Sugar Swings! Serve Some: October 2011

Friday, October 28, 2011

my own halloween "clip show"....!

ok ok ok...i know no one really likes a clip show...it's just re-hashing all the stuff you've previously done...but whatev....it's fun!


.....bride of frankenstein cupcakes made with cotton candy.....

ghost cupcakes in fall flavors

....ghost cupcakes in fall flavors.....lots of unique fall flavors......

halloween whoopie pies

.....halloween whoopie pies.....fun fun fun!.....

halloween lego minifig candies

.....edible lego minifigs .....lego dudes (and dudette!)....all dressed up for halloween......


....halloween brownies.....toppers made from candy melts and a ice cube tray mold.....

DSCN1882

monster cereal cupcakes

cereal & cake pops

monster cereal treats 3 ways.....boo berry, frankenberry, and count chocula goodness.....



.....spiders, ghost, and candy corn cupcakes....a trio of some halloween favorites....


.....tiny dots "cupcakes"...halloween dots candy topped with icing....!

icky halloween cupcakes

.......gross cupcake toppers....yep gross.....


.....fall whoopie pies.....chocolate, green tea, and pumpkin.....

candy corn striped madeleines

.....and candy corn madeleines....vanilla madeleines dressed up like candy corn.....

....hope you have an awesome halloween....!
Tidy Mom's I'm Loving It

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

candy corn striped madeleines.....!

candy corn striped madeleines

...so i'm back to halloween festive treats after taking a break with some mini pancake cakes...!...i'm loving all the candy corn "themed" desserts all over the blogosphere....here are some of my favs! (but i could list a ton of these...!)


.....and i've totally been meaning to make some homemade madeleines since my sister gave me a pan last year for a christmas gift...they've been on the "to do" list since then.......and since i've already done candy corn themed cupcakes.....this project is like killing 2 birds with 1 baking stone....!

candy corn striped madeleines

...and there's something about candy corn this time of year....it's another one of those polarizing candies (like marshmallow peeps!).....you either love it or hate it....personally i'm in the latter category for this particular one...and so are my kiddos.....but i really do like the coloring of candy corn...and if you see a pic of  some candy corn...what do you think of...?....halloween of course....!

.....i have to say these were very easy and VERY fun....and came out much better than i was expecting...!

piping madeleines

.....i used a really simple recipe from mocha thoughts for vanilla madeleines...and then just divided the batter in thirds...left one plain and tinted the other 2 orange and yellow, and added each to a zip lock bag....the tricky part was filling the madeleine pan into candy corn like "stripes"....it just happens that this batter is just thick enough to allow you to "pipe" one color into a third of the madeleine section before it fills in the entire madeleine (does that make sense?)...you have to work a little fast...but it was very forgiving once baked...! also just snip off a small section of the end of the zip lock bag (if it's too large of an opening it will come out too fast and you won't have enough time to make the stripes)....

candy corn striped madeleines

...once baked just sprinkle with a little powdered sugar......

.......and you get some neato candy corn like madeleines that don't taste like candy corn ('cause my kids wouldn't have eaten them if they did!)....

Friday, October 14, 2011

mini neapolitan pancake cakes......!

mini cakes

...so i needed to take a break from halloween treaty treats....i'm kinda ghost and zombied out.....at least for a couple days.....and i also think i make more treats that may appeal to the y chromosome than the x.....so these are for my 4 year old girlie girl....mini neapolitan pancake cakes...!

neapolitan pancake cake

...the other day the kids wanted pancakes....so decided instead of rainbow to do some vanilla, strawberry and chocolate....made with this stuff....


....just followed the directions for the pancake mix then separated into 3 bowls and added a generous squirt of chocolate syrup to one.....about 2 tablespoonfuls of strawberry quick to another....and left the other plain.....

pancakes in 3 flavors

....and you get really simple neapolitan pancakes...!...yum!...

neapolitan pancakes

....since i had a bunch of pancakes left over....and some leftover buttercream.....and everything's better with buttercream...right?......made some mini cakes with them.....

....i didn't ice between each layer....(although i did add a small amount of icing just to anchor the pancakes together).....i did do a quick crumb coat and then refrigerated before icing and decorating (just some of the buttercream tinted pink and piped using a wilton #2 tip).....

mini cakes

....and you get some mini neapolitan girlie girl pancake cakes....! ...pretty tasty and not overly sweet (since pancakes are not as sweet as cake layers....the buttercream made up for that tho!).....

neapolitan pancake cake

...ok i feel better now and can go back to holiday treats...!...have a great weekend....go RU!....

