frosty the marshmallow man

Marshmallows are the perfect snowman canvas. And as I've been so into marshmallows lately, it was just a matter of time before I made a marshmallow snowman. These are super easy and kid-friendly. As you can see from the masterpiece in pink and purple below, my 2-year old loves using my edible pens on marshmallows.

how to make a marshmallow snowman

you will need:*
marshmallows
edible pens
skewers
candy corn
large gum drops
whole cloves
sharp knife
light corn syrup

*NOTE: Use the larger marshmallows. Edible pens are available at craft stores, though I use Americolor gourmet writers, available in specialty stores and online. Find skewers in the supermarket or drug store. If you can't find candy corn, you can also tint fondant (found at the craft store) with orange food coloring to make the carrot nose. See my post HERE for instructions how to do that. Lastly, you can also substitute large chocolate sprinkles or pieces of black licorice lace for the cloves to make the snowman totally edible, or omit the arms altogether.


what to do:
Skewer two marshmallows. Cut a large gum drop in half with a sharp knife and place on top of the marshmallows. Press skewer into gum drop to keep in place. Cut off the yellow bottom of a piece of candy corn and dab flat end in light corn syrup. Press onto the top marshmallow for the carrot nose. With a black edible pen, make dots for eyes and mouth. With any other color, make dots for buttons on the second marshmallow. Press cloves into sides for arms. (If you have difficulty getting cloves into the marshmallows, use a toothpick to make holes.) Let snowman rest on his back for a couple hours or overnight to let the nose dry.

clinging to fall and testing Martha

So, did I mention that I was one of the winners of Martha's 2009 Cutest Cupcake Contest? I did? Oh right, here. Well, I'll boast again. I was one of the winners of Martha's 2009 Cutest Cupcake Contest, uh huh. And I won her cupcake book and have been wanting to try out a recipe.

Now, I'm mostly a baking purist because I grew up in a purist baking household. I would not could not ever dare to use anything but butter when baking. Or real sugar. And I would not could not ever dare to use a cookie mix or a brownie mix. But, alas, I heartily use cake mixes. I risk this hypocrisy because cakes and cupcakes from scratch are often dry and simply not as good as the cake mix (though I would not could not ever use canned frosting). So I had my skepticism about pulling a random recipe from the cupcake book. Foolish me. These brown butter pumpkin cupcakes from Martha are moist, soft, just the right amount of sweet and absolutely scrumptious.

pumpkin brown-butter cupcakes
{adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes}
3/4 cup butter (plus more for tins)
1 2/3 cups all-purposes flour (plus more for tins)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (I use Libby's)
1 cup packed brown sugar (I use dark brown, Martha uses light)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter and flour muffin tins (I made a dozen minis and 6 large). Melt butter over medium-low heat in saucepan, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown. Skim foam from top and pour butter into a bowl to stop the cooking, let cool. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and spices. In another bowl, whisk together pumpkin, sugars, eggs and brown-butter mixture. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined. Fill tins 3/4 full and bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. When cool, dip tops in brown-butter icing.

brown-butter icing
In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 1/2 cup unsalted butter, swirling pan occasionally, until nut-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and pour into bowl (leave sediment behind). Add 2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla extract and 2 tblsp. milk to the butter and stir until smooth. Add more milk if necessary.

for the fondant pumpkin cupcake toppers CLICK HERE to see my previous post

swirly fondant lollies

The lovely blogger over at Gordon Gossip found these cute, swirly goodies from Better Homes and Gardens and fretted over working with fondant. Fear not! Here's a quick tutorial to ease nerves over fondant. Fondant is user-friendly and will open so many cake and cookie decorating doors.

As BHG advises, fondant is best used in small amounts. I use it for accents on cakes and cookies. In large amounts, it simply isn't appetizing, so these lollies and the trees on their site work better as decor rather than treats. I made small lollies in lieu of trees simply because I only had half a box of fondant on hand.

Prepared, white rolled fondant is available at major craft stores and cake decorating supply stores, usually the Wilton brand. It comes in big, white squares and is the consistency of Play-Doh. In fact, you manipulate it in much the same way.

