Scarecrow cupcakes & Turkey cookies

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Dad's house this year.  I was asked to bring dessert and I didn't want to bring pies because I just can't seem to make good pies.  Once again I was surfing the net and came upon the Betty Crocker website and found turkey cookies.  Then the next day I bought my weekly fix of Woman's World and there was a recipe for a scarecrow made out of cupcakes.  Dessert for Thanksgiving now was found!

Here is the link for the turkey cookies:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/turkey-cookie-treats/31890610-3bcf-4d9e-8706-91445256525b

So apparently I only took pictures of the finished cookies.  These went like hot cakes at dinner.  Next year I will have to make more.

On to the scarecrow cupcake man!  This was labour of love and I have learned more since making this one.  I don't know if I will make it again.  Some of the things used to decorate it didn't work too well.

My baking partner in crime Christy and I made 2 scarecrows for our Thanksgiving dinners.

Our helper, Gavin, posing with the ingredients.

Crow made out of an Oreo cookie, junior mint and fuzzy peach

Hats made out of graham crackers and an M&M

I had leftover cupcakes so I made a pumpkin patch and attempted to make fall flowers out of the leftover candy corn.

White Chocolate Nuts & Bolts



This recipe is courtesy of my friend, Jodi.  She gave me this recipe after giving my office it as a present one year for Christmas.  I like the mix of salty and the sweet.  On my Bugle expedition to the US, I happened to find caramel covered Bugles so I added them to this year's mix.  I hope I can find them next year.  They were yummy even by themselves.




 

Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave and then drizzle all over the spread out mixture on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.

Royal Icing

When I decided to do my cookie baking this year i wanted to try royal icing.  I was very nervous to try but thanks to Lorene at Phat Cat Cakes, she by the way made our wedding cake, royal icing is my new favourite thing.

You can use royal icing for straight piping and for something called flooding.  I had never heard of this term before but wow is it easy to do.  Flooding is when you outline your cookie with piping consistency royal icing then you making a looser icing and flood the cookie.  You spoon a tiny amount onto the cookie then rotate the cookie until the icing covers the entire cookie.  I used this to ice the cookies for my cookie tree and Christmas tree cookies.

The recipe for piping consistency royal icing is:

2 cups (1/2 pounds) icing sugar

4 Tbsp Meringue powder

3 Tbsp warm water (starting amount, you may need to add more)

1 Tbsp or 1/2 tsp of colouring or extract

The recipe for flooding consistency royal icing is:

2 cups icing sugar

4 Tbsp Meringue powder

6 Tbsp warm water

1 Tbsp or 1/2 tsp colouring or extract

1. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of your electric mixer.

2. Beat on high for 5 minutes if you are using an electric stand mixer or for 10 minutes if you're using an electric hand mixer. If your mixer has multiple attachments, use the paddle).

3. When you reach the desired consistency, it's important rhat you immediately cover the mixture as it dries out quickly.  Divide it into separate air tight containers if making multiple colours.

**Use the water amounts as starting points but be prepared to adjust them depending on weather or even your kitchen temperature.  Be aware that the amount of water you add to the icing may change slightly every time you make it.

Piping Consistency Tips

* When first mixed, piping icing will start out with the consistency of white glue.  When you've finished beating the icing, it will be glossy, with the consistency similar to that of toothpaste.

* The icing should squeeze easily out of a #2 tip but should stay in place and hold it's shape on the cookie when it lands.

* If the icing is too stiff, it'll be hard to squeeze from the pastry bag and may lift up off the cookie when you finish the outline or detail.

* If the icing is too loose, it will spread and make too shallow an outline to dam the slood icing.

* Test the icing with just the tip before filling a bag.

Flood Consistency Tips

* When first mixed, flood icing will appear very soupy.  In 5 minutes your icing will be shiny and white, with the consistency of heavy cream.

* It shouldn't be so thin that it runs like water ir that its cookie coverage is transparent, and it shouldn't be so thick that it stays in place when you squirt it onto the cookie. It should immediately flow towards the piped borders.

Preparing to pipe and flood tips

* You will need one pastry bag set up for each piping icing colour and one squeeze bottle for each flood colour.