Sharing at these fun blog hops! Go stop by!

Monday, October 10, 2011

avocado cupcakes...!

avocado cupcake

....so this is just one of the cupcakes from the ghost cupcakes in fall flavors a couple weeks ago....

...avocado is a flavor that i've been meaning to try in cake form for awhile....!....i know i know...avocado makes some awesome fresh guacamole or works well on sandwiches, salad...and sushi...but as a sweet...?...well it is a fruit....(btw-i just found that out!)...and some countries do use them in milkshakes, ice cream and other desserts...so why not...!...plus they are super good for you...lots of fat but the good kind you need and they are higher in potassium than bananas...(thanks wikipedia!)

...i used the recipe here which in addition to the normal cupcakes stuff and avocado....it has some nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice....so it really does incorporate some fall flavors too....




...i just mashed the avocados up with a fork until mostly smooth....then added it to the batter.....

pre-baked:

avocado cupcakes

post-baked:

fall flavor cupcakes

...in addition to the ghosts....also froze some and then used them for the halloween lego minifig candy cupcakes....

halloween lego minifig cupcakes

.....i had one right out of the oven...super moist and pretty yummy.....i could get a faint flavor of avocado...but probably because i was looking for it....the spices really just made it reminiscent of a pumpkiny or other fall flavored cupcake.....the green throws people off a little....a lot guessed green tea before trying it....i kinda recommend not saying what the flavor is though and having people guess....i had a few people say they never would have tried an avocado cupcake if they knew the flav ahead of time....whatever...it was good....maybe not my absolute favorite.....but all in all i'm glad i tried it....and the color is so awesome for this time of year...that color is all from the avocado...no food coloring added...!...next time i'll try avocado frosting...!

...anyway...it's always fun to experiment a bit...right??!....happy columbus day!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

halloween lego minifig pops & cupcakes....!

halloween lego minifig pops

...so halloween had to be one of my least favorite holidays when i was a little kid....the thought of going up to strangers houses...knocking and then asking for a treat was kinda like a mini panic attack to someone who was a wee bit on the shy side as a kid....now that's no problem at all...only took 30 or so years to get over that (and working in the corporate world kinda forces you out of comfort zones anyway).....

.....that said halloween is really fun now with my kiddos and they love it....they are a little cautious as well...but they quickly loose any fear when it comes to gettin' some free candy....and the treats out in the blogosphere are pretty sweet around halloween time too....!

....and i think i've mentioned it plenty of times before....but we have lego freaks living here....so i knew these would be a hit around this particular homestead......

halloween lego minifig candies


.....to make the lego minifigs..... you'll need this:

...it's a silicone ice cube tray but it works really well with candy melts/wafers.....and if you are crazy like me...you may take time to sketch out your master plan (does anyone else do this or am i the only looney bin?)....

  lego mini fig drawing

...start with the colors you want the basic lego minifig to be....you can find the process for making these candy lego dudes here...just remember you need to work kinda fast and have the colors ready to go at the same time for each minifig......

lego minifigs

....once hardened....add the details for the halloween characters....i used more candy melt (add wafers to a zip lock bag....nuke until just melted and snip off the tiniest edge so you can "pipe" on finer detail....i also had some left over royal icing from other projects and tinted it black to do some of the face detail (like on frankenstein's monster's face and belt, dracula's hair)....other detail is candy melt (devil tail/eyes/horns, dracula's cape/fangs, skeleton face and bones, mummy eyes/mouth, zombie blood) or you can also try the food writers (i used this for the mummy cloth lines and zombie eyes/mouth and pumpkin head eyes)...really i just experimented until i got the effect i was looking for.....oh and for the bride of frankenstein...you need to add extra white candy melt over the legs to make it look like a dress and use black and white candy melt for her hair.....

 ...the kiddos loved these as mini pops...but you can also use them for cupcake toppers...or any other lego treats you can think of....i've used them on cakes...as valentine's day treats....and of course as cupcake toppers as well.....this mold has gotten a ton of mileage out of it for the 10 bucks or so that it cost....!

  halloween lego minifig cupcakes

....and you get some pretty neat looking edible lego minifig dudes just for halloween....!!

halloween lego minifig

....anyhoo hope you like them and thanks so much for stopping by....don't forget to enter to win the "halloween treat making care package" too---it's open til Oct 8th!...have a GREAT week!