Sugar Swings! Serve Some: October 2014

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Triple Pumpkin Beignets


I told myself I was banning making any pumpkin stuff this season since there is obviously an overload of pumpkin and pumpkin spice on the market.  But you know I honestly love pumpkin everything! 


So I caved and made some triple pumpkin beignets. To me beignets taste like part doughnut and part funnel cake and are best served warm with powdered sugar.   Triple pumpkin because these little fritters are 1) pumpkin shaped 2) there's pumpkin in the dough AND 3) there's a little pumpkin spice pudding inside them. And please, whatever you do, don't forget to sprinkle with lots and lots (and lots) of powdered sugar!

See all of the pumpkiny details here at SheKnows

Happy Halloween Eve!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Coffin and Skeleton Mini Cakes


Only a week until Halloween! Are you ready? (and by ready meaning ready for another Halloweeny treat??


First off, have you seen the Cheetos Bag of Bones that Frito Lay has out right now? It's filled with white cheddar skeleton parts so you can build your own skeleton.  I searched down a bag and had to come up with something fun to make with them.


And if you have skeletons, you kinda need coffins right? These are made from a couple of things.  Cookies and creme sugar wafers make the basic coffin shape and the bottom of the coffin is chocolate graham crackers.  Cut into the shape you want and use melted black candy wafers (or you can use melted chocolate chips too) to glue the pieces together.


Once you have your edible coffins (now that's a weird word combo!), cut out a similar coffin shapes from a chocolate sheet cake.  I just did this by eye balling the size and trimming as needed.  Then frost with chocolate frosting.  You don't even have to be neat because it basically gets covered anyway!


Add some candies on top of the cake - not needed but it makes them more fun.  I used candy coated sunflower seeds in Fall/Halloween colors.  I use Sunny Seeds as they taste great and come in in so many colors and themes.


Then add your skeleton parts on top!


I never really thought I'd be crafting edible coffins - that just seems a little strange, but you know when you have edible skeleton parts handy, you have to fill a need!  

Happy Only 1 Week to Halloween to you all!  Curious, how many of you actually dress up for Halloween? (Meaning you specifically - not the kiddos!)

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Scary Toss it All in Halloween Fudge


Less than 2 weeks to Halloween! Let the fun begin! Woooo! Let's start with some scary toss everything in fudge.  OK - it might not be scary or have everything in it, but it is fun.


For this fudge I used the basic 2 ingredient method (frosting and chips) and then just added a bunch of fun stuff to get the look/taste.


There are lots of posts (here's one) out there for 2 ingredient fudge.  So simple and easy.  

The basic ingredients:
1 bag (11.5 ounces) of white chocolate chips
1 can (16 ounces) of vanilla frosting

Melt the chips in a microwave safe bowl until smooth.  Add the can of frosting.  Add in all your fav stuff.  I used crushed up mini vanilla wafers, candy coated sunflower seeds (Sunny Seeds), Halloween pumpkin Peeps, chocolate chips, skeleton head/spider candies, black sugar sprinkles, and a little purple food gel.  Spread the fudge mixture into a 9X9 pan.


And add more fun-ness on top!


Cut into squares and you've got yourself a little scary halloween party in fudge form!


You could make fudge for any holiday season, just mix and match colors.  So easy to throw together.  I may have 1 or 2 more Halloween posts coming too - but I really LOVE seeing all the other fun and Halloweeny treats being thought up out there.  There is an amazing amount of creativity in the big wide world! Have an awesomely awesome week!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Healthy Candy Corn Striped Smoothies


I think it's officially safe to call it Candy Corn season! It's chilly in the morning and night hear in the Northeast, and all the Halloween candy is out in full force everywhere.  I'm not a huge fan of candy corn (but my kiddos are) so I'm trying to trick them today with some candy corn striped smoothies.


There is no actual candy corn in these - so you could call it false advertising, but whatever anything to get them to try it.  These smoothies are made from greek yogurt, pineapple and tangerines.


In a blender, add 1 peeled tangerine with 1/2 cup of yogurt and about 1/4 cup of milk.  And blend it up until all smoothie-like.  If it's too liquid-y add a little more yogurt.


