Snowflakes & Snowmen Recap

Winter 2011

Is that it? Really Winter 2011? Technically Winter didn't even start until December 21st and is still going on...but I am just not feeling it. Watch old man winter come late and hang around until June! Today, a jacket isn't even needed! When it was raining a couple days ago and around 60 and sunny yesterday I almost complained, and then I thought, "Hey this really isn't bad for January, this is good weather!" So while adorable little snowmen are still appearing in blogland, mine are here to say good-bye, my mind is springing forward!

Oldest to Newest....Newest to Oldest

Where should I begin?

Newest.

Snowflake Cookies

These were my crown jewel of the season, my absolute favorite!

Snowman Gingerbread Cookies

These were just a fun and yummy cookie with the snowman candies that my daughter loved so much!

Dude, Where's My Snowman? Cupcakes

This is what happens when I am having a rough day...I find laughter in making snowmen pee!

I am not really a snowman bully...he just had too much eggnog!

Snowman Oreo Pops

Once again, the favorite snowman candies on a favorite quick and easy treat!

Snowman Oreo Pops

This is the traditional Snowman Pop I found popping up on the internet possibly originating from The Farm Girl Recipes, that was as far back as I could find it!

Dipped Christmas & Winter Oreos

It doesn't get any easier than this and I just thought they were so pretty...and yummy! I really don't like just eating Oreos plain, but dipped, now that is another story. There is a red and green Christmas Tree version of these also on the original post.

Mini Snowman Cupcakes

This was the first time I used the mini snowman candies. My youngest daughter picked out the snowflake mini cupcake liners and the candies for these cupcakes!

Snowman Family & Snowflake Cookies

My first cookies of the season!

Snowman Family & Snowflake Cookies

Just the snowflakes from the collection. These were my first snowflakes, they were my favorite until I made the last snowflake cookies of the season (listed first on this page)!

 

Mint & Dark Chocolate Snowflake Candy

Some may call this "bark", I just call it "candy", since it was made in a mold. It is another super easy and pretty sweet treat and they were the first snowflakes of the season!

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Snowflake Cookies

More snowflakes!

 Lots and lots of snowflakes!

These were made with a different cookie cutter than my previous snowflake cookies. These snowflakes are a little larger made with the Wilton Comfort Grip Snowflake Cutter. These also share the same colors as my Gingerbread Christmas Tree Cookies.

     

Recipes used for these cookies:

Martha Stewart: Sugar Cookies

Wilton Royal Icing (thinned)

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Snowman Gingerbread Cookies

Here are more Gingerbread Cookies that I made with the Bakerella Gingerbread Cookie Recipe!

I had saved 6 of these little snowmen candies just for these cookies!

Simple, cute, most of all YUMMY!

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Mrs. Fox's Sweets 2011 Christmas Recap

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Today is a day for family, fun, and festivities!

Maybe Santa brought you a new baking supplies? Of course it is never too late to bake up Christmas goodies, and many can be adapted to winter or other seasons!

Here is what I baked up this Christmas season!

 

The #1 Viewed Sweet I made was:

#1- Holiday Peppermint Patties

#2- Christmas Dipped Oreo Pops

#3- Christmas Tree Cake Pops

 

The many more sweet treats I made for the 2011 Christmas Season

(In no particular order)

Pink Princess #25- Cool Peppermint Cupcakes

Polka Dot Christmas Tree Cupcakes

It's a Pink Christmas! Cupcakes

Dipped Christmas & Winter Oreos

Peppermint Cake Pops

Christmas Present Cake & Bow Tutorial

Christmas Cupcake Bites

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookie Cups

 Gingerbread Men & Boys

Christmas Light Cupcakes

Christmas Tree Cookies

  

I baked up a sweet treat for my furry heartbeat at my feet...

Rex's Cookies...These Cookies are for the Dogs!

  

For the first time at Mrs. Fox's Sweets, I also baked up a craft!

Salted Dough Handprints & Ornaments

 

Look for a recap of all of my Snowmen & Winter decorated sweets in a recap coming in January!
  

From the Mrs. Fox's Sweet's Family to yours

Have a very Merry Christmas

& Happy Holiday!

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Christmas Tree Cookies

This Christmas Tree Cookie Cutter is #4 of 5 new cookie cutters that I got this Christmas season and I have really been looking forward to using it! I had so many ideas floating around in my head on how to decorate this cookie using royal icing. I knew I didn't want to make a traditional looking tree and I like using lots of color!

