Happy Halloween .. Royal Icing Cookies (Black Cat, Witch Hat and Ghost)

Happy Halloween everyone! I was hoping to get this post up over the weekend, but this darn head cold made me behind. I made the Zombie's for my oldest son, and for my youngest who is still cool with mom's treats I made Halloween themed cookies. I had these 3 pack from last year's Michael's clearance bin and used them this year. it came with a cat, hat and ghost. Since I had a half batch of royal icing I made another batch of fun royal icing cookies.

 

 

After the cookies had set up I put them in little bags for Caden to give to his friends in class.

 

What you Need:

Sugar Cookies cut into ghost, cats and hats
Halloween Cookie Cutters

Royal Icing in white, red and black (recipe below)

AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring Red and Black (to dye Icing - This is my fav brand)

Pipping Bag

I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details.

For the ghost I dipped in royal icing not colored. When the white was dry I then took a pipping bag with black royal icing and made the eyes and mouth. I saw on the package they outlined the ghost in black also but I liked this look.

For the witches hat I dipped in royal icing colored black. When the black was dry I took a pipping bag with red to make a ribbion and outline the brim of the hat. You can get fun and add dots etc or just leave black.

For the Cats i dipped in royal icing colored black.  When the black was dry I took a pipping bag with red to make the eyes (you can add a small black dot in the middle also but I liked the look with out). I took a ziplock with white royal icing to add a nose. I then took the black pipping bag to pipe on whiskers.

I like to do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to harden. 

Click HERE to see who I link with.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has 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

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.

Halloween Cookies .. Spiderweb Cookies (Royal Icing)

For a fun Halloween treat I tried my hand at spiderweb cookies using royal icing. I'm really loving the look of royal icing cookies. NOW if I was eating a cookie I'm a huge fan of a large amount of frosting on it (use frosting on cookies .. heck frosting alone is my downfall). These sure look fun, now I'm no master cookie maker but I love that I'm getting better. 

What you Need:

Sugar Cookies cut into circles (see my fav sugar cookie recipe below)

Royal Icing in White (no coloring) and Black (recipe below)

AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring Black (to dye Icing - This is my fav brand I had to use Wilton)

Pipping Bag

I use the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do this about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details. I like to do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to harden, but this needed to be wet to add details. I took a plastic piping bag and added the details with Black royal icing. I have found in the past making this a little thicker than your outlining consistency is best if not they run together.  I tried a few different ways to make the webs. The best way I have to make the web is to make a spiral on top of a WET cookie. I then started from the middle and pulled out to make four sections. I then went and pulled IN in between these sections. Play around find what works best. I pipped the lines on also but didn't like the look. Since earlier this week I ran out of black AmeriColor and picked up black Wilton color to Michael's I used this. Wilton in a NON squeezable bottle. I so hate these bottles the squeeze bottles are the easiest and LESS messy!!
 

Click HERE to see who I link with.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has 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

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.

 

Mummy & Ghost Oreo Cookies

And for Caden's class I whipped up some easy Ghost and Mummies.  I loved how they came out!

What You Need:
Oreo Cookies (Orange Cream if you want)
Candy Melts - White (Almond Bark)
Black candy (or Black Modeling Chocolate)

Melt your candy melts in the microwave, mine takes about 1 1/2 minutes to melt nicely (be careful don't burn the chocolate ... done this many times).  Stir with a fork to make smooth. Dip your oreo in the chocolate make sure to cover top and bottom.  I take a fork to take them out and bang off any extra chocolate.  I then took a fork with some white melts to go back and forth to make the bandge look. I took some black modeling chocolate to make eyes and mouths (I did that for only the ghost).  Put in the fridge to hard up and put into treat bags to pass out (I picked mine up at the Dollar Tree).

Thanks for Stopping by!

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

Twinkie Frankenstein

I kept seeing these Twinkie Frankenstein's from Life of a Whisk on a few blog hops and had to give them a try!  These I made for Cole's class since he's in 5th I wanted to do something fun but no too kidish.  These turned out awesome!

Ingredients:

12 oz Green Melting Chips
4 oz Black Melting Chips
1 Red Melting Chip
6 Twinkies
12 Candy Eye Decorations 

1. Place Twinkies in freezer for at least 30 minutes.
2. Prepare a baking sheet or cutting board by covering with parchment or wax paper.
3. Melt green candy chips by microwaving 30 seconds then stirring and repeating until melted.
4. Dip each Twinkie in chocolate and roll to completely coat.
5. Transfer to prepared paper.
6. using a toothpick, spear a mini marshmallow and dip in green chocolate to cover completely.
7. Position marshmallow in middle of Twinkie to act as nose. Use another toothpick to loose marshmallow from first toothpick and to smooth out chocolate.
8. Using chocolate as "glue", set 2 eyes just above the nose.
9. Place in refrigerator for 10 minutes to set.
10. Lift each Twinkie to separate from paper.
11. Using a knife carefully trim excess chocolate that ran off.
12. Melt black candy chips by microwaving 30 seconds then stirring and repeating until melted.
13. Dip top of each Twinkie in black chocolate to make hair.
14. Return to prepared paper.
15. Using toothpick method, dip 8 mini marshmallows in black chocolate to coat completely and place on prepared paper to use as neck bolts.
16. Place in refrigerator for 5 minutes to set.
17. Trim any excess chocolate that ran off.
18. Using chocolate as glue attach neck bolts to sides of Twinkies.
19. Take the one red chip and heat for 30-60 seconds until melted.
20. Using a toothpick, draw a mouth on each and draw the forehead scar.
21. Place in refrigerator for 10 minutes to set.

