Ms. Fox's Sweets: February 2012

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party #13

Happy LEAP DAY and welcome to Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party!

I hope you are all having a great week! Before we party, I have a couple things worth announcing first. Tonight I will be taking my final class in Wilton's Course 4, so look for my final cake later this week! Tomorrow is also going to be the start of the Luck 'o the Irish Link Party where you can link up all of your St. Patrick's Day posts, anything goes, from March 1st thru 17th hosted by myself and Adrianne from Happy Hour Projects! I hope you will stop by and join us for that too!

Now for this weeks features!

The #1 most viewed sweet of Week 12:

M&M Pretzel and Peanut Butter Bananas from The Sweet Spot

Other Features:

St. Patrick's Day Cookie by LilaLoa

Key Lime Shamrock Cake by Bird on a Cake

Fishing Cookies by Lizy B

Congratulations to all of you!

You can find the "I Was Featured" button on the Grab a Button Page!

Now moving on to this weeks party:

Link up your sweets, whatever dessert YOU have made this week!

Nothing new? Link that up too! Dig thought your archives and find a sweet treat that you want to share! I just ask that you keep it all kid friendly! I reserve the right to delete any post that I find inappropriate!

Ready to join in? Here are a few quick things to do:

1. I would love for you to Follow Mrs. Fox's Sweets someway or another, GFC or Linky Followers!

2. Share my button or a link to this party on your blog somewhere to spread the word! You can find the Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party Button on the "Grab a Button" page and also in the right sidebar!

3. Link to your sweet posts only, not directly to your blog. Giveaways are fine too, as long as they are somehow related to sweets! (ex. cookies, supplies, cookbooks, cupcake necklace, you get the idea!)
4. Mix and mingle, Visit some of the other sweets! We all love visitors!

Each week I will feature the most viewed sweet and my favorite sweet! These sweets will be featured at the next weeks party! By joining this party, you give Mrs. Fox's Sweet's permission to use your sweet photo in a featured post. Featured sweets may also be shared at Mrs. Fox's Sweets on Facebook, Stumbled, and/or Pinned!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

St. Patty's Day Quickie! (Pretzels)

We are all working on getting back to good around here, not 100% but getting there! Not everything I make has to take hours and here is a quickie that can be done in minutes depending on how many pretzels you want to make. All you need is pretzels, some type of melting candy, and sprinkles! Melt candy according to package directions, dip pretzels one at a time, sprinkle, and place on waxed paper for the candy to set up!

A colorful and festive YUM!

I link up at these fun parties!

Featured at: Rook No. 17

Monday, February 27, 2012

Mickey & Minnie Mouse Cookies

MICKEY & MINNIE MOUSE!

I have pretty much spent the past week feeling under the weather and still on the mend. I will be so glad when this roller coaster weather is over! It took me a few days, but I did manage to use some leftover icing and peanut butter cut-out cookie dough to make these cookies!

I have made Mickey Mouse Cookies using this Mickey Cookie Cutter that I got from Disney World before and had quite a hard time with the ears staying straight when moving the dough to the pan. This time to solve that problem I cut out the dough right on the parchment lined cookie sheet removing the excess dough. This made the process a lot easier! I experimented a little and made the dots on Minnie Mouse two different ways also. One way was putting the white dots on the wet red icing so they sink into the red icing and the other putting the dots on top of the dried icing, which made them pop out more. I still liked the first way best.

Everyone was glad to have a sweet in the house once again, but this is going to be another slow week, I am still drained! Wishing you all escape this cold season unscathed!

I link up at these fun parties!

Featured at: Crazy for Crust

Friday, February 24, 2012

Wilton Course 4: Advanced Gum Paste Flowers- Lesson 3

This is what I made in lesson 3 of Wilton Course 4- Advanced Gum Paste Flowers! This has been the most productive class so far! I feel like a lot got accomplished!

Flowers made in the above photo from left to right: Sweet Pea, Stephanotis, Sweet Pea, Stephanotis Bud.

Above are 3 wide and 3 narrow petals for the Stargazer Lily. Next week will be the final class and we will assemble the Stargazer Lily, paint all of our flowers, and make the arrangement to place on our final project!

Previous Classes

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 1

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 2

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 3

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 4

Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 1

Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 2

Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 3

Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 4

Wilton Course 3: Gum Paste and Fondant- Lesson 1

Wilton Course 3: Gum Paste and Fondant- Lesson 2

Wilton Course 3: Gum Paste and Fondant- Lesson 3

Wilton Course 4: Advance Gum Paste Flowers- Lesson 1

Wilton Course 4: Advanced Gum Paste Flowers- Lesson 2

View the Wilton Website for more class information

Thursday, February 23, 2012

St. Patrick's Day Dipped WhoNu?'s

Here we go again! A super fast, quick and easy way to dress up a cookie for St. Patrick's Day!

All you need is:

Your favorite sandwich cookie (my favorite is WhoNu? because of the added nutritional benefits!)

Wilton Green Candy Melts (found at at your local craft store)

seasonal sprinkles

Melt about 1/2 bag of candy melts in the microwave according to package instructions. I add about 1/2 teaspoon of shortening to the melts to thin it out and make it easier to dip. Dip half of cookie and place on waxed paper and immediately add sprinkles! Let candy melts set up for about 10 minutes in the refrigerator or slightly longer on counter top.

Fun and festive for St. Patrick's Day!

I link up at these fun parties!

Featured at: WhoNu?

Blissful and Domestic

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party #12

Hi there! Welcome to Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party!

I hope you are all having a great week! I have seemed to catch the bug that everyone is getting and just haven't felt like baking as usual. I can't wait to see what you have been baking up! But first....

Here are the Features from Week #11:

The Most Viewed Sweet

Valentine Treats from Pint Sized Baker

Other Featured Sweets:

"Happy Valentine's Day" Lady Bug Oreos by The Sweet Swiper

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes by Lady Behind the Curtain

Saint Patty's Cake Balls by Miss Candiquik

Congratulations to all of you!

You can find the "I Was Featured" button on the Grab a Button Page!

Now moving on to this weeks party:

Link up your sweets, whatever dessert YOU have made this week!

Ready to join in? Here are a few quick things to do:

1. Please Follow Mrs. Fox's Sweets someway or another, GFC or Linky Followers! I do try to follow all of you back but if somehow you slipped through, let me know!

2. Share my button or a link to this party on your blog somewhere to spread the word! You can find the Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party Button on the "Grab a Button" page and also in the right sidebar!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

2012 Valentine's Wrap-Up

Valentine's is officially over, but that won't stop me from sharing the love!

This is what I made this Valentine season!

Love Letters & Hearts Cookies

Black & Red Heart Cupcakes

Hearts & Kisses Cookies

Hearts -a- Flutter Cookies

Love Birds Cookies

Chocolate Dipped Valentine Pretzels

Rose Cake Pops

Chocolate Coated Valentine Who-Nu's?

Valentine Cake Balls

Shiny Heart Cookies

Hearts on Sticks Cookies

Valentine's Brownies

Girly Cookies

Words of Love Valentine's Cookies

Valentine's Graffiti Cookies

Personalized Valentine's Cookies

Emoticon Valentine Cookies

Be My Cupcake

Giant Chocolate Chip Valentine's Cookie

Glitter Says "I Love You" Cookies

Red & White Flower Cookies

Monday, February 20, 2012

17th Birthday Cookies

I seriously can't believe how time has flown and my baby boy has turned 17 so quickly!

I wanted the cookies to be special and to make something different for him that I haven't made before with a flavor I know he'd love. I used the The BEST Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe from Created by Diane. The cookie dough cut out, baked up, and kept shape nicely for decorating! It also tasted great and everyone loved them! This is definitely a recipe I will use again!

Happy 17th Birthday Steve!

I link up at these fun parties!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Red & White Flower Cookies

Once I got going with Valentine's I just couldn't stop! My daughter thought these looked tropical, so I thought I would share these last since they could be any occasion!

For these I once again used the Sugarbakers' Chocolate Mini-Chip Cookies recipe. You can find the recipe at The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle! The Ghiradelli Mini Chips made them perfect!

I had premade all of the royal flowers with leftover icing from the Valentine Brownies topped with Roses last month. After the flowers dry for 2 or 3 days, they can be stored in an airtight contain close to forever!

The cookies were outlined, flooded, and decorated with a size 2 tip. After the cookies were dry I glued on the flowers with royal icing. These could be done in any color for any occasion!

