Mrs. Fox's Sweets 2011 Thanksgiving Recap

It's here...
Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving begins such a wonderful time of year, the air is cool, a relief from the hot summer! Most of all, this time of year is all about being with friends and family! By now, I am sure you all already have your menus planned and the turkey is probably in the oven, but if you are looking for an extra sweet for the table, this is what I made for 2011!

Turkey Cake Pops

Fall Harvest Cake Pops

Fall Harvest Cookies with 3 Different Easy Ways to Decorate

Turkey Cupcakes

Fall Leaves Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Maple-Walnut Pumpkin Pie

Oreo Turkeys

Tiny Turkey Dinner Cupcakes

Fall M&M's Cupcakes                       Fall Brownies

 

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

 

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Tiny Turkey Dinner Cupcakes

Hold the Gravy?

Thanksgiving Dinner with all the fixings!

Time is running out, tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

I had wanted to make these cupcakes for last Thanksgiving, but I couldn't find the cookie that was in the design on Disney Family Fun, so put the idea aside. Once again this year, I wanted to make them, even Pinning them when Pinterest came out to my Thanksgiving & Fall Board, but I still couldn't find a comparable cookie and once again thought I would put the idea aside. Then it hit me, when I was making the Christmas Oreo Pops to use the Golden Oreos or Golden Creme Filled Sandwich Cookies! They are a little smaller, but they worked!

I decorated the cookie before putting it on the cupcake.

First I frosted the the cookie, then added a little white icing for the mashed potatoes. I put a little yellow circle sprinkle in the center for butter, and then a little yellow piping gel since the sprinkle wasn't enough. For cranberry sauce I used red colored sugar. The green beans are made with green jimmies and the turkey was made with coffee flavored fondant (from Fondarific).

The question then became...

Gravy or no gravy?

I used melted canned chocolate frosting for the gravy and made half with and half without.

These would be a great cupcake to make together with the family, create a little assembly line, each person adding another item to the dinner plate. I think in the end I liked the turkey without gravy.

What do you think?

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

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This Tiny Turkey Dinner is Shared with:

Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday

Sew Stylish Boutique: Crafty Lassie Tuesday

This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked

Frugal Wannabe Cooks: Foodie Wednesday

Rae Gun Ramblings: What We Wore and Made Wednesday

It's a Blog Party: Delicious Dishes

Something Swanky: Sweet Treats Thursday

 

This Tiny Turkey Dinner is Featured at:

Cupcakes Take the Cake

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Oreo Turkeys

Worried you won't have something fun to make for the little kids (and big kids) at Thanksgiving?

Double Stuffed Oreos + Reese's Peanut Butter Cups + Whoppers + Candy Corn + Melted Chocolate= FUN

As soon as I saw these Oreo Turkeys they were put on my to-do list for Thanksgiving! These little guys are quick and easy to make and the kids had lots of fun helping! You can find an easy tutorial at Our Best Bites. Instead of frosting I used yellow candy melts to make the eyes, feet, and while I was at it, I drew on hands too!

Our Best Bites inserted a name pick out of the top of the Oreo Turkeys to use them as place cards! Such a cute idea! I decided to make the Oreo Turkeys as place cards too, writing everyones name on the back of the Oreo Turkeys with the extra melted candy melts that were left from drawing the hands and feet, and gluing on the candy corn beak and candy coated sunflower seed wattle. Kids love seeing their names on things, and this way there is sure to be some left for Dad and Mom too!

These were also a hit at The Sweet Swiper's Thankgiving Table last year and they have been made by quite a few already this year! All these people can't be wrong! These are sure to be a hit with your friends and family too!

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This Fun Treat is Shared at:

Cupcake Apothecary: A Themed Bakers Sunday
Home Savvy A to Z: Savvy Homemade Monday
The Southern Institute: Creative Me Monday
Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday

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Fall Leaves Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes (Improv Challenge)

Fall Leaves Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Wow has this been a roller coaster! It was such a surprise when the original hostess to the "Improv Cooking Challenge" suddenly resigned. A BIG Thank You to Karen from Frugal Antics of the Harried Homemaker for taking over and continue with the "Improv Challenge!"

