Candy Valentines on Chocolate Graham Crackers

Hey all, it's February and time for all that is pink and red and heart shaped!

I love decorating graham crackers so decided to make some really simple edible valentine day treats made with lots of fun candies of the season.

If you head down the candy aisle you can't miss all the Valentine's Day goodies overflowing.  My kiddos also love chocolate graham crackers so decided decorate them with some of their fav candy.

Marshmallows Peeps, Mike and Ike, and Hot Tamales

And my oldest loves loves LOVES conversation hearts.  As with Peeps you kinda either love them or hate them.  I love Peeps but I'm not into those chalky hearts.  He on the other hand finished off a big bag in a week! Sheesh.  

Putting them together is really simple.  You basically ice a graham cracker with royal icing, add the candy in fun ways - like these flowers or add marshmallow heart Peeps, then let the icing dry.

Have them for a fun valentines day dessert or wrap them up for handing to your Valentines day sweeties!

Chocolate, icing, and candy with some cute sayings - So fun!

Since I can't watch the news these days without getting a headache I think I'll get my motivation from these conversation hearts! They make a lot of sense to me in this seemingly intolerant time we all are living in.

Be kind and empathetic to each other - remember try not to judge unless you've walked a day in someone else's shoes.  Have a great week!

Chocolate Graham Crackers Decorated for Valentines Day

by Michelle Clausen February 2017

Ingredients

• Chocolate graham crackers (or you can use your favorite flavor)
• 1 cup of royal icing
• Assorted candy like Mike and Ike's, Hot Tamales, Valentines Peeps, and Conversation Hearts
• Non-pareil sprinkles

Instructions:

1. Spread royal icing across tops of graham crackers.
2. Add candies to while icing is still wet.  Use Mike and Ike's or Hot Tamales to make flower shapes. I cut them in half but you could leave whole as well.  Add conversation hearts or Valentines Peeps to the centers.  Decorate with more candies as desired.
3. Sprinkle with non-pareil sprinkles.
4. Let dry for at least 2 hours.  
5. Wrap in treat bags or store in airtight container for 1 week.

Prep time: 30 mins Yield: 12-15 square graham crackers

Piped Buttercream Flower Cupcakes (made with Russian piping tips)

Have you seen the neat new piping tips all over the interwebs lately?? If you search "Russian piping tips" you can find all kinds of examples of them and the pretty flowers they let you make.  Needless to say I had to get some.

Look at these neat and detailed designs built into the tips!

To pipe the flowers, start by adding some frosting to plastic wrap.  Use any color(s) you like.  If you want a different color in the center of the flower, use another color in the middle of the frosting.  

Wrap the plastic wrap up so you have a long "log" of buttercream.

Mix and match colors.  That will give you some really pretty colors in your flowers.

Add your tip to a piping bag - they are pretty large.  Cut off the end of the plastic wrap and icing log then insert that end into the icing tip.  Push the icing down until you see the icing coming out of the tip.

Pipe the flower by adding some pressure and pulling up to form the flower.  After a little practice this gets much easier.

For a final touch add some buttercream green leaves.

And you get some perfect little flower cupcakes.  I can't stop making these little fun flowers.  They are easy to make so you can add them to any cupcakes or brownies to bring to parties.  The reaction is always so great because they look like they are hard to make or that you need some major piping expertise.  In reality they are really very simple with these tips.  Save any leftover icing you have from other projects to make these flowers.  Single color flowers are pretty, but the subtle multi color flowers are my favs so far.  I got my tips on Amazon but they are available a lot of places now too.

If you want to see a video of this technique check out Lindsay Ann Bakes! She's awesome and shows you the step by step how to!

Hydrangea Sugar Cookie Cake

Since this Mother's Day we'll be flying back from Orlando, I figured I'd make myself a pretty treat ahead of time.  It's a perfect little treat for Mother's Day or any day actually.  

A sugar cookie cake with homemade vanilla buttercream - the buttercream is tinted shades of blue, purple, and white then piped like hydrangea flowers.  Glory from Glorious Treats made hydrangea cupcakes way back in 2010 - and I tried them back then here.  The same technique is used for this cookie cake by using a large closed star tip (like Wilton 2D) to pipe on the flowers.  You really can't mess it up.  

Mix the colors into one piping bag.  Then pipe away.  

Hydrangeas are one of my all time favorite flavors but I can grow them 1) because I have the worst green thumb and 2) we have deer that think they taste like cupcakes ;)

So this decorated cookie cake was the perfect way to get my hydrangea fix in.  Plus it's very simple but so dang pretty!  Sprinkle on some pearl sugar balls and you're done.

