Peeps playdate!

Today I am sharing pictures of our peep filled playdate! Picking the theme was easy because as I've said before, I adore peeps! I'll skip the jellybeans, eggs, and even the chocolate bunny...just give me the peeps :)  They bring so much sugary cuteness to Easter!

The first thing I made was this paper peep banner. I saw this peep banner a year or two ago and loved it so I knew I wanted to make one. With my sewing machine down I decided to make it with paper instead. I simply printed the template and traced it on to paper then cut and hot glued it on to the ribbon. The eyes I made by using a hole punch on brown paper and glued them on.

 

Awhile back I had asked my favorite graphic designer MareeTruelove if she would have any peeps this year. Although she was already working over time to get new stuff out, a few weeks later she posted some adorable little peep inspired clip art! That's why she's awesome. So I created some simple little printables to help spruce up the playdate, which I may or may not have done the night before ;) I'll share them soon!

For the treats I made peeps cookies, marshmellow stuffed cupcakes, and chocolate rice crispy bites.  In the process I learned how to make my own cookie cutters!

For activities the kids were able to color peeps pages and paint with peeps! I made some edible finger paint and then we used the peeps as little sponges!

Here are some peeps hanging out in their sugary spa bath :)

Some of the kids got to know way too many peeps. And a couple of the little ones ate and bathed in the edible paint!

Of course, I had to send the kids packing with some peeps. I made these simple little treats as favors for the kids to take home. The idea came from Love From the Oven. I actually came across her site hunting for peeps....we could be good friends because she clearly has a love for peeps! Her site is full of peep cuteness.

I hope you've been inspired to have your own little peeps cuteness :)

 

 



{How to make} Edible Finger Paint

I know, I know your not suppose to play with your food. But sometimes you've just got to bend the rules, a little. Most of the time I'm a clean freak, and I don't often like messy activities. With two two year olds in the house I generally skip messy as much as possible, steering clear of sauces and dips at all costs. But kids will be kids, and sometimes you just have to let them get messy and a little bit crazy. I wanted to come up with a edible finger paint for the kids. Something that was safe for the little ones, odorless, and free to make! It was so easy to make, and saying it was a sucess with the kids would be a bit of an understatement. I had to pull the kids away from it eventually so I could make dinner. Wanna make some?

Here's what you will need:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup warm water

2-6 tablespoons cold water

food coloring

a few small bowls

paper or glass plates to paint on

Mix the flour, cornstarch, and sugar in a bowl. Then add 1 cup warm water. Add in 1 tablespoon of cold water at a time until desired thickness. I used 3 tablespoons of cold water, I liked it not to thin and not to thick. It will get a little thicker as it sits.

Seperate it into a few little bowls and add food coloring. Wa-la! Now you've got edible finger paints...that taste kinda like pancake batter. So if some (or a lot) slips into the kiddos mouth no problem.

Here's the twist I put on it! I went to my fridge and cupboard and picked out small bits of foods we had to use as brushed and stamps. Easy, free, and edible! This gave the project a whole new twist then just using hands and brushes. I wish we had some cooler foods....but I used what we had on hand. They were fun to make cool prints and such with.

These little bits of left over green onions actually turned out to be the favorite. They were like little edible paint burshed. Seriously fun.

Strawberries made awesome heart prints.

And rice crispy bits had cool texture.

And here's one more twist. You can use regular paper, it dries really well. But we end up with a gazillion papers and many of them get tossed, the fridge is only so big. So instead I gave my daughter a big white serving tray to paint on. This way she could paint to her hearts desire, when her plate was full I sprayed it off and she started in again!

My 4 year old had a blast. At first she was so neat about it. She used all the little foods and made prints and cute little pictures.

After awhile she got silly and really started finger painting!

I love to use things like this as a learning experience as well. We grouped some of the foods (fruits...veggies), matched colors, made patterns, and painted out letters, numbers and words. Crazy fun.

While we were cleaning up I turned around to this face!

Honestly, I just laughed. Still not sure how this came about!

As far as clean up....a breeze! Everything wiped right off. I was pleasantly please to find no coloring on the kids hands, and no smell like when using regular paint. I simply sprayed the dishes off in the sink and stuck them in the dish washer. As for clothes, I put them in the wash and it all came off, but just incase I would put play clothes on the kiddos. It's safe to say there will be lots of painting in our future. I like this just as mush as the sidewalk chalk paint.

I hope you have as much fun as we did with this, and don't forget I love to see pictures!

Angry Bird Cookies

Taking a break from spring pastels and Easter things today. Although keeping with the spring they are birds, angry birds :)

Angry cookie birds to be exact. I made these for my husbands birthday, he likes to play the game on his tablet and he has my 4 year old hooked. Me personally, I don't really get the craze....I tried playing it once and failed miserably. I would much rather be baking or crafting. I knew nothing about this game or the birds so I had to google the birds. I have to say I've never made angry cookie before, but I think they came out cool!

Here's a shot of the whole angry group.

But why are they angry? Because they are birds with no wings of course!

I made these little guys with a rolled chocolate, because the hubs loves it. Although I think the birds would have looked better on a sugar cookie. You kind of lose the black character outline, live and learn!

I think this guy looks the meanest, like he's about to bite his fellow cookies. 

These little guys were actually my favorite. They were so easy to do and they just kind of make me laugh.

That's all for today! Back to todays task of digital clean up! Organizng photos and getting things transfered.

If you haven't yet come like MBC on the new fan page!



M&M Drop Cookies

Before I get into sweeter things...I am switching my facebook baking/blog page to a fan page. Originally I had it setup as a person so that I could message ect. But things have changed a bit and the switch has been needed for awhile now. You can go here and click like to follow me, don't forget I will be deleting the other page soon. I will soon have all the picture, links, and albums there.