I link up at these fun parties!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Glitter Says "I Love You" Cookies

This cookies were just so much fun! I just love glitter! This was my first time ever using Disco Dust aka edible glitter and I have Lorraine's Cookies to thank for it, since I won her 1,000 Fans giveaway! If you haven't already, stop by and see her, she is a very talented cookie artist! The cookie cutter that made these cookies was part of the giveaway also and is available at Copper Gifts. The edible glitter is available at Karen's Cookies. (both were sponsors of the giveaway!)

I have had these fabulous goodies for a few weeks and these fun items have been screaming at me to use them! I have found that I love putting words on cookies and the scalloped oval cookie is perfect for words! I had to dedicate one to my sweetheart, Brad!

Of course, I couldn't just not make one of these fun cookies for my daughter to give to her sweetheart too! Good thing he likes cookies and these cookies are made with a chocolate chip cut out cookie recipe, you can find all the recipes I used on my FAQ page!

To make the cookies, I first colored my royal icing black and let that sit for a day in an airtight container to deepen in color. The outline and flooding were then done using tip 2. After drying for about 12 hours, to be sure they were good and dry, I worked a little at a time (one cookie and just one part of that cookie like the dots or a name) piping red royal icing with a tip 1 and immediately sprinkling on the glitter and just letting it sit for about 30 minutes before dumping off most of the excess glitter. I left them alone overnight to make sure they were full dry and then used a soft brush to brush away the extra glitter that still remained. I can't lie to you, I had glitter all over the place! I worked over waxed paper so I could just fold it in half and put it in a container to use again. Static was loads of fun too and I think everything has a little sparkle to it now! However, I love it!

Disco Dust rocks!

I link up at these fun parties!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Wilton Course 4: Advanced Gum Paste Flowers- Lesson 2

It's show and tell time again! This is what I made in lesson 2 of Wilton Course 4- Advanced Gum Paste Flowers. I have to say I almost skipped this class, horrible headache, but I am glad I went, otherwise I wouldn't have learned to make the Briar Rose.

First we made quite a few Ivy and Lily Leaves. These will be for our final project. More may need to be made at home depending on the final design, which I haven't decided on yet.

The Briar Rose is very easy to create. The only time consuming part is sticking 15 little yellow stamens into that tiny ball, which should be yellow, but I just left mine white. There is a green calyx underneath the flower which cannot be seen from the photo. In the last class we will be painting all of our flowers with petal dust, but I think I like this flower in all white. We ran out of time in class and were not able to start the Stargazer Lily Petals, so we will make lots of those next week, along with the Stephanotis and Sweet Pea.

Previous Classes

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 1

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 2

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 3

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 4

Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 1

Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 2

Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 3

Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 4

Wilton Course 3: Gum Paste and Fondant- Lesson 1

Wilton Course 3: Gum Paste and Fondant- Lesson 2

Wilton Course 3: Gum Paste and Fondant- Lesson 3

Wilton Course 4: Advance Gum Paste Flowers- Lesson 1

View the Wilton Website for more class information

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Valentine's Graffiti Cookies

More fun Valentine's Cookies! My daughter decorated these fun cookies for her boyfriend for Valentine's to go along with the Personalized Valentine's Cookies!

These were made by decorating a cookie with royal icing and letting it fully dry and then drawing on them with edible markers! Of course he loved them and he even shared them on Facebook before I did :)

I link up at these fun parties!

Personalized Valentine's Cookies

Valentine's Cookies for the happy couple!

Happy Valentine's Katie & Garrett!

I link up at these fun parties!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party #11

Hi there! Welcome to Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's! I am not done celebrating yet and will have more Valentine's post thoughout the week! I am co-hosting the "Share the Love" Valentine Party with Happy Hour Projects where you can still share any of your crafts, projects, recipes through this Friday!

Don't forget to enter the "EB Mine" Giveaway while you are here too going on through Saturday!

I also added the Linky Followers widget to my sidebar so you can follow me that way too now!

I can't wait to see what you have been baking up this week, but first....

Here are the Features from Week #10!

Sugarlicious is here! Cupcakes made by Sweetology

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway with lots of goodies and a preview booklet for the book "Sugarlicious" by Meghan Mountford! Of course you can order the book on Amazon. The book is filled with wonderful ideas and tips! I have been meaning to make one of the ideas from the book, but Valentine's has just swept me away! Meghan is just a sweetie and we have to support our blogger buddies right? Seriously this is an awesome book, a must have for the book shelf and beautiful pictures! Thanks Trish for recreating one of the fabulous book designs for the book release party!