Continuing with the regularly scheduled ingredients:

Pumpkin and Cream Cheese

This month I decided to go with what I know...

Cupcakes!

For the Cupcake itself, all you need is 2 ingredients:

100% Pure Canned Pumpkin & Spice Cake Mix

Mix the 2 ingredients in mixer on medium for about 2 minutes. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for about 16 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely. Makes 18 cupcakes.

  

Next up: The Icing!

The icing that I made is a spin on the regular decorating buttercream that I usually make. It was as simple as replacing the shortening and some of the margarine with cream cheese and just working towards the right consistency with adding the powdered sugar, same as I do with the buttercream. We all liked this cream cheese icing so much and it reminded us of yummy cheesecake! I definitely plan on using this icing in place of buttercream more often and it works great for 1M swirls!  Because of the cream cheese, these cupcakes will need to be refrigerated.

  

Cream Cheese Icing

8 ounces regular cream cheese (not low fat, it just doesn't come out right in my experience!)

1/2 stick of margarine (1/4 cup)

3 to 4 cups of powdered sugar

In mixer, combine cream cheese and margarine, add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until pipable consistency. If it is not at pipeable consistency, add more powdered sugar or chill in the refrigerator, it will thicken up some in there. This will ice about 20 cupcakes.

For the leaves I used the Wilton Nature Fondant and Gum Paste Mold. Using a small brush, dust the cavity to be used with a little bit of cornstarch. I found that I did not need to redust each time. I molded all the leaves, and let them sit on parchment paper while icing the cupcakes.

The red, yellow, and orange fondant leaves are made with Wilton Fondant. The brown/chocolate fondant is by Fondarific. I have just started using this in the past week, after someone had recommended it to me and let me tell you it taste like chocolate candy! They have all flavors, even coffee flavored! Currently, they offer a sample pack on the  Fondarific Website that all you have to do is pay shipping for, totally worth it!

I piped the cream cheese icing onto the pumpkin cupcake with the Wilton 1M tip and added a few leaves to each.

Super YUM and just in time for Thanksgiving!

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These Cupcakes are Shared at:

JD's Mom: Thanksgiving Traditions

Miz Helen's Country Cottage: Full Plate Thursday

The Artsy Girl Connection: Pin'Inspirational Thursdays
Happy Hour Projects: Freestyle Friday
Tatertots & Jello: Weekend Wrap up
Mom's Crazy Cooking: This Week's Cravings (Thanksgiving)



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Improv Challenge Participants:

Turkey Cupcakes

We are almost down to a week before Thanksgiving!

Do you have your menu planned?

If you haven't decided on what cookies or cupcakes you are making, these Turkey Cupcakes were made using some of the cookies from the Fall Harvest Cookies that I had put aside a couple days ago! Already having the cookies made, these were a snap to put together!

Here is what you need for the cupcake:

Cupcakes (I used a vanilla cupcake recipe + 1tsp of cinnamon + 1tsp pumpkin pie spice)

Ready Made Icing (I mixed vanilla decorator icing and chocolate icing to get a lighter brown)

Candy Corn

Red Fondant (just a little for the snood (flap of skin over turkeys nose))

Leaf Shaped Cookies

Eyes

  

Now, of course you could drive to the store to go buy eyes for your turkey or maybe you are lucky enough to already have some on hand. If not, here is a quick and easy way to make eyes, and you will never have to buy them again! You will need: a pinch of white fondant or gum paste, a size 12 tip, a black Foodwriter, and a bit of cornstarch or powdered sugar.

Roll out the white fondant to 1/8 inch. Dip the tip of a size 12 tip into cornstarch or powdered sugar to prevent sticking and just cute out as many eyes as you want. Draw on the pupil with a black Foodwriter. Make extras, let them dry and store them in a zipper bag for future use!

