Cute Animal Madeleine Cookie Pops (a la Trendy Animal Cakes)

Do you love all the trendy animal themed cakes going around the interwebs? 

The most famous is the unicorn cake of course.  

I recently made one for my daughter's 11th birthday along with a Marvel themed cake for her twin!

I really wanted to make all the animals in cake form but then I got realistic and decided on madeleine cookie pops.

I have a madeleine pan that my sister gave me years ago and I love using it.  1) Because the madeleine cookie recipe is so simple and 2) Madeleine cookies are one of my favs because they are more like little cakes!

Once baked and cooled I used various colors of candy melts/chocolates and sprinkles to transform them into cute animals.  

Fox & Bear

Bunny Rabbit & Sheep

Deer & Llama

 And of course a Narwhal & Unicorn!

I love seeing them all together and if I had more time would have loved to add other cute animals to the collection! Don't forget to add those trendy closed eyes with eyelashes!

Wrap them up and bring them to a summer party or use as party gifts.

Which is your fav animal??

Thanks for swinging by - is it summer or winter where you live?

Flag Shaped Coconut Macaroons

Any coconut fans out there? How about coconut macaroons?

I'm not talking about the super trendy macarons that are everywhere now.   I mean macaroons, the sweet and mostly coconut-y treats that I personally love!

I thought red, white and blue macaroons would be fun and I wanted to shape them into US flags for the 4th of July holiday.  Start by making a batch of macaroon batter divided into 3 bowls.  Leave one bowl as is and tint the other 2 with red and blue food gels.

Shape into flags and add non-pareil sprinkles as "stars" or use star sprinkles if you have them.

Bake until just done for about 15 minutes (depending on size of your flags and your oven) but watch them and take out at the first sign of browning of edges.

If you have coconut fans then these fun flag shaped macaroons will definitely be a hit!

Bring them to a party for a unique sweet treat!

Happy Fourth of July to those who celebrate! How do you plan to spend your 4th of July??

Red, White and Blue Flag Shaped Macaroons

by Michelle Clausen July 3, 2018

Ingredients:

1 and 1/3 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1/3 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
2 large egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
red and blue food gel
white small non-pareil sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Add all ingredients (up to vanilla) together in bowl and mix well
3. Divide mixture into 3 bowls
4. Add red gel to one of the bowls and blue food gel to another
5. Shape into flags using the mixtures (use spoon to drop mix onto baking sheet and butter knife to keep edges straight)
6. Add sprinkles as "stars" on to blue section
7. Bake for 15 minutes (depending on size of your flags and your oven) but watch them and take out at the first sign of browning of edges.

Prep time: 30 minutes Yield: about 12 macaroons.  Stores 1-2 days at room temperature (or 2 weeks refrigerated - you can also freeze them to last longer)


Other coconut treats you may like:

Star Wars - Chewbacca and Wampa Macaroons

Coconut Covered Cake Bite Bunnies

Mini Snow Ball Cake Bites

Snow Monster Cupcakes

HBO's Westworld Cupcakes

Any Westworld fans out there? 

Westworld is HBO's series about artificial intelligence, robots, and how they're being used for parks and recreation in addition to other dark and mysterious projects.

Spoiler alert!!! Do Not read on if you aren't caught up!

In this second season we've learned that the robots aka "hosts" are powered by a "brain" that you can extract and view their programming and memories.  Host brains or power sources are white.  

They are also attempting to clone humans and actually upload a person's consciousness.  Those are the red "brains".

As soon as I saw them I thought they looked like cupcakes so just had to make some host and clone "brain" cupcakes!  I know it's a little weird and dark but they do!

You can see more about how these white "brains" work here and apparently you can take them out and hook them up to any tech.  They must have universal ports!

Also what we're learning is that there are orbs inside that are printed with a human's "consciousness".  They may be called chestnuts and we've only seen the red ones.  I don't know yet if the robot hosts also have orbs but I made them anyway (out of cake bite mixture) for symmetry!

Red orbs are red velvet cake bites and white orbs are funfetti cake bites - well because the robot hosts are more fun at this point in the series.

Take each of the cake bites and put them in the center of the cupcakes aka power sources.

Then bake up as normal

Frost with some red frosting for the clone "brains"

And white for the host brains

Then enjoy!

The series is exploring some really deep stuff like what does it really mean to be human.  Or should humans live forever.  Or if robots evolve to consciousness do they become human.  Really deep stuff that makes my mind hurt sometimes thinking about these things.  That said the show is great and I really enjoy it immensely each Sunday! (and yay it's Sunday!)

Maybe the better solution is a little bit of both

Have a great week and thanks for swinging by!

Alice in Wonderland PEEPS Pops

Time to make the PEEPS Pops again! 

Over the years I've made a bunch of stuff out of marshmallow PEEPS.  They are one of my fav brands to create with.  My go to edible craft is making pops out the Spring bunny PEEPS.  

