Oreo Turkey Place Holders

Last year I made these cute place holders for Thanksgiving, and let me tell you they were a HUGE hit! The kids loved making them and the adults thought they were pretty cool. We made them the night before and it quickly became a family affair. I did have a little bit of a problem with humidity here in Florida, but I'm guessing most of you will be having cooler weather than we usually do. I originally found this idea at Our Best Bites, check them out, they are amazing. 

Ingredients
Double Stuffed Oreos

Candy Corn

Whoppers

Peanutbutter Cups

Chocolate Frosting

Yellow Frosting

Optional, Red Frosting

Optional, Black sprinkles for Eyes

I used candy coated sunflower seeds for the feet and gobble part.. or whatever that's called

Follow the instructions from Our Best Bites! 

I wasn't food blogging last year so I didn't take very many before pictures

These are so easy!

Gobble Gobble

Enjoy!!

Getting Organized

I will admit that my pantry has more cookie and cake decorating tools in it than food, and that is sort of a problem. I do have a large walk in pantry, but I am always digging behind things trying to find the right cookie cutters or jimmies, so I decided to get myself organized. I headed to Wal-Mart and picked up 2 storage bins, of course the first trip I made I only bought one and had to go back a second time. I store my bins in a little alcove off the kitchen and wheel them in when I want them. So easy and organized!

It took Olivia and I at least 20 minutes

to locate all of the stuff that I've

stashed around the house

My sprinkles use to fit in that bin, not now

Too much stuff

Plus there are the cookie cutters to deal with

Where to put everything?

One drawer has cupcake liners, this is now full

with all of the ones I found in my

craft room yesterday

Drawer 1 of sprinkles

Drawer 2 of sprinkles

One drawer of icing bottles and toppers

Tips and coloring gels

I had to go and buy a second drawer set

to store my cookie cutters

2 drawers of cutters

Celo bags to store all of my homemade goodies in

Pretty cute and definitely organized!

I guess I should remove those tags off the front huh??

Enjoy!

Coloring Sugar Cookie Dough

Yesterday I dyed some cookie dough, I thought that with spring here the cookies would look particularly festive. I am thrilled with the results and this also gave me the perfect chance to show off some of the new cookie cutters I received for my birthday. My parents sent me a gift card to Bake It Pretty and I went hog wild! I bought some new cutters, frosting tips, jimmies and disco dust!

I used my trusty cookie recipe, and added some dye.

For the frosting I decided to not use royal icing but a different kind, it's called Glace Icing, and I found it on Our Best Bites site. I like to add more powdered sugar to make a thicker icing.

Glacé Icing 
1lb powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 C) plus 1 cup
6T whole milk (low-fat actually works, but use whole if you can)
6T light Corn Syrup (6T is equal to 1/4 C plus another 2 T)
1 t extract (I use almond because I use almond in my sugar cookies) I've also added orange flavor and it was delish.
With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth (no lumps!) Then stir in corn syrup and extract.


I also used some of the royal icing decorations I made a few weeks ago, they were perfect for these cookies!

Start with some dough and coloring

Put a big schmear of icing on the dough

Start kneading

Orange!

Let's try a different color

Yellow!

My cute new beehive cookie cutter, 

makes me think of Utah!

I love my carrots!

I let the cookies be the star, not the frosting

Here are my royal icing dots

Butterfly don't fly away

Carrot close up

I can't wait to make these the next time family from Utah

visits!

Some good old traditional circular cookies

A princess crown for my favorite neighbor

Love the square cookie cutter

Now to pack them up for gifting

Lucy's box

I love the Easter grass, tins from Target

dollar section

Ready to take next door

Who will get these?

Enjoy!

Easter Decorations

A few weeks ago while browsing at my local Home Goods store I found some awesome old timey glass jars. I know these are all the rage right now and of course I had to have them.

I brought them home where they sat, empty. Should I fill them with seashells? or ....... yup I was at a loss. Then it came to me, I'd use them for my spring decorations. I filled the glass jars with plastic Easter grass I found at Target for .99 and plastic eggs ( cheap). The result is a cute and easy way to remind you that spring is indeed on it's way.

I love how these look sitting on my kitchen counter.

Enjoy!

Royal Icing Decorations

While cleaning out my fridge this morning I found a tub of royal icing and tried to think what to do with it. I knew I didn't want to make cookies and I didn't want to throw it out, so I decided to make some decorations with royal icing for future use.
I used a frosting bag with a small circular tip and placed the designs on a silpat mat. Make sure to add jimmies as soon as possible and DO NOT TOUCH FOR 24 HOURS!!! Store in an airtight container.
I can't wait to show you the creations I make with these.

I just started making circles on the mat and then decided 

to add jimmies.

I like the different sizes

Close up shot

I plan on using these on top of cupcakes and cookies

Wouldn't these look cute as the center of a flower sugar cookie?

Enjoy!

Source: Adapted from The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle