Sugar Swings! Serve Some: March 2015

Monday, March 23, 2015

The Avengers - Age of Ultron Super Hero Rice Krispies Treats Fun Snacks

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #KreateMyHappy #CollectiveBias


So by now you probably know I kinda have a thing for Super Heroes.  I used to blame it on my kids but I'll fess up and admit that I love them too.  There's just something about the colors, the super powers, the stories, etc that makes me fall into the various super hero fandoms like so many others.  If you check out the side bar menu you can see I've made quite a few super hero treats.

These Rice Krispies Treats fit right in since they are for the new Avengers Age of Ultron movie coming out soon. 

I started with Rice Krispie Treats which I found at my local food store, Shop Rite.  You can find them in the aisle with other snack bars and fruit snacks.  Every time I see them it brings me back to being a little kid.  I remember everyone's fav treat was Rice Krispies Treats and it was a huge deal when we had them back in the day.  They still put a smile on my face when I see them!

They  also make easy and super portable school treats, especially with so many nut/peanut and gluten allergies.  These pre-packaged ones definitely speed up the process of making these super hero'ed up treats.
  
Start with your blank "canvas"

Print out some pictures of your favorite super heroes - either the hero logo or other familiar details.   I went with an Avengers theme, but go for your fav characters!  I have all sorts of colors of melting candy wafers/melts so I used them as my "paint".  I put some candy melts in a freezer baggie and microwaved it for about 10-20 second intervals until just melted.  Then snip an end of the baggie and "pipe" on the detail.  To layer colors, wait until the first color is dry. It only takes a minute or 2, depending on how thick you add the color.


I also did Ultron and Vision, 2 of the new characters from the Age of Ultron movie due out this May.

Hopefully you'll recognize the others!


We love RCTs on their own and these were a huge hit not only with the kiddos but the adults here too! 


If you like these treats, please visit the Rice Krispies Treats contest page and enter to win by voting for your favorite entry! 


Eligible entrants will vote on their favorite Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies Treats® recipe on the Kellogg’s Family Rewards® Website and via various social media platforms to be entered into a random drawing for a chance to win prizes.

Twenty (20) Grand Prize winners will be randomly drawn at the conclusion of the Sweepstakes from among all eligible entries received. 

Contest voting is open 3/24 - 5/3/15

Here is how you VOTE:
  1. To enter via Twitter, Pinterest and/or Instagram, go to any of the Social Platforms and include the hashtag #RKTreatSweeps and the name of the Treat recipe you’re voting on in the copy of your post.
  2. You must also send or share a link of your post to RKTreatSweeps@kellogg.com in order for your Social Platform entry to be verified.  To send or share a link of your post with the Sponsor, go to the Social Platform(s) containing your Treat vote post, go to your profile, select the tweet/pin/post you would like to share with the Sponsor, and copy the link (Twitter) or share the post (Pinterest & Instagram) to RKTreatSweeps@kellogg.com 
Visit the Rice Krispies Treat page for more details and Good Luck!

What neat ideas have you had for Rice Krispies Treat Snacks? Or do you like them plain and straight out of the package?

Super Hero Rice Krispies Treats

Makes: 8 Superhero Treats
Prep Time: 1 and ½ hours (make sure you have all the melting candy wafers you need – you can mix wafers to get colors you cannot buy in stores)

Ingredients:

8 Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats
Plain M and Ms
Assorted colors of melting candy wafers/melts

