Sugar Swings! Serve Some: June 2014

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Flag shaped soft pretzels for 4th of July



Do you love soft pretzels as much as I do? 


And do you love all that is red, white, and blue? Well mash those loves up and make some homemade flag shaped soft pretzels this 4th of July!  Making them at home is really very easy - and shaping them into flags is like rolling play doh.  Get the kiddos to help!


See the full tutorial here at SheKnows.



Friday, June 13, 2014

Naturally Colored red, white, and blue flag fudge



The 4th of July is right around the corner, so that means all kinds of fun red, white and blue foods start showing up everywhere.  I so love that! My contribution this year is some red, white, and blue fudge.  

Super fun because the fudge is shaped like little US flags and bonus the red and blue color comes from fruit.   I won't go as far as calling it healthy, but at least there is fruit in it!  Perfect to bring along to a 4th BBQ or party.



You can always skip the flag shape and just make red, white, and blue layered fudge too.  

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Gingerbread Men for Father's Day


Gingerbread has got to be one of my favorite flavors - ever.  All shapes and forms work for me.  I mean gingerbread is all cinnamony and spicy and so so tasty.  So I'm pretty much campaigning to make gingerbread treats to be made all year round -let's not just limit it to the holiday season and Christmas time.  Who's with me??


Dress some simple gingerbread men cookies up with some "bow ties" and you've got a cool way to wish Dad a very Happy Father's Day.  And unlike boring old father's day cards that get put in a drawer to collect dust, these Dad can just eat when he's done admiring them.  Well you *could* eat cards but they wouldn't be near as tasty.


The bow ties are made with some heart shaped jelly beans that I got on sale after Valentine's Day.  They are all variations on cherry flavors (my hubby's fav flavor).  Attach the hearts together with some melted chocolate or vanilla candy melt. Accent them with some discs of candy melt with some edible glitter on top.


Then just attach the bows to the gingerbread men cookies with more melted candy/chocolate.  Add your favorite Dad saying with more melted chocolate (or you could use royal icing too).  Once all the candy or frosting is dry, you can brush the entire cookie with some gold shimmer dust.  The shimmer dust just makes them a little extra special.  And you get some simple but fun gingerbread men for your favorite Dads.


A very special Happy Father's Day to all the "Dads" in my life. To my Dad, thanks for everything you do and are doing now for my kiddos!  And also to my other half.  He is such a tremendous Dad to our 3 kiddos.  As we are lucky to have them, they are as lucky to have you.

PS.  Do you like the new blog design?? I thought I was due for an update and wanted to do something super fun. Thanks so much to Jessica Krieger, I love it!

More decorated gingerbread men you may like!

Super Hero Gingerbread Men and Women
The Peanuts Gang Gingerbread Men
Disney Princess Gingerbread Cookies
Mini Super Hero Gingerbread Men
Star Wars Gingerbread Men


Tidy Mom's I'm Loving It
Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday

Monday, June 2, 2014

Maleficent Movie Cupcakes



Wow it's been awhile since I made cupcakes - I think I may have gone into a little withdrawal! And what better reason to make cupcakes than the new Disney Maleficent movie that opened this past weekend.  I've not been able to see it yet but the the trailer and previews look great.  Like Lord of the Rings meets Disney Princesses.

I'm staying away from the movie reviews too.  The couple that showed up in my FB feed didn't look promising.  But I'm going to stay optimistic for the arch Disney Villain from Sleeping Beauty - The Mistress of All Evil.


For these cupcakes, I went with the look from the books - not necessarily the Angelina Jolie all black look.  The cupcakes are vanilla tinted green with some black swirls.


And her horns (or is that a hat??) are made from these, Cinnamon Churros snacks!


I was on the prowl for some Bugle snacks for the horns, but of course I could not locate them in any store within a 15 mile radius of my house.  Go figure.  So I had to make do and trimmed the churros for the horn look and then dipped them in black candy melt.  The churros are actually a much better combination with the candy melts.


The icing is very light green and purple swirled frosting.  The swirled look is done by adding each color to a piping bag, then adding those 2 bags to a third bag.  Simple and it works great!


I made some mini maleficents too.


And if you fast forward past the summer and pretend it's Halloween, they also could pass for some some crazy bat or Bride of Frankenstein cupcakes - but for today's purposes they are Maleficent!


And in the old story, Maleficent's all crazy nuts evil about not being invited to a Royal Christening.  Good thing she's not around today because she'd have to deal with all the other fairies FB photos showing all the stuff she wasn't invited to.  She would be all up in the comments "Now you shall really deal with me @PrincePhillip and all the powers of Hell!" She might actually do better in Westeros playing the Game of Thrones.  She's got the dragon and everything.  (Side bar: for GoT fans, did you see last episode "The Mountain and the Viper"?? Holy. Cow.  This show never disappoints.  Kudos HBO.)

Have an absolutely awesome week and if you saw the Maleficent movie, then let me know - thumbs up or down?!

Tidy Mom's I'm Loving It
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