Bunny Cakes

Easter Cookies

When it comes to Easter I always feel the need to bake sugar cookies.  It goes back to my days when I was fresh out of college and my roommate and I would spend the entire weekend making Easter cookies in a tiny NYC apartment.  Because it takes so much time, I usually take a day off work so I can have an entire day to focus on the sweet treats without the demands of the kiddies.  Last year was no exception and I got to try out my 'new' Martha by Mail Hatching Bunny giant cookie cutter (from the 90's, found on eBay).  The resulting to cookies turned out so cute that I packaged up one to take with us to an Easter Wedding event to accompany our card.

Here are some action shots....To add icing details to the little cookies I use a toothpick.  This allows me to put a tiny dot for the nose and a small line of pink for the ear details.

For the gold accents, I spray the gold paint into a container so I can collect some of the liquid paint and then use a paintbrush to apply the paint onto the cookies.

Finally, this is a favorite picture from my day of Easter cookie baking...

-K

Heart Brownies--The Ultimate Dessert (and Valentine's Day Treat)!

*Heart Brownies* are a staple in my house and at almost any gathering I attend.  They are easy to make and they are delicious--crunchy edges with soft, gooey centers.  A priest once told me they were 'walk on water good'.  I almost died at the compliment (hubby doesn't believe or likes to pretend he doesn't)!  However, since I make them all the time they hardly seem special for Valentine's Day and I have to remind myself they are the perfect Valentine's Day sweet.  Keep reading for my super secret recipe...

...which is not really secret at all.  The key to making the perfect heart brownies is having a heart-shaped pan...this is a must and it's the only way to get brownies with crunchy edges and soft middles.  I use this pan from Nordic Ware, in fact when making brownies I use three pans at once because I never make just one batch (each pan makes 6 heart brownies)--it may be somewhat of an investment, but totally worth it.  The next key step is to spray the pan(s) with Pam Baking spray (or an equivalent baking spray), regular Pam will not keep the brownies from sticking to the pan so do not use it.  Most boxed brownie mixes will yield good results, but the best mix I have found is Ghirardelli's Triple Chocolate Brownie mix, which can be found in bulk at Costco.  Follow the directions to mix up the batter and use a cookie dough scooper to fill up the hearts 1/2 - 2/3's full.  One bag/box of mix usually makes 13-14 brownies.  Then bake the brownies at 350 degrees (instead of prescribed 325) for 19 minutes (adjust time to your oven).  Allow them to cool for 2 minutes in the pan before dumping them out on a cooling rack.  I have found that the brownies taste better the next day as long as they are stored in an air tight container.  Make sure you spray the pans in between batches to make sure the brownies don't stick.

This year I plan to pack up the brownies in cute heart-shaped containers I purchased from Target for Brooks' teachers.  Last year I packed them in polka dot bakery boxes from Martha Stewart Crafts.  I included a festive badge on top of the boxes which were made from cupcake wrappers and animals cut out from Paper Source wrapping paper (instructions found here).

 Happy Baking & Happy Valentine's Day!

-K

Christmas Sugar Cookies

*Christmas Sugar Cookies*--yeah, they're a lot of work but they're worth it!  

This year I squeezed in a day off from work so I could make some.  I made the dough the night before and after dropping off B$ at daycare I headed home to roll out the dough.  I have come to realize it's best to only select a handful of shapes to make (change it up every year so you don't get bored).  This year I went with bear, mitten, reindeer, snowflake, Christmas tree and candy cane shapes.  Start cutting the dough with the biggest shapes and then use the smaller shapes to fill in.  I follow Martha's techniques and tip to cut out the shapes directly on a silpat baking mat so I don't have to worry about transferring the shapes to the cookie sheet (more tips here).  

By lunchtime my cookies were baked and I had eaten a ton of raw cookie dough.  I had fallen into a slump.  I realized there is one thing I hate to do when it comes to the sugar cookie process: make and color the royal icing.  For some reason my sister loves this part.  I called her hoping to entice her to come over during her lunch break to whip up my icing, but it was a pipe dream and did not materialize to anything beyond words of encouragement.  I thought about going out to lunch, but then I set myself straight and got to making the icing (it's really not that bad).  My favorite part is to decorate the cookies--I really love this part.  Having fewer shapes but larger quantities of those shapes allows you to knock them out rquicker and also gives you the chance to experiment with them.  