I've been in a bit of a cookie craze lately, I hope you all don't mind! I have been getting so many questions on how I keep my cookies shape and how they are so soft .... so today I'm going to share an easy drop cookie recipe. Along the way I'll share some tricks and tips I use to make sure the cookies are just as pretty as they taste. It's really not just about the recipe it's just as much about technique. So grab these ingredients and lets get started.

 2 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 sticks salted butter melted and cooled

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg and 1 egg yolk at room tempature

2 tsp. vanillia extract

1 cup m&m's

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. I personally like to bake just about everything at a little lower then the norm.

Step 1:  Melt 1 1/2 sticks of salted butter in one bowl and in another bowl crack 1 egg and the yolk of another. Set the two bowls aside to let them come to room tempature.

Step 2: Line a few pans with foil or parchment paper. I ALWAYS do this...no matter the cookie. Trust me it will come in handy. Maybe soon I'll invest in those baking mats I should have bought ages ago ;)

Step 3: Mix 2 1/4 cupe 1/2 tsp. baking soda in a bowl, and of course set aside. Does it drive anyone else nuts to always dirty up a bowl to mis the dry ingredients?

Step 4: In another bowl or a mixer bowl mix the melted butter, 1 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup white sugar.

Until it's nice and smooth.

Step 5: If your using your mixer here's where you can switch to your dough hook. Slowly mix in the flour in small portions.  Until it becomes a soft dough.

Step 6:  Add in 1 cup of m&m's. Just to be careful I use a spoon to fold them in.

Step 7: Time to drop the cookies on to the sheet. I use my cookie scooper to measure out the dough. It's about the same size as a tablespoon, that works too.

After dropping them on the cookie sheet about 2.5 inches apart I like to roll them each with my hands to make them more round. Remember to allow enough space! I'm using a sheet size here so it's pretty big. If I'm baking to take them somewhere and want them to be as nice as possible I will bake as little as 8 cookies at a time, to insure no cookies touch.

Step 8: Now here's where I make things a little complicated! Once you have dropped all the cookies stick the first cookie sheet into the freezer for about two minutes. This help the cookies keep their shape sooo much better. Especially with sugar cookies. Instead of the cookies just melting and flattening out right away they hold their shape well. 

Step 9: After 2 minutes in the freezer slide them into the oven and set your timer for 6 minutes.

Step 10: Here's the sneeky part. After 6 minutes your cookies should look about like this..the dark center shows they are not done. Pull them out and quickly add m&m's to the top.

See! Now they look like m&m cookies. I'm conviced bakeries must do something like this..I've never baked a m&m cookie that came out pretty on top..on it's own....yet I see them in stores all the time. This works for me!

Step 11: Now pop them back in the oven for 4-6 minutes. Often people simply over bake cookies. If you pull the cookies out when the bottoom starts to brown (this is often reccomended) you better eat them fast because their going to be crunchy when they cool. I pulled these cookies out around 10 minutes, they are very soft and all the same color.

Step 12:  Let them continue to bake for about 2 minutes on the cookie sheet. Then grabing both ends of the foil/parchment paper quickly slide the entire thing onto a cooling rack. Don't move them with a spatula! They should still be really soft and using a spatula on them will only make them mishaped.

While these cookies are still hanging out on the cookie sheet, I pop the second cookie sheet into the freezer and start the whole process over again.

Step 13: After about 5 minutes they have cooled and settled enough I can use a spatula and move them to a cooling rack.

And just incase you over cooked them a bit...I have a great trick! When your cookies are a little too crunchy stick them in a container with a piece of bread. Let them sit over night and by morning your cookies will be soft again. I learned this trick from my husband as crazy as that is. But it really works...even those rock solid little babies will be nice and soft in the morning ;)

And now you can enjoy your cookies....

But wait! You didn't think I would just leave them like this right? These cookies were way to pretty to be left all alone.

My persistent nature to make things more complicated then they have to be won as usual.

I added a little buttercream and some sprinkles to create some really yummy (and incredibly cute) cookie sandwhiches.

I think these might be going into the girls easter baskets.

And don't forget so "like" my new page!

April fools fun foods

Happy April fools day!

I had plans for a cute project for today...but time just wasn't on my side. And who am I kidding I'm about the worst prankster anyway. Although I do get my mother every year on April 1st...really you would think she'd see it coming by now. :)

So instead I'm sharing some tricky desserts I'v made. People always seem so thrown off by foods that look like other foods. It is kind of weird eating a marshmellowy green bean, it's like one side of the brain disagrees with the other.

I made these for Thanksgiving this year. I realy like them!

The green beens were made of fondant and the onions are walnuts.

 

I used an ice cream scooper to top the tater cupcakes and then roughed them up a bit! Then I used the bottom of the scoop to make a dent in the top so the toppings won't slide off. The gravy is caramel and the butter is fondant.

This is probably one of my most popular cakes. Everybody seemed to love this one. I made this grill for my husbands birthday last year, he thinks he's a grill master ;)

The grilled chicken was rice cripsy covered in fondant glazed in gel icing. The hotdogs are fondant and the burgers are rice crispy glazed in icing as well.

And of course some cute little burger cupcakes.

And a burger cake. Funny story about this cake...I brought this to a cook out and set it on the counter. It sat their for awhile until my husband asked for cake and all the guys go theres a cake?! So I couldn't exactly help but think what exactly did they think I brought? Did everybody think I carried in a nhuge plastic burger? lol. Fun times. They must have thought I was such a weirdo ;)

This beer can was actually over a foot tall! It was actually banana flavor.

Edible works in cookie crumb dirt with fondant rocks. Part of a tombstone cake.

And some ice cream sunday cupcakes....

Any cool idea of things I should try?