Holidays — Cupcake Kid Cafe

Resolution Cookies – A Great Way To Ring In The New Year

You would love to ring in 2011 with your kiddos, but staying up past midnight just isn’t in the cards.

Celebrate instead by making New Year-themed fortune cookies together. The kid-friendly take on the classic comes courtesy of local foodie Rebecca Coleman. Her blog, Cooking with My Kid, documents the family kitchen hijinks (she’s got two wee ones), so you can expect the recipe to be as easy as three … two … one.

New Year’s Resolution Cookies
Makes two dozen

Ingredients
5 tbsp. unsalted butter
4 egg whites
1 c. superfine sugar
1 c. all-purpose flour, sifted
1 pinch salt
3 tbsp. heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Gel food coloring
1 tbsp. multicolored nonpareil sprinkles

1. Write resolutions on three-by-half-inch paper strips using food-safe ink.

2. Preheat oven to 400°.

3. Prep two baking sheets with Silpat or nonstick cooking spray.

4. Melt butter; set aside to cool. In an electric mixer, combine egg whites and sugar for one minute. Mix in flour and salt, beat. Mix in butter, heavy cream, and vanilla; beat until smooth.

5. Divide batter into two bowls. Mix multicolored nonpareil sprinkles into one batch. Add a drop of food coloring to the other.

6. Place teaspoon-size scoops of batter at least four inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using the back of the spoon, smooth batter into even rounds about three inches in diameter.

7. Bake eight to ten minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove from oven.

8. Working quickly, slide a spatula under one cookie, lift, and flip over onto a dishtowel. Place one resolution message in the center of the cookie. Fold cookie in half and pinch at the top to form a loose semicircle. Place the folded edge on the rim of a coffee mug and pull each point down, one to the inside of the mug and one to the outside.

9. Place folded cookies in a muffin tin to hold their shape until firm.

10. Crack one open, discuss, devour, repeat.

For more kid-tested recipes, go to cookingwithmykid.com.

Filed Under: Baking, Mom's Cafe, New Year's

Easy Cookie Desserts for Thanksgiving

Here is a few more fun desserts that the kids will love to make as much as love to eat! Keep them busy while you are cooking with these easy recipes!

Turkey Cookies from Pillsbury

INGREDIENTS

1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated sugar cookies
1 container (16 oz) chocolate creamy frosting
Candy corn
Orange decorating icing
Black decorating gel
Miniature candy-coated chocolate baking bits

DIRECTIONS

1Heat oven to 350°F. Bake cookies as directed on roll. Cool completely, about 20 minutes.
2Spoon chocolate frosting into resealable food-storage plastic bag; seal bag. Cut small hole in bottom corner of bag. On each cookie, pipe frosting on outer edge of half of cookie. Arrange candy corn over frosting for feathers.
3Pipe orange icing onto each cookie to resemble turkey face and feet. Use orange icing to attach baking bits to turkey face for eyes. Pipe black gel on baking bits for centers of eyes.

View the full recipe at Pillsbury

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A Flock of Turkeys from Taste of Home

Photo Courtesy of Taste of Home

INGREDIENTS

48 sugar cookies (3 inches)
1 package (12 ounces) chocolate and marshmallow cookies
1 can (16 ounces) chocolate frosting
1 cup vanilla frosting
Yellow and red paste food coloring

DIRECTIONS

Using a serrated knife, cut 1/2 in. from one side of 24 sugar cookies. Using a sharp knife, cut marshmallow cookies in half vertically. Spread chocolate frosting over the bottom of each marshmallow cookie half; align cut edges of a marshmallow cookie and a sugar cookie, and press together to form each turkey body and feathers.
Spread chocolate frosting over the cut edges of each turkey; position and attach near the back edge of a whole sugar cookie.
Cut a small hole in the corner of a pastry or plastic bag. Insert a #12 round pastry tip; fill bag with 3/4 cup chocolate frosting. Pipe a neck and head on each turkey.
Tint 1/2 cup vanilla frosting yellow and 1/2 cup red. With a #3 round pastry tip and yellow frosting, add eyes, beaks and legs. With #3 round tip and red frosting, pipe snood and tail feathers. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 2 dozen.
Editor’s Note: This recipe was tested with Nabisco Pinwheels.

View the full recipe at Taste of Home

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Photo Courtesy of Taste of Home

Shortbread Turkey Cookies

INGREDIENTS

40 fudge-striped cookies
1/4 cup chocolate frosting
2 packages (5 ounces each) chocolate-covered cherries
20 pieces candy corn

DIRECTIONS

Place 20 cookies on a flat surface, solid chocolate side down. With frosting attach a chocolate-covered cherry to the top of each base cookie. Position another cookie perpendicular to each base cookie; attach with frosting.
With a dab of frosting, attach one piece of candy corn to the front of each cherry for the head. Let stand until set.

View the full recipe at Taste of Home

Filed Under: Baking, Holidays, Mom's Cafe, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Desserts The Kids Will Love!

Thanksgiving is about togetherness and being thankful for family and friends and all the things that make your life special!

Of course your children love to take part in the Thanksgiving celebrations and now you can even have them further involved by letting them be a part of the cooking fun with these great ideas!

How about a Handprint Pumpkin Pie? An adorable home cooked pie with a cut out of your child’s hand print that is then made into a turkey shape! We love this idea!

Then we have the Gobbling Good Cupcakes! These adorable cupcakes are filled with goodies that make them look just like that Thanskgiving turkey. Perfect for dessert for the kids or even class room parties.

Last but not least is an adorable Marshmallow Pilgrim Hat! Made of scrumptious Marshmallow, striped shortbread cookies and yummy chocolate these unique desserts are sure to be a huge hit and your kids will love helping to make these!