Sugar Swings! Serve Some: February 2013

Sunday, February 24, 2013

mickey and minnie dipped peeps pops....!


So if you haven't guessed by the pic above, we went to Disney! It was the first time ever for any of us, can you believe that?


I saw these Mickey Mouse Peeps (who knew they made Mickey Peeps???!) back around Christmas time and scooped some up since I knew we had the Disney World Trip planned for this February.  And what better way to tell the kids we were going to there? Yep Mickey and Minnie Mouse Peeps Pops!


Add a little melted candy melt or chocolate to a pop stick and insert into marshmallow.  Let harden.


Dip the marshmallow ears into melted black candy melt.  Michaels is selling the black Wilton's candy melt year round now but you could use chocolate or other candy melt colors would be fun too.


Minnie's red bow is just more red candy melt and before totally hardened, add some white non-pareil sprinkles.  Attach to pop with more candy melt.


And you get some pretty simple Mickey and Minnie ear PEEPS Pops! We told the kids the day we left for the airport with these pops.  So fun!


And in case you are interested in our Disney trip, here are some of my instagram shots from the week!

Mickey waffles were delish!
Post Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Magic Kingdom
Dessert at Cinderella's Royal Table
How awesome is this Star Wars Vinylmation Luke-Mickey mash-up?!!
Yummy Disney treats are everywhere! (including cake pops)
A much needed pit stop in Germany at Epcot 
Who buys and eats these things? My kid apparently.
And the other kiddo is a face painter!
A little R&R after a long day out and about
Loving all the variations of Mickey ears!
Fireworks at the most magical place on earth!
We definitely had a great time and there is still plenty to do if we go back.  Disney does it well too, the new Fantasyland is really neat and my little girly girl was able to play a part in the Enchanted Tales with Belle character experience, so that was really cool.  Oh and the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom is intense, my boys are still recovering from it!  Anyway, a great time had by all at the happiest (and most expensive!) place on earth!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Presidents' Day Cupcakes!


So does anyone get excited about Presidents' Day?? Aside from it being a long weekend and all in the US, I kinda look forward to the goofy commercials that come on about all the Presidents' Day sales. Like this one....



Is that weird?? And to make it extra special I made little Presidents!


To make the little presidents, use the same basic technique as described here.  They are made from Hershey Kisses, vanilla flavored Tootsie Rolls, candy melt and edible food writer.  The cupcakes are from I Am Baker's best chocolate cake recipe (they are indeed the best chocolate cupcakes!) and then iced with homemade buttercream tinted red and blue, by just painting the inside of the piping bag with food gel colors.


And in case you can't tell, these are our Founding Fathers, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson


and Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt


And Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan (to be non- partisan of course!)


And you get some fun cupcakes to start off your long weekend (if you have one!)

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
Hope you had a great week, and an even better weekend! Fridays always make me happy and this is no exception.  We leave for Disney for the first time ever this Sunday and can't wait to tell the kiddos that morning! I still have ALL the packing to do so "See" you in a week!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Molded Chocolate Cupcakes {Guest Post at The Southern Institute}!


So I'm guest posting over at The Southern Institute today and sharing these Molded Chocolate Cupcakes that have a surprise inside. Please pop over to say hello to Jenny and her readers and see the how to over there! Hopefully it's a fun treat for Valentines Day!

Thanks and have a great rest of the week! I can't wait for the weekend already!!!

Friday, February 8, 2013

Geeky Valentines on chocolate sugar cookie bar hearts


So I promise this is my last heart or Valentines Day themed post.  I know you are probably sick of hearts by now, especially after the heart topped reverse rainbow cake, the heart shaped hostess cupcakes, and the marbled mini heart cakes

But, anyone who reads the blob probably knows I have a soft spot for geeky stuff (I did marry an engineer so it kinda comes with the territory).  I thought I'd make him some edible valentines with some romantic quotes from some of the best geeky movies out there.  


And I've really been wanting to try a chocolate sugar cookie bar recipe since regular sugar cookie bars are so easy to throw together (especially if you add some homemade buttercream!).  I used this recipe for the bars and this recipe for the buttercream.  


I also mixed in some pink sprinkles to the buttercream for some extra texture.  Then just ice the entire slab of chocolate sugar cookie.


Refrigerate first so you can cut out the hearts.  Be careful because you can crack the cookie bar sheet while trying to move it (I may have yelled a few expletives when it cracked down the middle!).  Also my cookie cutter wouldn't cut all the way through to cut out the hearts (probably because the cookie and frosting were too thick, so I had to cut the heart shapes out by hand).

The easier way, would have been to just cut out bars, like these, but I had it in my mind they had to be hearts! (anyone else get an idea and you have to make it work, no matter how much of a pain in the #&$F&%@ the project starts to get, or is that just me??!)