Directions to make your favorite superhero characters:
  1. Find pictures of your favorite superheroes (either logos or familiar details).
  2. Add ¼ to ½ cup of candy wafer to a quart sized freezer baggie.  Microwave in 15-20 second intervals until candy is just melted.  Do this for each color when you are ready to use it.  Snip a small end of the corner of the baggie and “pipe” your colors on.  If the candy hardens, re-microwave for 10 seconds.
  3. For Iron Man: Use red candy to cover the entire treat.  Add blue M and Ms as his core while candy is still wet.  Once red candy is hardened add detail with black, yellow and white melted wafers.
  4. For Thor: Use gray candy to make buttons for his chest plate on parchment paper and let harden.   Use blue to cover entire treat.  Add some red in the corners and add the gray candy “buttons” while blue candy is wet.
  5. For Black Widow (or you can do Spiderman similarly): Use red to cover entire treat. Add a large brown mega M and M and small plain brown M and M while candy is still wet. Add spider legs with brown or black candy melt and red for Black Widow’s logo on the spider’s back.
  6. For Hulk: Add purple (bottom), light green (middle) and dark green (top) candy melt to cover treat.
  7. For Captain America: Make a red circle in center of treat.  While circle is still wet, add a round blue candy wafer.  Working out from the circle, add a white ring, then red ring, etc.  Add white star with white candy wafer.
  8. For Hawkeye: Cover treat in purple candy.  Once purple is hardened, add black detail.  Add black arrow (made from black candy melt) on top.
  9. For Ultron: cover treat in red candy.  Once dried add gray/black face detail.  You can get gray by mixing about 10-15 white wafers with 1 black wafer.
  10. For Vision: Add yellow V shape.  Cover bottom in gray candy and top with purple candy.  Add outline in black.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Disney's Frozen Themed Oatmeal Cream Pie Cookies



Well here it is the first day of Spring and we have a forecast for more snow in NJ! Par for the course with this Winter season on the East Coast.  In fact the kids have a half day due to the predicted snowy weather.  Go Figure! 

So as a last winter treat, I'm sharing some Disney Frozen themed oatmeal cream pie cookies!

Have you seen this cereal in stores? A "Collector's Edition" Disney Frozen cereal by Kellogg's. It has Snow and Ice Crystal marshmallows! Think Lucky Charms cereal but with blue and white marshmallows.  


#FROZENALLTHETHINGS

It works because my kiddo immediately had to have this cereal.  We don't eat junkie cereals as "cereal" but I do let them have it as treats.  I had to make something with them so decided on some oatmeal cookies, because not only are they delicious but I also swapped out some of the oatmeal for the Frozen cereal.  


I used the Vanishing Oatmeal Cookie recipe that comes on the Quaker Oatmeal can lid! Can't go wrong with that recipe.


I also added dried blueberries in place of raisins to keep with the "blue" theme.


Add to make them into oatmeal cream pie cookies, add a huge slather of some light blue tinted filling.  I used a mix of marshmallow fluff and cream cheese.  


And homemade ones are so much tastier than the store bought ones (in my opinion anyway!)


Make them today and devour one on Winter's last hurrah.  

If you don't have winter worries at all, make them anyway since there are probably a gazillion more #FROZENALLTHETHINGS to come since there WILL be a Frozen 2 movie.  (Um that's a no brainer Disney!) You can also get your Frozen fix on by checking out Frozen Fever which is a short you get when you see the Cinderella movie. (PS There is cake in it!!)


Have a totally awesome weekend and thanks for swinging by! More spring-y treats to come soon!

Frozen Themed Oatmeal Cream Pie Cookies (adapted from Quaker's Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies recipe

Ingredients:
    • 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
    • 3/4 cup brown sugar
    • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
    • 2 Eggs
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla
    • 1 and 1/2 cups flour
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt 
    • 1 and 1/2 cups quick or old fashioned, uncooked oats
    • 1 and 1/2 cups of Frozen cereal
    • 1 cup dried blueberries

Directions:
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix.  Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.  Add 1/2 flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well.  Add remaining flour mixture.  Mix the oats and cereal together and gently mix into the batter.  Add in dried blueberries.  
  • Drop rounded spoonfuls onto parchment paper baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.  
  • For filling, mix 2 cups of marshmallow fluff with 1/4 cup of cream cheese.  
  • Spread between 2 cooled cookies and eat!

Friday, March 13, 2015

Matcha Shortbread Cookies - 2 Ways


Since St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner I figured I'd add to all the green foods that show up this time of year.  


