Stars, Stripes and Flag Pancakes for 4th of July or Memorial Day

The 'front' of the star

After it was flipped

The American Flag pancake!

For an easy but fun breakfast idea just make some pancakes.  I did not spend a lot of money on the brand name pancake dispenser because the condiment dispensers work great, as long as you have no chunks in your batter.  As you can see I made three colours of batter - red, white and blue - and just put them in the dispenser and had fun with my design.  I made stars and flags.  Happy Independence Day!

The 3 Colours of Batter

The Blue Star Outline

Add Some Red/Pink Batter

Outline in Some White

Flip It!

Some Small Stars Too!

Another Batch!

Diane

Flag Day Star Red/White/Blue Striped Cupcakes

The Inside of my Red/White/Blue Patriotic Cupcake

Tomorrow is flag day and I usually like to make treats for my son's class for special days.  I decided to try a multi-coloured cupcake, like I did for St Patrick's Day.  I just used one box of white cake and divided the batter into three bowls.  I kept one bowl white and added blue and red food colouring to the other two.  I spooned blue batter in first, then white and then red.   Bake as usual.  Once the cupcakes were cooled I just put some white icing on top and then I used my small star cookie cutter to add a design to the top of each cupcake.  I tried 2 different designs: 1) a red one with spray colour and 2) a blue sugar star.   The blue sugar worked out better so that is what I made for his whole class and I used the red star as my 'demo' for the pictures!  A perfect cupcake for Memorial Day, Flag Day (June 14th) or 4th of July!

The 3 Colours of Batter

You Can See the 3 Colours

The Top Red Star

The Whole Batch of Blue Stars for the Class!

Diane

Bald Eagle Cake Pops

Bald Eagle Cake Pop

I have made a few cake pops in the last few days and I had some leftover dough so I looked on-line and tried to come up with an idea.  I went to familyfun.com and saw these eagle treats but they were marshmallows covered in white chocolate and coconut and they were sitting on top of a dark cookie!  I decided to make the eagle head with a cake ball and put it on a stick!  I made the ball, dipped it in melted white chocolate, rolled it in coconut and put a cashew in it for the nose!  I then put a dab of white chocolate on it and put on a black cake confetti dot for the eyes.  I made it, called my daughter into the room and asked her what she thought it was.... she said, "It is a bald eagle."  She is only 5 and she said that with no prompting so it must actually look like one!

Diane

Red/White/Blue Stars and Stripes Cake Pops

Star and Stripes - Red/White/Blue Cake Pop

This time of year is a great time to make star treats, red/white/blue treats and flag treats: we have Memorial Day, Flag Day (tomorrow) and July 4th.  I have been having fun creating fun snack and treat ideas.  For these cake pops I used a small star cookie cutter (I used a smaller one than I did for my previous star cake pops) and I rolled out the cake ball dough really thickly.  I put each star on a stick, dipped it in melting white chocolate and then sprinkled the stars with coloured sugar.  You could sprinkle the stars any way you would want but I decided to try to make stripes.  If you would use an entire cake box you would get a lot of these since they are smaller than your average cake ball/pop.

Diane

Star Shaped Switch Colour Cookies for Memorial Day and/or 4th of July

The final product!

I am sure this idea is not that original but I thought of it tonight after I made all my other cookies this morning so I decided to make them and bring them to church tomorrow!  Instead of making the stained glass cookies, I just made 2 colours of dough and swapped the inner star shape.  After you swap the star shapes you just cook as usual and you have a colourful, unique cookie for any holiday depending on the shape of cutter that you use!  I tried to make them a bit different and changed where I cut the star shape out just to see how different they would end up looking!

The large star cut outs

Cut out a small star from the middle

Swap the middles so they are in opposite coloured cookies

Swapped the whole tray

The red with blue insert

The blue with red insert

Diane

Star Cookie "Pops" for Memorial Day or 4th of July

All 6 of my differently decorated Star Imprint Lollipop Cookies!

