Winter Birds & Birch Trees Graham Cracker Treats

Hi all - Happy New Year and Welcome to 2018! 

I know it's been the new year for at least 1/2 a month already so I guess that means I'm already behind!  

I did finally get around to making a new treat though - so that's a win!  

I've made decorated graham crackers a few times before (see below post) and I've had an idea for more jelly bean birds - but this time on pretzels decorated like little birch trees.

Start with some graham crackers as your "canvas" 

Dip pretzel sticks into white chocolate (as your "birch trees) and add to the graham crackers

Since these are winter scenes - add more white chocolate as "snow" and before hardened add jelly beans in various colors as they will be the winter birds

Use an edible marker to add birch tree rings - or you can just paint it on using black or brown food gel

Add more birds - eyes are made with the edible marker and beak/feet with some yellow candy melting wafers

Add a border with more melted chocolate and some sprinkled powdered sugar as more background snow

 Perfect little winter bird scenes to go along with the frigid temps in the Northeast coast!

Here are some other easy decorated graham crackers or jelly bean bird treats you might like:

Candy Valentines on Chocolate Graham Crackers

Autumn Tree Graham Crackers

Winter Scene Graham Crackers

Bird on a Wire Graham Crackers

Winter Birds on Mini Chairs and Trees

Winter Bird on Mini Chairs & Trees Cupcakes

Hey all! I'm trying to get myself into the holiday spirit since we're only about 2 weeks away from Christmas (and Hanukkah too!)

I've used jelly bean birds a bunch of times (scroll down to see more!) so I thought I'd try some little winter birds this time around.

I also love love LOVE mini things so thought they'd be cute on some mini chairs or trees.

The chairs are made from pretzel sticks "glued" together with some chocolate.

The chairs have a nice rustic look and are perfect perches for these little birdies!

I love Jelly Belly jelly beans because they have great colors and some look almost mottled and very much like bird colorings already.  Add some little details - super easy with some melted candy - and you get some cute little winter birds.  Don't forget to add simple eyes with a black food writer!

The trees are made from Hershey's Bells and Kisses stacked on top of each other.  Use whatever flavor you like since it gets covered in green melted candy wafers.  I used peppermint to go along with the winter theme.

Use your favorite cupcake recipe and white frosting as snow.

Put all of it together to make a fun little winter scene.

And don't worry about being perfect with you candy melt "piping"! Small details are needed and it doesn't take a lot of skill.  Once you practice on one or 2 birds it gets easy and the results are super cute!  

Making these cupcakes really did help to get me in the winter holiday spirit!

Thank you for swinging by and have an AMAZING weekend!  Take time to enjoy the moments and don't forget to spread some kindness in the world!

Little Birds on Pretzel Chairs and Tree Cupcake Toppers

by Michelle Clausen December 9 -2016

Ingredients

• Pretzel sticks
• 1 cup chocolate chips or chocolate candy melts 
• Assorted color jelly belly beans
• 1/4 cup of black, blue, red, and yellow candy melts
• Black food writer
• Hershey's Kisses and Hershey's Bells chocolate candy
• 1 cup of green candy melts
• Star sprinkles
• White non-pareil sprinkles
• 12 of your favorite cupcakes with white icing

Instructions:

1. To make chairs.  Break or cut pretzel sticks into sizes (2 long and 9 smaller pieces) 
2. Melt chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and add to a freezer bag.  Snip and end and add some chocolate to pretzel stick and attach as in picture to "glue" chair together.  Let harden at least 15 minutes before moving. Repeat for as many chairs as you need.
3. For birds: Select jelly beans colors you like.  I like Jelly Belly as they are a little mottled which make great birds! Melt each color wafer in a microwave safe bowl and add to a small freezer bag.  Snip and end and add some details to birds (beak, wings, top feathers) as in pictures or use your creativity!  Let harden at least 5-10 minutes or until candy is dry. 
4. For trees: Melt green wafers in a microwave safe bowl and add to a small freezer bag.  Snip and attach Kiss to Bell to make tree shape.  Add more candy to outside of chocolate to make green trees.  Before candy dries, add either bird or star sprinkle on top (candy must be starting to harden to easily attach or you can hold it in place until candy is firm enough to hold it in place).  Before candy dries also add some white non-pareil sprinkles on outside of trees.
5. Once chairs are ready, use more melted candy and attach birds to chairs randomly.
6. Add trees, birds, and chairs to iced cupcakes as toppers.

