugar than others and that fills that craving I get for a little sweet treat. AND...last week I found just that, on the grocery shelves at Wal-Mart. Müller® Ice Cream Inspired Yogurt is a new product and is a sweet treat that also has a good source of protein at 7 grams. Perfect for on-the-go OR at home! And if you want to check them out, there will be an in store demo coming up in the Rogers, AR Wal-Mart on 3/15/15, so go check them out!

So I picked up several flavors to try at home this past week. I had planned to use them as ingredients in a special treat for my kiddos, but they were disappearing from my fridge before I could even make the treat! Hmmm...you think the kids were taking them? Nope, this time it was my husband! lol Apparently he needed a #MullerMoment too! Thank goodness I bought plenty. With my daughter's birthday right around the corner, I wanted to make a fun after school/special day treat.

My daughter turned 5 last week and we had so much fun celebrating as a family, with her on her special day. I love to make my kids feel like the day is "magical" and that they are in the spotlight that day, but sometimes that can be hard to do when you have a list of to-do's that is a mile long, and everyday life gets in the way. So today, I also want to share how I am able to make their day special on their birthdays AND keep it low stress for everyone, but especially for ME (or YOU)!

 All it really takes, is a bit of thinking ahead.

How to Make Birthdays Magical AND Keep Them Stress-Free

by doing these 3 things:

1-First thing I do is hang up a bit of decoration the night before after everyone has gone to bed. All of my kids love waking up to a few streamers in their doorway and a few balloons.  I also have a tradition of decorating our fireplace mantle around each of them on their special day. I put their picture up there, hang up our "Celebrate" banner that I made over a year ago, 

seen here on my son's birthday:

(I made the banner with scrap canvas, vinyl stencils and spray paint. 

I store it and use it for every birthday.)

Then I add a large number for how old they are, or I add the first letter of their name too. It makes them smile and makes them feel like they are special ALL day long (or all week long depending on how long we leave it up), and it really doesn't take long at all to do. (For my older kids, I toilet paper their room sometimes too. Just for fun and smiles!)

(I love that she is holding the 5 backwards. Totally makes me smile!)

2-I let them open one or two gifts in the morning that they can use during the day. (We save the rest for later that evening, after dinner, when the whole family is back together again and can spend more time celebrating.) For my younger kids, I make sure it is something that they can play with or wear during the day and enjoy. This year we gave my daughter some new hair ribbons, nail polish and a birthday crown and ribbon to wear. This helped make her day be soooo much better because face it...our days don't just stop most of the time. We still have things we need to get done. So. as I went about my daily errands and things I needed to do, she tagged along, but she also got birthday wishes everywhere we went too! I loved seeing her glow all day long.

 The huge smile on her face was the best!

She was soooo excited to find a watermelon for her birthday dinner!

 For my older kids, often I let them open some clothes or something that they can wear all day to remind them of their special day and try to have a special snack/treat waiting for them as they get home from school. I was so excited for the little treat I wanted to make this time with Müller® Ice Cream Inspired Yogurt. I thought it would be so fun to make those little ice cream cone cakes, BUT add Müller®'s yogurt into the cake batter, making the cake batter actually taste like ice cream! And let me tell you, my house smelled heavenly as the mint chocolate chip ones were baking! So so yummy! And so many flavors to choose from, so of course I had to make some berry flavored cakes AND chocolate chip mint. With less sugar in them, why not indulge a bit?! And so much fun they way they turned out too!

So, here's a quick recipe for you to make some Müller® magic in your house!

Ice Cream Cone Cake with Müller® Ice Cream Inspired Yogurt

1-Choose a cake mix of your choice. I just used a plain yellow cake mix. (Or you can make your own from scratch,)

2- Mix together:

the cake mix, two eggs,

 two 5.3 oz containers of Müller® Ice Cream Inspired Yogurt,

 1 cup water 

and any other additional ingredients you may want (optional)

(I added 3 scoops of chocolate protein powder and a few more chocolate chips to the Chocolate Chip Mint cones I made,making them an even greater source of a protein snack!)

3-Poor batter into the ice cream cones and bake in a muffin tin. (I used a mini muffin tin,)

Be sure to scratch off the little ridges on the bottom of the ice cream cones if they aren't standing up straight.

 Fill each cone a little over half full. You don't want to fill them too full, or they will spill out over the edge as they bake. Bake at 350 until the cake bounces back. (about 15 minutes)

4-Cool, and then frost with your favorite frosting. I made some heavy whipping cream and mixed it with some cream cheese to make a thicker frosting to appear more like ice cream. Love how it turned out! So much fun! So many ways you can frost and decorate them, whether you use soft OR stiff frosting, they still turn out fun!

 The caramelized little almond bits that come with some of the Müller® Ice Cream Inspired Yogurt are also perfect to top the Ice Cream Cone Cake off with too!

(Sprinkles are always fun to add as well!)

5-Have a #memoment, or rather a #MullerMoment, and enjoy!

3-The last thing I do for my kids on their birthdays is centered around our family meals.I typically ask my kids what they want for Breakfast and dinner at least too and let them choose those two meals (or lunch as well if they are my little ones at home with me). I start their cake before dinner and bake it and have it cooling while I make dinner. That way, while dinner is cooking, I can finish up the cake as well. We eat dinner all together, and then celebrate with their choice of cake and some fun festive birthday singing and presents. It's nothing huge, but it is to the birthday person, and that's what matters. Some years I make their cakes and others, we buy them. Just depends on what they want. Each person gives a gift (unless they go together on some), but basically we keep it pretty simple. Maybe a new outfit, a toy, a book, and another small item. Nothing huge. Because what do YOU really want on your birthday? Really, what we want is just to feel loved, special, and to know that others are thinking of us. That's what makes all the difference!

So, there you have it! My three easy steps to making Birthdays Magical and Stress Free. And then, at the end of the day, when it's ME that's ready for a #MullerMoment, and the kids are in bed (not quite asleep yet, because they are still giggling and talking about their magical day), I sneak back into the kitchen to grab ME some more of that Müller® magic for a #memoment! Sigh...and smile. It was a good day.

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