Once you finish icing the base and applying the sprinkles to your cookies it's time to go back and add the fun details (e.g on the polar bears I added scarves, ears and tails).  When complete the cookies are the perfect holiday treat to share with others.  For easy packaging of your cookies you can follow the link here.

My friend gave me some of her mom's vintage cookie cutters, expect to see more of there bears next year.

Make sure to put your sugar cookies on top of the other cookies in your cookie tin--they will impress and will stay nice.

Happy Baking!

-K

Easy Halloween Brownie Cookie Treats

I always try to sign up to bring soccer snacks right around Halloween time.  This weekend we brought these goodies to the team...Brownies + Frosting + Candy Corn Oreos + More Frosting + Ghostie Topper = Total Yumminess.

Here's the progression...Start with brownies baked in a mini-bundt cake pan...

Add some Halloween frosting (I used Pilsbury Halloween Funfetti)...For this layer you don't have to make the icing look pretty.  It will act as the glue to keep the Oreo on top of the brownie.

Next, add your Oreo cookie...we used the extra delicious and seasonal Candy Corn version.

Time to add more frosting...no complaints here.

Finally, add your Halloween topper.  These ghosties are from Wilton (we purchased them from Michael's), but if you didn't have these you can always use some candy corn.

Done!  Ready for the team!

-K

First Birthday Octosquid Party

I have always been 'artistic', but my 'craftiness' didn't surface until later in life.  This means our twin boys didn't have a fancy first birthday.  They still turned out okay (so far).  So 10 years later when little B's birthday was on the horizon (9 months out) you would think I would have been ecstatic to plan a big bash for his first birthday, but I wasn't.  I tried to figure out the root of my lack-lustre attitude, but I couldn't pin it down.  As his birthday got closer (6 months, 5 months...) I still had no big desire to plan his party.  Then late one night as I sat in front of my laptop waiting for some contractors to finish work in our kitchen I came across a spark.

As I was perusing a bento box website for panda stuff for the twin's birthday I spied a cute little octopus/squid figure.  By the time the contractors finished I had already recreated the little guy (now termed 'octosquid' -- couldn't decide if it was an octopus or squid) in Adobe Illustrator and added a sailor hat and cupcake to make him ready for the invitation.  From that point on the wheels for B's first birthday party were set into motion.  I guess I just had been lacking some serious inspiration.  We did not have a big bash and instead kept the party very small.  Even though the party was small I did not skip out on any details because those are the fun things to do!

For B's *Octosquid Party* we set up a small dessert buffet with brownies, sugar cookies in the shapes of sea horses, lobsters and hearts (my octosquid cookies turned out disastrous so I couldn't use them) and mini red velvet cupcakes--all lovingly baked by me.  The centerpiece of the dessert buffet was an octosquid cake baked by A Touch of Sweetness Bakery--it was so cute and so delicious!  I love having homemade cakes, but I found it to be really liberating to have someone else bake the cake because I got to focus on all the other desserts.  For our birthday meal we had Japanese fare with sushi and gyoza from our local Japanese restaurant, rice noodle salad and regular salad with sesame ginger dressing.  As for the decorations we reused the tissue paper backdrop from the Washington to Rome Goodbye Party (only had to replace the pink and gold with blue crepe paper) and reused the tissue heart (again replacing the pink tissue paper).  And finally the favors were little octopus snack containers I picked up from Target and filled with swedish fish and sixlets.

Here are some pictures from the *Octosquid Party* followed by some more details...

As soon as I settled on the octosquid theme I knew I wanted to bring in some Japanese influence (little B is a quarter Japanese after all).  I started with the color palette making it blue and white with a hint of red.  Then we settled on sushi for the meal.  I really wanted to order from our neighborhood Japanese restaurant, but I figured it blow our budget so I looked at other options (Wegman's and Harris Teeter).  Two days before the party I decided to stop by our neighborhood Japanese restaurant and price things out anyway.  I was really surprised that it wasn't much more than the grocery store options.  Plus by going with the Japanese restaurant I was able to order exactly what I wanted and didn't have to go with a pre-selected platter and on top of that it tasted so much better.  I pre-set the table with our serving platters and headed out to pick up the sushi right before it was time to eat to ensure that it was fresh.  I bought a cheap pack of wooden chopsticks which came 6 pairs to the pack but they were all loose.  washi tape to the rescue!  It only took a few minutes to pair them up and keep them together with a small piece of washi tape.

