Sugar Swings! Serve Some: February 2011

Saturday, February 26, 2011

a bunch of dr seuss cupcakes....!


....the kids love love love dr seuss (who doesn't?)......and since dr seuss's birthday is march 2nd....and i'm leaving for a work trip monday.....i figured i'd leave the kids with some cupcakes with a caveat that they have to read whatever book they eat this week to celebrate his born on date.....!

...these all are a lemon cupcake from a box mix....(with a little added oj as the water).....


....green eggs and ham....the ham is a cake bite (crumbled cake and icing) and formed into a "ham" shape....then dipped in green candy melt....and the black line detail is from a wilton food writer....

....the eggs are white candy melt blobs with jelly belly jelly beans as the centers....


....lorax truffula trees are campfire fruit swirler marshmallows (cut them with some kitchen shears for some detail)....then attached to a tooth pick and covered with yellow candy melt....when dry added some black detail with the food writer again....


...cat in the hat's thing 1 & thing 2....are dum dum lollipops dipped in white candy melt with blue buttercream piped with a wilton #4 tip for the hair.....covered the stick in red food writer (watch out these heads are top heavy!)....

....the other cupcakes are yertle the turtle (done in blue and white candy melt and detail with the black food writer again)....the sneetches (candy melt star and buttercream belly).....and the lesser known the butter battle book (done in candy melt as well).....plus some mini cupcakes with rainbow icing and topped with fruit flavored lemon heads....


...thanks for stopping by and happy birthday dr seuss!also linked to sweet tooth friday

Monday, February 21, 2011

whoopie pies and a blogoversary giveaway.....!


whoopie pies

....so one of my new year resolutions was to make more stuff with less artificial dyes and to make more stuff using natural dyes....the first attempt was here....red velvet cake made "red" with beet juice....

whoopie pies

.....and whoopie pies are just plain fun....made them before here and the chocolate were everyone's absolute fav.....this recipe seems pretty perfect (although for full disclosure, i have only made them once before and have not tried any other chocolate whoopie pie recipes to compare)....but these are super simple to make....and don't let the batter scare you....it's a little thinner than you would expect.....but they baked up great.....


...the frosting is a vanilla buttercream tinted with india tree natural decorating colors that i've been eyeing at whole foods for awhile.....they are way pricier than regular food colorings but i finally bit the bullet and got them.....

...they are made from vegetable colorants and it comes in a pack of 3 with red (beet), yellow (curcumin) and blue (red cabbage)....they are not gels like wilton or americolor food gels....but more liquid-y.....and the yellow seemed like it's in oil and you really need to shake that one up....(see pic below)....

...added about 5 drops to about 1-2 cups of frosting....and these are the colors you get.....light yellow, pink, and a pretty lavender color....the peach was made by mixing the yellow and pink that was leftover.....you definitely won't get a deep red, yellow, or blue easily with these colorants....but it will work nicely for soft pastel colors....(very nice with easter coming up soon......!).....think i'm going to experiment with some vegetable powders as well to see what colors you can get with those.....not giving up using the other food color gels since i doubt you can get really deep primary colors without them....but may use these in between....!...and i pretend the frosting is really not that bad for you with these mixed in....so you can eat an extra 1 or 2 or 10....!

whoopie pies

....and since it's my "blogoversary" (woo hoo!) on the 22nd....i'm giving away another set of the india tree natural decorating colors....!..just leave a comment and you're entered...! (If you decide to follow the blog or on FB (or now on twitter @sugarswings) even better but not required!)..constructive feedback welcomed too!.....i'll pick a comment randomly on March 1st.....

......i'd love to send these to you and see what goodies you can bake up with them....! (addresses only in the US, sorry!)...and if you have had luck with other natural food colorants/dyes....i'd love to hear about that as well....!

