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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I link up at these fun parties! 

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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I link up at these fun parties!

 

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The Artsy Girl Connection
Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo
Happy Hour Projects
The Quick Journey

Pink Princess #15- Pixie Princess

Pixie Princess

I have made lots of sweets this week, but somehow we are still out of cupcakes! So guess what time it is? Time for the next Pink Princess Cupcake from the Pink Princess Cupcakes Book by Barbara Beery! This is #15 of 28 designs from the book that I am making. Once again, other than a similar color and having a flower, my cupcake really doesn't resemble the cupcake in the book. First, I didn't have any real Pansies, so I went with Royal Icing Lavender Apple Blossoms. I also went a different direction with piping on the frosting. This book gives ideas that are very easy to take and make them your own! That really makes this book a lot of fun! I did use a recipe from the book called "Favorite Vanilla Cupcakes" this time, well pretty much, I changed it up a little taking out the butter* and adding in the low-fat margarine and unsweetened applesauce for less fat and calories and still good flavor! I also cut the recipe in half, otherwise I would have had 64 mini cupcakes!

 

Favorite Vanilla Cupcakes- Makes 32 mini cupcakes

adapted from Pink Princess Cupcakes Book

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce*

1/4 cup margarine (half of a stick, I also used low-fat)*

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/2 cup self-rising flour

Beat together first 3 ingredients until mixed well. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing between each one. Add vanilla. Add flour 1/2 at a time and mix on medium just until mixed.

Since I was making mini cupcakes, I used my Babycakes Cupcake Maker. It makes 8 mini cupcakes at a time and only takes 5 to 7 minutes to bake.

I had not used this recipe before I had to figure out how much batter to put in the liners. It turned out they needed to be half full or just a little more, 3/4 was too much. They do rise quite a bit. The cupcake maker cooks from both the top and bottom surfaces when it is closed, if the liners are too full, it will brown the top a lot. To start from being cold, it took 6 to 7 minutes for the first batch to bake. All of the additional batches took 4 to 5 minutes each. A few of the cupcakes seemed a little dry, others were perfect, so these are very easy to over bake, so be sure to check on them!

When I first got the cupcake maker I tried using spoons, spatulas, whatever I could think of to try and scoop the cupcake out of the hot maker. It turns out that a tooth pick poked into the cupcake will help lift it out the best. Also as you can see from the picture on the left, the mini cupcake liners are a little too small really for the maker, but they will widen out when baking, so the cupcake turns out a little bigger than mini size. Standard liners are too big.

For the cupcakes, I decorated them using buttercream icing and a Wilton size 104 tip. I then sprinkled white/clear sparkling sugar on them and topped with the royal icing flowers.

Here's my little garden of flowers!

Be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

 

The Next Pink Princess Cupcake that I will be making:

Fairy-Tale Fortune

  

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These Cupcakes are shared at:

A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Jam Hands: Recipe Sharing Monday
Talking Dollars and Cents- Muffin (and Cupcake) Monday
Home Savvy: Savvy HomeMade Monday
Sew Stylish Boutique: Crafty Lassie Tuesday
The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials
Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday
Chef in Training: Tuesday Talent Show
Rook No. 17: A Little Birdie Told Me
Crazy for Crust: Crazy Sweet Tuesdays
Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday
These Chicks Cook: This Chick Cooked

Daily Organized Chaos: Foodie Wednesday

Lady Behind the Curtain: Cast Party Wednesday

Pinch of This, That & the Other: Whisking Wednesdays

Miz Helen's Country Cottage: Full Plate Thursday

Pink Princess Cupcakes #1- Pink Lemonade

Strawberry Pink Lemonade Ice Cream Cupcakes

Recently my dear husband bought for me Pink Princess Cupcakes by Barbara Beery and Princess Cupcakes Kit with booklet by Laura Starr. I love every single recipe and idea in the book and the liner kit goes great with it!

