Wednesday, December 31, 2014

New Year's Eve 2015 Fondant Cake Toppers


Happy New Year's Eve!

Tonite my family will ring in the new year beginning with a service at our church followed by a snack fest and ball drop at my daughter's house!

Next time we talk it will be 2015!

Wishing you all a very blessed new year.
 I absolutely love my Ateco numbers cutters..until I noticed the #5.
It's quite bad actually. It's pretty much the #2 flipped! I have not used the cutter till today and I hope I can find an alternative before I need to use it again.
 Pearl dust..'cause we can never have too much sparkle!
 A simple fondant topper. You can make it even simpler by not using the pearl dust. 
They'll still be colorful and quite festive.
Click here to see the candy covered toppers I made a couple of years ago.
I also used Skittles and M&Ms for the "lights", 
colored fondants, lemon extract to make the pearl dust "paint", a small paintbrush, and lollipop sticks.
Roll out fondant, cut with cookie cutter and insert lollipop stick.
Mix a small amount of lemon extract with pearl dust. Mix with paintbrush and apply to finished topper.  
We're done!


Thanks for hanging with Sugartown Sweets in 2014.
Here's to a fun and creative 2015.

Now go ring in the new year with good family and friends!
Comments are cause for Celebration!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Ugly Christmas Sweater Ornaments Using Melted Peppermints!

 We are 2 days out from Christmas, but I thought you might have time to squeeze in a couple more peppermint ornaments.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Ornaments!
Just in time for your Ugly Christmas Sweater Party..well..maybe!

These are super simple to make, because we are using store-bought, ready-made cupcake toppers!

You might remember the Peppermint Stockings I made a couple of years ago.
Or maybe the Peppermint Mittens or Peppermint Mini Mug Gingerbread House. If you want a super easy and quick craft with no time for cutters, here are my Peppermint Christmas Tree Lollipops!

Christmas begins with Christ and I love our family's tradition of reading the Christmas Story on Christmas Eve night.
Luke 2:11 "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord....."

Wishing you all a very Blessed Christmas!
 My brother's family had ugly Christmas sweater photos made last year for their annual Christmas card! 
It was adorable and ugly all at the same time. 
I have a whole year to plan ours!
 I am using both red and green for my ornaments.
 I found all my cupcake toppers at Michaels and Walmart.
 Christmasy green..
 and Christmasy red..
 In addition to the toppers, I used a variety of sprinkles. Also, not pictured, I used red Disco Dust and attached all decorations with corn syrup.
Ahh, so lovely! You can get your own top quality sweater cutter here at Copper Gifts.
Liberally spray cookie cutter and #10 decorating tip with cooking spray.
Heat oven to 325 degrees. You will melt peppermints for about 10 minutes.
Place candies on parchment lined baking pan. I like to stagger my candies just as you would with bricks. 
The finished look is so pretty.
I determine the placement of and how many candies I need by the size and shape of my cutter.
Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes or until they look as pictured in photo.
Immediately upon removing from oven, firmly press cookie cutter and decorating tip into melted candy. 
Wait 3-4 minutes, (be careful as this is still fairly warm) and press cutters completely through. Break off the outer candies and remove cutters. Lay back down onto pan and let cool.
So many decorating possibilities with these cuties..oops, uglies!
Attach candies with corn syrup or royal icing.
I am so loving this elfie sweater!
Let's make a red one..
Now this is what I'm talkin' about! 
UGLY!

I painted on some corn syrup and sprinkled on red Disco Dust for the cuffs and collar.
LOVE!
 Hey Santa!
 Wouldn't you love to have these little guys hanging around!
That's it!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM
SUGARTOWN SWEETS!

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Saturday, December 20, 2014

Snowman Cookies!


It's snowing in Georgia!!
Well..maybe it's only snowing in my Snowman Cookies..hehe!
 We have been crafting over @ Grandma's house..that would be my house and yes I'm the Grandma!

We made snowflakes, hand print ornaments, foot print ornaments, baby Jesus in the manger crafts..etc. 
Thank you Pinterest!

It took a little longer and was a little messier this year as our family has been blessed with grandbaby #5.
She is beyond adorable and precious (of course), and after four and a half short months, we can not imagine life without her.

The tiny little cookie you see in the middle, I made just for our sweet little princess.
 Aren't they just the sweetest!
They certainly aren't the most perfect!

I have a confession. I can not pipe!
I seriously can not even pipe a straight line.
You can easily see how I had to scrape off the royal icing only to try, try again.

The good news is, they don't have to be perfect. Plus, I only used RI for my background. Sprinkles, fondant and candy easily cute these little cookies right on up.
And that..makes me Merry!
I decided to try Georganne's chocolate cut-out cookies recipe.
Yum! It was really hard not to eat all the cookie dough while I baked these babies up!

I used 4 1/2 x 3 inch cookie cutter from my Ateco rectangular cookie set for the large cookie and the 1 3/4 x 1 inch for the mini cookie.
 I mixed sky blue with a little electric blue for my royal icing.

I piped the outlines with full strength RI while adding water a few drops at a time to make 10 second RI to flood the cookies. 

Click here and scroll to the end of post for my Royal Icing recipe.
I used white, black and red fondant to make my snowmen.

 I used my snowman cookie cutter to cut out just the section I wanted on each cookie.

I also used it to cut out a black fondant hat.

I then turned the cutter upside down to cut a slight curve in the hat and top of snowman. I then fit these two pieces together.

I cut out a simple red fondant scarf and an orange Airheads nose.

I attached the fondant snowmen to the cookies as well as the sprinkles with corn syrup.
 So easy for a piping challenged cookie decorator!