Once you have the shape you like, just pipe on some of your favorite quotes for your valentine.  I was going to use chocolate royal icing, but it just wasn't the right color SO I turned to good old Betty Crocker chocolate frosting.  Always works great in a pinch!

And I hope you recognize at least some of the quotes!  But here they are just in case you are thinking "what the heck is she talking about!"
  • You have bewitched me body and soul - Mr. Darcy from Pride and Predjudice 
  • Real or not real? Peeta from the Hunger Games series
  • Always - Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series 
  • I love you.  I know. - Leia and Han from Star Wars (and if you don't know that one, you probably won't know the rest!)
  • As you wish - Westley from Princess Bride
  • I choose a mortal life - Arwen from Lord of the Rings series
  • Hey girl - Ryan Gosling meme (ok not a movie, but I'm still counting it!)
  • I have crossed oceans of time to find you - Dracula from Bram Stocker's Dracula
  • I'm in lesbians with you - Scott from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World


And just a last pic to show you what a time these hearts were giving me!


All forgiven chocolate heart sugar cookie bars because you were super tasty!  Have a great weekend!! We are in the middle of the east coast snow storm and the snow is really coming down.  Lets just hope we keep power because after Hurricane Sandy and 11 days without power, I really am pretty much in awe of Mother Nature!


Friday, February 1, 2013

marbled loaf and mini heart shaped cakes...!


So I'm celebrating my 3 year Blog Birthday this month!! Woohoo!! It's kinda hard to believe it's been 3 years already but as I look back at all 189 posts from February 2010 it surely has been 3 years.  Crazy!

I was going to do a fancy birthday cake but decided I'm totally not feeling too fancy these days and I'm all about comfort and simplicity this year-but definitely not plain and boring, it still needs to be fun!  

If you read the blog you probably know I have a thing for colors.  I love swirled colors, contrasting colors, or rainbow colors, and I really love the look of marbled loaf cakes.  They may not be the fanciest of cakes, but the colors always look so pretty swirled together and the flavor is usually so cakey and buttery and totally what I'd pick for a dessert.  And it doesn't even have icing on it (I know sacrilege!) but it really doesn't need it with all the butter loaded inside.

I also have a thing for matcha too and have used it a few times like here and here and here.  Firstly, it's green (one of my fav colors) and secondly, it's green tea flavored (another fav of mine!).

When I saw this matcha and chocolate marbled loaf cake over at Pass the Sushi, I knew it was a definite pin for me and it has been on my to do list for ages.


I knew I wanted to do 3 colors for this so I did 1 and 1/2 times the recipe.  The colors by no coincidence match the blog colors! Once you have the batter mixed up, separate into 3 bowls (I eye-balled it to try to get it even into 3 bowls), then add the cocoa powder to 1, green tea matcha powder to the 2nd bowl, and the last I left plan but tinted the batter just slightly pink with food gel).

To swirl, add the green tea batter first (use whatever flavor you want more prominent as this is kinda the base of the loaf), then add some chocolate batter and pink batter, then more green.  I just plopped some in and then using a butter knife, swirled the batters together.  Don't over swirl because you can start mixing the colors too much and you lose the nice big marble'y look you want (and you can get a yucky brown color for your loaf).


The marbled loaf came out great BUT I knew I wanted to fancy it up a bit too, since it is for a birthday after all.  After cutting a slice and singing happy birthday to the blog, I just cut the rest into slices and used a heart shaped small cookie cutter to cut some cute little hearts out.


Aren't they super cute??! And don't worry the scraps most definitely did not go to waste.

I probably could have eaten the entire batch, but decided to bring them along for others to enjoy too and just plopped them into some mini cupcake liners.


A cool tri-colored marbled loaf AND marbled mini heart cakes? Yep that's totally me!

Again happy blog birthday to me! It's been so fun coming up with fun stuff to share over these past 3 years.  I had been doing it mainly for my kids and family and friends and it still amazes me that there are so many of you that come back to visit, to encourage me and to ask questions or share your warm thoughts and feedback.  I've also made some great friends over these years that I've never met before in real life-but really are friends.  The blogging community is such a amazing group of people.  And finally I do this for me and it's one part of my life that is all mine.  I work full-time, and have a great husband and 3 amazing kids but as with a lot of us, life is hectic and nuts at times and the responsibilities are always competing.  It's been so therapeutic to have something that I do just for me.  So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for continuing swing by this part of the blogosphere every so often.  I truly appreciate it.

Thank you for indulging the "blog birthday" post (which is actually more fun than my real birthday!) and I certainly do hope life is good and that you have an awesome weekend!