S'mores Bites

Looking for something super easy and fun to serve at your New Year's Party?  Why not try some S'mores bites?  They are so simple, fast and oh so good!!!

Here's how easy they are:

Step one:  Melt some chocolate.  I use my Wilton Candy Pro to do the job.
Step two:  Skewer a large marshmallow.  I used Jet Puffed marshmallows but have made these with homemade marshmallows before and those are awesome as well!

Step three:  Dip the marshmallow into the melted chocolate.

Step four:  Roll into some crushed graham crackers.

Step five:  Remove from skewer and place on waxed paper to cool and harden.

Step six:  Enjoy!!!

These make a great addition to any cookie/candy tray over the holidays or for any occasion!  Have fun!!

Happy Birthday, Tanner!

My godson Tanner's invite came in the mail.  Lots of gold.  Lots of class.  Then he sent over some pictures of cakes that he'd like for the occasion.  Again, gold painted fondant with a lot of sophistication and two tiers.  I was game.  

Tanner gave me freedom to do something new for the cake flavors and I took advantage of that to try something I'd been wanting to try for a while.  S'Mores cake.  I took a chocolate cake and topped the first layer with chocolate fudge filling and graham crackers, then I stacked some more cake and topped that with marshmallow fluff, and then I did another with fudge and graham crackers.  I couldn't wait to see and taste how it would turn out.  

 

The top tier of the cake was chocolate flecked cake with buttercream filling.  It's such a crowd pleaser! But Tanner's favorite cake flavor is banana, so I threw in some banana cake pops, all decorated for this fancy party.

Here's how they both turned out.  I used a gold edible food spray to spray "paint" the fondant on the cakes.  I added some edible food glitter to sparkle it up a little.

 

And here's the birthday boy!

 

 Gold candles look great on the cake!

Happy Birthday, Tanner!  And thanks so much for letting me explore a fun new flavor!  Doesn't that look delicious?!!!

 

Best wishes for another GREAT year, Tanner!  With even more exciting new things on the horizon, I can't imagine anything less!

Love,

Ann

It's a Cookie Swap!

My friend Erin and her sister Kristi hosted a cookie swap tonight.  What a WONDERFUL way to stock up on some FABULOUS Christmas cookies for all of the holiday entertaining we have coming up.   Here's a sampling of what we got to take home tonight.   

The Reese's peanut butter ones were mine.  Those are MY favorite.

Josie and Mara had a great time decorating a Gingerbread house!  This was an awesome project for the girls.  Thanks again for thinking of them, Erin!

Here are all of the bakers!  What a great turn-out and SUCH a fun party!!!

After a wonderful snack-filled dinner, complete with hot chocolate, Erin and Kristi supplied boxes and festive waxed paper for their guests to take their goodies home and Erin gave us all a Christmas CD of her favorite Christmas tunes and a jar of her homemade jam.  

Honestly, it was so awesome to be so spoiled!!!

Merry Christmas to you all!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Back in November, Oprah announced her "Favorite Things" for the holiday season.  I was so excited to get my "O" Magazine and look through all of her fun ideas.  What it must be like to be Oprah. Anyway, I came across this picture of Cordial Cherries made into a Nativity.   I LOVED it and knew that I had a cake to bake for my daughter's Christmas party for school.  

I was not going to spend the $44+ on this set when I could make them myself.  I purchased some cordial cherries from a fundraiser at my daughter's school and I was good to go!!  (I made two sets, by the way.  I plan to duplicate this cake for my Christmas dinner...)

Here's how mine turned out.  I clearly based mine on the set from the "O"Magazine and created a nativity scene out of brown sugar (sand), coconut (hay) and a gingerbread stable.  

I wanted to decorate the rest of the cake to look like a starry night.  This cake is my chocolate-flecked cake with buttercream filling and frosting.  I'm super pleased with how it turned out.

And here's Josie's class - excited to celebrate the real reason for the Christmas season.  Bless them.  

Mrs. D's 49th Birthday Celebration!

Today was a very special celebration day.  Josie's teacher would be hitting a milestone over Christmas break, so they decided to celebrate her birthday today, the last day of school for the year.   I was super happy to make cupcakes to commemorate the special day.  Mrs. D could distribute these to whomever she chose (the kids got another special treat today...more on that later).

So here were her cupcakes.  Chocolate cupcakes filled and topped with vanilla buttercream and topped with fondant/gum paste decorations.  

Mrs. S ordered 50 balloons.  There are 10 kids in Josie's class, so each kid was able to deliver a bouquet of 5 balloons to Mrs. D this morning and wish her a happy birthday.   As the kids waited for the balloons to arrive, they read through the book they made for her.  This is the first time they got to see it all done.

Balloons arrived!!!

One at a time, they headed into the classroom.  

Here's Mrs. D with her already growing grouping of balloons.  

"Happy Birthday!!" 

What a fun morning!  And what a great way to start the day!!!

I think she loved her book.  :)

A very Happy Birthday to you, Mrs. D!!!  We hope you have a wonderful celebration over Christmas break!!!