Edible Moss Covered Cake Bites with Mini Bunnies

Spring is finally here! In the Northeast we finally have temperatures in the 70s (today 80!) with nothing but sun in the 7 day forecast.  Yay!! The warm weather feels awesome.

I needed another spring treat and I've had this idea for cake bites rolled in edible moss on my to do list since last year.  

These came together pretty quickly because I started with some whoopie pies as the cake bite mixture.  They have the perfect amount of cake to icing ratio for cake bites too.  Crush them up, roll them into balls, dip them in melted chocolate, sprinkle with "moss" and make them more woodsy with a little bunny on top. 

I love these tiny chocolate bunnies!

The edible moss is only crushed graham crackers with a little green food gel added.

Add the miniature bunny after you sprinkle with moss but before the chocolate hardens.

Not only are they super cute for Spring or Easter (if you celebrate) but they are pretty yummy too.

I keep trying to talk my kiddos into a woodland themed birthday party - unfortunately they are not really into it.  Such a bummer because I totally am and these would be perfect little additions to a woodland themed party table.  My twins do turn 10 this month (10!!!) so I do have a couple of cakes to make.  Follow along with the birthday prep on my Instagram #maxandgretaturn10 - I'll be sharing the cakes and other prep this month!

Spring Cake Bites with Edible Moss and Mini Bunnies

by Michelle Clausen April 11 - 2017

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cups of edible moss (crushed graham crackers tinted with 2-3 drops of green food gel)
• 4 large chocolate whoopie pies (or 6 cupcakes plus 1/2 cup of vanilla frosting)
• 1 and 1/2 cups of chocolate chips
• Bag of Russell Stover Chocolate Mini Bunnies (see link below)

Instructions

1. Crush whoopie pies until crumbly and frosting is mixed in well.  Roll into balls and refrigerate 10 minutes.
2. Melt chips in microwave safe bowl in 20 second intervals until melted.
3. Dip cake bites in chocolate tapping off excess.
4. Sprinkle with edible moss until there is a coating all over bite.
5. Top immediately with a mini bunny.
6. Let harden 15 minutes.

Prep time: 35 minutes Yield: about 18-20 cake bites

You may also like these treats with edible moss!

Terrarium Pudding Cups

Woodland Gnome Cupcakes

Rainbow Carrot Sugar Cookies

Happy April all! I've got an edible cookie craft this week for ya.  You all know my fascination with rainbow foods right?? Well I can't get enough of rainbow carrots.  I first ran into them at Trader Joes and had to buy a bunch.  I mean look how cool they look!

I made rainbow carrot cupcakes with them already so I felt the need to recreate them in some other sweet treat.  Like in cookie form.

So you get rainbow carrot shaped sugar cookies!

I used store-bought sugar cookie dough to speed up the process but tried to use all natural powders to tint the dough.  I've been on a healthy eating kick so have been trying to also avoid food gels - not totally but I do like to try to get cool vibrant colors without the added dyes.  

And I love the way these colors came out.  Carrot powder, red hibiscus powder, turmeric, and powdered freeze dried blueberries (I did add a bit of food gel to the last one because I wanted a deeper blue/purple color).  

Then just shape your carrots with the dough.  It's easy because they don't need to be perfect or all the same size.  That's what makes these multi colored carrots so fun.

I did freeze the cookies for about 15 minutes before baking as I was hoping they would hold their shape a bit more - but you can see they do flatten a bit.

But I still think they look pretty unique and carrot like - or maybe like peppers - rainbow peppers??

Melt some green candy wafers and attach some carrot "stems" aka edible Easter grass.  You can find this fun stuff in the Easter candy aisles of your favorite retail or drug store or Amazon of course!

The powders don't really add much flavor to the cookies but they do add some great natural color to the cookies.  Serve both this Easter - some rainbow carrots as a side dish and then some rainbow carrot (or pepper!) cookies for dessert!

Thanks for "hopping" by! And Happy Spring and almost Easter to those who celebrate!

Rainbow Carrot Sugar Cookies

by Michelle Clausen April 2 - 2017

Ingredients

• 1 roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough (or your favorite sugar cookie recipe)
• 1/2 cup light green melting candy wafers/melts
• Green edible grass
• Powders for tinting dough (2 teaspoons of each hibiscus powder, powdered freeze dried blueberries, turmeric, carrot) - I did use a little purple food gel to get a deeper purple color

Instructions

1. Divide cookie dough into 5 even sections
2. Kneed powder colors into cookie dough.  For deeper colors you can add 1 drop of food gel.
3. Take sections of each color and roll into carrot shapes and lay onto cookie sheet. 
4. Freeze cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until cookies are just barely starting to brown.
6. Melt green candy wafers in microwave safe bowl in 10-15 second intervals.
7. Add some candy to top of each carrot and attach some of the edible grass as stems.
8. Let harden 10 minutes.

Prep time: 60 minutes Yield: about 30 carrot cookies

   

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!

Mini Easter Basket Spring Cupcakes

Hey All! Did you know Easter is this month? I just realized that a couple days ago.  It's March 27th so earlier this year instead of in April.  So it's a good thing I started thinking about Easter treats earlier than normal this year.  

Tiny things are my favorite.  I love anything tiny or mini - you know stuff that's usually normal size.  

And tiny Easter baskets with mini decorated eggs?! Heck yes!

