Candy Graduation Lei

Cole's 5th grade class had a graduation (or I guess they call it promotion ceremony) to leave elementary school and head to  middle school . He of course is not fazed by this at all, I'm the one having the hardest time with it.  I was running like a mad woman with work and of course trying to make Caden's cupcakes to celebrate his summer bday in class before school ended. But I wanted to do something special for Cole, Thank God I found a cool and easy thing to make! 

I did a google search and several Candy Lei ideas came up but I then found a great tutorial on Laughing Stock Papercrafts. This was so easy to make and Cole LOVED it, he got several compliments on it.

What you need:

Celophane

Mini Candy (I went to Dollar Tree and picked up a few)

Curling Ribbon (Or ribbon of your choice)

Heavy duty Tape (I used packing tape)

Card Stock (I made a tag to hang off if you want) 

Step 1:  Cut your roll of cellophane the length you want your lei to be. I did like her recommendation to lay out the candy before cutting the cellophane to gauge how long I needed it to be. I also doubled up the candy per each round. 

Step 2:  Lay out your candy down the length of the cellophane, leaving a small space in between each piece so you'll have room to tie your ribbon.  (This is where I doubled the candy).

Step 3:  Fold over each side of the cellophane until you've got one long tube around the candy.  It doesn't have to be really tight to the candy so don't worry if the cellophane looks loose, mine was loose and worked perfect.

Step 4:  Begin tying in between the candy, starting at the center of the lei and working toward one side, then starting back at the center and work toward the end of the opposite unfinished side.  That way if your candy shifts and you need to remove a candy at the end to make room to tape the lei shut, you can do that more easily than if you randomly start tying.  Make ribbon about long enough so that can have curled ends.  I also used curling ribbon in my son's school colors but you can use whatever ribbon you like.

Step 5:  Overlap your ends and wrap a piece of heavy duty clear tape around it to hold the lei in place.  The candy lei can end up heavy and you don't have to worry about them falling apart when using heavy duty tape (I used packing tape).

 Step 6:  Tie a bow around the taped end.  You can add lots of curling ribbon here to mask the taped end.  I also like to add a cute tag here to dangle with the ribbon along with a thing of pop rocks to go with my saying "Congratulations Cole 5th Grade Graduate 2015 YOU ROCK!! Love Mom, Dad & Caden. 

Make one you'll be the hit of the graduation class!

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Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Graduation Cookies (Letter with Graduation Cap)

We take a break from my mom's wine party items to show these really cool cookies I made for one my friends niece. These turned out so great and I'm getting this royal icing thing down!

I just noticed the only pic I took of one cookie was one I hit with my nail.

The other's looked smoother.

What you need:

Sugar Cookies (I used Sugar Cookie recipe found on Spoon Fork Bacon)

Letter Cookie Cutter (I picked mine up on Amazon)

Royal Icing (I use Julia M. Usher's Recipe) 

AmeriColor Soft Gel Coloring - Soft Pink

Piping Bags

Modeling Chocolate (White or use color for the cap you want)

Small Square Cookie Cutter

I rolled out the cookie dough and cut out the letters I needed. The girl I was making these for first name started with an E so I did about 32 E's. Baked them and let them cool. I tinted the royal icing was the soft pink gel. The E's weren't huge so when we did the outline we just ended up filling in with the same icing consistency instead of flooding like I did with the other Graduation Cookies. For the caps I took Candy Clay in white and cut out squares, my cutter was a little too small so I rolled it out to make it larger square. For the tassel we just took a strip of the candy clay and made it look like a tassel. And to make the cap have the button on the tassel we added a little circle of modeling chocolate. When the royal icing was almost dry I added the graduation cap to the cookie (I put a dab of icing on the back of the cap to make sure it stayed on).

For those who have not seen my previous post on how to make modeling chocolate (aka candy clay).

Modeling Chocolate

12oz Candy Melts

1/4 Cup light corn Syrup

Melt your Candy Melts in microwave (mine takes about 2 minutes). Stir them to become smooth and add the corn syrup.  It will become thick and form a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let it sit out and dry.  Takes a few hours or over night is best. (Alexis note: I found to roll this out use a little powder sugar (like you would do with flour), also you have to kneed it a little like you would dough to make it easy to roll out).

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Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Graduation Cap Cookies ... Royal Icing

I've been loving those cookie YouTube video's on FB where the girl does the royal icing in time warp. They are beautiful, and I've always wanted to try! A friend from the gym asked if I could make some graduation cap cookies.  I thought this is my time to try out royal icing! NOW this was a big day for her daughter so I didn't want to mess them up OR not have anything for her! I called my best decorating gal and headed to her house with my baked cookies.

I did a Google search to find the best Royal Icing recipe and I found Julie Usher, she had a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

We decided on the outline and then the flooding. This way you make a clean line for the outline then fill in the outline middle with the flooding. WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

We outlined with dark blue (using AmeriColor Royal Blue Soft Gel Food Color). My friend had a steady hand so she did the outling. I did the flooding. I must say it was easier then I thought. We then outlined with black (using AmeriColor Black Soft Gel Food Color). The one thing I have learned about black is it goes from grey to black. NOW I should have let it rest and turn black our's turned a bit grey in the meantime. 

It was a bit time consuming and I know why people charge like $1.50 to $2 each cookie. They turned out so cool and I have another graduation to go to in 2 weeks that I wanted to make cookies for her gift.

A BIG thanks to my friend for always helping me with my adventures in new baking techniques. 

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

College Dorm Survival Kit Gift Idea

My bosses amazing daughter has been excepted into Providence College and I wanted to give her a fun college themed gift for her birthday. This could be a GREAT  going away to college gift also. I found several ideas on the internet for $100+, I figured I could do this myself.

What you Need:
Shower Caddy (Water proof perfect for showers - Amazon $39.99 on sale $12.95)
College Dorm Survival Guide Book (Amazon $11.73 Paperback)
College Tshirt (Providence College for my gift)
Shower Products (Bath Gel, Lotion)
Personal Products (Soap, Toothpaste, Toothbrush, deodrant)
Cotton Balls / Q-Tips
Hair Spray / Mouse
Brush
Gum / Candy etc

Fill the bag with tissue paper to make everything fit nicely. I filled the side pockets with all the fun stuff I bought. Buy things that they will need or special items they like!  I love the book to tie in the theme.  The Tshirt was perfect to tie in the college she was going to also!

Have a GREAT day!

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.