Well except for eating a slice or 2 (or more if it's for Mother's Day!)

Have a great week! And thanks for swinging by!!

PS if you snapchat, I'm trying to figure that out and sharing some fun stuff over there too like my most recent baking fail #chouxpastryisnotmyfriend

@sugarswings

print recipe

Hydrangea Cookie Cake

by Michelle Clausen April-17-2016

Ingredients

• 1 package   refrigerated cookie dough
• 1 batch   buttercream or canned frosting

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
Spray 9 inch cake pan with non-stick spray.
2. Spread sugar cookie dough 1/4 - 1/2 inch across pan.3. Bake for 30 minutes or until just browned on top.
4. Divide frosting or buttercream into 3 bowls and tint one bowl light blue, 1 bowl purple, and leave one un-tinted. Add some of each color to a piping bag fitted with closed star tip.
5. Once cookie is cooled, pipe flowers onto cake.  Add pearl sugar ball sprinkles randomly on top.  Serve!

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 1 hour Yield: 8-10 slices

Spring Hyacinth Flower Cupcakes

Yay, it's spring, it's spring, its SPRING! 

I haven't made cupcakes in so long that now I think I'm on a cupcake binge.  Last week I posted some mini Easter basket cupcakes and for this week here are more spring cupcakes with these super cute hyacinth flower cupcakes.  

Hyacinths are another of my favorite bulb flowers that show up at the beginning of spring.  I love all the pastel colors they come in and those bunches of fragrant tiny flowers look so pretty!

So of course I had to try to make some.  These cupcakes are are a bit more like grape hyacinths but still pretty and very spring-y!

See more details on how to make these little hyacinth toppers here over at sheknows!

I'm always happy for the warm weather to return and see the trees come back to life and flowers blooming.  Now if I can just stop the deer from eating all the blossoms in the yard!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter to all that celebrate!

Summertime Flowers made from Goldfish Crackers and Mini Oreos

Yay, it's Summer! I love summertime and all that goes with it.  The hot summer weather - yes! Even the humid weather? Yes too.  I know that's weird but it doesn't bother me.   Eating yummy summer cool treats? Of course! 

One of my other favorite things about this time of year is all the blooming flowers around.  There are so many colors and types of flowers (well when I can keep the deer we get away from these delicious delicacies).

I decided to make my own summer flowers.  These are really simple and made from Pepperidge Farms Goldfish crackers (they come in all sorts of flavors and colors now), mini Oreo cookies, and pretzel sticks.  

See more details here at she knows

Like flowers too? Then you may also like these Spring Flower Cupcakes

Or these Fall Flower Box Cupcakes

Or these easy Spring Flower Candy Pops

Or these Painted Flower Cookies 

Happy Summer and thanks for stopping by!

Fall Flower Box Cupcakes

I've kinda given up on Summer.  It's already chilly out, the town pool water is plain cold, and all the fall/autumn stuff is out in stores.  So instead of complaining about how fast the summer went by (and believe me I've already done plenty of that), I made cupcakes.  

Fall flower box cupcakes! I found these neat mini loaf pan liners at a local Homegoods a few weeks ago and thought they'd make neat little flower boxes.  AND I also found York Peppermint Patty Minis - I know mini peppermint patties!  Pretty much impossible not to eat a handful at a time.

The flowers (they are supposed to be Fall Mums!) are made with chocolate covered sunflower seeds.  Attach them to the mini peppermint patty with some green candy melt.  The colors of the sunflower seeds definitely remind me of fall colors.

Bake your favorite cake in the mini loaf pan (I used chocolate of course, you know dirt like) then pipe some buttercream leaves and add your candy flowers on top.

And if you can't find these little loaf pans, you can use mini cupcake liners.  Just pipe some buttercream leaves and add a flower on top for simple mini cupcakes.

See pretty too!

Or do both!

Heading up to Canada soon for a last summer vacay and a little detoxing from electronics but I hope you like the cupcakes.  Do they look like mums to you?? Leave a comment and let me know! 

Spring Flower Cupcakes for Donate Life Month

Did you know April is Donate Life Month? The Donate Life organization is trying to increase awareness and the number of registered organ, eye, and tissue donors out there.  Not to go into a lot of detail but the demand far out weighs the supply here.  My 6 year (almost 7!) year old girlie girl had a heart transplant when she was 8 months old.  Had her donor family not decided to donate, well, I don't even want to think about where we would be.  Since then we try to do what we can to increase awareness for the organization and for organ donation in general.