Prep time: 60 mins Yield: 12 cupcakes

Other Jelly Belly Birds treats you may like!

Bird on a Wire Graham Crackers

Mini Birdhouse Treats

Jelly Bean Bird Pretzel Snacks

Halloween Sugar Wafer Houses

Winter themed graham cracker treats

During the holiday season I like to make fun but quick treats for the kids.  Since I work full-time out of the house and have 3 kids in elementary school, things get hectic and busy (as I'm sure it does in every house these days).  The love graham crackers so I use them as "canvases" all the time.  

These are my latest little winter scene graham crackers.  Cute, fun and I think it took me 1/2 to throw them together.  I think they would make great class treats or teacher gifts too.  Use all sorts of flavors graham crackers too :)

See the details here at sheknows!

I'm still recovering from the #12daysofStarWars countdown - 12 treats in 12 days was a lot! It was  fun though so if you missed it you can see the last post and recap here.  And we did see the movie this weekend! I won't give any spoilers but I'm sure all fans (the old and new) will love it.  JJ Abrams did a great job and it has everything you think it should.  

See the recap here!

And a very Merry almost Christmas if you celebrate!

Halloween Sugar Wafer Mini Houses

I made mini sugar wafer houses - again! I made them a few months back for sheknows and they came out super cute so when I spotted sugar wafers made in cookies and creme and orange creamsicle flavors and I thought they'd make perfect little Halloween houses.  And they did!

You do need to do a little cutting but its not very complicated.  

Once you have the sections cut out, use melted white chocolate chips or melting candy wafers as glue to hold everything together.

Then decorate with seasonal candies and sprinkles to make them Halloween houses.  I added more little birds too.  Little birds with candy corn hats - because, Halloween.

I think they'd be such a cute addition to any Halloween party - maybe as a place card setting?!

Or wrapped up as Halloween party favors!

I had so much fun making these too.  They are made of all the stuff I love Halloween sprinkles, mini, little birds, sugar wafers! Win - win - win - and win!

The countdown to Halloween is on - are you dressing up this year??  How many Star Wars characters do you think there will be? I'm guessing a lot!

Halloween Sugar Wafer Houses

Yields 8-10

Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 package cookies and cream and orange cream sugar wafers— you will need about 3-4 wafers per house (depending on how large the wafers are)
• 2 cups white melting candy wafers or white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup black melting wafers
• Jelly beans - black, white, and orange
• Yellow melting candy wafers (for bird details)
• Black food writer 
• Halloween candies or sprinkles
• Candy pumpkins and candy corn

Directions:

1. For the house, cut 2 sugar wafers to give them pointed ends — these pieces will be the front and back of your house.
2. Then, cut 1 piece of rectangular-shaped sugar wafer — these will be the bottom of your house. It should be longer than the width of your pointed wafers as the birds/pumpkins will need to sit on the end of these pieces.
3. Cut 2 rectangular shapes for the roof. Cut them long enough to cover the pointed sides of your first pieces. Use the pictures above as a guide.
4. Melt candy wafers or chips in a Ziplock bag in the microwave in 10 second intervals until all melted. Snip the corner of one end to pipe the candy.
5. Add some melted candy to the pointed sugar wafers and "glue" them together. Glue the pointed sugar wafers on top of your base while making sure there is enough room at the end for your birds/pumpkins. Glue the pieces that will be your roof on each side of the pointed sugar wafers. You may need to experiment with your first house to see what will be the right fit. Cut a small piece of wafer and glue it to the very top of the birdhouse to give it a more completed look.
6. Add melted white chips and black candy wafers to add doors.  Once dried pipe a small door knob.  
7. Attach Halloween candies and pumpkins with more melted candy.
8. Using yellow melting wafers, attach jelly beans to the ends of your bird houses or on roof. Add the beaks and feet with yellow melting wafers.
9. Add bird eyes with a black food writer.  For black birds add white eyes with melted white chips.
10. For bird hats, use white and black melted chips/wafers and pipe a dime sized disc onto parchment paper.  Cut candy corns in half and add the pointed tip (wider side down) into the melted candy while still wet.  Let harden for 10 mins.  Once hardened attach hat to jelly beans with more melted chips/wafers.

