Frosty's Melting Cookies

Ho ho ho! Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season and are watching tons of Christmas movies, drinking hot chocolate, and baking!  If you have a cookie exchange coming up but don't know which kind to bake, how about making Frosty's melting cookies?  They're absolutely adorable and easy, thanks to Rachel Ray's creation!

Ingredients:

• 12 large marshmallows

• Colored gel for decorating cakes

• 12 soft homemade sugar cookies

• White frosting

• Chocolate nonpareil candies, such as Sno-Caps

• Pretzel Sticks
• Fruit leather, cut into 1/2-inch strips (sold at Trader Joe's)

Instructions:

Bake sugar cookies.  After cooled, frost the sugar cookies with any type of white frosting.  Take a marshmallow and push the top of it in with your thumb and place on the top edge of the cookie.  Use the gel frosting to make eyes and a nose on the marshmallow for the face of the snowman.  Add 3 non pareils onto the cookie's frosting to create buttons.  Get 1-2 pretzel sticks for arms, stick underneath the marshmallow and into the cookie.  Cut up fruit leather into 1/2 inch strips, with whatever design you would like, either zig zag, curves, or straight edges, then place around marshmallow for the scarf.  Repeat for as many cookies as you'd like to make.

Eat and enjoy!  Don't be sad that Frosty melted because he still tastes delicious! 'Tis the season!

Snowman Donuts

December has arrived and Christmas is right around the corner!  That means there are visions of sugar plums....and powdered donuts...dancing in everyone's heads.  In that case, let's bring that vision to life and make some Snowman Donuts!  These treats are easy to make and will bring you much joy.  Warning: they may melt in your mouth because they are so sweet.  And just like in the movie, remember that Frosty will be back (you can easily re-make these with very little ingredients and prep time)  Read on for some important information.

Ingredients:

One box of mini white powdered donuts

Candy corn

Black frosting

Instructions:

Place candy corn inside the donut hole

Draw eyes and mouth dots with black frosting

And Voila! You're done! Easiest and cutest idea ever.  Enjoy the holiday season!

Turkish Delight

Hope you all had a Happy Turkey Day! My family and I had a great time celebrating and for dessert we had some delicious Turkish Delight!  It was a delightful sweet treat from Nory Candy to top off a hearty meal.   

I had never tried Turkish Delight before but always associated it with the movie Narnia.  I remember the characters in the movie ate some and I had always wanted to try it and did not know what to expect.  To my surprise, the Turkish Delight came in a variety of flavors including Pomegranate, Strawberry, Rose, Lemon, Bergamot, Almond and Pistachio.  

The fruity flavors tasted very similar to gumdrops to me.  They were not as sticky as gumdrops and do not stick to your teeth.  They were the perfect amount of chewy and were a softer chew.  I loved that they were covered in confectionary sugar as not many candies are!  Confectionary sugar is undervalued and should be used more on candy!  

My favorite fruity flavor was Lemon, as anything Lemon is my favorite flavor.  I'd definitely recommend it if you like Lemon as much as me!  The second favorite of mine was Bergamot, which was also similar to the Lemon flavor which is why I loved it!  If you prefer other flavors usually like Strawberry, I'm sure that would be your delight of choice.

For the nutty flavors, my delight of choice was the Pistachio Bar.  The nutty flavors had a fluffy, marshmallowy texture with a nut flavor, whether it be Pistachio or Almond.  I alway choose Pistachios over Almonds any day and this is why I would choose the Pistachio Turkish Delight.  And once again, these were chewy but not super sticky and were easy to enjoy.

All of these were a taste that I have never had before and it was a fun experience to try something new. Thanks so much to Nory Candy for crossing Turkish Delights off of my to do candy lists to try!

Candy Turkeys

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! Tis the Season! One thing I am thankful for besides my family, friends, good health, and happiness, is CANDY, of course!  Here's a fun last minute Candy Turkey craft for you to create with your kids!  

Here's what you need:

Oreos

Peanut Butter Cups

Whoppers

Candy Corn

Frosting 

Orange icing

Instructions:

Place one Oreo in the microwave for 20 seconds in order to soften the icing.  

Get 7 pieces of Candy Corn ready to stuff inside the softened icing, placing the pointy part in first

Unwrap a Peanut Butter Cup and put some icing on the side and bottom

Place it on the bottom of the Oreo, away from the Candy Corn

Lay Oreo vertical and then get another Oreo and place it underneath the other Oreo, horizontally, to stick to the frosting side of the Peanut Butter Cup

Put some frosting on a Whopper and place it on top of the Peanut Butter Cup for the head

Use Orange icing to draw two feet underneath the Peanut Butter Cup and then two eyes on the Whopper

Cut the white part off of the Candy Corn, dip it in frosting, and place as a nose

Then repeat the process for as many Candy Turkeys as you'd like to make!  Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! 

Candy Pilgrim Hats

Gobble, gobble, gobble!  Thanksgiving is less than a week away! Who's ready for some turkey, sweet potato casserole, and stuffing?  Actually, the real question is what are you having for dessert after the big feast?  How about some Candy Pilgrim Hats!?

