Showing posts with label Candy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Candy. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

School Is Out For The Summer Party

We are SO looking forward to Summer!  Tomorrow is the last day of school so we are having some kids over to swim (and/or) play videogames.  So, I set up the back porch for the party.  The pool is 68 degrees, so I think the kids will probably be playing outside and playing videogames. 
 
I used a needle and thread to string balloons and the banner.  The close-up of the letters are below.
I took some card blanks that I found at Walmart and decorated the fronts with letters.  I then put them over the string and stapled them to it.

 
I also made brownie cupcakes with a yummy buttercream icing to which I added extra salt.  It is really good! The recipe for the buttercream is below! I also made some little pin wheels as toppers.  I'm also serving some chips and such.
Here is the set-up for tomorrow.
 

 
  

 
The napkin wrappers are tied with Lifesavers. :-)
 
 
Buttercream Icing
 
Ingredients
 
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened... don't melt it though.
3-4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1-3 tbsp. milk
 
Directions
 
Beat the butter with the paddle attachment of your mixer. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar on low until incorporated.  Increase the speed to medium and add the vanilla, salt and 1 tbsp. milk.  Beat for 3 minutes.  If your icing is too stiff, add some more milk.  If it is too thin, add powdered sugar 1 tbsp. at a time. 
 
 
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Kid's Hot Cocoa Birthday Party

My son's 9th birthday happens to fall right before Christmas, so this year we moved his party ahead and celebrated early.  Why didn't I do this before?  It gave me a lot of time to prepare and we had a blast getting ready instead of putting this on top of present wrapping and Christmas parties & dinners.

I decorate mostly in red, white and light blue for Christmas, so I decided to go with those colors for his party too.  I am sure the pictures speak for themselves.  Everyone had a good time and the cocoas (especially the Nutella cocoa) were yummy!

I found a lot of these ideas on the internet by searching for hot cocoa party!







These cups are made using those GIANT marshmallows!









The table is wrapped with wrapping paper.




Did I mention that my son has a large personality?

The cake is a Mario Power-UP mushroom.  I just baked a cake in a large metal mixing bowl, put it on top of a cake stand, covered it with chocolate icing, rolled fondant and painted eyes on the bottom of the cake stand with chocolate.
Happy birthday, to my little one!

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Monday, September 19, 2011

Boy Party Ideas - For the Gamer Kids

Boy party ideas are getting harder and harder to come by.  My son is getting older and the boy themes are really too immature for him and his friends, so this year I created a BOY themed party.  Okay, so it wasn't a theme at all.  It was just a party in which I used all kinds of BOY favorites. 

My son wanted a 3DS for his birthday, so I made him 3D 3DS cookies.  As you can see, they are 3D!  They were by no means perfect, but the boys loved them and the disco dust on the screen added a bit of pop to these gamer cookies.  If you would like recipes for the sugar cookies or for the icing, check out this post!  For other cookie decorating ideas, look here.  If you don't feel like making cookies, I realized after they were made that I had cut them about the same size as a graham cracker, so you could actually use two graham crackers for this cookie project! 


I also made some monster pops out of marshmallows dipped in white chocolate and decorated with candy and marshmallows. Boys like monsters, right?  Even 11 year old boys. I found a ring of floral form at the dollar store and wrapped it in crepe paper so I could display the pops.


Next were the Ninjabread Men.  I love these cookie cutters and so do my boys.  I have mentioned before that my boys love ninjas.  They have to be included!


Another gamer favorite it Pokemon and so I made some Pokeball cookies to go in the treat bags.  Simple and fun!  I used red chocolate for the red part and white icing for the white.  They really did turn out well and have two different flavors, so they are a bit like a black-and-white cookie.  I also found these cute little test tubes filled with flavored sugar.  I'm sure the moms appreciated me.  Can you say hyper?!?  I did have each child put pizza toppings on his own grilled pizza and they ate lunch first.  I promise!


I also filled apothocary jars with my son's favorite candies just for some fun color on the "candy bar"...

I asked my son what kind of cake he wanted and he said he wanted "my" chocolate cake with chocolate icing and if I could add some raspberry to that, it would be great, so I made a white chocolate, raspberry ganache for the filling.  Fudgy cake and icing with raspberries.  He loved it.  For the recipe, look on the back of the Hershey Cocoa box!  A great recipe I have been making for years and years.  For the icing on this cake, I used the Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Cocoa. 

You don't need to print it out, but here is the recipe.  It has been on the box forever and for good reason!
and here is the delicious icing also from the Hershey's site...

"ESPECIALLY DARK" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter, Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

For the ganache, I used a recipe I found on http://www.cakecentral.com/ and modified it because I had already gotten some frozen raspberries in sugar liquid.


White Chocolate Strawberry ganache

Ingredients

  • 1 12 oz. package white chocolate chips
  • 6 oz. heavy whipping cream, scalded
  • 1 Tbs. of softened butter
  • 2 oz. crushed, frozen rasperries in sugar liquid, thawed
Instructions

1. Pour white chips into medium-sized bowl and microwave for 1-3 minutes.  Check after each minute as each microwave varies. 
2.  Heat 8 oz. of heavy whipping cream to a simmer.
3.  Pour cream over melted chips.
4.  Add raspberries.  Stir until creamy.
5.  Place bowl into refrigerator until cooled and thickened (can be placed in freezer if you are in a hurry.)
6. Whip with mixer until thick and fluffy enough to spread between cake layers if necessary…..

You will love this cake if you haven't made it before.  It is a classic!


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Sunday, January 2, 2011

How To Make Glitter Lollipops - Revisited

One of my most popular posts on my crafty blog was this quick tutorial showing how to make glittered lollipops.  I don't know why I never showed it on my food blog???  So, I just reposted it here for my foodie friends to see.  Hope your New Year is SWEET!

I made some glitter pops today. I had this mold that I haven't used and wanted to play with chocolate. I bought mine at a cake supply store about a year ago.

These pretty pops are flavored with creme de mint.

Here is what you need:
Wilton Lollipop Mold
Wilton Lollipop Sticks
Wilton Candy Melts
Food Coloring
Creme de Menthe Flavor Oil (I get this at one of my local pharmacies)
Sanding Sugar (Found with cake supplies and toppings)

1) Add a tiny dab of shortening to a small microwavable bowl wiht about 15 of those little white chocolate disks that you can get at Michaels or WalMart and melt them in the microwave for about 20 seconds. I used about 15 per lollipop.

2) Stir (you may need to melt a little more) then add some food coloring and a few drops of mint flavored oil and stir again.

3) Fill the three molds and put the sticks in them and twist the sticks so they get coated with chocolate

4) Put them in the refrigerator for about an hour. Pop the out of the molds.

5) After I unmolded them, I stuck them under the hot broiler element in my oven for about 5 seconds and dipped them in sanding sugar. You are DONE! Easy Peasy.

They are so glittery and pretty! What kid wouldn't want to eat those? Heck, what adult wouldn't?


If you need to get the candy melts, you can get them here.  I couldn't find any blue ones, but they would look super cute in pink too... and they would be cheaper t!  I used white and colored them with neon food coloring.  The link is below if you would like to get them...

And here is the neon food coloring which created this pretty blue...




Sanding Sugar...

I really have to get the heart lollipop molds to try this with for Valentine's Day. The round one would be cute too, but I couldn't find the swirly one that I used.  I think I found that one years ago at a cake supply store.

Also, if you need lollipop sticks, you can find them here...


And bags to put them in....




Please show me your product if you make these! I'd love to see them!
Tami
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