TIPS:

• Fondant does dries out, but kneading it will soften it again.
  
• But kneading will also make it sticky and difficult. If fondant gets too soft (that is, if when working with fondant it starts to stick to your hands and leave residue, it's too soft), let it sit uncovered on wax paper about 15 minutes and try again. It should be pliable and simple to use. The first sign of frustration, stop and let it sit out to stiffen a bit.
• Roll fondant easily between two pieces of wax paper.
  
• Tint fondant by adding a few drops of food coloring and kneading very well to blend it.
  
• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or make 3-D shapes.
• To adhere fondant to other pieces of fondant or to cookies and cakes, you can either use light corn syrup or water dabbed on with a paint brush or your finger.
  
• Let stiffen about an hour and harden overnight.
• As mentioned, fondant can dry out, so wrap unused portions well in plastic.
  

how to make swirly fondant lollies

you will need:
white rolled fondant
food coloring (I use Americolor soft gel pastes, Electric Green and Red)
lollipop sticks

step one: tint fondant
Knead a few drops of coloring into a palm-ful of fondant very well. Let sit out if it gets too sticky.


step two: roll fondant logs
I used smaller lengths than the bhg instructions. I took a small piece, about a 1 1/2 inch ball, of tinted fondant and rolled it into a log on the counter about 10" long and 1/4" thick. Repeat with white fondant and line up the two logs. Here, bhg uses three logs (two white and one tinted) to achieve a smaller colored stripe. I wanted a bigger stripe so only used one white and one tinted. Carefully smush the two logs together with your fingers. Holding the ends, twist the logs. Then, alternately continue smushing the logs together with your fingers and rolling the new, blended log with your palm on the counter. The logs should blend together like shown.

step three: twirl your lolly
Now, simply coil the log into a circle and seal ends with a dab of water. If any part of the log is loose, use a touch of water as glue. Insert stick at bottom and let set an hour and harden overnight.

christmas marshmallows

We went to get our Christmas tree today, so I'm definitely getting in the Christmassy mood. Christmas is by far my favorite holiday, so expect lots o' posts on Christmas treats.

I made these Christmastime Marshmallows as a guest poster for The Homemaking Cottage. You can check out their holiday ideas HERE and my post HERE.


Find full instructions HERE. All you need to do is skewer a marshmallow with a bamboo stick or lollipop stick and draw your design with edible pens (I prefer Americolor gourmet writers.) Let the marshmallows sit uncovered for a couple hours to stiffen before drawing for better results.

keeping 'em busy on Thanksgiving day

We are hosting this year in our still-far-from-fixed-up-fixer-upper, so I'm hoping for forgiving guests. One of our guests is a 9 year old girl whom we've never met. I want her to feel welcome and have something fun to do, assuming the preschool level toys that flood our house would be of little interest.

When working as a cookie decorator, our shop often participated in town activities with a cookie decorating booth. Hundreds of kids lined the streets waiting to squeeze frosting all over a yummy cookie. I found girls, especially, ages 8 and up, were our most popular decorators, so I thought that might be a fun thing to do on Thursday.


What to have for cookie decorating, all prepared before the craziness of the day:

• cookies baked and cut out and ready to go (leaf, acorn and pumpkin)
  
• bags of frosting in assorted colors ready to go (orange, browns, yellows, greens)
  
• sprinkles (I used orange and white)
  
• a scraper for mistakes
• freezer paper
• paper towels
• toothpicks to unclog tips
• sample decorated cookies

Some tips:

• this may be best an activity saved for after dinner, lest hungry kids gobble too much sugar pre-dinner
• use bigger decorating tips for kids so they can squeeze frosting more easily (sizes 4, 5 and 6)
• toothpicks unclog tips (so adult supervision is necessary to help with such things)
• tie bags closed at the top tightly with rubber bands so icing doesn't ooze out
  
• find an area in the house that won't disrupt the goings-on in the kitchen or dining room. Hence, this can be tricky. I plan on covering our coffee table in freezer paper. We have no rug yet, so staining the carpet won't be an issue. If you decorate after dinner, the dining room table may be an option, but be sure to protect the area.
  