To assemble the cupcake: Spread brown frosting over the top of each cupcake. Put the excess frosting in either a piping bag fitted with tip 12, a zipper bag fitted with tip 12 (yes, you can screw the coupler and tip right on!) or a zipper bag with the corner cut off. Squeeze the frosting on for the head keeping the tip buried until you have made a mound of frosting the size for a head. Squeeze 3 more mounds for the feathers (cookies).

Cut a piece of candy corn in half to make the beak, roll a bit of red fondant in your hand to make the snood. (I always thought it was called a wattle, but the wattle is actually under the beak. The snood is the flap of skin over the beak. Thank you, Google!) Add the eyes and 3 cookies for feathers.

I also used a different shape leaf cookie on some of the turkey cupcakes! I was worried that the feathers would fall over, but the thickness of the frosting kept all the feathers upright without a problem!

If you don't have time to make the Fall Harvest Cookies, search your cookie aisle in the grocery store, I am sure there is something suitable, like the ginger cookies that I used in making the "Hello, Cupcake!" Larry the Turkey Cupcakes! Just improvise if needed and most of all...have fun!

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These Cupcakes are Shared at:

Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday

Bacon Time: Anything Goes Linky

This Chick Cooks: This Chick Cooked

Something Swanky: Sweet Treats Thursday

Rae Gun Ramblings: What We Made and Wore Wednesdays

Talking Dollars and Cents: Muffin (&Cupcake) Monday

These Cupcakes are Featued at:

Something Swanky: Sweet Treats Thursday

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Fall Harvest Cookies (3 Ways)

One Batch of Cookies...

3 Different Ways to Decorate!

Lots of little cookies perfect for a Thanksgiving cookie platter!

I started with my favorite cut-out cookie recipe: Martha Stewarts: Essential Recipe No. 2: Sugar Cookies. I wish I would have counted how many that I had actually made, but they were being eaten before I had a chance! I believe there were about 80-90 bite size cookies in all. These were made with the Wilton Harvest Mini Metal Cutter Set, the same one I just used for the Fall Harvest Cake Pops!

These cookies are easy to make...and easy to decorate! No messing with the royal icing! Sure royal icing cookies look spectacular, but it takes time and a lot of it to decorate. I am showing you 3 EASY WAYS to spruce up otherwise plain sugar cookies in just a couple hours including clean up!

Start by making the cut out cookie dough and dividing it into 3 parts.

 

COOKIE #1

Colored Cookie

Begin by coloring your cookie dough, one section at a time, with a paste or gel coloring. If the coloring makes the dough too soft, add a little more flour. Starting with yellow, color the dough by kneading the color into it, and stick that batch into the oven. These cookies don't spread out much so they can be baked close together on the cookie sheet, allowing for more in the oven at a time! Bake as directed in recipe. While the yellow batch is in the oven, move on to coloring your next section of cookie dough orange, and finally the last section red. Going in this order will keep you from accidentally getting a darker color on the yellow dough.

This adds color to the cookies with no additional decorating needed!

 

Cookie #2

Sugared Cookie

I did make these with the already colored dough from Cookie #1, but could easily be done with the original color of the cookie dough, but may not look as brilliant in color.

For these cookies, after cutting out your cookie dough and placing on parchment paper lined baking sheet, place the cookie cutter back on the cookie. If for some reason it doesn't fit back on, this happens, just hold the cookie cutter over the top of the cookie. Sprinkle colored sugar covering the top of the cookie. It's okay if it gets all over the baking sheet, that is why the parchment paper is there, easy clean up! Bake the sugar covered cookies as you would a plain cookie.

This method not only adds color, but also adds sparkle to the cookie, and a nice little crunch of sugar! It makes brilliant looking cookies, with hardly any extra work!

 

Cookie #3

Fondant Covered Cookie

Again using the same already colored dough from Cookie #1, for these I baked just as I did cookie #1. While the cookies were baking, I rolled fondant very then 1/8 inch or less, and cut it with the same exact cutters as I cut the cookies. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, while still on the cookie sheet, immediately place on the fondant, it will adhere to the cookie from the heat. If you forget and don't get the fondant onto the cookies quick enough just stick the cookie sheet back in the oven, 30 seconds tops! If you leave it in too long the fondant will wrinkle!