B's bib was made by my sister with fabric I had printed at Spoonflower.  This was my first time having anything made at Spoonflower and in general I was happy with the result.  The colors on the fabric were not as vibrant as I expected, but the printing still looked good and the fabric was a nice material.  

-K

Panda + Donut Birthday Party! Plus 8 Great Party Tips!

The twins (I can no longer call them the boys since we have our newest addition) turned 11!  To celebrate they invited their friends for a round of paintball and dinner and then back to our place for treats.  I was advised by them not to go 'too crazy' with the party planning so I kept things simple.  Outside of the invitations the only work I did was to set-up a simple dessert bar with treats and favors for the kids.  The theme they picked (after some pressure to pick anything) was pandas + donuts: two things they both like.  Here is how our simple dessert bar turned out, followed by some simple party tips.

I am sure you have all seen beautiful dessert bars that are to die for.  They are certainly drool worthy, but would not be fully appreciated by a bunch of 11 year olds, so I kept our dessert bar simple--which means it was easy to put together.  Here are some of my lessons learned and tips for making things easy on yourself...

1.  Go with Target Donuts - Did you know that every month Target has a new color scheme for their donuts?  I just learned this myself.  Initially I had envisioned a black and white color scheme for the dessert bar, but when I came across the colorful Target donuts I decided to match their July colors of red, yellow and aqua.  I was able to pre-order my donuts and could specify to make the donuts extra colorful.  Also the pails I picked up in their dollar section matched the blue of the donuts perfectly (I had to wonder if that was planned by Target--I wouldn't put it past them).  The cute panda picks can be found here.

2.  Tissue Paper Fringe Bunting if Your Friend (Who is Easy AND Easy on the Eyes) - The fringe was a last minute addition, but seemed necessary to help carry the color theme and to carry the eye up the space.  It didn't take more than 10 minutes from start to clean-up.  All you need is tissue paper in your colors (be sure to buy the big tissue paper color pack which has like 20 colors so you always have lots of colors on hand), scissors, tape and string (I used bakers twine since I had it handy).  Here is a link for more detailed directions.  For each fringe block I used two sheets cut to the proper width and then folded over to give me four layers of fringe.

 3.  Buy Your Own Stash of 24" Round Balloons - Round balloons are hot, but if you try to by just the few you for your party it will cost you an arm and a leg.  So instead buy the bigger, economy-sized variety pack of balloons so you can have some now and for future events.  Also if you are wondering about 24" vs 36" balloons, let me just tell you that 24" round balloons are huge, so 36" round balloons are ginormous!  Also, it costs $1.99 to fill up a 24" balloon and $5.99 to fill up a 36" balloon.  One more tip on balloons, always get at least one more than you need filled up.  One popped on the way home so it was a good thing we had gotten three filled.

4.  Mini-Cupcakes are the Perfect Dessert Bar Filler - There are two main reasons I like mini-cupcakes for a dessert bar: (1) they're easy to make a ton of, and (2) they won't fill-up your guests so they can enjoy more treats.  One box of cake mix can yield 30+ mini-cupcakes.  I actually never finish the batter when making mini-cupcakes because then I'll have too many.  Mini-cupcakes are also very easy to quickly pipe icing onto, especially if you have any large tip (I used an 808 round tip).  Then you can display them on their own or use them to fill in any gaps.

5.  Candy, Candy, Baby! - Candy is a great way to bring color to your dessert bar, plus it is a great way to involve your kids.  Bring them to the candy section of your grocery store and have them help select candy to match the color palette--they will love this!  Then when you get home have them sort, remove wrappers or repackage, etc. to keep them involved.

6.  Display Your Favors - We found some really cute panda snack containers which we paired with Hello Panda snack treats and 'Bamboo Sticks' (our own creation).  We place our goodies in pails purchased from Target's dollar section.  The pails with the aqua ribbon were purchased recently and matched the aqua icing on Target's donuts perfectly (love Target!).  If you ever see those pails on sale at Target buy them, you can always change out the ribbon color.  They are perfect for packaging favors.

7.  Plan for Guests to Take Home Leftover Treats - They will love it and you will save yourself some hours on the treadmill.  We had lined white paper bags embellished with sticker labels for the guests to take home donuts and candy.  The label design was a modified version of this.

8.  Use Cheap Photo Boxes to Give Height and Interest - The red boxes supporting the milk jug and the cupcakes are just photo storage boxes I found at the craft store ($1.99 each).  They come in a variety of colors but if they don't have what you are looking for then you can always cover them with paper or spray paint them.  If you are using them to support something heavy then be sure to put something inside the box to support the extra weight (I used flipped over water glasses).  The additional color pop and height variation make the overall set-up look much nicer.

Enjoy!

-K

White Chocolate Easter Bunny Pops

Last year I found a sweet chocolate bunny mold at Target.  It was cute and cheap, so I bought it.  Actually I really like the Easter merchandise at Target.  They have great stuff year after year and I am always excited to check it out.  But, I digress, back to the chocolate mold...I bought the mold but didn't have a strong inclination to actually use it until the boys asked to make something for Easter.  It seemed like a perfect task for them, all we needed to do was melt chocolate and squeeze it into the molds.  The first bunnies the boys created turned out a bit messy, but by the second one they both got the hang of it.  After the bunnies hardened we wrapped them in cello bags and tied them with ribbon.  They came out super cute, the boys were really proud of their efforts.  I put the extra bunny pops in a milk glass vase with Easter grass and some faux eggs and thought it made a lovely Easter decoration.  Hopefully we can find some time to make them again this year.

-K

Chocolate Easter Bunny Brownie Treats

If you're looking for a fun way to dress up a dessert for Easter then look no further!  Start with a cookie or brownie base (I used mini-bundt cake brownies) then top with some green frosting for grass.  Next, nestle a chocolate bunny in the grass and place two orange tic tacs in the grass next to the bunny.  That's it, you're done!  Throw some Easter grass on a platter and place your treats on top.  Your guests will love it especially the wee ones.

 

      

-K

Snowy Pecans

One treat which I always associated with the holidays are sugared pecans.  We have several names for them: Snowy Pecans, Heavenly Pecans and Pure Goodness (you can find the recipe here).  We have learned that if you are going to make them, then you might as well make a boat load.  They are great little treats to give to friends and neighbors.  They are also the perfect little homemade something to accompany an impersonal gift card.  This year we planned ahead and bought 12 oz. glass jars to package the pecans in.  To complete the packaging we added a label and baker's twine.  I have included the link if you wish to download our Snowy Pecan labels.  Simply print them on whole sheet adhesive label paper and cut them out.  To affix the label lay the jar completely perpendicular to you and position the middle of label on the bottom third of the glass.  Then smooth out the label from the center to each side.  If the label doesn't align perfectly don't sweat it, it just proves that it was homemade.

-K

Halloween Oreo Cream Pie - The Easy Dessert

My previous post was all about the baking projects I have in mind to try for Halloween.  However, sometimes you don't have a lot of time to bake, but still want something sweet, festive and not store-bought.  The solution, Jell-o's Oreo No Bake Dessert.  I would usually turn my nose up at the bright blue box while cruising through the baking aisle at the grocery store, but something recently made me dump it into my cart.  The bright blue box sat in my pantry till one day the boys were 'bored' and wanted a project.  The *Oreo Cream Pie* turned out to be the perfect treat to make with the kids.  There are four steps to build it.  The first step is to melt butter--so easy it the kids can do it with a blindfold on.  Second step is to mix the oreo crumbs with the melted butter and tamp it down to form the bottom layer of the dessert--again, perfect for the kids.  The next step is to mix the pudding mix with milk using a beater--this step gets a little messy and is best for the adult to handle, but it is over in 3.5 minutes.  Finally, spread pudding over the crust and top with crushed ores and refrigerate.  To make it festive we added some additional crushed up Halloween Oreos, Halloween sprinkles and a candy corn pumpkin.  The taste is quite delicious and has quickly become a favorite in our house.

-K