Do the same with the pineapple.  I used 1 cup of frozen pineapple with 1/2 cup of yogurt and 1/4 cup of milk.  The "white" layer is just the yogurt and milk with about 2 tablespoonful of honey.  You can also add honey to the orange and pineapple layers if you like your smoothie sweeter.  Then just layer the colors one on top of the other.  Easy.


If you want deeper candy corn colors you can add a little orange or yellow food coloring but I was trying to keep it pretty simple.  Top with a little pineapple and freeze dried orange.  If you don't drink right away, pop them in the freezer until served.  (You'll need to thaw them a little if you freeze for too long obvi).


 I thought they were super yummy. A fast and healthy "candy corn" treat! Here's hoping I fool the kids into eating these today!


What is your favorite Halloween treat? And what are you whipping up this Halloween?

Monday, October 6, 2014

2 Kinds of Black and White Cookies - Chocolate & Vanilla AND PB&J


Do you guys like mashups as much as I do?? I could spend all day on Pinterest checking out all the mashed up things.  So I made mashup cookies.  Peanut Butter and Jelly + Black and White Cookies aka Half n' Half Cookies.  

If you read the blog at all, you may know my kiddos have peanut and tree nut allergies.  Well 2 out  of 3 have allergies so we've really avoided nut treats around here.  Fortunately, my 2 kids are not so allergic that they can't be near peanut butter or have stuff manufactured in a facility that handles nuts.  

Since 2 kids are allergic, we almost treat the 3rd like he's allergic too - it was always way easier that way, but recently he's been asking to try peanut stuff and surprise - we found out he does like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  


The kids also love Black and White Cookies - the popular cookies in NYC (which is only about 30 mins from our house so these cookies are available everywhere around us).  And if you've never had Black and Whites, immediately go buy some or better yet make them.  They are part cake/part cookie with chocolate and vanilla icing on top.  Seriously good stuff so I thought I'd make them some homemade Black and Whites but also make the un-allergic kid a PB and J version.  


I used this cookie recipe from Martha Stewart Living - which was really simple to make.  The base cookie is the same for each version.  


Once cookies are cooled, spread 1/2 with the grape jelly icing and 1/2 with the peanut butter icing and/or 1/2 with the white icing and 1/2 with chocolate icing.  Ice the flat side of the cookie.  A note about icing consistency, it should be thick enough to stay on the cookie without dripping off (see the white icing pic above? That's too runny and needs to be thicker - add more confectioners sugar if that happens!).  The icing should also be nicely spreadable without lines (see the peanut butter side on pic below?  That's too thick.  Add a 1/2 teaspoonful of water or corn syrup if that happens!).


My icing technique is far from what it's supposed to look like.  Here's what most Black and White cookies you can buy look like:


See how nice and perfect they look? Mine are homemade but messy! The recipe was easy and tasted great (can't go wrong with a Martha recipe right?)

Cookie base recipe can be found here.

For the Icings:

1 cup of confectioners sugar for each flavor
1 Tablespoon of light corn syrup for each flavor
1 Tablespoon of creamy peanut butter
1 Tablespoon of grape jelly
1 ounce of your favorite melted chocolate

Directions:
  • Add 1 cup of confectioners sugar to 4 separate bowls (if making both kinds of cookies)
  • Add 1 tablespoonful of light corn syrup to each bowl.  Mix well.
  • Add peanut butter to one bowl, jelly to a bowl, and melted chocolate to 3rd bowl.  Mix well.
  • Add more confectioners sugar as needed until icing spreads without being too runny.
  • Add water by 1/2 teaspoonfuls if the icing is too thick.   
  • Ice each half of a cookie with the icings.  Allow to sit out until icings are hard to the touch.  

If you like peanut butter and jelly sammiches, you'll love these PB and J Half n' Half cookies.  Eat one with a glass of milk and your'e good to go.  And if you have nut allergies like my other 2 kids, make the traditional Black and White ones (also a big hit) or you could use soy nut butter too in place of peanut butter!).  

Hope you like them! And speaking of mashups, check out my bloggy friend Dorothy aka Crazy for Crust.  Her new book, Dessert Mash-Ups, just dropped and its totally up my alley.  I think I HAVE to make the sconuts or strawberry pie cupcakes! 


Check it out here on Amazon!