Candy Christmas Tree Pinecones

'Tis the season to deck the halls, trim the trees, and make cute candy Christmas crafts!  I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season as much as I am.  To get you in the mood, I have a fun candy Christmas craft for you.  Introducing, Candy Christmas Tree Pinecones! I promise, this will be one of the easiest Christmas crafts around, and they look super adorable!  Kids will also love it!

Here's what you need:

Mike and Ike's (or jelly beans)

Pine cones (I ended up buying mine from the store, but if you can find your own from nature, that's perfect!)

Yellow construction paper

Instructions:

Take Mike and Ike's out of the box and put them on a plate for easy access

Pick your pinecone of choice 

Start placing the Mike and Ike's into the small crevasses of the pine cones to look like ornaments until filled

Use the yellow construction paper to cut out a star shape

Put the star at the top of the tree

And voila, you have this:

Feel free to use glue to make sure the candy is secure, if not, the candy will fall out easily.  But then again, if you want an ongoing project for kids, forget the glue so they can keep repeating the process and enjoying the fun all month long!  

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Acorn Candy

Thanksgiving is right around the corner!  I'm thankful for all of the amazing people in my life, my health, and fun candy crafts!  That's why I'm happy I found this recipe while perusing Pinterest from eASYbAKED and just had to blog about it.

You have one week to get your act together and make these Acorn Candies for all of your guests on Thanksgiving.  So let's get started!

Ingredients:

1 bag of Hershey Kisses

1 bag of mini Nutter Butter cookies

1/4 c. of milk chocolate chips

1 bag of peanut butter baking chips

Instructions:

Unwrap Hershey Kisses

Melt milk chocolate chips in the microwave until they are completely melted, about 1 minute.

Dip bottom of Hershey Kiss in the chocolate and place a Nutter Butter on top of that

Make sure the chocolate hardens before moving onto the next step, dipping peanut butter chip in milk chocolate and placing on top of the Nutter Butter

Harden some more, then repeat, repeat, repeat until you have enough for everyone!

I'm so looking forward to making these next week.  They look delicious, are so festively fun, and easy!  Thanks for the idea and fabulous photos eASYbAKED!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sour Patch Chillerz

If you are a Sweetest Temptations regular, you know that I love everything sour and Sour Patch Kids are my favorite!  Everything about them are just divine.  The sugar coated outside, the sourness, the chewiness, and then, the sweetness.  I could eat them for days!

I was visiting a fellow candy connoisseur's blog, the Candy Critic,  and stumbled upon his post about Sour Patch Chillerz, and I couldn't believe my eyes!  I totally new Sour Patch Kids product that I've never even seen or heard of.  From what he says, they sound delicious and seem to be worth a try.  Can't wait to try them and be chilled, sweetened, and sour-ed! Yum!  Have you tried them?!?  

Thanks for the suggestion Candy Critic!  Check out his blog for hundreds of tasty reviews!

Whirl-Ease-Honey Hot Beverage Sweetener

Every time I drink tea, I always add some honey.  Sometimes, the honey bear gets sticky and messy, but I don't care. It makes my tea a tad sweeter and I love it.  Recently, an alternative was brought to my attention.  It was the Whirl-Ease-Honey hot beverage sweeteners from Strawberry Hill Candy and that changed my whole tea party experience!

First of all, they're adorable.  They're honey pots on a stick.  Anyone that has a honey pot on a stick will automatically be in a good mood.  The fact that you can use it in a hot beverage, swivel it around, and make your beverage sweeter with just one easy motion, is just amazing!  I always think of Winnie the Pooh when I see honey pots (which is not very often).  This swivel stick is shaped like a pot and even says honey on it.  Totally cute.

When I first brewed up my tea, it the water couldn't heat up fast enough, I was excited to use my swivel stick.  Once it was ready, I threw in a tea bag, then used the swivel stick.  As soon as I put it in, the honey pot made a cracking noise and the pot became cracked on the inside, because the water was so hot.  I stirred and stirred for a few moments until the honey pot completely dissolved off the stick and sweetened my tea!  

It was a good amount of honey to add to my big tea cup.  It was not too sweet and was just the right amount.  I do like my beverages sweet though, so you could maybe use one stick for two cups of tea.  You can also add these adorable honey pots in your chai or cider.  They're made with real wildflower honey and are gluten free!  

