Pumpkin Patch Cake

Pumpkin Patch Cake

A few weeks ago I bought these huge pumpkin marshmallows and I still have a lot leftover so I wanted to come up with something else 'fun' to make with the kids!  On the back of the package it had a suggestion to make a pumpkin patch brownie so I changed it up to make it my own.  While the cake was baking I piped the green candy melt vines and brown chocolate stem onto the pumpkins.  I also piped separate vines and leaves which I used for more decorations.  I let these things harden so that they were ready to put on the cake for added touches of decorations.  I started with a basic cake (yes, I use cakes from a box) and I put brown coloured icing on the entire cake.  Next step was to sprinkle on the crushed mint OREOs, which my kids loved to crush!  I then added the piped vines and pumpkins and the pumpkin patch cake is complete.  A super cake idea for autumn or Halloween!

Crushed Mint OREOs for our dirt!

Green Candy Melts Piped into Leaf and Vine Shapes

Piped Vine and Chocolate Stem

Close Up of One of the Pumpkins

Diane

Pumpkin Marshmallows Sandwiches

Pumpkin Marshmallows Sandwiches

When I found these jumbo marshmallows at the store I made the chocolate covered marshmallows in my previous post and then just quickly came up with these pumpkin sandwiches.  All I did was cut the marshmallows in half, spread some of my orange candy melts on one side, put the two halves back together and then 'pipe' the jack-o-lantern face with more candy melts.  A snack a kid will love but it will give them a supreme sugar rush:)

Diane

Chocolate Covered Pumpkin Marshmallows

A Basket of Pumpkin Marshmallows

My kid's had an Oktoberfest celebration at their school this past weekend and parents are all asked to bring in 'baked' goods to sell.  A few days before the weekend I was in Wal-Mart and saw these jumbo orange pumpkin marshmallows and I had to buy them, knowing I could make something fun with them.  I came home with them and all I did was put the marshmallows on a popsicle stick, dip them in orange candy melts and/or melted chocolate and put them in the fridge to harden quicker.  Before I put the orange covered pumpkins in the fridge I added mini m & m's and string licorice for a jack - o - lantern face.  To get the face on the chocolate ones, I took some of the melted orange melts, put them in a ziploc, snipped a corner off and 'piped' the face on the pumpkin!  Simple yet adorable.  Great for halloween, autumn or thanksgiving!

Some of the Coolest Marshmallows I Have Ever bought!

Pumpkin Marshmallows

A Close Up of One of the Chocolate Covered Marshmallows

Diane

Pumpkin Jack-O-Lantern Cupcakes

Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin Pancake

These are just a basic pancake with some orange food colouring and some mini peanut butter cups.  All I did was place the chocolate on the griddle, pour the batter over it and cook as usual.  Easy but fun for the kids!  I made these last year, this year I might try to make ones with pumpkin in them for added health!

Diane

Leaf Shaped Cake Balls

Chocolate Covered Leaf Cake Ball

 This is what I made for the first day of fall for my son's class last year.  The end product was kind of messy but they still tasted great, according to his teacher!  I made strawberry cake ball mix and instead of rolling them into a ball, I used rolled out the batter like cookie dough and used my leaf cookie cutter.  I then put them in the freezer to get them really cold and dipped them in melted chocolate.  I just used my fingers to dip them, which was one of the biggest problems, everything started to melt and it made a bit of a mess.  After I dipped the leaves, I sprinkled them with orange sugar to represent the changing colours of leaves!

The Leaf Cut-Outs Before Dipped in Chocolate!

The Whole Batch... I Had to "Trim" Them to Make Them Neater

Diane

Apple Rice Krispie Balls on a Stick

The "Granny Smith" Apple and the "Red Delicious" Apple Krispie Treat on a Stick

This was my second idea for an apple inspired treat for the munchkin's classroom.  This is not a cake pop but I made it the same way but with a rice krispie ball.  After making a coloured krispie treat, grease your hands to form it into a ball and place it on a stick.  Once the ball is on the stick you will want to put it into the fridge to let it harden.  Once it has hardened just dip it in melted coloured candy melts and then add the pretzel for the stem, slice of licorice straw for the leaf and the gummy worm just for fun.  I did place it back in the fridge so that it would harden a bit quicker.  Voila... another super cute snack for the first day of fall!

The Red Krispie Ball Before it is Covered with Candy Melts

Diane

Apple Rice Krispie Treats

My Green Granny Smith apple and my Red Delicious apple

It is that time again... fall!  It is also time for me to make fun treats for my kid's classrooms.  Since it is almost the first day of fall I tried making two different apple themed snacks to make.  This was my first idea... apple shaped rice krispie treats.  You just make a basic krispie treat and add some food colouring to make 'granny smith' apples or 'red delicious' apples.  I was fortunate enough to find Christmas marshmallows to help with the colour.  After you make the treats, spray your hands with olive oil or non-stick spray and roll them into balls.  After the balls are made I just topped it off with a bit of pretzel for the stem, a slice of a licorice straw for the leaf and a gummy worm, just for fun!

Diane

Apple Cupcakes

Our church was hosting Vacation Bible School (VBS) this week and the theme was "The Big Apple."  Tomorrow night we are having a big BBQ and presentation of the week.  I was planning on bringing these cupcakes for the BBQ.  Unfortunately, I totally chopped off the top of my finger so I chose to bring something easy, such as chips, but I still made 4 cupcakes and took pictures of them.  Since I had baked all the cupcakes already I made a few apple ones for my kids.  I looked on-line and got ideas since there were a lot of different types of apple cupcake ideas.  Things you need: a basic white cake mix (or golden), red icing (green if you are making green apples), pretzel sticks, licorice straw ropes and gummy worms.  I used a small piece of the pretzel for the apple stem, I sliced the licorice for the leaf, I took a fork and took a 'bite' out of the apple and then just placed a worm in it, for fun!  A fun little cupcake, the idea was great for the theme of VBS but with the pain in my finger I just did not want to make 36 of them!  I also think this would be a fun food to make for an April Fool's Day party!

Diane

Chocolate Leaves

Chocolate Leaves

My mother-in-law bought me a really nice brand of melting chocolate and on the back of the box it had instructions for how to make chocolate leaves.  I went to my little garden and picked strawberry leaves, since they have a nice imprint on them, and painted them with chocolate.  After you paint them, put them in the fridge and then carefully remove the leaf from the chocolate once it is hard - Voila...chocolate leaves.  You can pick any leaf that you like, paint the chocolate on the side with the most prominant vein pattern and you can re-use the leaves, since the chocolate does not stick the leaf!  I am sure you could find more items to imprint chocolate or serve chocolate covered mint leaves:)

The Strawberry Leaves I picked

Painted with Chocolate, before they went in the Fridge

A Close Up

Diane