And believe it or not I've never made shortbread before even though shortbread cookies are one of my favs.  The dough is so simple to make - butter (and lots of butter), flour, sugar, salt and to green it up I added some matcha.  Matcha is green tea powder and if you like green tea then you'll LOVE matcha.  Plus it gives everything a neat green color.


I used small cookie cutters to cut out the little flower shapes but also added some of the dough to my madeleine pan.


Bake shortbread about 12 -15 minutes but don't over bake or the cookies will be too brown and you definitely want to see the color matcha gave them! (You can see my madeleines are a bit too browned when they came out of the pan - newbie move!)


I added a little matcha to some vanilla buttercream and slathered a bit between 2 of the cut out cookies.  A big green sprinkle added makes them look like little happy flowers.  


Or drizzle with some melted green candy wafers and other sprinkles and you have a neat green treat for St. Patrick's Day.  Enjoy with a cup of green tea or coffee!


Have an awesome weekend and thanks for popping by!

The matcha shortbread recipe can be found here on Martha Stewart

Thursday, March 5, 2015

The Ultimate Layer Cake - Made of ALL your Favorite Desserts


With so many desserts and dessert combinations around these days I'm constantly changing my favorite.  I mean so many cookies, brownies, cheesecakes, doughnuts and not to mention the red velveting of everything! #redvelvetallthethings


Plus every other day there is a new kind of surprise inside cake.  Filled, rainbow, ombre, designs, etc. AND you guys already know my love of mash-ups, so the logical decision was to make an ultimate mash-up - a layer cake with a bunch of everyones favorite desserts!


I brought this to a family party and it was totally eaten up! I think there's enough in it to satisfy anyone's sweet tooth!

See all the details over here at sheknows.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Cat in the Hat - Sprinkle Inside Surprise Cookies



Woo! It's March which means spring is right around the corner AND it's Dr. Seuss' birthday (March 2nd!). I love this time because usually there all kinds of fun Read Across America and Dr. Seuss activities happening at the kid's school.  And who doesn't love Dr. Seuss?!!

To celebrate this year I made some Cat in the Hat sugar cookies.


To start I used some store bought sugar cookie dough.  I didn't have a cookie cutter that would work, so I just printed out the Cat's Hat and cut out the cookies by hand.  To save more time I used Wilton's Color Mist spray to give the red color to the hat and an edible marker in black for the detail.    


Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch and cut out the hats using the image as the guide - I would refrigerate or freeze the cut out cookies if you have the time.  Freezing allows the cookies keep their shape better when baking.  If you don't have the patience (like I didn't) - if you bake the cookies and they puff out and loose their shape too much, you can re-cut out the hat shape while the cookies are still warm and soft.  That actually worked pretty well for me.  


I've also been dying to make those cool "piñata" or surprise inside cookies too so gave it a go.  You'll need 3 cut out hats for each cookie.  One for the bottom, one cookie for the middle - with center cut out so you can fill that area with sprinkles, and one cookie for the top.  Add Cat in the Hat colored sprinkles to the center of the cookie.  Attach the cookies together with some melted vanilla candy wafer (you could use your favorite melting chips too).

I used red, blue, white, and black colored sprinkles from various mixes I already had in the cupboard.
Spray the red hat sections with the color mist.  I used a pieces of parchment paper to only show the section of the cookie I wanted to spray with color (the spray is a bit wet when it goes on and can bleed onto the other parts of your cookie if you are not careful with this part).  Once the spray is dry, add the detail with a black edible marker.  I followed the hat details on my printed image. 


The best part is breaking it open! 


It was also pretty neat hearing the sprinkles when you shake the cookies! 


Super Fun!



And just think only a few weeks until Spring - I think most of us have had way too much of snow & winter!  It's snowing again in Jersey as I type.  Thanks for stopping by and have an AWESOME week!

Here are some other Dr. Seuss themed treats you may like: