Gift Ideas For Your Little Chef – From A Little Chef (Part 1)

With the holidays coming soon I wanted to help you mommy’s out there by giving you some ideas for what us cooking kids would love from Santa! (Hey Mom – hint hint, I hope you read this too! xoxo)

I like when my mom cooks with me – so I hope you are all cooking with your kids too. The time my mom spends with me is almost better than the gift itself (remember I said ALMOST!) Hey, I am still 10, I like presents.

So here are some cooking related gifts, I am sure your kids will love- well, if they love to cook that is. I would not buy these for kids who like sports. heehee.

CURIOUS CHEF 16-PIECE CUPCAKE and DECORATING KIT

The Curious Chef collection of child friendly kitchen cookware is awesome. They have undergone real world testing and all of their products look like adult cookware, but made for our little hands. This kit will have them making and decorating cupcakes like a pro.

Available for purchase at Amazon.com

FOX RUN 9-PIECE KID’S COOKING UTENSILS

A fun and useful gift set for your favorite chef. All pieces are made of wood and are just for little hands. Set includes 9 of today’s most common utensils including a whisk, rolling pin, meat pounder and more.

Available for purchase at Amazon

DII RED GINGHAM APRON SET

Yes, kids are messy in the kitchen – so an apron is a must! But they will just think it is super cool to dress up like a real chef while working in the kitchen. Even us older kids still like to wear a great apron!

Available for purchase at Amazon

KITCHEN FOR KIDS COOKBOOK

This is a cookbook that I love. It is great for kids 4 and up and really has recipes that kids can REALLY make!

Available for purchase at Amazon

So here are a few ideas! I have more but mom said I could do a couple of posts because this one took a long time to write! If you have any great ideas for gifts for kids, please let me know and I will add that to my next gift post. Rachel…

Filed Under: Gift Ideas, Rachels Cafe

Make Your Own Kit – GIVEAWAY

We are thrilled to be able to offer a fun giveaway just in time for the holidays from our friends at Glee Gum!

I had the chance to review one of their products a while back (I look so little in the video!) and loved everything about the kit. It was easy to use, fun and the end product tasted great. Here is a link to that post if you want to see a Make Your Own Gummies Kit in action!

Glee Gum makes these Candy Making Kits that are so much fun. There is the Chewing Gum Kit, the Chocolate Kit and the Gummies Kit – so there is something for every candy lover.

The great thing about all of these kits is that the products are made from all natural ingredients and they are easy to make! Kids love them!

Right now, they are running a great special too with a Candy Kit Combo at a great price of $29.30 for all three kits. That is a 30% savings! You can purchase a combo kit here.

So as a kid who cooks – I can say that this is a gift that your little chefs will LOVE!

Glee Gum has generously offered us the chance to giveaway one of these candy making kits to a Cupcake Kid reader! Please read the rules and enter to win. Good Luck!

TO ENTER TO WIN A MAKE YOUR OWN KIT!

1. Follow Glee Gum on Facebook and/or Twitter (only 1 required)

2. Visit Glee Gum

3. Leave a comment on this post with which one of the 3 kits you would love to win, and what you saw on the Glee Gum site that you thought made them a great company!

4. optional – but we would love if you could like Cupcake Kid Cafe on Facebook too!

RULES:

1. (1) entry per person/email address

2. Contest ends 11:59pm on November 28, 2012

3. Entry must include kit you would like and a thought about the Glee Gum product line

4. Only residents of the Continental US are eligible (sorry!)

5. Winner will be chosen at random from all entries received and prize will ship directly from Glee Gum. Winner will be contacted via email for their shipping address.

Thanks for entering and GOOD LUCK!!!!!!

Filed Under: Contests, Featured, Rachels Cafe

Thanksgiving Cupcakes To Replace The Dinner

Since I am called the Cupcake Kid, I am going with the idea that all meals should include cupcakes. And I saw this on Make Bake Celebrate and told my mom we had to do this! Hopefully next year I can really start experimenting and coming up with my own great stuff like this, but for now I wanted to share this with my readers since I think it is AWESOME!

You have everything with these cupcakes, you get your turkey, corn, sweet potatoes and even your vegetables! I bet you these vegetables will be eaten with no problems!

The person who created these fantastic Thanksgiving Cupcakes include general directions on her blog at Make Bake Celebrate.

Here are some of the things you will need:

cupcakes
buttercream
fondant
yellow, copper, green, ivory coloring
caramel
marshmallow bits
walnuts
black and white sanding sugars

These are just so fun! If you make them we would love to see them!!!!! Happy Thanksgiving! Rachel

Filed Under: Baking, Featured, Rachels Cafe, Thanksgiving Tagged With: featured

Dracula Cookies For Halloween

I love Halloween! Even though I am turning 10 soon, I still love the fun of dressing up and of course getting candy! I also love going to Halloween parties and I thought these would be fun desserts for my friends. I have not tried making these yet, they do look a little harder than some of the other things I have made, but I may give it a try and see how I do!

