Mini Monster Cookie Treats

It has been quite a couple of weeks. We have both been going crazy with so many end of the school year activities. We are ready to sit back and enjoy all that the summer has to offer! But, this is the last week of school and its definitely a mile stone for all of our girls! Kellie's oldest daughter will be entering junior high, what!?! And her little one and my twins will all be going into first grade! We just do not know where the time goes...we have to admit we are both a little teary eyed!
With the end of the year comes lots of thank yous for all of the special people who helped our littles grow and learn this year! Today for their last day of school, I wanted to do something fun for the girls class and teacher. So we made these little mini monster cookies! Yes, they are just a mini version of our big ones. But the minis are just so cute! We know that all of the kids will get such a kick our of these little monsters...full of chocolate chips and silly sprinkle teeth! These are so simple to make, just mini chocolate chip cookies fill them with buttercream and roll them in sprinkles! Make some silly eyes and you have a mini monster! What a fun little treat, right!?! How cute would these look on a sweet table at a 'monster bash'!?! They pair perfectly with our 'monster' paper party goods!

Pair it with our Monster mash tags and it makes they cutest little gift!! 

St. Patty's Day Rainbow Popcorn Cupcakes in Gold Pots

Well, if you follow us on facebook you may have read that we had a bit of a DIY fail! We thought was came up with a "great" DIY idea for St. Patty's Day...when we actually went to create the project, it was not a great idea at all. Sometimes, ideas are  much better left in your head...hehe!! Anyways, we finally came up with something that we thought you might enjoy. We made cupcakes in metallic gold cupcake liners, and topped them with vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkled popcorn!! These would not only be great for St. Patty's Day but, you could use these for a rainbow party as well!

You can use any cupcake recipe you like. 

This is our favorite frosting recipe. 

The chocolate popcorn is really easy to make too...

Chocolate covered rainbow popcorn

We use Boom Chicka Pop, bagged popcorn...{do not use microwave popcorn} 

Wilton's white chocolate candy melts

Rainbow non-perils 

Melt the chocolate and pour over a bowl of popcorn. Mix it together with your hands until all of the popcorn is coated. Spread it out over a wax paper and sprinkle non-perils over the chocolate covered popcorn, while it is still wet. Let it dry. 

After you cupcakes are made and frosted, sprinkle a few rainbow non-perils onto the frosting and top with your rainbow popcorn! Add a "Happy St. Patty's Day" cupcake flag for some added sparkle!  

Empire Biscuits

Baking Christmas cookies is a tradition among so many families. One cookie I look forward to every year is my Scottish grandmother's empire biscuits. No Christmas would be complete with out these perfect little sandwich cookies. The dough is similar to shortbread, but when they are filled with seedless raspberry jam and covered in a sweet confectioners glaze they literally melt in your mouth! A candied cherry tops the cookies giving them a festive look, perfect for adding your Christmas cookie trays! We are excited to share this recipe with you and hope you will try them to share with your friends and family!

Empire Biscuits 

2 cups sifted flour 

1/2 cup sugar 

1 cup butter 

seedless raspberry jam 

confectioners sugar 

milk 

candied cherry 

Mix flour with sugar and cut in butter 

Knead lightly, roll into a ball, cover in plastic wrap and put in refrigerator

Chill for 2 hours {or overnight} 

Take out 1 hour prior to baking 

Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/8-1/4"

Cut into rounds the size of your choice 

Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned  {350 degrees}

When cookies are cooled, spread seedless raspberry jam and 1 cookie and top with the another

Mix about a cup of confectioners sugar with enough milk to make a spreadable glaze {a couple of tablespoons} don't let the glaze get too thin, you can adjust your milk or sugar 

Put glaze over the top of the sandwiched cookie, don't worry if this runs down the side it does not have to be perfect

Before your glaze dried out a 1/2 of a candied cherry on top 

These can be kept in a tin for up to a week, they taste the best the next day as it gives the glaze time to soak into the cookies. ENJOY! 

Tis the Season for Chocolate Covered Snowladies!

