Archive for February, 2010

I recently discovered the awesomeness that is gluten-free peanut butter cookies.  Who needs flour?  It only takes away from the peanut buttery goodness!

I used chunky peanut butter to get those little peanutty bits.

I use what I call the 1-1-1-1 recipe (don’t say the dashes).  I call it that because it makes the recipe easy to remember.

1 cup natural peanut butter (chunky or smooth)

1 cup sugar (I use half white and half dark brown)

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream peanut butter and sugar in mixer (1 – 2 minutes).  Add egg and baking powder, mix for 2 minutes more.  Shape into balls.  Place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly with a fork.  Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, so they don’t fall apart when you pick them up.  (Time based on 1 dozen cookies.  Less time, if you make them smaller.)

Try not to eat them all!

Remember the scrapbook paper-wrapped boxes I made for Christmas?  I used the same technique to make some Valentine’s Day boxes to package chocolate cold process soap hearts that I made using a heart-shaped silicone muffin pan.

The embellishments were made using “Candy and Cupcake” stickers and microbeads from Martha Stewart Crafts, available online or at Michaels.

My 6 year old, Ethan, loves maraschino cherries.  Loves them.  So, I decided to make him some Chocolate-Covered Cherries for Valentine’s Day.  I used the recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cook book.  The recipe is for 60, but I only wanted 20.  The recipe is easily divisible by three.

Directions

1. Drain cherries thoroughly on paper towels for several hours. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper; set baking sheet aside.

2. In a small mixing bowl combine butter and corn syrup. Stir in powdered sugar; knead mixture until smooth (chill if mixture is too soft to handle).

Shape about 1/2 teaspoon powdered sugar mixture around each cherry.

Place coated cherries, stem sides up, on the prepared baking sheet; chill about 1 hour or until firm (do not chill too long or sugar mixture will begin to dissolve).

3. Melt candy coating. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Holding cherries by stems, dip one at a time into coating; if necessary, spoon coating over cherries to coat. (Be sure to completely seal cherries in coating to prevent juice from leaking.) Let excess coating drip off. Place cherries, stem sides up, on prepared baking sheet.

4. Chill until coating is firm. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator. Let candies ripen in refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks before serving. (Ripening allows powdered sugar mixture around cherries to soften and liquefy.) Makes 20 pieces.

I used cherries without stems and lifted them out of the chocolate with a fork.

I have a couple more Valentine’s Day posts that I am working on for today.  In the meantime, check out these other Valentine’s Day ideas from the web.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies (they’re heart-shaped!)

Rice Krispie and Coco Pops Treats (dressed up for Valentine’s Day)

Valentine’s Day Treats Recipes by Martha

Chocolate Lip Balm with Cocoa Powder

And don’t forget to check out my Valentine’s Day ideas from last year – tag: Valentine’s Day

The Valentine’s Day soap cupcakes looked good enough to eat.  Add to that the fact that I scented mine with a yummy amaretto-like fragrance oil, which is my favorite flavor, and I just had to make an edible version.

To make these yumtastic goodies, you will need 2 boxes of Jello (I used cherry), a bag of jelly hearts, a can of whipped cream, silicone cupcake liners or foil cupcake papers, and optional cake sparkles to give it, well, sparkle!

Make the Jello according to the directions for Jigglers.  Jigglers call for 4 boxes.  I used 2 and halved the amount of water.

Pour the jello into the cupcake liners.  If you use foil ones, leave the paper layer in.  I tried it with the paper and without.  It is much easier to remove the jello from the paper.  I think it would be awesome to use the silicone cupcake liners, but I use mine for soap and I don’t have any that I use for food.

The way I filled mine yielded 7 Jello cupcakes.

Melt and pour soapers, resist the urge to spray with alcohol to remove the surface bubbles!

Refrigerate until fully set.  It took one hour for mine.

You can leave the jello in the papers (as pictured above) or take them out (pictured below), before decorating.  It’s up to you.  If you want to remove the paper, first peel away the foil.  Then, go around the top gently rubbing the jello away from the paper.  Once you loosen the top all the way around, you can just peel off the paper and it should come off fine.

Top with whipped cream and cake sparkles, if desired.  Place a jelly heart on top.  Wait until just before serving to top, or the whipped cream will melt!  If you want them to last longer, try Cool Whip, which holds its form better.

If you push a toothpick into the jelly heart, then push the other end into the jello, the heart will stand up better.

Jello and soap cupcake BFFs.

Learn how to make this simple, yet adorable felted heart scarf from The Crafts Dept. blog at Martha Stewart.com.

I have always wanted to try needle felting.  It looks fun and rather simple to do this beginner project.  I might have to try it.

Okay, I am a blog slacker lately, I know, but on the bright side, my long-time readers are used to it!

I really wanted to do tons of awesome Valentine’s Day posts and here I am, only a week before the big day, just now kicking it off.

And what better way to kick off a week of Valentine’s Day posts than with Melt and Pour Soap Cupcakes all dressed up for V day?

I left the “frosting” white and, even though the Jewelry Box colorants are not non-bleeding, it has been a week and there has been no bleed whatsoever.  If you are worried about bleeding, make the frosting pink.

I colored clear soap with the red colorant and soap-safe glitter, and added fragrance.  I poured a thin layer (~1/4 inch) into a silicone pan.  (I only wanted a couple of hearts, so I used a muffin pan, but if you want to make a bunch, use a brownie pan.)  I poured the rest of the soap into the silicone cupcake liners.  When the thin layer of soap was set, I popped it out and used a small metal heart cookie cutter to cut out the hearts.

When the cupcake was set, I made the frosting using white melt and pour soap, with added fragrance.  I stirred it with a fork until it was thick and poured/scooped it onto the cupcake, which was sprayed with alcohol to make it stick better.  Then, I sprayed the top with more alcohol and sprinkled on more glitter!

While the frosting was still freshly poured, I popped in the heart.

Give one to someone you love.  Just don’t let anyone eat it!