Soooooo.....I have decided to work my way through the book making each of the recipes. There are a total of 28 recipes. I haven't decided yet if I will make one idea a week, maybe sometimes I will want to make 2! I am sure there will be a week that I skip too. If I do one a week that will be 28 weeks of cupcakes! I should have all the ideas in the book completed sometime near the end of January 2012. I had thought about making them in order, but a few involve ice cream and are over halfway through the book and I probably won't want ice cream in the winter, so some ideas will be out of order. I also figured the author of the book probably wouldn't appreciate me publishing every single wonderful recipe of hers, so the recipes won't be included...sorry! However, I will include pictures of some of the steps as I make each idea and pictures of the final product, so either you can buy the book for the full recipes or improvise!

Here we go! The first recipe/idea from the book I am making is.....

Pink Lemonade

This recipe makes 48 mini cupcakes. (For me it made 56 mini cupcakes-so you probably would want to cut this recipe in half) For these cupcakes, I will be my Babycakes Mini Cupcake Maker. I have had the mini cupcake maker almost a year and only used it a few times since I don't make mini cupcakes that often.

The first step in making these cupcakes is to thaw out 1 quart of ice cream for about 20 minutes and then mix in a packet of sweetened pink lemonade. I have a huge container of Country Time Pink Lemonade, so I used 4 scoops, that sounded good to me! After 20 minutes the ice cream was still pretty firm, but I was able to mix in the pink lemonade powder. (I worked with this half at a time.) Now that needs to refreeze for at least 2 hours.

For the cupcake recipe, you have the option of a vanilla cupcake or a strawberry cupcake. For either you mix in additional pink lemonade powder. I am going to go with the strawberry cupcake recipe made with fresh strawberries! The recipe used 6 whole eggs and self-rising flour. I haven't made a ton of different "from scratch" recipes, but this seemed like a lot of eggs. I have never made cupcakes with self-rising flour either, but all of the cupcakes in the book use self-rising flour. I did follow the instructions for everything except the 1-1/4 cups of butter, which I substituted with unsweetened applesauce. I also omitted the extracts, I figured there would be enough flavor with the pink lemonade powder, which I used 3 scoops for the cupcake batter.

I filled the liners and they took about 7-1/2 minutes in the cupcake maker to fully bake. I had to do this 7 times...I didn't think this out really well, so it took me a little over an hour to get all 56 baked. I only have one mini cupcake pan as well so either way it would have taken me a long time! The book recommends lightly spraying the wrappers with cooking spray...I didn't.

They came out bubbling hot! This was the first batch. The cupcake ended up being perfect size, a little extra room is needed to accommodate the ice cream, as it will want to slide off. With the second batch in the cupcake maker, I had to try one of these! It was super hard to get the wrapper off, so the next batch, I sprayed lightly with cooking spray. The 3rd batch, the liners wouldnt stay on, so I learned just to spray the bottom of the liner a tiny drop.

With all the cupcakes baked and the ice cream ready, let the fun begin!

I don't have a mini ice cream scoop yet (never needed mini sized), so the ice cream is in tablespoon sized blobs! The ice cream wanted to melt quickly, so put that on right as your are about to serve.

They turned out cute for a little princess tea party!

There are about 50 of these mini strawberry pink lemonade cupcakes still left to eat!

PS- These even taste better the second day and were a lot easier to peel after being stored overnight at room temperature in my Wilton cupcake carrier. 

 

 

Next week's Pink Princess Cupcake:

Frosty Ice Cream Sandwich

 

Be Sure to Check out all of my Pink Princess Cupcakes!

  

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These cupcakes are shared at:

Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday

Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday

This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked

Lady Behind the Curtain: Cast Party Wednesday

Daily Organized Chaos: Foodie Wednesday

Around My Family Table: Turning the Table Thursday

Alli N Son: Sweet Tooth Friday

Sweet as Sugar Cookies: Sweets for a Saturday
A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Screaming Sardine: Month Long Cupcake Party
Talking Dollars and Cents: Muffin (and Cupcake) Monday
Kitchen Bouquet: Ice Cream Social 2011
Moms Crazy Cooking: This Weeks Cravings- Ice Cream
Moms Crazy Cooking: This Weeks Cravings- Strawberries
 
These cupcakes are featured at:
Daily Organized Chaos: Foodie Wednesday
A Well-Seasoned Life:Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Screaming Sardine: Fruity Cupcakes