Gold Fudge for New Years Eve

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great Christmas or Hanukkah or just time off in general if you don't celebrate.  We had a great Christmas here and now we are heading up to Maine for a snowboarding and ski trip with friends. 

Since we are going to be away for New Years Eve, I needed something easy and portable to bring along.  And this treat is both of those things.  Easy 2 ingredient fudge (4 cups of chocolate chips - melt in microwave - and add to that 1 can of store bought frosting).  Once its hardened, cut into rectangles and add the year (optional of course) with some extra melted chocolate chips.

Once the chocolate is dry, spray with some Wilton's gold Color Mist (kinda like edible spray paint) and sprinkle with edible gold glitter.

So simple and easy to throw together last minute (or you can make it way ahead of time and store in an air tight container until you need it).

Plus who doesn't like chocolate fudge?!

Happy New Years to you all, can't wait to see what 2015 brings!

Woodland Christmas Gnome Cupcakes with Edible Moss

So this whole month I've been thinking Christmas is on Friday - hubby points out yesterday that the 25th is on THURSDAY! Ahhhh, I lost an entire day, what was I thinking?? Well let the mad rush of pre-christmas activity begin.  I was hoping to get a couple treats in before the big day, but I think this will be the last one I get to.

But it's gnomes AND more specifically Christmas gnomes all in white on top of mounds of edible moss!

I made candy gnomes awhile back (which was the start of all my little people creations). 

So when I saw this post on making edible moss by It's the Life I knew more woodsy gnomes had to be done.  Making the moss is so easy.  All you need is graham crackers and some green food coloring.  Mix it up and dip the frosted cupcakes in.  Edible Moss! 

The process for making candy gnomes can be found below but I've also explained it here.

I used all white this time to make them a little more whimsical for Christmas and added holly sprinkles.  The other additions are these neat Chococones - I think they are supposed to be pine cones but I think they look like little trees.  They are tiny and taste like a little biscuit dipped in chocolate.  Delish.  (Be aware the package does say they could contain a trace amount of tree nuts, so don't use them if you have nut allergies).  The company also make cute mushrooms too (used in my first gnome post).

I also added some tiny chocolate rabbits that I had laying around (Don't ask me why I have tiny rabbits laying around!)

Add more moss as needed, the messier the better.

To make Candy Gnomes (makes about 6)

• Hershey Chocolate Bells (I used peppermint bark flavored but they make a few different kinds now - pick your fav flavor)
• Bugles chips
• 4 cups of white vanilla candy melting wafers plus + 2 teaspoons of vegetable shortening; 1/2 cup of candy melts for adding detail.  If you want to make your gnomes other colors, you'll need those color candy melts as well.
• Holly mix sprinkles (or you could substitute other types of red/green sprinkles)
• Black edible food writer

Directions:

1. Melt candy wafers in the microwave with shortening (will allow dipping to be smoother) in a mug/dish tall enough to dip Bugles.
2. Pick Bugles that have a nice gnome hat shape and insert a skewer into bottom and dip into the melted candy.  The skewer allows you to hold the Bugle without getting your hands messy.  Coat entire Bugle (not inside) and then allow to harden on parchment.
3. Unwrap Hershey Bells and dip the round part first into candy melt (this will be the head/face).  The candy should not be too hot as that will melt the chocolate.  Allow candy to harden.
4. Once hardened, hold bell by the round side (that you just dipped) and dip the flat part bottom into the candy melt.  This will be the bottom part of the gnome.  Again the candy should not be too hot or you could melt the chocolate bell.  Allow candy to harden on parchment.
5. Add about 1/2 cup of the candy melt to a zip lock bag.  Melt in microwave until smooth.  Snip and end of the bag and "pipe" on some gnome "hair".  While it's still wet attach your white gnome hat (the dipped Bugle).  Add more hair as needed to fill in any gaps.  
6. Pipe on beard and tiny nose.
7. With food writer add a black belt around waist and tiny eyes.
8. Attach holly sprinkles with more candy melt.

To make Edible Moss

• 8 graham crackers
• 1-2 drops of green food gel

Directions:

1. Crush up graham crackers in a large baggie
2. Add food gel to bag and mix well (that's it!)

Decorate as you wish with the gnomes and little chocolates.  I'm loving the way they came out!

Wishing all of you a very happy holiday season and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!  Thank you for always stopping by, reading, sharing and leaving such sweet comments over the year! Very much appreciated.  

Star Wars Gingerbread Christmas Cookies

Christmas is next week!!! And I still have quite a bit of shopping to do - definitely getting our monies worth out of Amazon Prime's 2 Day shipping this year.

I've had so many thoughts and ideas on making holiday and christmas goodies this year alas time is not on my side.  But I did make some time for more gingerbread cookies.  So here is a little mash-up of Star Wars and Christmas for you all.  

I bought the William Sonoma Star Wars cookie cutters ages ago when they were on sale and never actually made cookies with them until now.  To save some time I used store bought refrigerated gingerbread cookie dough.  Roll out the dough and stamp out the Yoda, Darth Vader, Stormtrooper and Boba Fett heads.

Use another Santa cookie cutter to cut out Santa hats from the dough and then just attached them to the tops of the character heads.  Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes.  

Once cooled, use some Wilton Color Mist (kinda like spray paint for food) to tint the Santa hats red and green.

Then just decorate by filling in the lines/face detail with some melted candy melt (or royal icing could be used too).  Thick royal icing was used for the Santa hat accents topped with some white non-pareils and holly mix sprinkles.

And you have some relatively simple Christmas cookies for your favorite Star Wars groupies.  We happen to have quite a few in this family!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays to you all!

Disney's Frozen Characters as Gingerbread Men

It's that time of year again, that time of year when I make gingerbread cookies. And not just any old gingerbread, gingerbread men in my favorite characters.  I've done them before a few times and it's just so fun to do.  Here are some of my past cookie experiments.  

Super Hero Gingerbread Men and Women

The Peanuts in Gingerbread Men form

And my first attempt in a blog post a long long (LONG!) time ago of Star Wars Clone Troopers and C3PO which started my slight obsession with making fun characters all gingerbreaded up.

This year was Frozen because 1) My 7 year old now asks me to call her Queen Elsa 2) We must Frozen ALL THE THINGS and 3) I love Frozen as much as my 7 year old (shhhh, don't tell anyone)

I love how they all came out especially Elsa, Olaf, and Anna!

 See the more including a tutorial here over SheKnows!

Rainbow Gingerbread Men Sandwich Cookies

Christmas is only 24 days away! Time to get myself into the holiday spirit.  

Do you ever freeze extra dough for goodies and forget about it? I seem to do that a lot so when I was cleaning out the freezer the other day I came across some rainbow cookie dough.

I thought it would make some fun gingerbread men - kinda Candyland like.

I also found some frozen vanilla buttercream with rainbow non-pareils mixed in which made a great filling for the cookies.  (Did you know you can freeze frosting? Just thaw it and it's good to go.)

Add some Skittle candies as buttons and melted white chocolate for face/details and you're done.  These little guys are definitely putting me in the festive holiday spirit!

Rainbow gingerbread men have to make you smile, right??

And did I mention it's only 24 days to Christmas?? Time to get decorating, baking, and shopping! The kids have had their Santa lists ready for weeks now.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Monday!