Snowmen Face Cookies

These cookies were too adorable to pass up making this year.  I found them while searching for cookie ideas for Thanksgiving dinner this past October.  Thank you Betty Crocker for the wonderful ideas your website has given me since I found it.

Here is the link to the cookies.
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/jolly-snowman-faces/4b01e537-c596-41d6-aab2-8b90e97aad53?parent={38CE491F-B430-48F4-96B6-584BEF814B22}&gp={110D559F-DEA5-42EA-9C1C-8A5DF7E70EF9}

Instead of using the premade cookie dough mix from Betty Crocker I used my Dream cookie recipe.



The decorating assembly line.



Use premade vanilla icing as the base.



Add shoestring licorce as the headband for the ear muffs.



I used lifesavers for the ear muffs.  The first batch I made used the hard candy Lifesavers but people were saying they were too hard to bite into.  I went back to Walmart to see if they had the gummy Lifesavers and they did.  Next batch had the gummy Lifesavers and they were much easier to eat.

Brown M&Ms for the eyes.  I had to buy 4 bags of M&Ms to find enough brown M&Ms to make 3 dozen cookies.  By the end some of the snowmen had green and blue eyes which were very creepy.

I used a candy called Dots for the nose.  I happened across them at my local dollar store.

I used black gel icing for the mouth.

My Dad had a Christmas party on December 18th so I put together a cake board with cookies.  Here is a picture of the cookies that were on it.

After making all the snowmen cookies I had some dough leftover.  I made Christmas trees and candy canes.

Dream Cookies aka Sugar Cookies

Dream cookies aka sugar cookies are a recipe that was given to my Mom by my Nana (my Dad's mom).  It is one of the few memories I have of her since she passed away 20 years ago this past December.  I remember sitting at her kitchen table looking at all her cookie cutters and trying to decide which ones I was going to choose.  I get my love of baking and cooking from her.  These cookies are my Dad's favourite.  I try to make him an ice cream pail full every year for Christmas.  This year he just nibbled off of the tray I put together for his Christmas party.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp milk

2 eggs

a pinch of salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

about 4 cups of flour (may need more or less)



1. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.

2. Add eggs, vanilla, and milk.

3. Add salt, baking powder and salt to 1 cup of flour then add to above mixture.

4. Add 1/2 cup of flour at a time until it becomes dough like.

5. Refridgerate for at least 1 hour.  I do it overnight.

6. Roll out on floured counter top.

7. Use cookie cutters to make cookies.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until lightly brown.

Hubby rolling the dough into medium size balls so they can be refrigerated.

This year with the Dream cookie dough I decided to make 3 different cookies.  I wanted to try and make a cookie tree out of star shaped cookies, snowmen cookies and stained glass cookies.  Unfortunately the cookie tree was an epic failure.  The cookies didn't cook evenly and so when they were iced and stacked they were very uneven.

I used royal icing to ice the cookies with.  My next blog will be about this amazing icing!

No I haven't been drinking Bailey's and hot chocolate while building the tree.

The stained glass cokies were very simple to make.  I used a large cookie cutter for the main shape then I used a smaller shaped cutter for the window part.  I didn't ice these cookies.  I might next year.

To make the glass part place lifesavers in baggies and pound them into small pieces.  Then sprinkle into centre of cookies.  I experimented and placed several colours in one cookie.  It turned out nicely.

Nuts & Bolts

I know there are lots of recipes out there for Nuts & Bolts.  I am going to share with you the one that I have used ever since I started making my own batches.  It isn't a family secret it is just the one on the side of Orginal Chex box.  You may have to cross the border if you can't find Chex cereal.  I found some at Walmart.

I use cereals, Bugles (which can only be found in the US now), peanuts (which I am not found of), and 3 different types of pretzels (Goldfish shaped (US found only), sticks and mini pretzel shaped.

 Poured everything into my biggest mixing bowl.  I had to match 7 batches this year.

 Stir it up with the butter, Worchestershire sauce and seasoning salt.  Then bake for 2 hours on parchment paper.

Make sure to store this in a metal container so it doesn't go soggy with moisture.