Snowmen!

Aren't these little guys adorable?  Today, I'm going to show you how to make them--just in time for the cold weather and a New Year's Party!!!!


We had a fairly warm Christmas.  It finally cooled off yesterday, and today we started out in the 30's.  Welcome to Florida.  I made these little darlings for our 3rd Annual Ladies' Gathering that we had at my house the weekend before Christmas.  The party focused on growing closer together and building one another up.  My next post will be about that day.  But now, to make these snowmen while the weather is appropriate:

 Supplies:  Jet-Puffed Marshmallows, Rollos (with wrappers removed), Chocolate Candy Melts (or Milk Chocolate chips), toothpicks, and round chocolate cookies.


*If you have a piping bag, or a bag for decorating candy, those work best.  If you do not, a plastic sandwich bag will work, too.  Just don't squeeze it too hard.  
*I use the chocolate Oreo cookies, but any round chocolate cookie would work.  I think the Grasshopper cookies would be great for this, but not everyone in my family appreciates the combination of mint and chocolate...
*For the toothpicks, You will want to cut your toothpicks in thirds (I used kitchen shears for this) and use the two end pieces.  I threw the middles away.  Last year, I only had natural wood color toothpicks, and I dyed them orange with food coloring.  It worked quite well.  This year, however, my husband went to buy me some toothpicks, and the only ones the store had were already colored.  Just use what you have!


1.  Cover your workspace with wax paper, and pick out your marshmallows.  Something I learned the hard way--try to pick out the marshmallows that are not as smushed from being in the bag.  they need to be as flat and level as possible so they will stand up.  I had about 30 Oreos, so I needed 30 marshmallows and 30 Rollos (unwrapped).  


2.  Melt your chocolate.  Put some in a decorating bag or sandwich bag and heat them in the microwave.  There are directions for this on the bag of candy melts.  If you use chocolate chips instead, make sure you heat on 40% power.  Heat for 1 minute, and knead the bag.  If the chocolate isn't fully melted, keep heating and kneading at 30 second intervals.  Clip off the tip of the decorating bag (or corner of the sandwich bag) to allow a small amount of chocolate to come out.  The hole should be about 1/8 inch in diameter.


3.  Assemble your hats.  Squeeze a mound of chocolate onto the middle of an Oreo, and then stick a Rollo in the chocolate. Voila!  Your very own chocolate top hat!


*Make sure you are generous with your melted chocolate.  It is the glue that holds everything together.  Also, make sure that you allow for time for the chocolate to harden before you handle the pieces.  By the time I had assembled 30 hats, the first ones I had done were ready for the next step.


4.  Use an even more generous amount of chocolate on top of each marshmallow, and place a hat on top of each.


*If the chocolate doesn't squeeze out as well as you would like, try reheating it for 30 seconds (at 40% power) and see if that helps.

My assembly line.  

5.  After allowing time for the chocolate "glue" to harden, hold each snowman by the cookie (not the Rollo, it will melt on your hands) and pipe 2 eyes and little dots for the mouths.  


*Making sure that the chocolate is warm helps to make the eyes and mouths go better.  
*Holding the piping bag to the side and making the dots with a sideways motion seemed to work better than up-and-down.
*Keeping the tip of the bag clean makes for a better finished product.  If it starts to get chocolate stuck to the outside of it, just  wipe the tip with a napkin or paper towel.






6.  Add the noses.  

Enjoy!!!!!

These snowmen are so easy to make.  As long as an adult did the piping, you could easily allow children to help assemble these little guys.  You could make them a day or two ahead if you needed to, although the Oreos get soft.  These have been a hit with everyone that has seen them.  I serve them at our Christmas party, but then I have leftovers, so I usually wrap them individually and deliver them to co-workers and others, and they love them.  

I hope you'll try these!  They're really easy and have a big impact on your dessert table.

Happy New Year!