Vintage Paris Edible Image Cookies by Sweetology

I just had to share these beautiful cookies too, they screamed to me when I first say them! Absolutely gorgous! I guess I am kinda stalking you this week Trish! You just just some kind of wonderful! Besides the other feature was more about sharing our love for Sugarlicious!

Muscial Cupcakes by DJ's Sugar Shack

Love these! Simply and stunning!

Shamrock & Pot of Gold Pancakes by Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo

This is what is for breakfast for St. Patrick's Day! What a perfect way to start the day!

Now that Valentine's is coming to a close, let GREEN fill the Screen!

Congratulations to all of you!

You can now find the featured button on the Grab a Button Page!

Now moving on to this weeks party:

Link up your sweets, whatever dessert YOU have made this week!

Ready to join in? Here are a few quick things to do:

1. Please Follow Mrs. Fox's Sweets someway or another, GFC or Linky Followers! I do try to follow all of you back but if somehow you slipped through, let me know!

2. Share my button or a link to this party on your blog somewhere to spread the word! You can find the Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party Button on the "Grab a Button" page and also in the right sidebar!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Giant Chocolate Chip Valentine's Cookie

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is a quickie! Really this is something that can be made at the last minute!

All that is needed is a package of chocolate chip cookie mix and the ingredients that go with it, red buttercream icing, heart sprinkles, and piping bag with tips 3, 17, and 22. The pan that I used is by Wilton sold exclusively at Target, there is a cut out heart in the center that I filled with Cherry M&M's.

Prepare cookie mix as directed on package. The pan is already non-stick, but I spread a little Wilton Cake Release in the pan and around the center heart stem for good measure. Spread cookie dough in pan. The dough was quite sticky and I had to sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough to be able to flatten it better with my hands. I sprinkled the heart sprinkles on before baking. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 20 to 22 minutes. This cookie is 1-inch thick, so it needs the extra time. I let the cookie cool in the pan on a wire rack for a full hour before removing it from the pan. It could have probably been removed sooner, but I didn't want to risk cracking it.

For the borders and writing I used buttercream icing. If you don't want the mess or don't have time to make the buttercream, canned frosting with some additional confectioners' sugar (2 to 3 tablespoons) mixed in to thicken it up would work as well. The outer border is the reverse shell with tip 22, the inner is tip 17 reverse shell. If you are going to fill the center with candy, it is best to do that before piping around the center heart. I finished by writing "Happy Valentine's" with tip 3.

While you are visiting today, why don't you share your Valentine's Craft Projects at the "Share the Love" party that I am co-hosting with Happy Hour Projects!

and also be sure to enter the "EB Mine" Eggland's Best Giveaway!

I link up at these fun parties!

Emoticon Valentine Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!

People say it is a commercialized holiday. I make it a cookie-ized holiday and make my loved ones lot of cookies for Valentine's Day!

Have we not learned by now I can't resist bright colored things and sales? Again, found these little candies on sale and had to get them with no clue what I would do with them! I also happened to pick up some Ghiradelli Mini Chocolate Chips! Cookies...that sounds like a plan! More specific...

Sugarbakers' Chocolate Mini-Chip Cookies! You can find the recipe at The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle!

The cookie dough was to die for! But, I didn't, you may, so as a public service announcement, eating raw cookie dough is a No-No! Just in case you want to temp fate...it taste delicious! I did manage to roll it and cut it out and made cookies with it though! For this you must use metal cutters, plastic wouldn't have sliced through the chips! The hearts are scalloped, a cookie cutter passed down from my Mother-in-Law, but the scallops didn't really show since the dough did spread a little more than my regular cookie dough. However, being a chocolate chip cut out cookie, it was so worth it!

These cookies were outlined, filled, and decorated with a size 2 tip and royal icing. See my new FAQ Page for a list of all the recipes that I like to use!

Napkins, Plates, and a fun Chinese Take-Out box to make sharing these easy!

Don't be sad, Valentine's isn't over yet, not at Mrs. Fox's Sweets anyway! I have Valentine's Sweets that I will be sharing all week!

While you are visiting today, why don't you share your Valentine's Craft Projects at the "Share the Love" party that I am co-hosting with Happy Hour Projects!

and also be sure to enter the "EB Mine" Eggland's Best Giveaway!

I link up at these fun parties!