Christmas Treats

• These are the candies and cookies I made for the holiday festivities.

Waffle Pretzels With Peanut Butter Spread on them and Dipped in Almond Bark

We Make a Train Every Year - This Year I Used Chocolate Roll Out Cookies to Make ThemSnowmen Sugar Cookies - The Carrot Noses are 1/2 a Baking M&M
A Pill Cutter Was Used to Cut the M&M's

Fruit Slices Dipped in White Almond Bark

Gingerbread MenA Plate of Cookies
There's No Way We're Eating All of These, But They Are Soooo CUTE!

Cheep Cookie Cutters

• My Organized Chaos is giving away a cookie cutter at Cheep Cookie Cutters under the value of $10.
  
• I love having different cookie cutters.
• My pick: The Submarine! How fun it would be to make Mica who LOVES The Yellow Submarine movie these cookies for birthday treats!
  

Chocolate Roll Out Cookies

• I made these and they were pretty good.
• They sort of taste like brownies.
• I wanted to make something that could be decorated, but was different from sugar cookies.
• Overall I like them, but I have to admit they are a bit sticky when rolling them out. I sprayed my hand and the roller with flour spray. That seemed to help.
  

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 10 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

1. Cream butter or margarine and sugar until light and fluffy; add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Mix in the vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa powder and baking powder; add and mix well. Wrap dough in waxed paper and chill for 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Divide dough in half. Roll out each half to 1/4 inch thick. Cut with desired shaped cookie cutters. Place on lightly greased cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Duncan Hines Giveaway!

• Two of my favorite sites Go Graham Go and Jolly Mom are giving away a Duncan Hines Prize Pack!
• I spotted these cute Gingerbread cookies on the Duncan Hines site.

Ingredients Baking Instructions

1. 21 Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Spice cupcakes baked in brown paper liners
2. 1 cup Duncan Hines Creamy Home-Style Classic Vanilla Frosting
3. 1 can (16 ounces each) Duncan Hines Creamy Home-Style Milk Chocolate Frosting
4. 3 each red, green and yellow spice drops
5. 6 green candy coated chocolates (e. g. M&M’s)

Baking Instructions

1. Spoon the vanilla frosting into a ziplock bag. Spoon the chocolate frosting into a 2 cup microwave safe glass bowl or measuring cup. Microwave the chocolate frosting in the measuring cup, stirring frequently, until frosting is the texture of slightly whipped cream -- about 20 to 30 seconds. Hold cupcakes by the paper liner and dip the tops, one at a time, into the thinned chocolate frosting just up to the paper liner. Allow the excess frosting to dip off. Invert and let stand. Reheat the frosting for several seconds in the microwave, stirring well, if it begins to thicken.
2. Arrange a group of 7 cupcakes each to make 3 gingerbread boys. Make sure the cupcakes are lightly touching each other (see photo) on a serving platter or cookie sheet (3 cupcakes placed in a vertical row to make the head and body, 2 on either side of bottom cupcake to make the feet, and a cupcake on either side of the second cupcake to make the hands).
3. Snip a small corner from the bag with the vanilla frosting. Pipe the outline of the gingerbread boy along the outer edge of each the cupcake group. Pipe 3 dots of vanilla frosting down the center of body cupcakes and add the spice drops to make the buttons. Add the green candies for the eyes. Pipe a vanilla frosting mouth.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

• I made these cookies with our last pumpkin. I made cookies, and took them to our work's.
• Making cookies is fun, but I don't want to eat them all. They go fast at both of our work's.
  

1. 1 c canned pumpkin (*I used 16oz. roasted pumpkin)
2. 1/2 cup white sugar
3. 1/2 cup brown sugar
4. 1/2 cup vegetable oil
5. 1 egg
6. 2 cups all-purpose flour
7. 2 teaspoons baking powder
8. 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
9. 1/2 teaspoon salt
10. 1 teaspoon baking soda
11. 1 teaspoon milk
12. 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
13. 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
14. 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
    
15. Cream cheese frosting
    

• Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg.
  
• In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in.
  
• Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
  
• Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350ºF (175 ºC) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.
  
• Spread on cream cheese frosting. I use a baby rubber spoon to spread the frosting. This works really well.
  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Betty Rocker

• Below are eight Betty Crocker portraits. Place them in the correct order from oldest to newest. If you list them correctly, you’ll be entered to win………………………………

• Win...a new: ipod Nano!

• Go to my favorite baking blog: Bakerella to win!
• She had a chance to go on a tour to Betty Crocker Test Kitchen.
• Which portrait is your favorite? Mine is letter H.

