Penguin Valentines Day Candies

One of my kiddo's teachers loves penguins.  I mean LOVES penguins.  He's had so many penguin themed homework and projects that I couldn't not make her some penguin themed Valentines Day goodies this year. 

And I kinda have a thing for making cute animals from candy - and specifically York Peppermint Patties.  Making them into penguins was really simple too you just need the peppermint patties, some candy melt or melting chips, and assorted candies/sprinkles to add detail.  You can make 2 different sizes to make small and mini penguins since the patties come in miniature and mini sizes.   I didn't realize miniature and mini meant small and even smaller, but whatever, it works!

Attach other ingredients with some melted white chocolate chips or vanilla candy melt.  To make them for Valentines Day I added little heart sprinkles that their little wings hardly are holding.  

I think the tiny ones are my favs.

Which do you like better?

OR

You can make some penguins standing up too! The base is one of the peppermint patty minis and the penguin body is a mini chocolate Easter egg.  Candy melt is used to attach the body to the base (to look like snow) and more candy to attach the black round sprinkle eyes, and sunflower seeds (yellow beak, black wings, and orange feet).  These guys are holding a Valentines Day conversation heart.  Why? Well penguins can't talk - so they need a way to ask you to be their Valentine, right? 

OK, now which do you like better? The miniature penguins, the tiny mini penguins or the standing up penguins? That's a lot of penguins so his teacher better love this all penguin themed Valentines Day goodies!

Happy February everyone! Looks like there is snow in the forecast again for us in NJ.  Let's hope the weather peeps get this one right since last week was pretty much a bust for NY/NJ.  Seems like MA got all the snow which I think they are still digging out from! Have an AWESOME week!

You might like these other animal treats made from Peppermint Patties:

Candy Fox Faces

Candy Owls

To Make Candy Penguins:

Ingredients:

• Round York Peppermint Patty (in miniature and minis)
• Black candy melts/wafers - cut in half for wings on larger sized penguin
• Vanilla candy melt/wafers or chips
• Assorted color candy coated sunflower seeds (I use Sunny Seeds)
• Black round sprinkles (large and small size for eyes)
• Yellow sprinkles (for feet and beak for smallest penguin)
• Heart sprinkles

To Assemble:

1. Follow pictures above and using melted vanilla candy melt/chips "pipe" on white area of penguin.
2. While candy is still wet, attach penguin wings with half of the black candy wafer or black candy coated sunflower seed (for tiny one)
3. Attach eyes, beak, heart sprinkle, feet
4. Once candy is hardened you can enjoy or package up for Valentines Day

Cereal Snowmen made from Mini Wheats & Marshmallow Trees

Happy New Year Peeps! Hard to believe it's now 2015, but I can tell its definitely Winter.   How? Well because it's SO.COLD.OUTSIDE!  Commuting into NYC in this weather is not so fun.  It's that painful cold where you can't move your fingers in a few minutes.  I think I'm gonna officially start my countdown to Spring - 67 days!

But in the meantime I made some snowmen.  A little army of snowmen made from cereal.  Mini Wheat cereal to be more specific and as if mini was not small enough the fun folks at Kelloggs made Little Bites Mini Wheats that are half the size of Mini Wheats! They made mini minis!  Thank you Kelloggs people.  

OK I know they might look a little like penguins, so feel free to call them Snow Penguins.

You guys know anything mini works for me so I had to scoop up a box.

The snowmen are made by "gluing" the mini wheats together with some melted vanilla chips/melting wafers.  To get them to stand, add a blob of melted candy to parchment paper and while still wet, add the snowman.  Once the candy hardens they will be sturdy and stand on their own. 

Their scarves are made from fruit flavored Tootsie Rolls.  To make them, microwave a Tootsie Roll for 5 seconds (to make it flexible) then roll candy flat.  With a knife or pizza cutter, cut out strips for the scarves.  Trim the ends to make it look more scarf-like!

Noses are a candy coated sunflower seed.  I use Sunny Seeds because they are so tasty!  Snowman eyes and buttons are different sized black sprinkles.  I also added little marshmallow trees for some extra wintery scenery.  They are just made by stacking star shaped marshmallows on top of each other and adding a yellow star sprinkle (also glued with melted vanilla candy wafers).

Enjoy them on their own or add them to cupcakes! Hopefully they make enduring this bitter cold a little bit easier.

Again happy happy New Year and have an awesome week!

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!)

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!