See the these other Mini Sugar Wafer Birdhouses here

Mini birdhouse treats with jelly bean birds

I almost can't stand how cute these little sugar wafer bird houses came out! I love those sugar wafers that you can find in almost any convenience store these days.  Strawberry is my fav but they even come in some other fun flavors too like lemon and cookies and cream! 

Who knew they would make such a neat building material - and all edible.

And the jelly bean birdies really do tie the room together ;)

See all the cuteness here at sheknows!

Jelly Bean Bird Pretzel Snacks - Guest Post over at Hungry Happenings

Hi All, I'm guest posting over at Hungry Happenings today while Beth is enjoying a great vacation over on the other side of the pond.  Beth has inspired me so much over the years and her creativity seems never ending!

Pop over to see these more of these Little Birdie Pretzel Snacks.  They are so easy to make.  Beth hope you are having a fantastic vacay and thanks so much for having me over at your place!

Birds on a Wire Graham Cracker Cookies...!

So guess what my new favorite food to work with is??!  Graham Crackers! For Easter I posted these graham cracker bars and found these tasty crackers an awesome canvas to work on.  And who doesn't like graham crackers??? I think it's a rule that you have to love them, I mean they give them to people in the hospital, so it must be loved by all, right??

My kids love the cinnamon flavored ones, but they also come in honey or chocolate flavored but even plain old graham crackers are awesome.  PLUS for me they are a huge time saver because these could have also been done on sugar cookies, but that's an extra step and all that was needed for the base of these "cookies" was to tear open a new pack.

The birds on a wire idea came to me while I was staring at all the left over jelly beans we had from Easter, and we had A LOT! But I love all the fun colors they come in.  I also saw these super cute M and M chicks from Sweet Simple Stuff, which inspired these birdies!  And really this entire cookie is so easy to make:

• Take your jelly beans and add a yellow or orange candy melt beak (add a little bit of candy wafer to a zip lock bag and microwave until just melted, snip an end and "pipe" on).  You could also just melt the wafers in a microwave safe bowl and dip a fork or toothpick in to add the beak.
• Use an edible food writer to add eyes  

• Break graham crackers into squares
• For the sky background use blue and white candy melts mixed together 
• Add "wires" with some melted chocolate for the birds to sit on
• Add your jelly bean birds while the candy melt is still wet
• Pipe on some little bird feet
• Add a candy melt border in white to make it pretty as a picture!

And you get some fun and colorful (not to mention super easy) "cookies" to welcome the birds back for spring.  I love the look of the speckled jelly beans for the birdies! You could always use regular cookies for these or royal icing in place of the candy wafers, really, whatever you happen to have handy.  For me I always have candy melt hanging around in a rainbow of colors.

Anyhoo, hope you like them and thanks as always for stopping by! The weather forecast is for warmer temps in the Northeast, so I'm hoping that means spring is here to stay.  

Here are some other super cute candy birdie treats for you to enjoy!

Easter cupcakes with bird nests
Easy blue birdies
White chocolate candy filled chicks
Baby bird nest pretzels
M and M chicks

Sharing with these fun bloghops too!

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Weekend Wander

AND look at all this fun cupcake related stuff out there too! I'm guessing the cupcake trend is here to stay!