I found this method on accident really, searching at Sweetopia to find out how to store royal icing decorated cookies and how long they would keep. It just so happened that Marian had just posted a new video- How to Pipe Lines with Royal Icing. I have been wanting to step up my cookie decorating and have had a problem doing outlines, so I had to check out this video! It is that video that gave me inspiration for these cookies!

I started with the pink set of cookies and a size 2 tip, since I didn't have a size 1.5.  My icing was a runnier consistency since I had mixed what I used to flood the cookies back with the thicker icing. I switched to size 1 and still found the icing a little too thin and wanting to bleed out when it hit the cookie, so returned the icing to the bowl to tighten it up a bit. It piped out beautifully after that. Unfortunately, being first, the pink cookies suffered a little.

I moved on to the purple set of cookies and discovered the loops weren't quite working for me with this icing still, so decided to cut my losses and stop with the loops for now. I love the lines and the polka dots and continued that theme on the teal cookies as well.

  I am really starting to enjoy decorating cookies, my old nemesis, and now finding it more therapeutic than challenging. My daughter decorated her Salted Dough Cookie Ornaments, while I decorated these. We had so much fun together decorating side by side. While I am still not a cookie person yet, thanks to the cookie people out their I am definitely getting more confident with my cookie decorating!

  
Recipes used for these cookies:
Bakerella Gingerbread Cookies
Wilton Royal Icing (thinned)

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Dude! Where's My Snowman?

No really...Dude! Where IS my snowman?

This one must be mine! "I had too much eggnog man, couldn't hold it!"

Even when things don't always go right, take time to laugh!

 

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Gingerbread Men & Boys

Run, run as fast as you can...you can't catch me...I'm the Gingerbread Man!

Cookie decorating isn't really my thing, I love to eat them and look at them, but I am still practicing on the decorating part. Being fairly new to baking and decorating, I don't have a whole lot of cookie cutters, well I do, but I don't. I have quite a few older plastic cookie cutters, but I have found that I really like working with the metal cookie cutters better. This Christmas season I picked out 5 new cookie cutters and have been working on making cookies with all of them! This Gingerbread Man (the large one) is the 3rd that I have used, after the Snowman Family & Snowflake Cookies.

First when making cookies, you need a recipe. I have a sugar cookie recipe that I love, but not a gingerbread cookie recipe. Have you looked to see how many different Gingerbread Cookie Recipes are on the internet? A ton! I didn't have a problem picking my recipe at all. Instead of going by an ingredient list, the adorable little Gingerbread Heads by Bakerella sold me on this recipe! Visit Bakerella's Gingerbread Cookies for the recipe.

This was my first time making Gingerbread Men from scratch. The dough really didn't look appealing, and molasses stinks, but I continued on. This set of cookies has definitely been a challenge, my kitchen sink faucet quit working right as I went to turn it on the clean the mixer bowl after making this dough. By the time you are reading this I will have a gorgeous new one, but working in the kitchen with no kitchen sink faucet wasn't fun. This recipe does say to refrigerate several hours or overnight, and with how my day was going, I decided overnight would be better.

The next day I used 3 of the 4 refrigerated disks of gingerbread dough and froze the 4th. I rolled, I cut, I baked, and they cooled. I made both Gingerbread Men and Gingerbread Boys. I would have liked women and girls, but neither Michael's nor Target had a cookie cutter for a Gingerbread Lady and I didn't want to try and cut them myself. The cookies are decorated simply as a lot of Gingerbread Men are. They have a nice, yet mild gingerbread flavor, not as strong as store bought gingersnaps. I don't have a lot of experience eating gingerbread cookies, but  I think they taste delicious! I do like the recipe and will definitely use it again!

and then...

The Fox devoured the Gingerbread Man!

YUM!

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Peppermint Oreo Bark

I really "get" why so many people are making "bark" this time of year!

After making Snowmen Oreo Pops, I had some left over Vanilla Candiquik with some Oreo crumbs in it, so it couldn't be reused. I decided to try making some candy bark and spread it out on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet. My 3 year old spread out a layer of broken up Oreos on top of the first layer of candy. I followed that up with a layer of Wilton Candy Cane Colorburst melts that I had also added additional peppermint candy flavoring to. This is a perfect way to use up some of that leftover candy coating and something easy that younger kids can help to make!

The results were delicious and I now get why so many people are making it!

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Snowman Oreo Pops (2 Ways)

Well, Hello There! I am Mr. Snowman!

Some may call me "leftover" and others may just call me "easy" and there are even those that want to eat me up! But please, go after my brothers first, they won't see you coming!

These little candy snowmen by Wilton were also used on my Mini Snowman Cupcakes and there are still enough of the little guys left for cookies!

These Oreo Snowmen have become such a classic, I couldn't resist making them too!

These are just Oreo Cookies dipped in white Candiquik, a piece of candy corn for the nose, and a black Duff Candy Writer for making the eyes and mouth. My daughter thought they needed scarves because they were too cold!

Brrrrrr....it's a brisk 68 degrees out...in December!

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Note: It is hard to say where the Candy Corn Nosed Snowman idea originated from, but after making them I began searching and I found these made back in November 2010 at The Farm Girl Recipes.

  

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Christmas Cupcake Bites

Last week, I was invited to guest blog over at The Artsy Girl Connection! Marilyn (The Artsy Girl) is such a talented and sweet girl, and I was honored to be able to share what I like to do with her fans too! If you haven't visited her, stop by, her blog is full of fabulous things!

Today, I am going to show you how to make Cupcake Bites. You may be thinking..."Whatever, I have tried making cake pops and it didn't go so well, no way I am trying this!" Well, if that is what you are thinking, let me tell you this is much easier! If you are already experienced with making cake pops, these will be a breeze for you!

  Here is what you will need:

A Candy Cup Mold (mine is by Wilton)

2 or 3 colors of Candy Melts (also by Wilton)

Cake

Frosting

Freezer bag (to make drizzle) or sprinkles of your choice

  

First you need cake! You can buy a cake, make a cake, use left over cake, whatever you desire! I made a 6" cake for these and used the leftover batter for cupcakes. You can also make a cake in a 8x11 pan and cut it it into 4 pieces, using one for cake pops or cake bites now and wrap and freeze the other 3 pieces individually for future cake pops or bites. Each square will make 8 to 12 cake pops or cake bites depending on the size.

Once the cake is cooled, I always cut off the ugly parts, to avoid darkening the inside. Don't worry, these pieces won't go to waste, leave them out, someone will snack on them! Break up the cake with a spoon and add about 2 tablespoons of icing, this will vary depending on how much cake you are using, this amount will work for 1/4 of a box mix cake or a 6" cake. I always test roll a ball before adding more frosting to see how well it will hold together.

These cupcake bites are an easy alternative to a cake pop. The ball is a little smaller too, but there is no risk of them falling off of the stick when you dip them since they have already set up in the chocolate base! After the frosting was mixed into the cake, I decided to add some sprinkles before rolling (not pictured). To determine the size of ball I needed I simple rolled a ball and measured it to the mold. Once your balls are made, put them in the refrigerator about 10 minutes to chill. Heat your candy melts in a microwave safe bowl or cup for 45 seconds to 1 minute. For 10 cupcake bites you will only need about 1/3 of a bag. Using a small spoon and working one cavity in the mold at a time, fill the cavity about 2/3 full with your first color melts, I used Mint Dark Chocolate. As soon as you put the candy into the cavity, gently press in the ball just until the candy comes to the top of the mold cavity. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes, longer is fine.

Once chilled, these should pop right out of the mold, if they don't they aren't ready yet. Once the cupcake bite bases and cake balls are ready to unmold, melt up your second color in a microwave safe bowl or cup, enough that you can dip the cake ball. Dip. Gently shake off the excess candy and if you wish to add candy or sprinkles, do so at this time. After they are dried you can also drizzle the tops with melted candy using a different color. For these I decided to drizzle.

To drizzle you can use a spoon or piping bag. I find more control using a bag, but instead of wasting a piping bag, I used a cut in half freezer bag. Unless you have an extra set of hands it is nice to have a small baby cup to hold your bag when filling. You will only need to put about a spoonful of your melted candy in the bag. I like to fasten with these black office clips. Snip a teenie tiny corner off and begin your drizzle, swirls, or whatever pattern suits your mood!

 So there you have it....cupcake bites, easily customizable to any occassion or holiday! They are great for parties and gifting too!

Enjoy!

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