Christmas In July Chocolate Gingerbread House Cookies with Rudolph!

 Merry Christmas In July!

It's been a fun month! My daughter, grandmother, granddaughter, sister, and nephew were all born in July! Hallmark has been playing Christmas movies all month. I have been reading the Christmas story of the birth of Christ! My hubby and I have just completed plans for a trip to Disney World in December when everything will be decked out in beautiful Christmas decorations! And I just finished decorating these festive Christmas cookies!

July is nearly through, but not to worry, Christmastime will be here before we know it!🎄

For my cookies, I used Lila Loa's amazing chocolate cookie recipe! They smell of brownies and are so yummy!

Roll out dough and use your favorite house and reindeer cutters. I rolled my dough to 1/4 inch thick, but should have made the reindeer a little thinner. By the time I dipped and added decorations, they got a little too weighty. I had a couple to lose their heads!

Also, don't try-as I did- to bake Rudolph's "sprinkles" noses into the cookies. They will melt. Instead, use mini M&Ms after they bake!

To decorate my cookies I used, jumbo rainbow nonpareils, black sugar pearls, chocolate jimmies, mini M&Ms, Christmas tree sprinkles, chocolate wafers, ready-made vanilla frosting, and yellow and red fondant.

I also used a fondant roller, a flat edged spatula to cut my fondant, a large tip to cut the circle window, and a star and round tip to pipe frosting.

 Let's pipe some snow up on the rooftop!

 Wouldn't it be great if putting Christmas lights on the house were this easy?! 

Cut out round window and door as pictured above.

 Attach candies and decorations using a little melted chocolate.

I rolled out red fondant and cut small strips to use as Rudolph's collar.

I dipped the tips of reindeer feet in chocolate to resemble hooves.

 I then dipped the reindeer antler tips in melted chocolate and sprinkled on some jimmies.  I let set to harden and added black pearl eyes, the collar and "jingle bell" sprinkles!

Fly, Rudy!!

 And lastly, after attaching Rudy to the rooftop with melted chocolate, I propped a couple of spoons under his head until chocolate hardened just to keep him level headed! 🤣

Don't forget to be nice! Wanna make sure we make Santa's Nice List!

Thanks for dropping by!
'til we sweet again, Karen😊

Epic-Mega-Giant Reese's Rudolph and His Mini-me!

It's Rudolph and his mini-me! Well, almost his mini-me!

They may not have the same antlers, but that's because I'm out of those tiny candy canes. And, he kinda only made it to the party because I wanted to show how huge this giant Reese's is!

Half a pound huge! 4 inches across and 1 inch thick huge!

It's still hard to tell in the photo just how big this thing really is, and I had to guard it because when my hunky hubby saw it, he really wanted to swipe it!

He will get a nice surprise tonight to find out it's his after-dinner dessert!

I have a big pot of chili simmering on the stove while the snow is falling today in Fayetteville, and it is beautiful! The snow, not the chili!😜

To create the giant Rudolph, you will need:

One Mega-Giant-Epic Reese's Cup

Regular size candy canes

A large set of eyes-I used the ones from this Wilton's kit

Red Peanut M&Ms

Ready-made frosting

This Reese's cup looks like a pie!

Use a long, sharp, heavy knife to cut/trim the ends off unwrapped candy canes.

I used one of those paper straws to make the opening for the candy antlers.

It was the perfect size.

Just give it some good pressure and twist until straw pushes through the chocolate cup.

If you need to improvise with something else and your opening becomes too big, just dip the ends of the candy canes in a little melted chocolate before inserting into Reese's cup. This will stabilize antlers when chocolate sets. 

Make sure the holes line up evenly or your antlers will be lopsided. I mean, who wants loopy, lopsided antlers?   

Use the icing to attach candy eyes and nose.

Now look at this yumminess!!
You know you need one!

To make the mini-me, I used:

Mini peanut butter cup

Tiny candy eyes

Red Hots candies for the nose

Candy antlers from the same Wilton kit above

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer will be on CBS tomorrow night (Dec. 9th) @ 8pm!

Will you be watching? I will!

Merry Christmas, Karen 😊

Singing Reindeer Cookies!

Singing Reindeer?