A couple of years ago we created a chocolate covered snowmen and snowlady DIY! We love to give cookie and candy trays as gifts during the holidays and they are never complete without a few chocolate covered snowladies! We were so thrilled when Daily Candy contacted us to feature our snowladies on their "22 crafts to make the season bright" series! These are so simple to create and your kiddos will love helping with them!! Find our simple DIY steps here!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Black and white it a 'hot' color combination this Halloween! We love it, its fresh and classic and can be super eerie! Staying in the black and white theme, we made cob webs and spiders out of chocolate to be decorations to top your cupcakes with! Black and white polka dot and striped cupcake liners add to the color scheme and chocolate frosting makes a great base for the white webs. These cob web and spider cupcake toppers are really easy to make and sure to be a great addition to any Halloween party!

Directions

1. Fill 2 pipping bags, one with chocolate and one with white chocolate. 

2. On a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper, make a small dot with your melted chocolate and simply take a tooth pick and drag from the center outward creating little legs for the spider. 

3. Add two little white non-perils for eyes before the chocolate has cooled. 

4. To create the spider webs, take your melted white chocolate and make the circles, one inside the other. Then make 3 or 4 lines from the center outward. 

5. As you did with the spider legs, take your toothpick and 

drag it from the center outward around the circles to create a cobweb look. Don't worry if it does not look perfect, that gives it character. 

                                                                                          

Hot Fudge Sundaes Brownie Bowls

When you have a craving for something sweet, you can not go wrong with ice cream! It is always totally satisfying! But, sometimes you just need something a little extra, something to put that delicious ice cream right over the top! Something like hot fudge, whipped cream and sprinkles and if that still isn't enough how about stuffing all of those sweet ingredients into a moist, chewy, warm brownie! Is your mouth watering yet!?! These little sundaes are so much fun and perfect because they are are individual servings! So what are you waiting for, getting baking!!

Use your favorite brownie recipe and make them in cupcake liners as you would a cupcake. 

When they are done and have cooled, scoop out the center of the brownie and fill with ice cream and your favorite sundae toppings!

Ice Cream Cone Cake Pops

So, its national ice cream month, yay! A whole month dedicated to ice cream, what could be better!?! We thought it would be fun to share a little ice cream inspired treat with you! We are just in love with these mini ice cream cones, they are so sweet! We used them to make some ice cream cone cake pops for my twin's ice cream party a few weeks ago! They were a big hit, so we are going to share with you how we made them.

Materials:

cake balls
melting chocolate {chocolate and vanilla}
mini ice cream cones
non-perils
candy balls {for cherries}
{a small bowl of sugar to stand ice cream cones in so that the cake balls covered in chocolate dry upright}

These are actually very simple, especially if you have a cake pop maker!! Make your cake pops and do not put them on sticks. When they are cooled and ready to work with you can melt your chocolate {we used the wilton melting chocolate candies, found at any craft store}. Let the chocolate cool slightly to avoid blooming. Dip each cake pop {attached to a toothpick or lolli stick} After the cake pop is dipped set onto of your ice cream cone that is set in the sugar and slowly wiggle the toothpick out. {If a little hole is left just put a little bit of chocolate on the end of the toothpick and dab it over to cover.} Once the chocolate is completely cooled, you can dip the top into the melted white chocolate and immediately sprinkle with your non-perils! If you want to you can add a candy ball for a cherry! There you have it, ice cream cake pops! 

{Please note we are not taking credit for the idea of an ice cream cone cake pop, this is just how we made our version}

Mini Rose Cupcakes

Wow, we were 2 busy ladies this week! On top of our regular orders, we also created a sweet table and  lots of pretty paper goods for over 100 people for a darling one year old's birthday party! One of the desserts that we made were mini rose cupcakes! They are truly so sweet, dainty and girly! They are very easy to make and always look so lovely on a pretty pedestal! We thought it would be fun the share how to make them with you.

After your cupcakes have cooled and your frosting is made. Fill your piping bag, fitted with a Wilton Rose tip.  Take your cupcake in one hand and in the other hand {with the smaller end of the tip facing up, wider end facing down} move your cupcake in a circular motion while putting even pressure on your bag and create a rose bud or cone in the center. Then you will create petals. Slightly angle you piping bag away from the cupcake toward you and that will ensure the petals are given dimension and are not just right against the bud. Take gentle, curving sweeps and just make 3 petals. We like to do 3 around the bud and then fill in the outside. So you may do 3-4 petals on the outside. Don't worry if your rose doesn't look perfect, they will look more realistic. They will also look gorgeous when they are all together on a pedestal or plate!