Pumpkin Crisp Recipe

• I'm getting a lot of requests for this recipe. I've made it twice this fall since we had a pumpkin patch growing in our back yard.
• To me...I never thought I'd say this, but I thought pumpkin crisp was better then pumpkin pie.
• Ingredients:

1. 1 c. evaporated milk
2. 1 c. sugar
3. 1 tsp. vanilla extract
4. l (15-ounce) can pumpkin
5. 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
6. 1 (18.25-ounce) pkg. butter-flavored yellow cake mix
7. 1 c. chopped pecans *I used chopped walnuts because that is what I had
8. 1 c. butter (or margarine, melted) *I used only 1/2 c., 1 c. was just too greasy to me

• Optional Ingredients:

1. Whipped Cream on top
2. Sprinkle Nut Meg on top of the Whipped Cream
   

• Directions:

1. Stir together first 5 ingredients and pour into greased 13x9-inch baking dish.
   
2. Sprinkle cake mix over pumpkin mixture, then sprinkle pecans on top.
   
3. Drizzle butter over pecans and bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes or until golden brown.
   
4. Remove from oven, let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature with Whipped Cream, if desired. Sprinkle with nutmeg, if desired.

Decorating This Halloween with Wilton

• There is a giveaway at Mommy Mandy. One winner will receive a gift pack of Wilton products.

1. Haunted Manor 6 Cavity Mini Cakes Pan
2. Haunted Manor Cupcake Wrap 'n Pix
3. Haunted Manor Cupcake Stand
   
4. Spider Mix Sprinkles
5. Orange/Black Striped Icing
6. Haunted Manor Halloween Stand Baking Cups
7. Haunted Manor 3 piece Cookie Cutter Set
   

Pie Pops

• So...I saw these on a blog I follow.
  
• I sort of liked making them.
• I did change one thing from what I saw, so it's not entirely me coping them.
  
• I added colored sugar on them.
• It's just pie crust dough, cut with cookie cutters, added pie filling and a sucker stick (found at Hobby Lobby), then the other part of the crust. I painted egg white on them, sealed them up with a fork, and sprinkled the sugar on top. They baked at 350 degrees for about 20 min.
  
• I don't like the fact that the sucker sticks don't stay on tight. It's sort of a pain getting both pie crust pieces seemed together. Those were my biggest problems. But...they look cute.
  

Train Cake

• The first one was a flop. I went to plop it out of the pan, and it broke in pieces.
• I used some of the pieces on the Train Track Cake.
• The second attempt to a train cake was a success. I used jelly beans, gummy worms, cookies, 1/2 an ice cream cone and a marshmallow.

Train Track Cake

• I got to use some black sprinkles that my sister Terra gave me for my birthday.
• I also used crumbs from the flop cake (shown above).

Tooth Fairy

• The Cookies: Tooth fairies and stars. Different types of sprinkles used.
• The Art: Clouds, tutu, bow, the mouth is two different photo's, eye's are part cookie, part photo's and the crown has different stones set in it.
  

"D" is for Dog

• The Cookies: Dogs and dog house. The texture was put into the dog houses with a fork when the frosting was set.

• The Art: White fence, sky and grass. Font is Rosewood Std.
  

Ticket to Ride

• This too is not cookie art, but has a flair of it's own.
  
• Mica (my 3 year old) is so into trains.
  
• I created this train ticket for invitation's for his birthday party.
  
• All I need to do is to see a date and time. I'm going to buy a perforator blade, and make a rip off. The kids invited can bring the rip off part in for a raffle of prizes.
• Note that he is going to be 4 years old; that's why it says "Row 4" and "Seat 4".
  

T-Shirt

• I made this for Isaak on: www.zazzle.com.
• The horse has the word, "one" on the saddle. The back says, "Fun for the young & the Young at Heart".
  

Birthday Invitation

• These aren't cookies, but they are collaged together in the same manner as my cookie art.
• They were for Isaak's first birthday.
• A lot of torn paper was scanned in for the background.
  
• I used Illustrator for the type.
  

More to Come

• I plan on creating an image soon with ice cream cones. I love how I can get the different flavors of strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. It's too bad you can't taste what you see. Maybe someday I'll have a show where you can.
• I also have a tooth cookie cutter I bought since my husband works at a dental lab. I've been wanting to create a piece with a tooth fairy. In due time.
  

Lilies

The Cookies: Bunny with various sprinkles. Carrots with sprinkles and M&Ms.

• The Art: Lilly photo, dirt photo and two sky photo's. Shadows were added in Photoshop.

• This is my favorite cookie art piece so far.

Nest

Cookies: The eggs and flowers. The flowers have M&M centers.

The Art: A photo of a nest, a photo of Spanish moss and a photo of a tree. I blurred out the flowers as they went back in the distance in Photoshop.

Duck

Cookies: The duck with sprinkles. The eggs.

The Art: Two photos of grass (both manipulated in Photoshop). One sky was used.

Desert

The Cookies: Cacti cookies with crushed up baking M&Ms.

The Art: Two photo's of skies were used. One photo of sand, another of cracked dirt. A lizard photo was added. I used the burn tool in Photoshop to darken the ground.

Peppers

The Cookies: Hot peppers with sprinkles on the frosting.

The Art: Added photos of real pepper stems. Highlights were added on the cookies. The wood grain was all effects done in Photoshop.

Cars

The Cookies: Cars and flowers. M&M's were used when decorating them.

The Art: This piece has two sky photo's, two tree photo's, grass and a couple dirt roads.