Sugar Swings! Serve Some: February 2012

Saturday, February 25, 2012

dr. seuss peep pops.....!



.....so i loves me a good mash-up!.....being a pinterest fanatic like so many others....there are always some good mash-ups over there....like these....muppet/superhero...or...dr. who/seuss...or....star wars/calvin and hobbs...or...pulp fiction/simpsons....the list goes on and on....!....love them all!

....this is a version of my own mash-up of some favs....dr. seuss in celebration of his birthday and the release of the lorax movie on march 2nd.....and marshmallow peeps!....because it's that time of year when you see them on the store shelves in so many pretty colors....peeps....you either love them or hate them....i am most definitely on the "love 'em" spectrum.....

...actually i've done peep pops before because they are so easy here....buy some peeps....dip in candy wafer/chocolate/almond bark (whatever is your hardening candy of choice)....and add some fun decorations.....and since we have some pretty serious star wars fans over here i mashed them it up with peeps ....and made some peep troopers too....!

dr seuss pops

....for these dr. seuss ones....you need some of these....


...edible food writers....i have a bunch in all shapes and sizes....and also some pics of the characters...or you can just use your dr seuss books if you have them.....then just draw on the coated peeps once they are dry.....the sneetch beak is a candy coated sunflower and horton's trunk is made with candy melt.....

....and you get a bunch of really fun dr seuss peep pops to celebrate the wonderful joy he's been bringing kids for ages!.....the lorax of course is probably my fav story (can't wait to see the movie!)....although it's hard to pick a fav....fox in socks was a fun one too....and the sneetches story is just great....i think my fav pop is the once-ler up in his lurkdom....i love how he came out!

dr seuss peep pops

....you could also use them as cupcake toppers as well....!


.....we also recently visited orlando's islands of adventure which has a dr seuss section (seuss landing)...which the kids absolutely loved!...if you have little one's (mine are 7 and 4 year old twins) and will be visiting orlando....definitely go there.....it's done very well....not to mention it has the wizarding world of harry potter too....majorly cool if you are a fan and want to get yourself a wand and some butter beer!

....happy happy birthday to dr seuss!....and thank YOU for stopping by.....have a very awesome week!...and let me know which seuss pop is your fav!

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Sunday, February 19, 2012

mini hostess sno ball cake pops.....!


....so as soon as i heard that hostess was filing for bankruptcy for the 2nd time....i kinda panicked......because one of my guilty pleasures is their hostess sno balls.....

....you know these things....


....i was thinking of stocking up on some sno balls....but figured i'd do some mini ones which have been on the "to do" list for awhile now.....

.....does anyone else besides me and my sister really love these things?....something about chocolate cake with creme filling covered in marshmallow and coconut...!....even made big "balls" here (haha)....so of course had to try them mini as well....

hostess snoballs

....do the cake pop thing.....start with chocolate cake....crumble and mix with some chocolate frosting....then shape into half circles like the sno balls.....


...using "the cone" method described in this post.....cut out some of the cake mixture to add some creme filling....


....i had some leftover coconut buttercream that i mixed with a little marshmallow fluff for this.....then close the hole with the cake mix you removed....


....add a stick if you like and freeze....then dip just the top in some vanilla candy melt/wafter/almond bark....whatever you use....


....and immediately cover in the tinted flaked coconut....(sweetened coconut tinted by adding a little food gel to a zip lock baggie with the coconut).....


....and you get some.....

mini hostess snoball cake pops

.....the traditional pink sno balls are my favs.....but i really like the pastel colors too....and they would work for a spring party or even easter too....!...plus did i mention they are mini sno ball cake pops....??

mini hostess snoballs

....have an awesome week and enjoy your president's day off if you get it.....i do...woohoo....taking my little one to michael's tomorrow---it's our girl day out :)
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Sunday, February 12, 2012

bee cupcake tower....!

bee cupcakes

...so i'm pretty much ready for spring!...i love winter and all....and on the east coast it's been pretty mild (if you take out that freaky october snow storm)....but i'm ready for spring.....we even had a quick vacay to orlando....universal studios and legoland...btw both very cool!...but just our luck we hit a cold front and had chilly weather in sunny florida....go figure...

.....and these cupcakes were made for someone special's baby shower which definitely put me in the mood for warmer weather! Bees were the theme...as b's are super special to the mom to be.....honey vanilla cupcakes with honey buttercream with some bee cupcake toppers.....

bees on honey cupcakes

....the bees are made from jelly belly jelly beans....we just happened to have one of those big vats of jelly beans from costco....why? i'm not sure but i did not make that purchase!.....just pick out the yellow hued ones....the spotted ones looked great for this!.....


....melt some black candy melt in a zip lock bag....snip off a small end and pipe on some bee stripes....if you can't find black....i'm sure you can use brown and it would look fine too.....oh and don't worry if the candy goes over the jelly bean....when dried it made it look like "feet" on the bee or whatever the technical bee term is....do bees have feet?

candy bees

....add a blob of black candy melt as a head and pipe pairs of "wings" with white candy melt onto wax paper or parchment and let harden....i just did sloppy ovals and then attached with more candy melt....

...and you get a bunch of edible bees!....


.....the cupcakes are a doctored golden vanilla boxed mix....add an extra egg, 1 cup of buttermilk for the liquid (i added about 1/4 cup of honey to this too), and the same amount of oil as on the box.....

...the honey buttercream is this recipe...with about 1/4 cup of honey added as well....you may not need the milk or add more powdered sugar to get the consistency you like....

....pipe like "hives" onto the cupcakes....(my bestie kitchen helper!)


....and add the bees randomly on top of the cupcakes.....

bee cupcake tower

....all packed up for travel to the big event....(love costco boxes for this purpose!)....

bee cake and cupcakes


...since this was for a baby shower....decided with a 2 layer 9-inch cake topper (same cake/buttercream flavor)...with letters done in candy melt from a letter mold and attached to popsicle sticks (it says ba-bee boy if you can't make it out!)....and with a candy melt bee on top as well from the invitation (please ignore the bee monobrow!)....

bee cupcake tower

.....and you get a cupcake tower with some realistic looking bees!...so really doesn't that make you ready for spring???....and it's extra special since it was for my nephew!....

.....welcome to the world baby Elliot Michael....born February 6th...8 pounds 14 ounces!!!!....and a huge woohoo to mommy for the natural delivery!.....

....sharing over at these fun bloghops too....pop over to see what else in going on there....!

Tip Junkie handmade projects
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Friday, February 3, 2012

ombre madeleines for a valentine's day party.....!

pink ombre madeleines

.....so are you going to the big valentine's day virtual party that lindsay ann from the dollhouse bake shoppe is hosting...?!!!


....so these are for the big shindig!...pink ombre madeleines!.....(are you sick of madeleines from me yet??)....did them here for halloween and here for the holiday season.....but they are so simple and come out so pretty....!

...and i've been meaning to try an "ombre" themed dessert....so i can cross that off the "to do" list as well....!..i'm seriously making some headway in my pinterest pins this year.....i've done a a whole 3 or 4 this year of my 1001 pins (will be adding more later today!)

...start with this madeleine recipe (it comes out great every time for me)....i also added about 1 and 1/2 tablespoonfuls of strawberry quick mix to give it a slight strawberry flavor and to tint the base color.....then separate into bowls....and add pink food gel to get the progressively deeper pink colors....then add each color into zip lock baggies.....

ombre batters

...you need a madeleine pan....snip off a very small end of one corner of the zip lock bag, and starting with the middle color "pipe" a stripe of color...then working your way out add the other contrasting colors (keep your baggies in order you want the colors to keep yourself organized!).....

....oh and i did horizontal stripes and vertical stripes this time....

ombre madeleines

...then bake at 375 for only about 8 minutes or so depending on your oven....keep an eye on them because you don't want them to get too browned because it will be hard to see the layers.....it already is a little difficult to see all 5 color layers....if i had to start over i may have gone a little darker on the pinks.....you bake and you learn...but i still think they came out ok....!

ombre madeleines

....then just sprinkle with a little powdered sugar....fun right?.....

ombre madeleines

....and you get some pinked hued madeleines for a fun valentine's day party.....thanks lindsay ann for hosting this and gathering some fun valentine's day treats and ideas from all over the blogosphere.....this blogging thing is amazing sometimes!

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