ALEXIS NOTES: I had to make 20+ of these so I just increased the # of everything used.  I used a little black to make a uni-brow.  For the red mouth I used red gel.  I'm putting these into Halloween treat bags for him to transport for school.  I also used a dark green instead of the lime green she used to make them a little more grown up looking for the 5th graders.

Thanks for Stopping by!

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

And we wrap this Halloween ...

Several hot glue gun burns later and tons of hours on costume making I'm happy to put this day behind me.  NOT so sure I'll be doing the homemade costume again next year but knowing me I will forget about the pains and go for it again.

We did Wednesday night at the church, they had a huge event with jumpy things, trunk or treat, the High School Band played a few songs and even a costume contest.  If you may have guessed by now I go all out for events and may be a tad bit of a competitive in my nature.  YUP I'm so trying to work on this one!  I must say I was sad that we didn't win (ok a little peeved ... ok really peeved .. God so giving me a lesson to be humble).  We will just say a really cool box with duct tape won and some store bought witch costumes.  YUP I'm over it .. lol (yes I'm a work in progress).

Halloween night we headed up to my parents to visit with them and do the rounds then hit downtown where the shop owners give out candy.  I'm happy to be done with it and happy it will another year before I get some crazy idea to make costumes again ... lol.

Hope you all had a safe night!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Boo to you from our crew - Gooey Caramel Apple Monster Corn

Have I mentioned how much I love Blog Hops?  No really I do, OK I don't love that people don't stop by and say hi like they should or leave a comment when they do stop by (OK off my soap box). What I do love about them is finding amazing new things to make!  This Halloween I had a plan but then I came across some new things and of course had to try them out.  The only bad thing is this year being at public school vs private I have more kids to make for!

I found this really cool idea for Gooey Caramel Apple Monster Corn on I Dig Pinterest.  I had most of the items already on hand. I made a quick trip to the Dollar Tree for the Caramel Apple Taffy.  I should have picked up the gum drops like she had in her recipe but let's just say shopping at the Dollar Tree with the boys needs to be a get in and get out or I end up with a cart full of crap (I mean real crap some of those toys are just that!)

What you Need:

4 c. unpopped corn kernels or about 12 c. popped corn

2 1/4 c. brown sugar

1 c. karo syrup

1/2 c. butter

dash of salt

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

1 t. vanilla

1 pkg. (7.5 oz.) Caramel Apple Taffy (Dollar Tree - I used 2 bags)

Peanuts (I skipped)

sprinkles (I used on half of the batch)

gum drops (I forgot to pick up so skipped it)

Wilton Candy Eyes (I bought mine at Walmart, seen at Target & Micheals)

MM (I threw in a few orange and green)

Wilton Bags (Found on Clearance at Micheals 99cents for 15 bags)

Caramel Part:

Pop the corn.  Stir brown sugar, karo syrup, butter and salt in a sauce pan.  Bring to a boil and let boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Stir in sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Bring to a boil.  

Add caption

Popcorn / Caramel Part:

Pour over popcorn and carefully incorporate so all popcorn is covered. Unwrap taffy and melt in a buttered saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. Immediately drizzle over popcorn mixture.  Store in an air-tight container.

Hope you enjoy and give these a try!

Are you ready for Halloween Tonight?

I think I can say I'm ready!!

Thanks for Stopping by!

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

Boo to you from our crew - Bleeding Brain Cake Balls

Now onto the treats!  I found these really cool Bleeding Brains featured on Kims Kandy Kreations.  I then went to Hungry Happenings to get the directions.  Thank you to you both for the amazing idea and how easy it was to put these together!!

Ingredients: 
1 baked chocolate cake 
1/4 - 1/2 cup vanilla frosting 
30-38 ounces melted white confectionery coating/candy melts 
cherry jelly, jam, preserves, or dessert sauce (3/4 teaspoon per brain) 
red food coloring (if you want to intensify the color or the cherry sauce)

Make Cake Balls:

Cut about 1/2" all around the edge of the cake and just enjoy a snack. Break up the center of the cake into a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer (my preferred method**) or a food processor. Add 1/4 cup white frosting. Mix to combine.  If the mixture holds together well and you can easily form balls, then stop, if it crumbles, add up to another 1/4 cup frosting. Set aside.

Usually I make cake from scratch 

but every time I do cake balls it turns out better using the box mix.

Make the Brains:
Spoon some melted white candy coating into one of the brain mold cavities. Use a spoon or a pastry brush to paint the coating in a thin layer all around the inside of the mold. Be sure you can't see any of the mold through the white. Paint all four brain cavities in your mold.  Wipe off any candy coating around the edges of the mold. Freeze for 5 minutes.

Remove the molds from the freezer. If you want your cherry filling to be brighter red, add a few drops of red food coloring. Spoon 3/4 teaspoon of the cherry filling into each brain cavity. Scoop out about 2 tablespoons of the cake ball mixture and press it into a brain cavity leaving enough room to add a layer of candy coating on top.

Spoon some more white candy coating on top of each cake ball and smooth it out. Be sure to wipe off any excess coating around the edge of the mold. Freeze for 5 minutes. Remove the cake ball brains from freezer, turn mold upside down, press and pull on the mold until your brains pop out.

ALEXIS NOTES: I used strawberry jam but I think sundae topping would be better not as thick!  I ordered my brain mold off Amazon.  I ended up using 3 bags of white Wilton's Candy Melts and one cake mix made around 24 brains.  I then found these super cute Dracula holders at the Dollar Tree.

Hope you enjoy and give these a try!

Are you ready for Halloween?

I still have treats to make for Caden's Class tonight!

Thanks for Stopping by!

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