Valentine Treats

Need a cute, simple and quick last minute valentine idea?  Here is what we made at our house last night...

 

Aren't they too cute? 

My 5 year old wrote all 20 of her cards herself.  

I was so proud!

Wanna make some?

Here's the low-down...

find some do-dads for the top.

(we used what we had in the cupboard)

red hot hearts

white mini dagrees (little balls)

classic red sprinkles

melt some chocolate

We used this stuff from Michaels.

I heart Michaels

In a really big way.

Seriously, a really big way.

But anyways....

We used our mini muffin tins to keep the jumbo marshmallows from rolling around.  

We dipped the marshmallows 1/4 of the way into the chocolate and then carefully set it back in the tin.  

This is the hardest part!

 We used a little skewer to guide them into the tins without them toppling on their sides.

We topped them with the pretties as we dipped them.

The chocolate dries, so you must work diligently.

We threw them in the fridge to harden up.

This was only about a 10 minute wait.

When we took them out, they were ready to be bagged and tagged.

 We bought little zip lock style bags in a pack of 100 at the dollar store for...

you guessed it...

one dollar!

What a steal!

The cuteness possibilities are endless for the tags at the top. 

My girls wanted to write them themselves.

Must be something about my craft-nazi-ness.

Makes my kids want no help from me.

Sad but true.

We folded the cute card stock tags over the little bags and stapled them in place.

Wa-la!

80+ school treats done in one evening!

Make these!

Then come back and show me!

If you need another fabulous idea or two, check out these bad boys:

I LOVE The Idea Room.  The ideas seriously never stop!!!  

When I visit my head is spinning with new projects.

Kinda like when I set foot in Michaels.

And we all know how I feel about Michaels:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Great Tutorial On Decorating Sugar Cookies!

I have had quite a few people ask me questions about how I decorate my sugar cookies.  In my head making my own tutorial sounds like a fantastic idea.  In my reality, that is never gonna happen. I am learning that I can not do everything!! I am also in awe of the amazing resources that are out there in the blog world and I would love to share some of my favorites with you.

Enter Sweetopia
I could spend hours pouring over Marian's sweet photos and amazing creations. She is Canadian and oh so talented, creative and productive!

Marian has also made some really helpful tutorials.  On the left hand sidebar of her blog she has a button for tutorials.  How great is that?!?!?  Today I present to you her tutorial on "How To Decorate Sugar Cookies With Royal Icing"

I agree with all of her tips and this tutorial is basically exactly what I would say, had I the time and gumption to make my own tutorial:)  She mentions Antonia 74's icing recipe and this is the one that I use.  Love it.  SO GREAT!  

Just to give you a feel for what this girl can do, check out these bad boys...

Seriously?

Adorable.

They are right up my alley.

Are you convinced?  She's good, reeal good.

You can be too!

All it takes is a few helpful tips and a lot of practice!

Easy Peasy Treats!

Okay so I know I know, I just told you I was done making treats.

This is an exception.   I am allowed to make exceptions:)

I just have to share the details.

Behold- the easiest treats EVER!!

That's right, that is all it is...

*two jumbo marshmallows(I made 20 treats using one bag = $2.50)

*stuffed on a wooden skewer ($1 for 100)

*dipped in melting chocolate ($3 per bag with coupon at Michaels, I used 1 1/2 bags)

*covered in sprinkles ($4 with coupon at Michaels)

Lay on parchment paper or wax paper on a tray and let them harden in the fridge...

Wrap 'em up however you feel led to do it...

* I went with cookie bags from Michael's, tied off with curly ribbon and tagged with the kids' names.

Imagine the possibilities?  Make these your own way and send me your photos!!!

Football Cuppies

Okay, so I am not making sweets these days. 

I have two reasons; one is my cute little 8 month old..she wants me to love her every waking hour.  And I want to love her too!  Cakes can wait till Caitlyn grows bigger and does not need me so much!

The second reason is we have gone healthy around here and I think when I take baking back up I will be doing it in a much different fashion and until I perfect that, I will only dream of the possibilities!

Take this adorable idea I saw over at HWTM.  Oh my!  how cute is this for a super bowl party?  Someone please make these and send me a photo!!!

Ballet Sweets

A few years ago I did a ballerina party for one of my daughters. A friend of mine just threw her daughter an amazing ballerina party and It reminded me what a great theme this is for little girls!!! Here are the treats from my daughter's party.


This cake was fun and easy to make. The trick is amputating the Barbie! You must take the legs off in order to position them in the right place on the cake. This Barbie was $6 at Walmart and she was wearing a tutu and slippers! I hot glued the candles in her hands.

I used icing tip #103 and applied the icing in a small zig zag to make the cake to look like layers and layers of ruffly tulle. You can do this!!!

My love of royal icing continues...The tutus and slippers are royal icing and I added little pink pearls and decorative sugar to make them really pretty and sparkly!

Ladybug Treats

Here are the details on the ladybug treats I did for the baby shower last weekend!

Gotta love this cake stand. If you do not own this, you should look into getting one for yourself.

I use it so much for all sorts of purposes!

I made the ladybugs out of royal icing weeks in advance. I love anything I can do in advance! Royal icing keeps great in an airtight container at room temperature!

These are mini cupcakes. Mini cupcakes are awesome because you can make 48 out of one regular cake recipe, they don't need much icing, and nobody feels guilty eating two!! When I send treats with my kids to school, I usually opt for the minis. I always cringe at the amount of cupcake that goes in the garbage once the icing has been licked off of a regular cupcake. With minis, it's the perfect amount of icing and cake and the whole thing gets eaten!

This little ladybug was covered with red sugar to make her nice and sparkly. Remove the sugar from the areas that you want to put the black spots because the black icing will not want to stick to the sugar! GRRR. (I'm mentioning this to save you the frustration I endured!!!) I got the dome- shaped cake by using my Pampered Chef baking bowl. Completely ice and sugar the bug before you place her on top of the green cake.

I made the head in advance out of royal icing. The antennae is a black pipe cleaner.



Fields of Daisies!!
I always decorate my cupcakes in these large baking pans so they are easy to transport.


Questions? Ask away! I will try to answer.

Have you made any ladybug fabulousness? I would love to see it!!

Sneak Peek

Here's a little taste of the treats from the baby shower we threw today. More to come tomorrow!

Mmmm...

Smells good over here!!

Daisy Daisy

In preparation for a special party this weekend I have created a pile of daisies. I had daisies in my wedding, I guess I kinda like them, they are so happy and so fresh!

These are made out of royal icing. Did you know that royal icing creations can be made in advance and kept for months in an airtight container? I love working with royal icing because it gives me the freedom to give attention to little details way before the "crunch time". When I decorate the cake tomorrow night I won't have to fuss with piping the daisies or washing up the mess, I only have to place these little lovlies on!!

Preparing To Take Flight

These cute little horse cupcake toppers have been packaged up with great care. They are about to make the journey from here in Canada to Lisa in Connecticut. I made a few extras just in case a couple don't make the trip. I enjoyed doing this long distance order. I am contemplating offering this to customers around the globe. I love working with royal icing and I have discovered I can make just about anything...

Seahorses galore!

My all time favorites.. the Octopus (octopi?)

Little ballet slippers

Initials on sticks!!

I wonder if people would like to be able to order custom royal icing toppers? Any input? I have done some cute royal icing toppers on sticks as well...maybe those would be a hot item. Hmm...something to ponder!