Ingredients

6 Hazelnut truffles (creator used Ferrero Rocher truffles)
5 ounces white candy coating, chopped
1 green or red fruit roll up
6 Oreo cookies
1 (6 oz.) can black decorative icing
6 slivered almonds, cut in half

The recipe is only for 6 Dracula cookies, of course if you want more you should increase the ingredients! You can also use cake mix as an alternative to the truffles for the head – you would just have to make them as round cakes. This option would make more than 6 cookies, so you would need to increase all the other ingredient amounts too!

Directions

Place truffles on a waxed paper-lined pan. Freeze for 10 minutes or until chilled. Meanwhile, in a microwave bowl, melt candy coating; stir until smooth. Dip truffles in coating to cover completely; allow excess to drip of. Return to prepared pan. Refrigerate until hardened.

Cut Fruit Roll-Up into 2-1/2-in. x 1-1/2-in. strips. Reheat candy coating if necessary. Dip truffles in candy coating again; allow excess to drip off. Place one on each cookie. Wrap a fruit strip around base of truffle for cape. Let stand until set.

Using decorating icing and a round tip, pipe hair, eyes and mouth on each. Insert almonds for fangs. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 6 cookies.

recipe and photo courtesy of katherine aras

Filed Under: Baking, Cooking With Kids, Halloween, Rachels Cafe

Corn on the Cobcakes – An adorable Summer Cupcake!

image courtesy of Monica Buck/Woman’s Day

This wonderful Corn on the Cob recipe…wait….its not corn on the cob! It is cupcakes! Yes, really!

These adorable cupcakes when placed together look just like a corn on the cob! Can you be more creative? The kids will love helping to create this masterpiece. The top is just made of yellow and white jellybeans and you can use a yellow starburst for the “butter” slab!

Here are the ingredients you will need:

2 large eggs
3/4 cup(s) canola oil
1 1/4 cup(s) plus 5 Tbsp whole milk
3 teaspoon(s) pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup(s) granulated sugar
1/2 cup(s) yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoon(s) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon(s) plus pinch kosher salt
3/4 cup(s) (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 box(es) confectioners’ sugar
16 corn holders, assorted yellow and white jelly beans, 4 yellow fruit chews (such as Starburst), black and white sanding sugar, for decorating

to get the full recipe visit: Corn-on-the-Cob Cupcakes Recipe – Woman’s Day

Filed Under: 4th of July, Baking, Rachels Cafe

4th of July Fun for Kids – Star Shaped Sandwiches

image courtesy Zui

What a fun idea for the kids – both to make and to eat! These star shaped sandwiches are easy to make even for the younger crowd and will be sure to be a favorite at any 4th of July celebration!

Best part of this treat? You do not need all that much! Here is yous list of things you will need:

Bread
Star shaped cutter
Butter
Nonpareils in red, white and blue

Simply cut the bread into the star shape, spread a thin layer of butter then place in a bowl of the nonpareils that are all mixed together. Easy right?

You can of course make these sandwiches with anything including lunch meats, pb&j etc. I think it may be good to try Nutella with the nonpareils – I love Nutella!

To keep the kids busy even longer-let them make their own little flags! Give them some strips of paper, let them create and ten attach their art to toothpicks! Simple idea that will be fun for everyone!

And if you need a Star Shaped Cookie Cutter you can find them on Amazon. We like this Star Shaped Crust and Sandwich Cutter since it seems to fit better with those little hands!

full story from Zui

Filed Under: 4th of July, Rachels Cafe, Snacks

A Valentine’s Day Sweet Treat – Vintage V-Day Cookie Pops

image courtesy of Bakerella

I found these and fell in love with them. I do not think I could do these on my own – so all the Mommy’s out there will have to help, but I know my friends in my class would love these Valentine’s Day cookies.

It looks like you would need what is called frosting sheets and edible ink cartridges that work on some home printers. My mom and I have not tried this, but my mom found this website called TastyFotoArt.com that seems to have lots of products to do this type of baking. You would have to do a little research to see if you printer is one that can do this sort of printing though! There is also KopyKake.com which will give you more information on this process!

image courtesy of Bakeralla

I saw this on Bakerella – and here is what she did.

She made puffy sugar cookies (you can see the whole recipe on her site), but you could probably use the ones that come in rolls in the store if you are looking for a shortcut. Then a stick was inserted into the dough to make the cookie a lollipop. Separate the images from the backing and apply to your cookie. Depending on the shape of the cookie you may need to cut your image to fit properly. It is that easy! As a great added touch, she added a few dabs of icing around the edges which I think looks really pretty.