...thank thank thank you to everyone that reads the blog....it's kinda cheaper than therapy for me....and i enjoy it way more than i anticipated....! now off to enjoy a whoopie pie for the special day.... :)

Tidy Mom I'm Lovin It Fridays


Mouthwatering Mondays

Thursday, February 17, 2011

football brownie bars....!


football brownie bites

.....ok i know it's not football season anymore (pitchers and catchers have reported to sunny florida....woohoo!).....but since everyone may be in their post valentine's day - pre st. patty's day baking period.....i figured i'd post these anyway....and let's just say the grass reminds us that spring is coming....(it was actually kinda warm in the northeast today!)....

....these are gluten free brownies from a trader joe's mix....there's no levening agent in it so the brownies were pretty dense and moist on there own....so even more reason to cut them up and top with some vanilla buttercream.....!...tinted grass green and piped on with the grass/fur tip.....(btw-one of the kiddos asked for their birthday cake to be a character that has mostly green fur.....i need to start working my hands out now for piping that one...!)

...the footballs are...what else?....candy melts!....(i promise i do not get free samples of these things from wilton.....but wilton i would surely try out any new candy melt products you have....wink wink)....they were just done free hand and when dry....some white buttercream piped on top for the "laces"....


...and you get a bunch of these.....

DSCN0632

...doesn't the brownie make it look like little patches of cut out dirt and grass.....??

brownie bites

...and my kiddos loved these....especially this one!...(luckily they were for a party and not left around the house...!) happy almost weekend to everyone!



Mouthwatering MondaysTidy Mom I'm Lovin It Fridays

Saturday, February 12, 2011

owl valentines....!


...the last set of valentines this year....i seriously have to remember that if i have an idea for one....then i have to do something for all 3 kids!....we have a soft spot around here for owls.....and owls are so in now.....seriously owl themed birthday parties, baby showers, weddings, team building events....ok maybe i haven't seen that last one, but wouldn't be surprised if someone did use owls for that.....

.....anyway.....they are made from this stuff.....


...the body is heart shaped peppermint patties (they are even pink inside...so cute!)....eyes are valentine's day m&m's (accents drawn on with a food writer), wings are cherry and vanilla flavored tootsie rolls decorated with some red royal icing, beak is a heart from the heart sprinkle mix.....everything attached with royal icing.....the tootsie roll was nuked for 5-10 secs until it was soft enough to roll out....then used an icing tip to cut out a circle.....cut that in half to make the wings.....


....you end up with a bunch of these little guys.....!

.....the rest of the valentine is cardstock and some oil pastels.....and a quick google search for some cute owl-ish sayings.....


....and all wrapped up to give out monday.....between, the lego dudes, the thomas trains, and these......i'm all valentine'd out now.....i hope the kids are ok with store bought next year....!


...and really now happy valentines day!!!

ps what does an educated owl say.....whom...!
W
Tidy Mom I'm Lovin It Fridays

Whom.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

thomas the tank engine valentines....!


...so in addition to lego, star wars, and super hero freaks....we also have a couple thomas obsessed little ones around here too....


....and since the big kid got lego dudes.....the little guy got thomas to bring in for his friends on valentines day.....they are made with this stuff....


....couldn't find bright blue colored fruit strips to match thomas....(guess that's considered not a "natural" color in the fruit strip world!)...but did find a sparkled tropical flavor at target...so close enough....and if you really want to get technical and think it's green....then you can say it's thomas' friend percy...

...the head is a rice cracker and the face drawn on with candy melt.......(not so sure about the face....experimented a little with the eyes to try to avoid the creep factor but i'm still not happy with it....but it's too late to turn back now!).....

...graham cracker covered with the fruit strips is the base and the other accents are plain m&m's and chocolate candy melt (which was also used to attach the accents).....then wrapped in plastic wrap so the kiddo can hand them out in class.....


...i have one more kid, so one more to go.....! happy pre-valentines day!

ps this is the only train saying i could think of.....bonus points if you know what it's from :)


Tidy Mom I'm Lovin It Fridays