Halloween Fun

 These were for the Halloween party at church.  I had some of our Young Women help.  It was so much fun!

 I made some more spider webs but since these weren't for Ethan I could put a "cute" little spider on top.

 I found these Frankenstein marshmallows online and since I had all the ingredients I thought it would be fun to give them a try.  I used some left over black fondant for the neck thing, green candy melts, green frosting for the eyebrow, and black icing for the hair (grass tip.)

 Fondant ghosts:
Marshmallow Fondant

• 4 cups Loosely Packed Mini Marshmallows
• 2 Tablespoons Water
• 4 cups Powdered Sugar, Plus Additional For Dusting
• 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Shortening

To make marshmallow fondant, place marshmallows and water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave 1 minute on high; stir until marshmallows are melted and blended.

Place confectioners’ sugar on top of the melted marshmallow mixture in the bowl. Fold sugar into marshmallow mixture with a shortening-greased wooden spoon. Place shortening nearby your workspace so you can reach into it with fingers.

Grease hands and counter generously. Dust counter with extra powdered sugar.

Turn marshmallow mixture onto counter; it will be sticky. Knead like you would dough, until fondant pulls into a firm, smooth ball, that can stretch with no tearing. Add enough confectioners’ sugar in between to avoid sticking. If the marshmallow fondant is tearing easily, add 1/2 teaspoon of water at a time. *Being in the South I didn't have to add any extra water or sugar. It was perfect.

Always cover fondant with plastic wrap. Any unused fondant can be stored in double plastic wrap so it does not dry and crack.

I rolled out the fondant used a large round glass to cut circles and then draped it over a small sucker. I used a styrofoam block to hold the sucker until I was ready to add it to the cupcake.  I shaped them to look more ghostly and then added the eyes and mouth with black frosting. 

 I piped on the orange frosting but waited until I was at the church to add the ghosts.  They are heavy and would have fallen over during transport.

 BOO!

I did make some more broken glass cupcakes for the older kids but it just didn't go well with these other cute little monsters.  Thanks girls for all your help!

Mummies and Draculas

 These mini cupcakes are for Wyatt's preschool Halloween party.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Containers

 Do you remember the cute little sour cream containers they used at school and some fast food chains? When I saw these on Pinterest I got so excited and had to make them for my Young Women at church.  What a cute idea! I copied the directions and tags from here. Since I help the girls with their personal progress I thought this would be a fun incentive.

 I  made my boxes bigger than the link I shared.  I cut my paper 5x7.  I wanted to use the fun size Halloween candy bars, and was able to fit 3 in each box.

 I didn't have the same sticky tape or a paper crimper like she used so I used regular double sided tape and staples.

As I was assembling these I was thinking of all the possibilities with these cute things.  I think they would be fun to use for a birthday take home box.  So many sizes, patterns (even a see through vellum), and holidays! Love it!  Thank you creative people who make my day!

Halloween Carnival Cupcakes

 These were for Ethan's Halloween carnival.  His class was in charge of the cupcake walk.  I know perfect, right? I had Ethan help me look for ideas and boy did he have an opinion.  He didn't want anything too babyish.  He is so 9 years old! This is what we came up with.

 I added these to the mix but he approved.  I used white chocolate to make the web and black to make the spider. I used Tip 2 to pipe the web design and once it dried I peeled it carefully off the wax paper and added it to the top of the frosting.

 Green alien:I used fondant to make these. I used Americolor Electric Green for the color.  I cut strips for the legs, shaped the end and draped them over my fondant rolling pin to let dry over night.  I colored some fondant yellow for the eyes.  I used the opening of my big frosting tip to make the circle, then added the black diamond shape with a little water.

 While I was making the chocolate spider webs I made some ghosts too.  Since I was making 48 cupcakes I needed to add some simple ones to the mix.  I used some black sprinkles for the ghosts eyes. I used Milano cookies for the tombs. Ethan said these were for the girls because they were too cute.