I know what you are thinking...fondant taste horrible! Well, it doesn't have to, there are some really good tasting fondants out there, Duff is one of them, sold at Michael's. Another brand that I recently found is Fondarific. It comes in lots of yummy flavors, from berry to coffee and doesn't resemble some of the bad tasting fondants you may have tried. Currently, they offer a 5 flavor sampler and all you have to do is pay shipping! I know I sound like an advertisement, but this stuff is really worth it!

Again this doesn't involve much work, and makes colorful cookies!

and now you have a 

Fall Harvest Cookie Platter

Perfect for a school, church, office party, or just to snack on while waiting for Thanksgiving Dinner! It only take a couple hours at most to make too, the cookies, not Thanksgiving Dinner! This isn't quite all the cookies, they didn't all make it to the platter, and some were set aside for another project coming soon!

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These Cookies are Shared at:

The Southern Institute: Creative Me Monday
Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday
Crazy for Crust: Crazy Sweet Tuesdays
Chef In Training: Tuesday Talent Show
Rook No. 17: A Little Birdie Told Me
The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials
Bacon Time: Anything Goes Linky
This Chick Cooks: This Chick Cooked
Something Swanky: Sweet Treats Thursday

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Fall Harvest Cake Pops

Is there ever too much cake? Not if it is made into cake pops! The past week, I was a little caked out and lacking inspiration. I turned to my family for inspiration and my son mentioned leaves. Initially, I didn't have a clue and I made Turkey Cake Pops. After all, how would I shape a cake pop into a leaf and make it look like a leaf? When I went to pack up my Halloween baking stuff, I found the solution!

I made these fall shapes using the Wilton Harvest Mini Cookie Cutters. I think I have a set of these mini cutters for about ever holiday and this is a great use for them! I have finally finished recycling all of the cake I had left over, and just squished it right into the cutter. I did find it easier to unmold them after refrigerating for about 10 minutes, so I just worked with 4 at a time.

I am always at a lack for ideas when it comes to displaying cake pops, but I don't lack coffee cups!

When I first dipped the cake pops, I wasn't sure how I liked them, or how recognizable they were. After adding some details, they turned out pretty good! By the way, the two toned brown thing is an acorn, if case you were wondering!

With the holidays keeping us all busy and in a rush, don't forgot to.....

"Take time to watch the leaves turn"

 

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These Cake Pops are Shared at:

Chef In Training: Tuesday Talent Show

Rook No 17: A Little Birdie Told Me

The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials

Crazy for Crust: Crazy Sweet Tuesday

This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked

Something Swanky: Sweet Treats Thursday

Miz Helen's Country Cottage: Full Plate Thursday

Around My Family Table: Turning the Table Thursday

The Artsy Girl Connection: Pin'Ispirational Thursday

Happy Hour Projects: Freestyle Friday

Crumbs and Chaos: Seasonal Inspiration

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Turkey Cake Pops

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble 'em up!

November is here and that means Thanksgiving time!

I have to admit, I am really not that into the traditional Thanksgiving meal, you know the turkey, all the fixings, we don't even like turkey! I don't even like to cook! Baking is my thing and we definitely have our fill of desserts for Thanksgiving! Right now, we are still working on finishing up that huge Black, Red, & White Birthday Cake I made for my daughter's birthday. That is where these turkeys came from! Yep, I squished up some of the chocolate cake, frosting and all, which just happened to be the perfect amount of cake and frosting! You could say these are recycled...or upcycled!

I may not like to eat real turkey for Thanksgiving, but these little guys sure are cuties, aren't they?! Unlike a real turkey...these are fun to make and gobble up too!