Cookie "pops" are so simple to make but kids like to eat them because they are on a stick.  These cookies are my basic coloured sugar cookie recipe and then I roll the dough into a ball, stick a popsicle stick in it, place on a cookie sheet, press down the middle a bit and bake as usual.  Then, when these cookies were out of the oven I used my small star cookie cutter to make a star imprint in the middle to celebrate the upcoming holidays.  I decided to decorate 'over' the imprint but if I had not used the imprint I would have not been able to make a proper shaped star.  To decorate, I used melted coloured white chocolate as glue, coloured sugars, holly berry candies and white pearls.  I put the cookies in the fridge after each decoration so that the chocolate would harden quicker and the decorations would stay put in their own spot.  Some of them look great, others are a little messy but overall, a great idea!

Imprinted and ready to cool

Diane

Star Imprint Cookies for Memorial Day and/or 4th of July

The final product - easy star imprint cookies!

I made another batch for church tomorrow so I
 added this picture!

These cookies were super easy.  I just made coloured sugar cookies, rolled them in a ball, baked as usual and when they came out of the oven and were still warm I used my small star cookie cutter to make a star imprint.....Voila - a festive cookie for any "star" occasion.  Of course, you could use any shape cookie cutter for any occasion!

Still warm out of the oven, I imprinted them right away!

A close up pic!

Diane

Star "Stained Glassed" Cookies for Memorial Day or 4th of July

Star Shaped Stained Glass Cookies!

These cookies are simple to make but so much more 'fun' than your basic cookie.  I just use a basic sugar cookie for the main part of the cookie and I added red food colouring to the dough to change the colour.  Unfortunately, red always ends up looking like pink, unless you want to totally change the consistency and taste of your base so I just work with it!  I used a large star cookie cutter for the border and then I used my small star cookie cutter to cut the 'window' out.  Put on a cookie sheet but you MUST use parchment paper or it will stick.  Place a Jolly Rancher or other candy of your choice in the middle, bake as usual, take out of the oven, let cool, and decorate if you want.  To remove these cookies I just slip the entire paper with the cookies on it onto the counter so that I do not wreck the inside candy, since it will change shape while it is still warm.  Once they are completely cooled you can remove them and mess with them so I do not use a cooling rack for these, I just use my counter top (which is granite).  As you can tell, I used all blue candies for Memorial Day and/or 4th of July but you can do whatever you want.  I also chose to make little star cookies from the inner 'window' but you could just re-roll and make more large cookies.  I actually used melted coloured white chocolate as my 'glue' for the decorations and coloured sugar because then it all stays on, as opposed to icing which will not completely harden unless you use royal icing!

All ready to bake

All done, the 'inner' star and the 'stained' glass cookie

Some of the 'inner' stars decorated!

Diane

Stars and Stripes French Toast

Stars and Stripes French Toast

I made this french toast last year.  Super easy to do but fun for the kids to eat.  I just used your basic french toast recipe and added food colouring.  Dip bread in the egg mixture to make whatever design you want and cook as usual!  Use whatever cookie cutter you want.  Obviously for Memorial Day and/or 4th of July I chose a star shaped cookie cutter!   Since I am a Canadian living in the states I might have to make Maple Leaf french toast for Canada Day (July 1st).

The coloured egg mixture for the french toast

 

The final product, a perfect patriotic breakfast!

Diane

Memorial Day or 4th of July Meringues/Cookies

All 4 of the meringues - tried a variety of designs, just for fun!

I was procrastinating last night so I decided to come up with another treat so I could add another posting to my blog.  As I was talking with my hubby, I realized that Memorial Day and 4th of July snacks really are interchangeable so I decided to make a stars/stripes snack in honour of Memorial Day and the 4th of July!  I made my coconut meringues again, since both my hubby and my kids like them.  I used my coloured sugar to sprinkle either stripes or stars on the meringues before they went in the oven.  To get the sugar star I just used a small star shaped cookie cutter - super easy to do, as long as you have the coloured sugar.  You could do this with any type of cookie, I might have to try it with sugar cookies soon (and of course, if I do, I will post pictures).  These would look better if my blue sugar was a royal blue, as opposed to the light blue, but it is what I have so it will have to do!

Blue Star

Red and Blue Stripes

Stripes again!

Red Star

Diane