 These were Ethan's favorite. I first saw the idea on Facebook.  They were super fun to make and a perfect 9 year old cupcake. Here's the link to make the sugar glass and the blood.   A couple notes:make sure you have your heat on medium when making the glass.  I cooked mine too fast and it turned a little yellow, but it is a long process so if you think mine looks okay then turn up the heat.  Also I didn't add any water to the blood after reading the reviews and I only added 1 drop of blue coloring and a ton more red gel color.  Looking back at the pics I could probably have added a little bit of water to make it more drippy.  I also read afterwards to add almond extract to the glass.  I will try that too next time but the kids still loved to eat the glass the way it was.

 I thought it would be fun to make red velvet cake to add to the gruesomeness of this little cake.

 Zombie cupcakes: Ethan and I both loved this idea when we first found these.  Unfortunately they used cute plastic zombie picks which I didn't have time to order.  I tried making mine out of fondant.  I rolled the green (Americolor electric green) fondant out and then cut a arm and hand shape out.  I wrapped the arm part around a small sucker stick and shaped the fingers into a more zombie like shape. They weren't as good as the picture but Ethan was still happy especially after adding the blood (painted on red gel color.)

 Be careful when adding the tombstones (Milano cookies.) If you put them in too far they will make your cupcakes fall apart.  I had to redo several. Use a knife and cut a slit where you want the cookie to go and that will help the cake not split to bad when adding it.

R.I.P. zombie friends.

So at first I was sad that I had a kid too old to love the cutesy Halloween cupcakes but I ended up enjoying these gruesome little things.

Happy Halloween goblins and zombies!

Ghostly cookies

 We made these for Wyatt's preschool class.  The were super easy to make.  Just dip a Nutter Butter in white chocolate and add mini chocolate chips for the eyes.

So I cut out another coffin just like this one above using my Cricut and added some cookies to it.  I forgot to take a picture but that was a fun way to package the ghosts if you need any ideas.

Personal Progress Activity

 I realize this probably isn't picture worthy but I wanted to remember this activity in the future and give someone the idea. I first saw it from this website. It is a personal progress blitz activity and if you go to her link she has everything you need to do it.  She even explains what personal progress is.  I will link that here too.
We wanted to give the girls a chance to actually pass off some experiences that night.  We also had a competition which made it fun. Sorry I don't have a picture of the value tables.
Instead of doing the Rainbow theme like Kinzie did we made it a P night.  The girls wore their PJ's and ate "P" snacks while they worked.

 These were the Pink and Purple cupcakes.  I just had to do it! We didn't have a "cute" treat.

 I added "p"ink tape to the boring cups.

Some ideas for P snacks are: Pineapple, Popcorn we did caramel and white cheddar, Peanuts, Peanut Butter rice krispies, pretzels, peas (sugar snap) and since it was fall we did the candy corm type Pumpkins.

Soccer cookies

 We were in charge of snacks for both Ethan and Wyatt's soccer teams today. They both wanted to bring soccer sugar cookies. I used this recipe
Sugar Cookies

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup butter (creamed)

1 cup sour cream

Combine & beat until creamy. Add 61/2 cups flour and 2 tsp. baking soda, and 1 tsp. salt. Mix well. Roll out on floured counter 1/2 inch thick. Or place between sheets of parchment paper roll out, freeze for 20 minutes, then cut shapes out and put on cookie sheet. (This method will keep you from having to use so much flour which makes your cookies taste like flour :)   Bake for 10 min. @ 350.

 We made some of these with the left over dough.

This was our favorite one.  The kids had a blast leaving these on some friends doorsteps and doorbell ditching.  I forgot how fun that stuff is.  It's our new tradition!

More Caramel Apples

 Out of the almost 300 apples I made this season these are the only pictures I took.  It is such a crazy process and I've done it so many times that I forget to take pictures.  I wanted to post these for the memories and to tell you some of the new flavors I have made.

 So I made these apples for my husband to market with.  I found these trays at Hobby Lobby and made the tags with my Haunted Halloween Cricut Cartridge.  We attached his business card to the back of the tag.

 The toppings I added are: Mini Reeses Pieces, Heath, crushed orange M&M's mixed with purple and green Sixlets, Crushed Oreo, Coarse Kosher Salt (Salted Caramel,) white chocolate with cinnamon and sugar, milk chocolate with almonds or pecans (turtle,) milk chocolate with crushed graham crackers and mini marshmallows (cut in half) for a S'more.

This isn't my apple but I drizzled some of mine like this and I like it better.  Give it a try!