Other than making a basic cake pop covered in chocolate, all you need for these are pretzels for the legs, candy corn for beak and feathers, mini M&M's for the eyes, a candy writer to draw the pupils on the eyes, and red fondant for the snood (the flap of skin that hangs over the turkey's beak). I made the basic cake pops first, before decorating. Once they were ready, I lined up 5 candy corn for the feathers, applied a little melted chocolate and laid the cake pop right on top of the feathers to set. While the cake pop was laying on top of the feathers, I applied the eyes, beak, and legs with a drop of the melted chocolate, holding a few seconds until set. I made these cake pops using things I already had in the kitchen, so just improvise if you are missing something!

Here are the little guys playing in the leaves!

 

Here are some other great Turkey Cake Pops that you may find inspiration from as well, each made a little differently with different supplies, all totally adorable and gobble-able:

Bakerella: You'll Want to Gobble These Right Up!

Miss Candiquik: Gobble, Gobble! Turkey Pops!

365 Days of Cake Pops: Turkey Cake Pops Tutorial

 

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    These Turkeys are Gobbling Over at:

Bacon Time: Anything Goes Linky
Sweet as Sugar Cookies: Sweets for a Saturday
A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday
The Southern Institute: Creative Me Monday
Life in the Motherhood: The Harvest Party
Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday
Chef In Training: Tuesday Talent Show

Rook No 17: A Little Birdie Told Me

The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials

Crazy for Crust: Crazy Sweet Tuesday

Crumbs and Chaos: Seasonal Inspiration

 

These Turkeys are Featured at:

Bacon Time: Fantastic Thanksgiving Features

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Flashback to Thanksgiving 2010!

It's Flashback Friday!

This is a once in awhile segment that I created to show you some of my past adventures before I began blogging!

I can't believe November is already here! To kick of the month, I am sharing the desserts I made last November!

These cupcakes were created with just a box of Spice Cake Mix and a can of Pumpkin. The frosting is canned cream cheese frosting. The leaves my daughter created with homemade fondant!

I believe this was our very first time using any type of fondant. Here is a close up to show the marbled effect!

This is just a regular pumpkin pie from a store bought crust and following the directions on the can of pumpkin. I wanted to decorate it up a bit, so I used the 2nd crust to cut out leaf shapes. I then dipped the shapes into sugar and applies the outside ring of leaves before baking. I applied a few additional leaves in the last few minutes of baking.

 Even a simple pie can taste better when it is a little more decorative! Even though I had a long dry spell without baking cakes or cupcakes. I did make Pumpkin Pies on occasion during that time and had a few disasters with that too. However, everyone was delighted to see the Pumpkin Pie decorated like this!

Quite a few sweets served at Thanksgiving Dinner last year!

The small plate of leaf shaped cookies to the left are Gingerbread Cookies.

These were the presliced cookies that are in the refrigerator sections at the grocery store. I sandwiched 2 together with chocolate frosting on the inside and rolled in chocolate jimmies.

These Cupcakes I made from the "Hello, Cupcake!" Book. Again using a Spice cake with a can of Pumpkin, needless to say that combo with chocolate wasn't my favorite.

Here's a close up of my Turkey Cupcakes!

This had to have been my favorite dessert from last Thanksgiving.

I saw this made on the Rachel Ray Show, it is called Anne Thorton's Gingersnap Pumpkin Pie. The crust is made with crushed gingersnaps.

I served each slice topped with a Gingerbread Man cookie!

These next 2 were made after Thanksgiving, but fit here as well.

These are Pumpkin Pies Bites inspired by Bakerella. They were made in mini cupcake pan. I used homemade pie crust dough cut with a Pumpkin Shaped Cookie Cutter. I was having the hardest time getting the homemade crust into the mini cupcake pans. That is when my teenage daughter came to the rescue and did the job for me. The pan we had only holds 12, so we used the rest to make the dessert below.

This was basically just a square pumpkin pie with only crust on the bottom, equalling less calories and a lot less work than the Pumpkin Pie Bites!

Those are a few ideas for the upcoming month! The Gingersnap Pumpkin Pie is the best, definitely worth trying, the recipe is linked above.  

As for this year, I have no clue what I am going to bake up for Thanksgiving! Stay tuned to find out!