One of my favorite candies that comes out in the Spring is Cadbury Mini Eggs.  Yummy chocolate covered with a sugar shell.  Totally delish.  This year I found them in all white eggs.  

I knew they would be perfect to decorate like little Easter eggs using edible food writers.

I have yet to dye actual hard boiled eggs with my kids.  Is that terrible or what?? In my defense, when they were little I just couldn't deal with the mess that it made.  My kids are only 2 years apart and with a set of twins it was just too much chaos for here for awhile! We did decorate eggs with stickers, markers or we did egg hunts with filled plastic eggs in the backyard.  We just never did the dunk and dye them part.  Plus they don't like hard boiled eggs so no one would ever eat them! Now since they are 11 and almost 9, I kinda think its too late to start that tradition. 

But I usually do find an activity for them to do so I got them to help decorate these little mini eggs this year and they loved it.  They got creative decorating and it was pretty quick - not to mention no mess ;)

The baskets are made using a plastic mold that was a frozen food tray.  It was the perfect size and shape for the basket part of an Easter basket.  The handles are made from pieces of licorice.

Super cute little Easter baskets.  Add them to cupcakes or your favorite sweet treat!

Thanks for stopping by! Can't wait for the Spring weather to come back and hang around for long long while!

How to Make Mini Easter Basket Cupcakes

Makes 12-15 Cupcakes

Total time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 box of cake mix
• 1 can of frosting tinted green
• 1/2 cup of melting candy wafers in various colors (for the basket)
• Licorice in rainbow colors
• Edible grass
• Cadbury mini eggs in white
• Edible food writers in various colors

Directions:

1. For baskets: melt each color in microwave safe bowl in 25 second intervals.  Stir until melted.  Spread candy along sides and bottom of mold (as in picture).  Refrigerate for 5 minutes.  Once candy is hardened pop candy out of mold. 
2. Cut lengths of licorice long enough to make a handle and reach each side of basket.  Use some leftover melted candy to attach as basket handle.  Hold in place until candy hardens. 
3. Add some edible grass to basket.
4. For eggs: decorate mini eggs with edible food writers in various designs (dots, stripes, hearts, etc)
5. Prepare cupcakes as per the box directions.
6. Pipe icing on with grass decorating tip onto cupcakes.
7. Add basket on top of each cupcake.

Spring Carrot Gardens Made from Cereal Treats

The 60-70 degree weather on the East Coast is definitely putting me in the mood do some gardening.  Every spring we re-plant an herb garden and have been trying some vegetables here and there.  Last year we grew edamame and jalapeños.  The jalapeño plant went nuts and since you can only eat so many of them I usually left random care packages of Sugar Swings treats and jalapeños with friends.  Not odd at all right??  This year we will be trying to grow our own heirloom tomatoes so wish me luck!  I haven't tried growing carrots yet, but I think I might want to try planting some rainbow ones.  I used them awhile back to make some carrot cupcakes and I love the colors.  Aren't they so pretty?! 

Until I can grow my own real ones, I made an all edible carrot garden from cereal treats.  You can tint the cereal/marshmallow mix orange and shape like carrots or slice into the "garden" to see them "growing" inside.  

I wasn't so sure how this one would come out but I think you can see the carrot shapes in the cocoa krispies "dirt" for a different twist on the surprise inside treat.  Check out the details on how to make the carrot garden here at sheknows!

Thanks for stopping by and definitely get out to enjoy the weather!

PS if you have any tips on growing heirloom tomatoes please leave them in the comments below! THANKS!

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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Heart Shaped Baseballs & Pretzel Bats

Yay, it's that time again.  Baseball Season! Woooooo!

After the the non-stop snowy winter we just had, I'm so looking forward to some spring-time baseball.  MLB of course, but this year 2 of my kiddos are also starting little league and T-ball for their first seasons, which means we will probably be out at the ball fields a lot this spring.  

And this past February, one of the kidlets got this valentine:

So stinkin' cute, right? I tucked it away knowing I had to try to re-create it in edible form.  

Start with some heart shaped chocolate candies.  I used York Peppermint Patties, but you can use other heart shaped chocolates if you don't like peppermint.  I stocked up on some after Valentine's Day!

Dip them in white chocolate or vanilla candy melting wafers.  Once the candy hardens, add the detail on with more red candy wafers.  I add some to a zip lock bag and microwave briefly for a few seconds at a time until you can snip an end of the baggie and "pipe" on the detail.  

The bats are pretzel rods, broken in half and a little chocolate added on the end and more detail done with an edible food writer.  And yeah, I know they look more like little plungers versus bats, but just humor me for the rest of the post.  Tanks!

Oh and if you're a New York Yankees fan you know this is Derek Jeter's last season.  I know there are as many Yankee haters out there as fans, but come on The Captain is retiring this year after spending his entire professional career as a Yankee.  So. Impressive.  He's been a phenomenal player over the years and a great sports role model too.  Rare in the era of sports scandals year after year.  So I made some Yankee hearts in celebration! Here's hoping he was has an awesome last season.  Let's Go Yankees! Clap clap - clap clap clap.

Ok, I'll stop the gushing over Jeter now.  

Even if you're not a baseball fan, I think these little baseball hearts are still fun.  A perfect way to show the love for baseball season.  I'm also keeping them in mind for next year's Valentine's Day! 

PS You might like these other candies made out of peppermint patties

Candy Foxes

Owl Valentines

Owl Cupcake Toppers

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