If you want to spice up your tea party experience, share some Whirl-Ease-Honey stirrers with your friends, kids, whoever, and they'll be bound to enjoy them as much as I!  Cheers!

Cloud Nine Marshmallows

I know you've all felt like you were floating on a cloud at one point because of a blissful event, but have you ever felt like you were eating a cloud?  I never had until I tried the Cloud Nine Marshmallows from Strawberry Hill Candy!  

These clouds were shaped like a perfect cube and were covered with powdered sugar.  They're fluffy, chewy, soft, and melt in your mouth.  They were more than just a marshmallow as the hint of lemony flavor gave it a gourmet and homemade taste.  The powdered sugar on top was the ice cream on the cake.  Fluffyness + sugar = delicious.  I love powdered sugar and anytime I consume it, it definitely puts a smile on my face.  That's why I definitely felt like I was on cloud nine while eating this marshmallow!

These are perfect for an afternoon snack, tea time, and for making Cloud Nine S'mores!  If you're a marshmallow fan, you'll love how these melt in your mouth.  Thanks for sharing your delicious treats with me, Strawberry Hill Candy!

Halloween Lollipops

I love Boston.  I love candy.  So it’s obvious that I would love Strawberry Hill Candy in Boston!  They were so sweet to send me some samples to review on my blog, including Halloween lollipops!

I received the cutest festive lollipops in a big red package.  The lollipops included orange fall leaves, green brains, orange jack-o-lantern pumpkins, vanilla white ghosts, and grape black bats.  I also hit the jackpot when I received to bonus lollipops, the pink flipflop lollipop, and last but not least a cherry "I love Boston" lollipop.  They were all adorable, wrapped in clear cellophane, and had an extra long stick making them easy to hold.  They were all pretty big in size so you could lick one for a good hour until it’s all dissolved.  They were very flavorful, colorful, and fun.  I shared some with my friends and we started a lollipop crew, and were the coolest kids around!

These lollipops are perfect for handing out to Trick-or-Treaters on October 31st. They also make great decorations around the house for Halloween, and would look super cute stuffed on top of a Halloween cake.  Check them out for yourself at Strawberry Hill Candy's website.  They're spooky delicious! 

Happy Halloween!!

Ghost Rice Krispie Pops

Boo! Happy October!  Halloween is just a few weeks away.  Want a fun, easy, adorable, and delicious spooky treat idea?  Today, I'm going to tell you how to make Ghost Rice Krispie Pops!  Don't be scared, these are the friendliest ghosts around, just like Casper!

Here's what you need:

Rice Krispie Treats

White Chocolate chips

Sprinkles

Lollipop Sticks

Clear wrappers

Twist ties

Instructions:

Whip up a batch of Rice Krispie Treats from scratch, or do it my way, and buy the individually wrapped and already made Rice Krispie Treats.  This way you can unwrap, cut, and dip!

Either way, cut a square Rice Krispie Treat into a square shape.  Then, round off the top edges to resemble a ghost.  Just cut two little triangles on the two top corners, smoothing the edges so it's a nice, round shape.  You can even cut different shapes, by cutting the top two corners, keeping a sharp edge, to resemble a grave shape.

Then, pour about 1 cup per 3 ghosts of white chocolate chips.  Melt the chips either on the stovetop or microwave.  I ended up microwaving them for 2 minutes today, stopping the timer and stirring a few times in between.

Make sure your Rice Krispies are prepared before you melt the white chocolate chips because you have to dip them fast before the chocolate hardens.  Then, take each Rice Krispie Treat, dip it in the chocolate until it covers a little over 1/2 of the treat on both sides.  

Then, take two circle sprinkles, I used blue this time, as the eye and place them in the center of the treat, close together, for two spooky eyes.  Make sure you do this before the chocolate hardens as well.

Next, let them sit for about 10 minutes to completely harden.  Stick the lollipop stick right in the middle of the bottom of the treat.  Push it in enough so the stick is secure and will hold up the ghost.

Then, take the clear wrapper, bought from any craft store, stuff the pop inside, then use the twisty tie to hold it all together.  And voila, you've got the cutest little edible ghosts!

These are perfect for a Halloween party favor, a fun craft to do with your kids, and even a great treat for Trick-or-Treaters.  Kids will love them!  Enjoy!  Happy Halloween!