The options for decorating with printing are so fun! Let your kids choose the pictures though Mom!

Filed Under: Rachels Cafe, Valentine's Day

Kindergartners Talking Turkey

photo credit: Andrew

What a fabulous idea! Kindergarten teacher, Jill Cerny has an annual ritual of asking her class to share their thoughts on how to cook a Thanksgiving turkey. Each child creates an illustration and then dictates their ideas to the teacher who types it up and then adds their image.

Here are a few of the adorable things that kids have suggested!

Nathan: I will wait at the side of the road until I see a turkey in the trees. I will take my bow and arrow and shoot the turkey. My dad will skin the turkey and my mom and dad will drive to my grandma’s for Thanksgiving. My grandma will roast the turkey in the oven at 350 degrees. It will cook for five minutes. While the turkey is cooking, we will make a stew. We also make some drinks, like Kool-Aid. The turkey is put on a big table and some people sit at the small table, and we eat the big feast.
Ella: My dad gets the turkey from the farmer’s market. He starts to cook it in the kitchen. He puts it in a pot on the stove with a lid. It cooks for 45 minutes on warm, not hot. My dad takes it out of the pot and he puts it on plates for us to eat it, but my sister doesn’t like to eat it.
Tommy: My dad will go out to the woods and get a turkey. He will get a bow and arrow and he will shoot the turkey. He will take it home and cook it up. He will cut off the feathers and then put it in the oven. It will cook at 100 degrees for 20 minutes because it takes 20 minutes to cook chicken. My dad will take it out of the oven and place it on the table, and then we start eating it.

To view the full collection of stories and drawings submitted by Ms. Cerny’s class, visit the Darien Patch. It will be sure to give you a chuckle!

Filed Under: Cooking With Kids, Funny Stuff, Mom's Cafe, Thanksgiving

Veggie Bots – Makes Eating Veggies Fun

Us kids like food that makes us smile – if it looks cute, chances are we will try to at least taste. I cannot promise we will eat it all, but we will try it – and according to my mom, that is a challenge!

Getting Kids To Eat Vegetables with Veggie Bots Veggie Bots were created by Lee Bayless. He is a comedian who has created lots of things.

Veggie Bots is a set of tools that lets kids play with their food in a good way. They can make their veggies look like little building blocks and then stack them and build with them to create lots of different creations like robots, race cars and more.

I have not been able to find where to buy the Veggie Bot, but my mom is looking into it to see if it is actually available yet – if it is we will post a link!

But I thought this was a really cool thing to share to help moms be creative with their kids!

Here is a video so you can see how it works!

Filed Under: Cooking With Kids, Rachels Cafe

Oreo Turkeys – A Fun Thanksgiving Treat

: Image courtesy of Our Best Bites

I found these and love them! They are adorable turkey desserts made from Oreo cookies. They are easy to make and the kids can do them on their own – or with some help from mom of course! The idea comes from Our Best Bites, and the images are from there too.

These are great to use as desserts for Thanksgiving dinner, for parties and even as place card holders for your dinner table!

Here is what you will need:

Double Stuff Oreo Cookies
Candy Corn
Whoppers
Peanut butter cups
Chocolate frosting
Yellow Frosting
Optional: Red frosting
Optional: black sprinkles for eyes

Steps to make your Turkey:

1) Grab a cookie and put a tiny bit of frosting inside, this will help hold the candy corn a bit better!

2) Insert your candy corn. It seems that 5 candy corns, smaller tips inserted into the cream center works best.

3) Put a dab of frosting on the opposite end of the cookie from where you just inserted the candy corn, and then secure the cookie to the “base” cookie. Placing the cookies against the wall while they dry may help them keep their shape better!

4) While your cookies are drying open a peanut butter cup (have a parent do this part kids!) – and cut a sliver off of one end.

Image courtesy of Our Best Bites

5) Once your cups are ready, flip your cookies over, but still keep them next to the wall in case the frosting is not completely dry yet. Place a dab of frosting on peanut butter cup and place it on the cookie as shown below.

Image courtesy of Our Best Bites

6) For the heads you will put a dab of frosting on a whopper and attach it to the top of the peanut butter cup.

7) Use a dab of frosting and flue on a white tip of a candy corn for a beak, put 2 yellow dots for eyes and if you would like a smaller black dot for the center of the eye. (You can use frosting, a sprinkle, a mini chocolate chip for the black part of the eye).

Image courtesy of Our Best Bites

8) Once the beak stays put and everything seems to be sturdy, you can stand these cute little guys up and draw on some little feet if you would like. You can even add a little thingie under the neck!

To be extra creative and use them as place card holders, create your place card, adhere it to a toothpick and you can insert that into the center of the cookie!

And here is the final product! For more details, visit Our Best Bites!