Simple Elegant Cake

Do you have one of those figural cake pans and wonder what to do with it?  Or have you avoided buying one because you didn't know when you would use it?  I have a set of silicone pans, and so I came up with this idea.  It has gone over well every time I have served it.  On Mother's Day, there weren't even any crumbs left.

Besides a pan, you will need:

A white cake mix and the ingredients to make the cake, confectioner's sugar, food coloring, and the flavoring of your choice.

A note about cake mix:  I do not think that any cake mix is better than another.  I used the Pillsbury brand this time because it was the cheapest. 

Preheat your oven and prepare the cake mix as the box directs.  I like to use the "egg-whites only" version.

I have included a brief video demonstration for separating eggs, just in case you have never done that before.  

If you have, please scroll past it!

Once you have separated the yolks and the whites, you can discard the yolks.

Mix the batter according to the directions on the box.  I usually try a higher speed on the mixer for about 20 seconds at the end to make the batter more frothy.

Make sure to spray your pan very well.  I use olive oil, but any cooking spray should work.  It is important to coat the entire pan, though.  My oil usually puddles in the petals of the flower, but I really don't want my cake to stick in the pan.

Pour the cake batter in your pan.  I fill mine about 3/4 of the way to the top.

My pan is not big enough to hold the entire batter, so I put the rest in a loaf pan and bake it alongside my flower cake.  This makes a nice snack while you wait for your guests.

A note about baking times:  The suggested baking times do not usually mention a silicone pan, or the odd ratio of sizes that I use.  I usually pick the least amount of time and check with a toothpick to see if they are done.

They're finished!

You will find that the cake rises over the top of the pan as it cooks.  You can fix this in one of two ways.  You could use a bread knife and slice off the excess.  This would work well if you have limited time and must serve your cake warm (which does taste good).  I choose to take more time and flatten mine.





While the cake is still hot, cover it with a clean dishtowel.  (A non-terry cloth one would be best.)  Then, put a plate with a flat bottom on top of the towel, and finally, something heavy, like a large glass mixing bowl.  Let the cake cool with the weight on top.

After the cake is cool and the top is flat, you could go ahead and put it on a plate.  However, I find that the cake comes out of the pan more easily if it has been refrigerated.  Cover your cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for a few hours.

Then, turn it over onto your serving dish.

Carefully remove the pan.  I must confess that this is the first time mine has ever come out with nothing stuck to the pan.  That is why I think the extra oil and refrigeration are important.  Each time I tried it that way, my cake looked nicer than my previous attempts.  If some of your petals do stick to the pan, gently pull them off and place them where they should have gone on the cake.  No one will notice, and your cake will still taste fantastic.

Now, for the best part.  The glaze will change a simple cake mix into a special dessert.  

You will need 1 1/2 cups of confectioner's sugar, and 1/3 cup of water to start.

Mix the water and sugar together until all of the sugar is dissolved.  The glaze should have a very watery consistency.  If you would like, you could add flavoring at this point.  I use almond extract, but you could try orange, strawberry, peppermint or anything else that you like.  With the almond flavoring, you need 3/4 to 1 teaspoon of flavoring, depending on how strong a taste you prefer.

Once you have stirred in your flavoring, separate three tablespoons of the glaze into a small bowl, and mix in 1 drop of yellow food coloring.

Add three drops of red to the remaining glaze and stir.

Now, spoon the yellow glaze over the center of the flower.  You will want your glaze to puddle in the indentations of the top of the cake.

Next, spoon the pink glaze over the rest of the flower.  Be careful not to get it in the yellow glaze.

If you let your cake sit for 30 minutes to an hour, the glaze will soak into the cake a little bit, and the sugar will crystalize a little bit on the top.  I prefer my cakes to look that way, but you could glaze them at the last minute if you want them to look like the picture above.

This is a view after sitting for about 40 minutes.

Of course, the best part of a cake is eating it.  ENJOY!

Editor's note:  This cake is just a suggestion.  You could experiment with any shape pan, any flavoring, and other colors.  Happy Eating!