Well of course..after I saw Jackie Topa's awesome stamping blog with her adorable singing reindeer craft! Check out her charming creations!

I knew as soon as I saw the paper reindeer, that these had to happen. How much fun is my sweet version of the aforementioned crooning cuties?!

As a child in our church choir, Christmas caroling was such a fun part of my childhood!

I don't know what Rudi is singing, but he's put his whole heart into it! Maybe Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? *wink*

I bought this decorating kit and used the antlers and jelly beans.

I also used:

black sparkle gel

black and red fondant

Nutter Butter cookies

candy coated sunflower seeds

red candy sprinkles (you could also use mini M&Ms)

light cocoa candy melts

small round cookie cutter (23mm)

I used the one from this set.

To make the oval shape for the reindeer mouth, I simply squeezed the smallest cookie cutter (23 mm) in my set at both ends till it was the shape I wanted.

I made the tangled Christmas lights with the antlers as the first piece since the gel takes a while to dry. I was just too lazy to make my own royal icing! I let my antlers dry overnight.

 The squeeze bottle makes this step super easy.

Just pipe the gel onto antlers and place the sesame seed lights. 

IIII love it!

To make the songbook, roll out fondant and use a knife to cut a 1 inch by 1 1/4 inch fondant piece.

I shaped the songbooks by laying them on the corner edge of the decorator kit box. Let sit till stiffened.

 To make the reindeer mouth, roll out black fondant, press the cutter through and gently press candy piece out.

Melt cocoa melts using package directions, or melt over low heat on stovetop. Dip cookies in chocolate. Use a fork to lift cookie out and gently tap off excess chocolate. Let set on parchment lined baking sheet to dry.

Can you believe this is my first time dipping Nutter Butters in chocolate?!

Well, it was super duper quick going, but oh my..I wanted to eat every single one of them!

 Well, now we have all our reindeer parts ready to assemble!

Simply attach all pieces to the cookies with melted chocolate. I like to use a food-safe paintbrush.

My little caroler is ready for his big mouth, red nose and jelly bean hoofs!

Oops! I forgot to get a photo of cutting the jelly beans in half, lengthwise for the hands/hoofs!

 If you have some food color markers, you could write Noel, etc. on the songbook.

I just do not have a steady hand and didn't want to chance it!

'Scuse my mess..crafting in session!

So now, your reindeer are ready for their big singing debut!

And on that note, I'll sing goodnight! 

This Christmas season, I wish you Joy!

Have a sweet day, Karen

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Candy Treats!

  When I say Christmas is my favorite holiday, I mean that I listen to Christmas music and watch Christmas movies year-round.

Aaannd, as soon as my August birthday has passed, I'm ready for the merriest season of all!

Speaking of merry, Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer song has been around since 1949, but the movie was released the year I was born!

I can still remember watching it on our old, tin-foiled rabbit eared, tv set while Mama and Daddy made Jiffy Pop popcorn and me and my siblings were snuggled up in our flannel PJ's. Oh the memories! *sigh*

There will always be a warm place in my heart for Rudolph!
I hope my sweet candy version will melt yours.

**Remember to remove dragees before eating treats**

 To build our Rudolph, we will be using:

Mounds-snack size

Kit Kats-snack size

Mini pretzels-chocolate covered

Cherry sour balls

Fondant-red

Dragees-silver

Candy eyes

Chocolate candy melts (or chocolate chips)

Jelly Belly Beans-black

Using a sharp knife, cut pretzels and Mounds bars in half.

Roll out fondant and using a fondant cutter (or knife), cut out a scarf. Use the tip end of knife to cut the fringe for the scarf. 

Melt chocolate. Dip just the cut ends of Mounds and the tips of pretzels into melted candy. Gently press into the candy bar and hold for a few seconds.

Attach candy eyes and cherry noses..hehe cherry noses..with melted chocolate.

Time to mount the deer heads.

Hey! Nobody here thinks that's funny!

Attach deer feet (jelly beans) and scarves with the melted candy.

Ohhh! Such an en"deer"ing little face!

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, 
Had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it, 
You would even say it glows...
Rudolph!
 You'll go down in history!

Thanks for dropping by Sugartown Sweets!

And since we're only halfway through November, I'll just say..
Have a sweet Thanksgiving! Karen