Candy Buttons!

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Do you remember candy buttons? When I was a little girl, I just loved them! Did you? I made some sweet pink and red ones for Valentine's Day. You can tuck a couple in a little paper pouch for the perfect Valentine's Day treat for your special someone!

 Candy Buttons!

1 1/2 cups Confectioner's Sugar

1 Egg White

Red Food Coloring-liquid

White Paper cut into 2"x5 1/2" strips

Beat sugar and egg white until thick and smooth. 

This should take about 5 minutes.

Divide the icing into 2 bowls.

Drop one drop of red food coloring into a bowl.

Stir until icing is pink.

Drop 3 red drops into the other bowl.

Stir until it is completely red.

Cover up the pink icing so it doesn't dry out.

Use a pastry bag with a #2 tip, and fill the bag with the red color.

Pipe the icing onto the strips of paper in little dots.

Make rows so they look like the original candy buttons.

When the red icing is almost gone,

add the pink to the pastry bag, and continue piping your dots.

The color will flow from red to pink as you pipe.

Let the dots harden over night at room temperature.

A cute, simple, festive Valentine's Treat!

Thanks for joining The Freshman Cook today!

We are sharing our Candy Buttons at the following party:
In and Out of The Kitchen


Drop by and party with us!!

Watermelon Pops!

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I just love watermelon, don't you? When the watermelon is so perfectly kissed by the sun, that biting into a piece makes you close your eyes and say "mmmmm". Eating watermelon always reminds me of being a kid, when we were sent outside after dinner to eat our big, juicy slices in the backyard. To clean our hands and faces, we would squirt each other with the hose. Oh, my goodness, what fun, and what great memories!!      I hope these watermelon ice pops bring wonderful  memories to your house!

Watermelon Ice Pops

(from Cooks Country Magazine)

1/2 small Seedless Watermelon

1/2 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Mini Chocolate Chips

1 pint Lime Sherbet, softened
12-3 oz disposable cups-paper or plastic will work
12 popsicle sticks of flat sticks

Scoop and measure out 5 cups of watermelon pulp.

Puree watermelon and sugar in batches in blender...

until smooth.  

The recipe reads that you should use a mesh strainer,

but I didn't have one, so I used cheesecloth. Throw
away anything that won't go through the cheesecloth.

In small batches, I strained the watermelon pulp into a bowl.

I covered the bowl, and put it in the freezer for 2-3 hours

until it got slightly slushy, but not frozen. 

Remove the bowl from the freezer, and stir.

Remove all the slush that may be on the sides of the bowl.

Add the mini chocolate chips and stir again.
The almost frozen state of the watermelon slush
makes it easy for the chips to suspend in the slush
 and not fall to the bottom. 

Place your disposable cups in a muffin tin. on a cookie sheet.
I started with a muffin tin, but it was unstable in the freezer,
and it refused to sit flat.
I used plastic cups, and they worked great.

Spoon watermelon puree to within a 
1/2" of the top of the cups.  

Place in the freezer until puree is solid, but not rock
hard-about 1-2 hours.

Spread softened sherbet on top of the puree
in each cup. Make the sherbet come to the top of the cup, 
and smooth it with the back of your spoon.

Cover each cup with plastic. 
Cut a slit in the top of the plastic. I did this with a 
sharp knife. I also made the slit deep for the sticks.

 Insert a popsicle stick or flat stick into the pop
so that the stick almost reaches the bottom of the cup.
Freeze until solid, about 5 hours and up to 2 days.

To unmold, let the pops sit at room temperature for 
1 minute, then gently pull out from the cup.
 If you used paper cups, peel the paper away.
I had a hard time getting mine to come loose, so I ran
cold water very carefully on the cup for just a few seconds.
They came off quickly.

I hope these make you say "mmmmm"!!

Thanks for joining me today!

4th of July Cupcakes!

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We are smack in the middle of our "15 Days of Red, White and Blue" series, and I just couldn't wait any longer to post some really festive 4th of July cupcakes! I mean, what's a celebration without cupcakes? These cupcakes are not only perfect for the 4th of July, but they would fit right into an Olympic Celebration!!

4th of July Cupcakes

 Cupcakes

1 box Duncan Hines White Cake Mix

1 cup Sour Cream

1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

3 large Eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Americolor Holiday Red

Americolor Royal Blue

Antonia74 Frosting

6 oz warm Water

5 tablespoons Meringue Powder

1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

2.25 pounds Confectioners Sugar

Marshmallow Fondant

1 cup of Mini Marshmallows

1 tablespoons Water

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cup Confectioners Sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Place the cake mix, sour cream, vegetable oil and eggs

in a mixing bowl. Mix for 1 minute on low, then turn the 

speed to medium and mix for 2 additional minutes.

This recipe is from the Cake Doctor, white cake mix.

Divide your batter into thirds. I used three bowls, and tried

to distribute it evenly. Take the first bowl, and drop a few drops 

of Holiday Red into the batter. Stir until it is combined and

you are happy with the color.

Take your second bowl, and mix in a few drops of the 

Royal Blue. Mix well.

Use a small scoop or a tablespoon to place 1 scoop

of each color in your cupcake papers.

 Bake until done, about 20-25 minutes.

Let cool.

Let's make frosting!

I have used this frosting recipe a lot. I just love it!

It is called Antonia74 Royal Icing. I found it several years

ago on the cakecentral.com recipe page. It was developed by Antonia74.

Thank you Antonia!

In a mixing bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue 

powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy

and thickened, about 30 seconds.

Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 more seconds.

Pour in all the confectioners sugar at one time.

Using your paddle attachment, and on the lowest speed,

mix slowly for a full 10 minutes.

You will not need all the icing this recipe makes for the

cupcakes. Scoop some into a bowl for the red, 

some for the blue, and then the white. Using a Wilton

#2A tip decorate the cupcakes with the icing like above.

As you can see,

I tried 3 different ways to put the icing on the cupcakes.

The middle one was my favorite, so I made

 the rest of the cupcakes just like it.

Let's make fondant!

Place the marshmallows in a 1 cup measuring cup 

and push down to pack them in.

Microwave for 20 seconds. Just long enough for

them to soften and puff up. Stir with a spoon

until well combined. It should look soupy at this point. 

Add the sugar and mix until it is not sticky. 

Now take it out of the bowl and knead

with your hands. Knead for about 5-7 minutes. 

You only need a small amount for these cupcake

toppers. Pull three equal size pieces from your

piece of fondant. Flatten each piece out. 

Use gloves if you have them. Curve the flattened

piece a little, and drop a few drops of holiday red onto the small

fondant piece. Kneed the fondant piece until it is the color you want.

Do it again with the royal blue color. 

Once you have colored the fondant, 

take a small piece off of each color.

Place then together like above.

Start to knead the three colors together.

You want to create a piece of fondant that shows all the

colors clearly. Over kneading will make the 

colors meld together too much.

Once you have the colors looking pretty, 

roll the fondant with a rolling pun.

Cut out the letters USA from your piece of fondant.

The letters at the top were cut first.

Each time you knead the colors together,

they get a little more distorted.

They still look great, just darker.

Place the letters on top of the cupcake.

Happy 4th of July!

Thanks for joining me today!

We are starting the party early for the 4th!
Here's where we are linking up:
Cupcake Tuesday

Crazy Sweet Tuesday

Works For Me Wednesday

Patriotic Project Parade Linky Party

Marshmallow Wands

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Nothing really says summer like marshmallows! Yes, they are available all year round, and we eat them no matter what the time of year. But summer seems to bring out the marshmallow lover in all of us! These simple Marshmallow Wands are an ode to the biggest holiday of the summer. With their sparkly sugars and their chocolate covered goodness they bring to mind warm summer nights, blinking fireflies, giggling with friends in the backyard under a blanket of stars, and wishing the summer would never end!

Marshmallow Wands

Marshmallows

White Candy Melts
Candy Sticks

Chocolate Candy Melt

Red Sugar

Blue Sugar

Red, White and Blue Icing

Red, White and Blue Sprinkles

To make the wand with one blue end and one red end
dip one end of the marshmallow into

the white candy melt. Go a little over the edge like in the pictures.

Immediately dip it into your bowl of blue sugar.

Dip the other end the same way, but use red sugar.

Let dry.

 Melt the white candy melt.

Dip the end of each stick into the candy melt,

and while it is still wet, stick the wet

end into the marshmallow.

This will help the marshmallow stay on the stick.

To make this wand with the stripes going around it,
dip the top into the candy melt and

the blue sugar. Then take an offset spatula, dip

it in to the candy melt, and immediately sprinkle with sugar.

Rotate red and blue all the way around.
To finish,  dip the stick into the white candy melt,
just like above.

To make the chocolate covered marshmallows,

insert the marshmallow onto the stick, and let dry.

Dip the marshmallow into the melted chocolate melt.

Let it dry, and the decorate with icing.

Go have fun!

Thanks for joining me on my 3rd day of the

15 Days of Red, White and Blue!

I hope you stop by tomorrow. See you then!

We are partying over at these places:
Tasty Tuesdays
Patriotic Project Parade Linky Party