April 5, 2010

I know we've thrown a lot of Easter projects at you over the last week or so, but believe it or not, I have a couple more!  After this post, I promise, no more Easter talk til 2011.

I worked on these little White Chocolate Smiley Face Easter Bunnies over a period of days, but then guess what happened when I was finally putting the post together on Saturday afternoon?  My internet went down, of course!  Ding dang Time Warner employee accidentally disconnected me when he was working on someone else's service in the hood, and they couldn't get anyone out here to fix it til Monday morning.

So call me selfish, but I am not going to let all that work go to waste without showing you the bunnies!  I don't care that Easter is over!  😀  Let's just pretend that it's still Easter!

Now, on with it.  I won't bore you with instructions that you won't need til next March, but I do want to show you the photos.  These are the White Chocolate Smiley Face Easter Bunnies.

Oh, and one more thing…Chocolate Fudge Easter Eggs; molded and decorated in pink, of course!

Now, we can all go back to our after-Easter worlds!  Thanks for indulging me!

~BigSis

April 1, 2010

When you hear the words “Marshmallow” and “Easter”, do you think of Peeps or maybe those super-sugary marshmallow eggs with the hard sugar shell?  I don't because I don't like either of those Easter candies.  To me, they're the Easter version of the hard-as-a-rock peanut butter taffy wrapped in black or orange paper that you got at Halloween as a kid, and tried to pawn off on your unsuspecting little brothers in exchange for their chocolate candy bars!

I have a new Easter marshmallow treat to share with you, and these also have white chocolate.  This project isn't quite as fancy and classy as the Easter Bird's Candy Nests that LilSis made yesterday, but they're pretty fun to make and I think kids would have a ball putting them together.

The key is to get yourself a candy mold like this.  It has bunny heads and bunny bases with feet and tails (bunny butts).

I got mine at my cake supply store, but you can find them online too.  I have bunches of these kinds of molds.  They're only about $2.50 each, and you can use them for chocolate, candy melts or even soaps.  Buy just one or two, and you'll be addicted to them.  You can customize candy for any kid's party theme and color scheme.  Wrapped up in foil papers, people will be shocked that you made these cute candies yourself.  I made little green frog chocolates for a kid's party once, and the kids were thrilled!

So back to this project.  Here's what you do:

• Melt some candy melts or chocolate wafers (I like the Guittard White Chocolate Wafers; they come in mint too).  I nuke them for 30 seconds, then stir, and repeat til all are melted.

• Pour the melted chocolate into a squeeze bottle, and fill the cavities in the mold.  Once it's filled, tap the mold gently on the counter to bring any air bubbles to the surface.  Add more chocolate if needed.

• Refrigerate the mold for a few minutes until the shapes are set and cold.  Unmold.

• Now the fun part!  Use more melted chocolate to lightly coat large marshmallows, then immediately roll in shredded coconut.  Chill for a few minutes to set.

• Decorate the bunny faces if you like.  I used food markers, but they tended to slide around a little on the chocolate, so you'll probably come up with better ideas than BigSis-in-a-hurry did!

• Add a dab of melted chocolate to the bottom of the marshmallow and gently press onto the base.  Then, with a dab of melted chocolate, add the bunny face to the front of the marshmallow.

You just made a Marshmallow White Chocolate Easter Bunny!

~BigSis

April 10, 2009

Why eat just yellow peeps when you have this selection?

Have you ever thought about how all those little Peeps come to be? Wonder no more. The Chicago Tribune has provided a Peeps slide show that reveals all of the secrets about the sugary little guys.

Freshly Hatched Peeps

The Washington Post got in the Peeps Game too.  They have an annual contest called the Peep Show, that features the creative work that folks do with Peeps.  You have to check this out.  I love the Peeps in bikinis, Project Peepway, Peeps Idol, and SpongeBob SquarePants Peeps!

Personally, I'm a chocolate bunny or Cadbury Egg kind of a girl, since only chocolate is worthy of the calories spent on candy in my opinion, but to each his own!  Enjoy the Peep Show!

~BigSis

December 16, 2008

Ready to bake some cupcakes, BigSis? You're not tired of baking, are you? (tee hee)

While we're anxiously awaiting the results from the Bake Sale, I thought I'd share a few really cute Christmas cupcake and candy recipes.

I love these Christmas Cupcakes from Bakerella!

These Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Icing from The Recipe Girl are really cute!

Bakerella also does these adorable Christmas Tree Cake Pops with Red Velvet Cake.

I love this Peppermint Oreo Bark from Baking Blonde.

Is Christmas really only 9 days away? I better get busy! I need a houseful of little elves to help me finish what I have to do today!

~LilSis

December 12, 2008

Lots o' baking is going on in my itty bitty kitchen this week!  I've tried to choose recipes that have universal appeal, and that are holidayish.  Most are pretty easy to make, with a decent “profit margin” but I've thrown in a few that are a bit more challenging and expensive to keep me on my toes!