I think these turned out pretty cute. 
I can always tell if I'm right when the grandbabies ooh and ahh over it!
 Do you wanna eat a snowman!?
 Merry Christmas To You & Your Families
From
Sugartown Sweets!

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Saturday, December 13, 2014

Peanut Butter Pinwheels!


I'm feeling nostalgic, as I tend to do this time of year.

Mama and Daddy always made the holidays special, especially CHRISTmas. 

Picking out our tree from the Farmer's Market and taking home the annual cases of tangerines, apples and oranges, and watching the now famous, stop-action Christmas classics are at the top of the list of favorite memories. Ah...Rudolph and Frosty..

Another favorite are my Mom's homemade candies.
My Daddy had a sweet tooth I tell ya, which worked out real well for him since my Mother's own Mother passed down her candy making to her. Whew! That was a mouthful! Not to mention, I inherited my Dad's sweet tooth!

So today, I'm making my all-time favorite Peanut Butter Pinwheels.

Now I've seen and tasted these made with mashed potatoes.
These are not them. Ours are made with good old-fashion healthy butter. *wink*
 I just can't eat them any other way. 

Thanks MeMaw, Mama and Daddy!
 Butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, milk and peanut butter. 
Five ingredients to the yummiest candy!
Measure first four ingredients into a bowl, stirring to mix.
Pat candy into a disk on parchment paper. Wrap and refrigerate to chill for one to two hours. 
 I always cut my candy disk in half and refrigerate one while I prepare the other. Otherwise, it's too big to handle.

 Roll candy into ball and pat back into disk shape. Now, on parchment paper sprinkled liberally with powdered sugar, and roll out. As you can see, it's not perfect. It doesn't matter. So now, (yum) spread on the peanut butter!
 Let's roll this baby up!
I use my parchment paper to help roll the candy along a la jelly roll style.
Roll candy up in parchment paper and chill 1-2 hours.
Just slice these up and have a taste. Pure Heaven!
Mmmmm..
Peanut Butter Pinwheels

1 stick butter softened
4 to 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons evaporated (or whole) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
peanut butter

Stir together butter, 4 cups sugar, 3 tablespoons milk and vanilla.
Mix well. If too sticky, add a little powdered sugar. If too dry, add a little more milk.
Pat out into a disk on parchment paper. Wrap in the paper and chill for 1-2 hours.
Remove from frig and on a sheet of parchment paper sprinkled liberally with powdered sugar, roll out candy.
Now here's the fun part. Spread peanut butter onto the candy.
You can spread it as thick or thin as you like. Just be sure to leave the edges clean (like a pizza) or you will end up with squishy peanut butter edges!
Time to roll the pinwheels. I use my paper to help it along, jelly roll style. 
Roll the candy up in the paper, tuck edges under and chill again.

Once candy is firm, slice into pinwheels.

My Mom always lightly buttered a dish on which to place the cut pinwheels.
Keep refrigerated.
Ha! Ours never last very long!

Sending You All Merry Christmas Wishes From
Sugartown Sweets
On This Historic Day!

Historic for being 12.13.14!!

Comments and New Members Are Always Welcome! 

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Treats


 They say this is the busy time of year.

I'm in Christmas gear nearly all year. If you don't believe me just ask my kiddos, or hubby or anyone else who has to hear me playing the "Yuletide Classics" station on my phone every day.
And surely I'm not the only one who records every Christmas themed movie, travel and food television show so I can watch them all year long! Thank you DVR!

And how could I forget?! Thank you  Carolyn @ Edible Crafts, not only for featuring my Rudolph treats, but for reminding me that this year marks his 50th birthday! Rudy and I share that milestone birthday! So of course we'll be watching his show too! Haha..Happy Birthday to us!

And, with me so ready for the season, you would think I would already have posted something, anything Christmas related. The truth is, I have been busy!
We've been enjoying all the seasonal festivities while we can.

If you live around Atlanta, there are so many things to do and see.
I try to do a couple of different things every year along with some others that are traditions with our family.

New this year is "Holiday in the Park" at Six Flags. Loved it!

We also went to "Christmas at Callanwolde" Tuesday night.
This is the beautiful mansion that was home to the Candler family, better known in Atlanta as the "Coca Cola" family.

Tomorrow night we are piling up with the kids and grandkids to head a bit south and see "Fantasy in Lights" at Callaway Gardens.

I love everything about my favorite holiday.
Especially the Christmas story.
My grandchildren will be putting on the Christmas program Sunday night at our church..and for this, I am truly thankful!

Merry Christmas Season To All!

Now let's make some super easy and quick reindeer treats!
Just a few store bought items are all you need. That's right. Another no-bake edible craft!
The only thing to remember here is to cut the pretzels sticks at an angle
 so the finished antlers look like a 'y' and not a 't'.
Melt a few chocolate chips to use as the "glue" to assemble the antlers.
Let rest on parchment paper till completely set.
Wouldn't these be perfect for Olaf?
"Do you wanna build a snowman...."
Insert straw and gently press antlers into cake. Attach candy eyes and nose with melted chocolate.
 I attached some holly and berries sprinkles to amp up the cute factor!

Now you're all done with plenty of time to enjoy all the Christmas cheer.
These will be perfect with some hot cocoa, popcorn and "Miracle on 34th Street"!

If you need more reindeer edible crafts, Click here to see my "Reindeer Lollipops".
I thought these long-face reindeer were so cute, except for the cracked chocolate surface and messy ends. It may have just been the particular box I purchased, but it was the same with the entire box. 
Well, that's it for now.

Wishing You All A Blessed and Happy Christmas Season.

Thank you for stopping by Sugartown Sweets!

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