Chocolate Ginger Roll Out Cookies

I found a new recipe that I just love!

I love chocolate, and I'm on a ginger kick. This recipe combines both flavors into one.

They were super easy to make!

The Ingredients: 

The Directions:

They are versatile. You can use different cutters to give them new innovative looks! If you desire, you can frost them, or pipe them. My family thought they tasted good on their own, so I left them be. 

Pot O' Gold Cupcakes

I set out to make the cupcakes. Only to discover I had no cake mix in the house. Well I did have lemon and carrot cake mix, but those two flavors didn't sound right to go with chocolate.

I searched online for a recipe. I came across this one, but had to change it to fit my needs more. Here's the recipe I ended up with:

Preheat at 350 degrees. It takes 30 to 40 minutes to bake.

I really wanted to attempt to make Pot O' Gold Cupcakes. I thought a Reese's Peanut Butter cup would make a great pot. Then I added a dab of chocolate frosting and added mini yellow m&ms for the gold.

The best things were that they were easy to make! My preschooler Isaak helped me.

Didn't they turn out cute?

Igloo Cake

Turkeys!

My 7 year old and I made 7 of these turkeys this afternoon. Next we're making acorns and leaves.

I heart the edible eyes I found when I went shopping this morning.

The gobble and beak are 1/2 an m&m chopped with a pill cutter. 

My son insisted on coloring their feet with a yellow edible marker.

The Art of Sushi

I've seen Rice Crispy Sushi Rolls pinned a few times. I decided I wanted to make them. I put my own twist on the idea.

Here's what you need to make Rice Crispy Sushi Rolls:

Directions:

• Spray a mini muffin pan with flour spray. Set aside.
• Melt the butter, margarine or oil in a large pan. 
• Then add the marshmallows. Melt those, stir with a wooden spoon.
• Stir in the Rice Krispies.
• I spray my clean hands with flour spray, so the mixture doesn't stick to me like crazy.
• Start pressing the mixture into the mini muffin pan. Try and work fast. 
• Add a Swedish Fish to each one as you go. {I know mixing cultures}.

Source

It should look something like this:

They come right out of the pan!

Have your Fruit Roll-Ups in the refrigerator. I tried with them not in there and they were hard to unroll!

Use your kitchen sheers, cut one roll-up in 1/2 and start unrolling them. Then place them around each rice crispy treat.

They turn out so cute:

If you make them just like I did, you'll have 40 rolls. We only went through 20. The rest went to my work. People at my work swore they were real. Some wondered why they weren't in the refrigerator.

Spider Man Birthday Cake

I made this cake a few weeks ago. Then we went on vacation, so I didn't get a chance to post it until now.

My nephew and youngest son had a Spider Man birthday party. I bought 2 Spider Men to put on the cake; since there were 2 birthday boys.

I had a hard time finding chocolate graham crackers. It took going to 3 stores before I could find them. They were the best thing I could think of for buildings. It took a little while to pipe the windows on.

My son Isaak wanted both a "circle cake" and a "square cake", so the bottom is a square and the top is a round cake. It worked out pretty well for the buildings to fit on the square corners!

The topper kept sliding into the cake, so I had to change toppers last minute. Luckily we have a few Spider Men laying around! I didn't want him to look like he was in a spider web quick sand mixture!

Jessie Steele

There's a really sweet giveaway going on at Anna and Blue! It's to win one really cool collection of Jessie Steele apron sets featured on their giveaway page.

I happen to like this one:

Transfer Techniques

These are easy to do and fun to!

Acetone

Matte Medium

Packaging Tape

Matte Medium on a Transparency Sheet 

Dirt Brownies

I had left over dirt; well actually chocolate cookie crumbs. I made chocolate brownies for an Easter gathering. My six year old had fun spreading chocolate frosting on them and sprinkling the brownies with dirt AKA chocolate cookie crumbs.

I added some carrot sugar cookie I made and my three year old and six year old added gummy worms. My boys rarely get gummy anything. They were SUPER excited to eat some and add some worms to the dirt!

These Treats Look Amazing!

These look so yummy to me right now! Of course I looked at them minutes before lunch. If you want to win a sample package of Donsuemor goodies go to: New Age Mama!

Dirt Cookies

I made some spring sugar cookies. Usually I make carrots, bunnies, eggs and chicks. This year I still made the usual and added in some squares and circles.