Actually today (April 11th) is Donate Life's #blueandgreenday - and supporters are supposed to get creative with blue and green - the colors of Donate Life.  AND since you probably expect sweets on the blog, I figured I'd get creative with some cupcakes to celebrate spring coming and new beginnings in support Donate Life month.

I started with some Trader Joe's Fruity O's cereal.  It's kinda like the Trader Joe's version of Fruit Loops - but the colors/flavors all come from fruit and veggies.  Glue them into a flower shape with some melted yellow candy melt.

Once dry, I added a pretzel stick stem/leaves attached with more melted candy.  Add some "grass" icing and then add the flowers as toppers to some cupcakes.  Add that's it, so easy.

I also made some Donate Life pretzel snacks.  Blue and Green candy melt on top of square pretzels,   with black candy melt used to write the name on top. Then just plopped some onto the cupcakes too.

And you get some cute spring cupcakes that make my little punkin' pie smile like this:

Thanks for stopping by and if you are not already an organ donor, please consider learning more.  You can visit the Donate Life site to find more information.

We are actually doing a 5K Walk this June in support of the NJ Sharing Network - our local organization supporting organ and tissue donation.  If you'd like to donate to Team Greta, please go here.  Thanks so much!

Click Here to Donate

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Painted Flower Cookies

So if you're a big Hunger Games fan, these cookies are for you.  They are for the release of the 2nd book Catching Fire, in movie form, which will be out in theaters on November 22nd!

I finally read the books last year AFTER the 1st movie came out and I kept seeing all the "Team Peeta" and "Team Gale" memes.  I had to see what all the hullabaloo was about.  Well the books are great and a super fast read so you can even catch up by the time the 2nd movie is released of you're motivated.

One of the themes in the books are flowers.  I mean people are named after flowers in the books and flowers keep showing up here and there in meaningful ways.   And one of the main characters is Peeta Mellark.  He's baker and his super power is being an expert froster - as in cakes and cookies (for reals a frosting expert, read the book!).  So you might be able to guess which team I'd be on!

These cookies were inspired by one of the chapters in Catching Fire, where President Snow and Katniss sit down for a heart to heart and are served some of Peeta's frosted cookies.  So I thought what better way to celebrate the new movie then with some iced cookies with painted/decorated flowers from the book?!

As a disclaimer, I'm in no way, shape, or form an expert cookie decorator.  There are super cookie makers and decorators out there that do an enormously better job like Haniela's, ArtyMcgoo, Baked at 350, The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle, Sweetopia, The Decorated Cookie, just to name a few.  But I attempted some painting on cookies for the first time.  These are cut out gingerbread cookies from a mix then iced with royal icing.  One iced let them sit out overnite to make sure royal icing is totally dried.

Painting was done with food coloring gels mixed with a couple of drops of lemon extract and paint brushed on.  I think you could use any extract or some use vodka, which evaporates after you paint it on.  I painted the flowers free hand from looking at pictures on google.  Since the painted flowers didn't look just right to me, I also added some detail with candy melt in various colors.  It also gave the flowers some depth and dimension, since I couldn't do that with just the painting.

All the flowers are from The Hunger Games books (I hope these are not spoilers but if you haven't read the books and plan to, maybe skip this section!):

Top Row:
Buttercup - the name of the Everdeen's family cat
Nightlock - the berries Katniss and Peeta almost ate to end the first Hunger Games
Dandelion - the flowers that inspired Katniss to hunt and gather to feed her family

Middle Row:
Tiger Lilly - the frosted cookie served to President Snow when he came to visit Katniss at home
Primrose - Katniss's sister and who she volunteered for as tribute
White Rose - the flower President Snow wears and smells of all the time

Bottom Row:
Wildflowers - the flowers Katniss layed on Rue during the first Hunger Games
Katniss - the main character named for a tuber plant found in water with an edible root
Rue - the tribute from District 7 that reminds Katniss of her sister Prim

The books say President Snow smells of roses and blood.  He always wears a white rose, but why the blood smell?? You'll have to read the books!

And if you are not really into The Hunger Games book series, I hope you at least like the flower cookies!  Just don't look too closely at the detail since it's not really even close to how flowers really grow.  But they will do, and of course frosted gingerbread cookies are always tasty and are helping me to ease into the holiday season.

Are you going to go see Catching Fire?? I hope it's as good as the book!

Have an awesome week and may the odds ever be in your favor!

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