I thought you might like to see what's coming out of my kitchen, since this IS the primo baking season and perhaps you're in the market for a good sweet recipe.  So far, just since last Saturday, I've already prepared multiple batches of each of these:

• Gingerbread from Cooks Illustrated.  A subscription is required to access this recipe, but don't be put off by that.  Cook's Illustrated is the only food site that I pay a fee for, and to me it's totally worth it.  Their product reviews alone are invaluable, and their recipes always work.  They have total credibility with me.
• Chocolate Sheath Cake – it's a classic recipe that you can find lots of places, including on RecipeZaar.  Moist, chocolaty, delicious!
• Super Moist Pumpkin Bread with walnuts (vegan) from AllRecipes.  This is a unique recipe with coconut milk but no eggs and no dairy.  It's fabulous!  I made lots of them for our last bake sale.
• Cranberry Pumpkin Bread from RecipeZaar. I first found this recipe when my freezer went on strike recently and I had to use up a giant bag of thawed cranberries.  It's very easy, extremely moist, and the combination of flavors is surprisingly good.
• Strawberry Bread.  I've been making this forever, and don't know where I originally got the recipe, but this version from RecipeZaar is similar to mine. In this bread, the pecans are non-optional in my book.
• Root Beer Bundt Cake from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. This was a new recipe to me, and I'm glad I tried it.  It's really really moist and deeply chocolate.  I don't get that much root beer flavor without the icing, but it's wonderful regardless.
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars from the back of the Nestle's package.  You can find the recipe on RecipeZaar too.
• Texas Pecan Pie Bars from The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather. This recipe makes a ginormous batch of these wicked bars, but I still made a second batch.  They were that good.

Still on the agenda for this weekend:

• Almond Toffee from CookieMadness.net.  Absolutely an A+ recipe!  I made bunches of it last year, and got rave reviews.  You MUST have a thermometer to make this!
• Soft Peanut Brittle from CookieMadness.net.  Another great one from Anna!  I don't usually care for traditional peanut brittle, but this is nothing like that.  It's flavorful, tender, and just delicious!
• Pralines from The American Family Cookbook by the Culinary Arts Institute. I think this cookbook is out of print, but I've seen it on ebay.
• Outrageous Oreo Crunch Brownies from Culinary in the Country.  Christmas Oreos and brownies together in a recipe adapted from the Barefoot Contessa?  How bad can that be?  I'll also do some without the Oreos.
• Chocolate Fudge from the back of marshmallow cream jar.  You know the one.
• Mrs. Busch's Caramel Bars – a finalist in the Dallas News' cookie contest a few years ago.  The recipe's been taken offline, darnit.  I'll post it another time if these come out as good as I remember them.
• Razz-Ma-Tazz Bars from CookieMadness.  I've never made these, so I'm trusting the Cookie Queen that these will be incredible.  I'm doing them with my homemade cranberry jam instead of raspberry since that's what I have.

That's it!  I've already eliminated 2 or 3 things from the weekend's list, and I still have more than one little elf can do!  I better eat my Wheaties this weekend, you think?  All of the expense and all of the work will be SO worth making some money for this incredible charity!

~BigSis

December 11, 2008

I'm always in a baking mood at Christmas, but since I'm in “Bake Sale Mode” this year, I REALLY have cookies on the brain.  Lots of other folks do too:

• Recipe Girl shares her favorite Christmas Cookies and Candies
• Paula Deen's favorite Christmas Cookies are in Good Housekeeping
• Marye from Baking Delights has some favorite Christmas Cookies
• The Food Network has 12 Days of Holiday Cookies
• Martha Stewart has a Holiday Cookie feature of course
• Southern Living's Santa's Cookies are shortbread cookies 8 ways
• Gourmet Magazine's Favorite Cookies span 1941 to 2008
• Dallas News has a bunch of Holiday Cookie stories

Bake on, elves!  I'll be back on Friday with the scoop on what I've been baking this week for the SPCA Bake Sale.

~BigSis

October 30, 2008

Okay, maybe I did get a little obsessed when I found out that it was National Candy Corn Day!

I was so happy when I got home from the store this evening.  I had just purchased my first bag of candy corn this Halloween season.

Then, HayHay walks in and proceeds to tell me that he doesn't know why, but he doesn't like candy corn. He goes on and on about how gross it is; this coming from a 15 year old that will eat almost anything. I just calmly looked at him and said “Don't hate on candy corn on National Candy Corn Day” .  He just looked at me and I could tell he was thinking “Are you kidding me?”

Pretty little morsel!

Oh well, I'm not going to let him rain on my parade. One final thought while it's still National Candy Corn Day…Can you eat just one?

~LilSis

October 30, 2008

I had no idea that there was a National Candy Corn Day until BigSis sent me a link about another candy corn inspired idea.  Who knew?

I never eat sweets and I really don't eat any sugar.  I don't crave anything sweet at all.  BUT, I LOVE CANDY CORN. Nothing but sugar, honey, and corn syrup!  It must be something from my childhood.

It's almost too cute to eat!

Tomorrow is Halloween and I haven't even bought my first bag of candy corn yet.  I resisted when at the store last week. I knew if I bought it too early, there wouldn't be any left for Halloween.  Today, I'm heading out to buy a few bags; one to eat and one to make this candle display I talked about earlier this week.

My very favorite type of candy corn is the Brachs Autumn Mix that has the regular candy corn, Indian corn (with the chocolate bottom), and the little pumpkins all mixed together in one bag.  I love the post on Candy Blog about this yummy candy! Apparently, this is hard to find this year. I'm on a mission to find me a bag!

I'm going to have to add this Candy Corn Bark from The Recipe Girl to my list of things to make for my “get together” tomorrow night.  It looks like something the kids would enjoy!

YUMMY!

Candy Corn and Oreos! I'll be binging off the walls if I eat it, but it just might be worth it! Thanks to Baking Bites for sharing the link to this recipe.

These cute little candy corn sugar cookies from Cookie Madness look really good, too!

Lovely Bite Size Little Cookies!

For more fun facts about candy corn, check out this Sweet Candy Corn blog. It may be the only known “all candy corn blog” out there.

~LilSis