There are cupcakes on Jolly Mom that inspired me to create my Dirt Cookies.

I crushed up chocolate cookies I bought. 

Next I took the circle and square sugar cookies, frosted them with chocolate frosting, dipped them in the crushed chocolate cookies. There dirt was easy to create. My three year old loved helping me.

I then frosted my carrot cookies. Instead of only adding orange frosting, I added some more chocolate cookie crumbs into the frosting. I used green frosting and grass sprinkles for the steam. The back of the carrot had a touch of chocolate frosting added, just so they would in fact stick. Then they were pressed into the circles and squares.

 
I thought with some I could have bought gummy worms to add to the tops. Not this time though.

Typography

I heart typography. It's truly an art form in my mind.

The TypographyShop is gives away a free tee on Fridays. That is only if they have 25 entrants. Please enter today!

Typography is an Artform!

I love typography, especially since I teach about it.

This site called Typography Shop .com is giving away a t-shirt every week as long as they get 25 + entries. Go here to enter.

I Scream For Ice Cream!

I've never tried Cold Stone Creamery. They do offer frozen yogurt if you are not into or can't eat ice cream.

I'd love to take my kids there sometime. New Age Mama is have a sweet giveaway going on for one winner to win a $20 GC to Cold Stone Creamery!

Very Cherry

Flirty Aprons are so sexy and cute! Mom Spotted is giving away one. If I were to win, I'd love their apron called Very Cherry!

Do you wear an apron in the kitchen? I do sometimes. Usually when it's a baking day.

Today I Made Heart Cupcakes

I took in my 2 nephews a lot this weekend. I wanted to make something Valentines{ish}. Since public schools do not allow homemade treats, I made them for the smaller boy's private preschool.

We decided to make Red Velvet Heart Cupcakes.

We piped in cream cheese frosting. Then we added chocolate frosting with a single chocolate chip. Each boy got to have one for a snack and there are plenty still for preschool. Win, win for everyone!

Want to Win a Valentines Package?

I do! I think this would be a great gift to my kids! What does it include?

• A fun Valentine’s Day heart box
• Iced honey vanilla heart cookies
• A complete assortment of Godiva truffles

How to win? Go to Mommy to the Max to enter!

Christmas Treats

My sugar cookie snowmen are always the first to go. This year I make some with cereal buttons and others with small m&m buttons. The nose is a small orange m&m cut up with a pill cutter. The eyes are brown m&ms cut into quarter pieces. The pill cutter works great!

Just a star sugar cookie with gold sprinkles,

 These chocolate malt cookies were the next to go. Some were hesitant. They are not as Christmas(y) as the snowmen. They certainly have the flavor!

The chocolate roll out cookies are fun to. The first year that I made them I decorated them a lot. My sister's and mom sampled them and said they taste better plain. I just added a blob of chocolate frosting and added a pearl sprinkle to the angles and an m&m to the others.

I love orange slices. Since it was Christmas time, I went for the cherry slices. They taste really good dipped in dark chocolate melt. This is probably the easiest thing I made. It totally added color to the dessert table.

The round pretzels taste good with dark chocolate melt poured in them and a single mint chocolate kiss. Just don't put them on too fast. They can melt and make a mess.

These pre-bitten Gingerbread Boys were fun to make. My sister bought me cookie cutter Gingerbread Men a few years ago. One has an arm off, another has a foot off and the last one has his head off. They are fun, but I think they look best on a plate full of them. Then people get the humor of them.

I also made Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls. I guest posted about them here. They are so good made with Coconut Oil! I also loved them dipped in dark chocolate!

KitchenAid

I remember when I was registering to get married, I didn't have a KitchenAid mixer on my list. My Aunt said, "Alissa you need to have one of those." She convinced me that I needed one. It's one of my top items in my kitchen. I make breads, cookies, cakes and bars with this thing.

Mom Spotted is giving away one $550 KitchenAid Mixer!

Thanksgiving Day Parade

We have Christmas in November with my husband's side of the family. I decided to make some Thanksgiving cookies to take on our journey.

Meet Mr. Tom Turkey: 

He was so easy to make. I love how I found one last bag of candy corn on clearance! I totally think they should sell them into Thanksgiving time! The colors totally say, "Halloween" and "Thanksgiving"!

Not my forte, but my husband says that part of Thanksgiving is about football. So I made some footballs for this Turkey day.