See more of my PEEPS crafts here!

And another of my favorites is Alice in Wonderland! Hopefully you can recognize some of the characters in PEEPS pop form!

Start with bunny PEEPS and add a popsicle stick to them (secure the stick with a little melted white chocolate)

 Then dip them in melted white chocolate chips.

 The rest of the detail is done with mostly melted candy melts in an assortment of colors and various types of candy sprinkles.

All the characters are awesome and unique and remind me of my childhood since I watched the cartoon movie (circa 1951!) a lot as a kid.   

The Cheshire Cat, Caterpillar, Alice, and the White Rabbit are my absolute favs!

The Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts came out a little wonky - but that's ok they are kinda wonky characters anyway so it fits! 

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum plus a couple Eat Me/Drink Me PEEPS round out the set.

Who's your favorite Alice in Wonderland Character? 

Thanks for swinging by and Happy Easter to those who celebrate!

See more of my PEEPS crafts here!

Candy Dipped Marshmallow Bunnies for Easter

Although we just got about 2 feet of snow dumped on us from all the Nor'easters the past couple of weeks it actually feels like Spring is around the corner as we have had some bright and sunny days lately.  

Plus with daylight savings back in effect, it's staying light longer which is always nice.  I hate leaving for work when it's still dark outside and getting home when it's already dark!  

Making some cute bunnies have been on the "to do" list and since we were snowed in one of the weekends it seemed like a good time to do some marshmallow dipping!

Anything in many or rainbow colors gets me every time, like these fruit flavored marshmallows I found in my local food store.

I have melting candy wafers in almost every color so I melted up a bunch and got to dipping!

Bunny ears where made ahead of time by adding some of the melted candy to a zip lock bag, snipping an end and pipping "ears" onto parchment.  Once they are hardened (only takes about 5-10 minutes) you can pick them up and add to the top of each dipped marshmallow.  Do this while the candy is still wet.  After a minute or so the ears should stand up on their own.

Use white vanilla melted candy (or white chocolate) to add to the top of each bunny around the ears.  Before it hardens add your favorite sprinkles - I used rainbow sugar sprinkles.

And because I love those popular unicorn cakes - I did similar faces for these bunnies! I just dipped a paint brush (I only use for food) into some black food gel and paint the closed eyes with lashes.  You could use an edible food writer but I find they don't work as well on candy melt coated stuff.

I was going to use cute mini heart sprinkles as bunny noses but alas did not have any so went with pastel colored non-pareil sprinkles for a button nose.  These are cuter than the heart sprinkles!

Paint on some more melted candy for the ear detail.

And don't forget the cotton tail! (more melted white candy)

Oh and check it out if you add them to cupcakes they look like little bunny ballerinas!

Cutie McCuterson!

I love when you bite inside you see the pastel color marshmallow too! 

These little bunnies are perfect Easter baskets or to welcome Spring back! 

What's on your Spring to do list??

Rainbow Fortune Cookies

Making home made fortune cookies have been on my to do list for a long time.  I've loved them ever since I got my first Chinese take out many moons ago.  My kiddos also love these crunchy little cookies too.  

I mean really who doesn't like fortune cookies??

And because of my love for all that is rainbow - I decided to try to make some rainbow striped ones for Saint Patrick's Day.

The cookie batter is really simple and made with just egg whites, sugar, butter, vanilla, flour, and water.  These have food coloring as well.  Once the batter is mixed, divide it up until small bowls and tint each your favorite rainbow colors.

You do need to do only a 2-3 cookies at a time since you need to work with them quickly once they bake.  For the rainbow effect, add the batter to plastic bags, snip an end and pipe the colors.  Having a 3 inch circle template may help you keep the lines even. 

Once the cookies bake (only 7 minutes) add your fortune then fold the cookie over and then bend it into the fortune cookie shape.  (Be careful they may be hot!)

Place them in a muffin tin until they cool and keep their shape.

I wasn't sure how well they'd come out especially since I didn't do a plain test batch to try out the technique but watching some YouTube videos definitely helps! I used this one:

And you get to come up with your own fun fortunes!

Make some rainbow fortune cookies for your favorite little leprechauns this Saint Patrick's Day!

Directions:

Recipe and directions for original fortune cookies can be found here at Fifteen Spatulas.

• For these rainbow fortune cookies follow the same recipe
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Divide batter into small bowls and add 2-3 drops of your favorite colors of food gel
• Cut 3 inch circle templates (3) and add them under parchment paper
• Add each batter color to a plastic baggie.  Snip an end of each and pipe rows of color following your circle template
• Bake for 7 mins (edges will be just slightly golden)
• Working quickly, flip cookies over add fortune to each and fold cookie in half
• Bend cookies over the lip of a cup to get your fortune cookie shape
• Place in muffin tin until cookies cool and hold their shape