• packing tape or scotch tape can cover holes in frosting bags (sometimes kids squeeze a tad to hard)
  

gobble gobble your turkey dinner

A twist on the standard turkey and pumpkin cookies: turkey legs and pumpkin pie.

you will need:

dough
frosting
5 disposable frosting bags
5 couplers
5 decorating tips (sizes 3 and 4)
5 rubber bands
brown, black, orange and white food coloring (I use Americolor soft gel pastes)
oval cookie cutter
sharp knifestep one: cut out your shapes
For the turkey legs, I used an oval cutter and pinched in the sides at the bottom. I cut out the pie shape by hand using a sharp knife (see pictures for a guide). Bake according to recipe and let cool.

step two: prepare frosting
For the turkey leg, you will need black, white and brown frosting colors. Prepare a bag of each, using a 3 tip for the black and 4 tips for white and brown. Tie each bag closed with a rubber band. For the pie, you will need light brown, pumpkin pie color (mix a couple drops of brown in with a few drops of orange) and white (optional). Prepare a bag of each, using a 4 tip for the light brown, a 3 tip for the pumpkin pie color and a 3 tip for the white. Tie bags closed with rubber bands.

step three: decorate the turkey legs
Outline the turkey shape with the black 3 tip. Let set about 15 minutes. Fill in the top with the brown, piping back and forth to fill. Fill the bone with white.
step four: decorate the pie
outline the pie with the orangey color using a 3 tip. Let set well. Outline and pipe to fill the crust using the light brown frosting. Squeeze some of the orangey color into a bowl and add water (one drop at a time) to thin to the consistency of glue. Use a spoon to pour onto the cookie to fill the pie area. Let set well, about an hour. (TIP: If the pumpkin pie line gets covered by the flooding icing, you can pipe another line on top to define it.) Optional: when set, pipe some white on top for whipped cream.

peeps beer party

My husband likes beer. So it made sense to decorate his birthday cake with beer. As the real stuff gets too soggy, I tried making little fondant beer decor. Then all these leftover Peeps (from Easter, but I believe Peeps to have an infinite shelf life) crashed the party.

how to make fondant beer mugs and pints of Guinness
cake and cupcake toppers

you will need:*
white rolled fondant
food coloring (brown, black, and blue)
rolling pin
wax paper
light corn syrup
1/2" to 1" circle cookie cutter
toothpick

*Find the fondant and cutter at any major craft store. You can also find food coloring there, though I use Americolor soft gel pastes (click on their site for info on where to buy). My cutter is a 1" oval, but I patted the edges of my fondant down to better form a circle after cutting.


step one: tint your fondant
You'll need white, brown, dark brown/black, and light blue. White is already done for you, but to tint the other colors, need a few drops of coloring into a ball of fondant very well. Fondant may get sticky from kneading. If it becomes difficult to manage, let sit at room temperature uncovered for about 15 minutes. For the Guinness color, I mixed a few drops of both brown and black coloring into fondant.

step two: make your foam heads
Roll white fondant between two pieces of wax paper, about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out circles with the cutter and set aside.

step three: make the beer mug
Knead a ball of brown fondant and shove the cutter into it. Don't worry about precision. You're just trying to make a cylinder shape. Tap into place with fingers if needed. Press toothpick around sides of cylinder to make beer-mug-lines. For handle, roll a small piece of blue fondant on the table with your palm (like making snakes from PlayDoh). Bend into a "U" and cut ends with sharp knife to flatten. Set aside and let stiffen about an hour.

To assemble, dab light corn syrup on the underside of a white circle and press onto top of beer mug. Dab syrup on ends of handle and press onto side.

step four: make your Guinness
Follow the above instructions for making dark brown cylinders, but don't press sides with the toothpick. Dab light corn syrup on the underside of a white circle and press onto top of cylinder. With fingers, roll the bottom of the cylinder to make a pint glass (if fondant is too soft at this point, let sit out for 15 minutes first).


There's always one Peep who can't hold his liquor.