These are so easy to make, you can wait until Thanksgiving eve or Thanksgiving day to do so!

Here's what you need:

1 pack Keebler Fudge Striped Cookies

1 pack Marshmallows

1 pack of Chocolate Chips

1 yellow frosting tube

Toothpicks

Here's what you need to do:

Place Keebler cookies upside down on wax paper. 

Melt chocolate chips in saucepan on a low setting on the stovetop

Once melted, grab a toothpick, stab a marshmallow, and dunk in the chocolate

Once completely covered, place on the middle of the cookie

Repeat until you run out of cookies and marshmallows

Place hats in refrigerator to cool and harden the chocolate

Once hardened, get out the yellow frosting tube and pipe a yellow buckle on each hat

Voila! You have a delicious, easy, and adorable festive treat!  Such a creative idea from The Crafty Hostess!  

Happy Turkey day to you and you and you! Gobble gobble!

Project Candy for Victims of Sandy

We’re all aware of the devastation the East Coast has suffered due to Hurricane Sandy.  Hurricane Sandy has destroyed thousands and thousands of homes from fires and flooding and has left so many homeless.   There are gas and food shortages and many residents are still powerless with no clean water or food and no place to go. 

As it occurred last week, this forced many areas of New Jersey and New York to cancel Halloween.  Being that this is a candy blog and all of the previous posts were leading up to Halloween, imagine if all of the sudden, your little ones were not able to go trick or treating as they have been planning for the last two months because the whole town is in shambles.  It would be very hard explaining this to the young ones and is not the enjoyable event that it should be. 

My sister wanted to bring some joy to the children who were not able to trick or treat by setting up the Project Candy for Victims of Sandy page on Facebook.   This storm hit New Jersey and New York the hardest.  I’m a Jersey girl at heart and my hometown at the Jersey Shore, along with many other towns were destroyed.  Countless hours that were spent at the boardwalk are now suddenly just a memory.   The soul of New Jersey has been ripped out and will never be the same as it once was.

So now it’s your turn to bring some happiness to the victims of the hurricane.  We’re asking you to join in on the fun, by packaging 5 pieces of candy in a plastic ziplock bag and ship them over to the East Coast.  Life’s all about sharing and this is a great lesson for children as well.  I know we all love candy, but it’s always more fun to enjoy indulging with others and giving those who may not have any a little taste.  Other items are welcome too, if you’re interested to find out more information, please go to Project Candy for Victims of Sandy. 

Boo Oreo Pudding Cups

Nothing like adding a dollup of cool whip on top of a dessert to create a Boo-tiful, delicious ghost right? If you are nodding your head yes, you're making Boo Cups tonight! This Oreo, chocolate pudding, and cool whip combo is to die for!

Spooooooky Ingredients:

2 packages Jello Chocolate flavored instant pudding

1 tub cool whip

3 1/4 cup milk

20 Oreos, crushed

Chocolate chips

Plastic cups

Spooooooky Instructions:

Pour milk in large bowl and add pudding mix. 

Whisk for 2 minutes or until well mixed. 

Stir in half of the cool whip and 10 crushed Oreo cookies.

Put 1 Tbsp. of remaining cookie crumbs into each cup

Fill a little over 1/3 of the cup with pudding and cookie mixture

Put more cookie crumbs on top of the pudding and cookie mixture

Use a spoonful of cool whip to create a ghost shape on top of cookies

Place 2 chocolate chips on cool whip as eyes

You can then eat these right away! This is a fun and easy dessert to make with children as well as your best girlfriends.  Thanks to Coburns Delivers for this delicious idea!

Easy Caramel Apple Bites

With us being more than halfway through the month of October, that means that Halloween is getting oh so close!  Today's recipe is easy and delicious and rather healthy!  We're making Caramel Apple Bites! Yummy!

Here's what you need:

Apples

Microwaveable caramel sauce (sold in grocery stores near you)

Here's what you need to do with those two easy ingredients:

Slice up the apple in small bite size pieces

Let apples sit for about 5 minutes so they are not super juicy

Melt caramel sauce in bowl

Put a toothpick in each apple bite and dip it in the bowl

Set on parchment paper to cool for about 20 minutes

Enjoy!!

This afternoon spooky snack could not be easier to consume and create.  It's a healthier option but also tastes amazing.  No go out and buy your apples and caramel sauce and whip these up for your whole neighborhood! Thanks Try It Mom for a wonderful idea! Happy Halloween!!

Spooky Halloween Parfaits

Witches, ghosts, and goblins, creeping down the street, knock on every doorway, Trick or Treat!

Today, thanks to Frog Prince Paperie for this delicious recipe and scrumptious photo, we're making Spooky Halloween Parfaits for a special sweet treat, no tricks allowed!  Twitch your nose and this refreshing, yummy, easy, and spooky treat will appear on your table with a blink of an eye!

Here's what you need:

Vanilla Snack Packs Pudding

Orange Non Pareils

Crushed Oreos

Double shot glasses

Here's what you do with what you need:

Put a few spoonfuls of pudding into each glass

Top with non pareils

Top with pudding

Top with crushed Oreos

Repeat until there is no more room

Put in refrigerator for an hour

Enjoy in the most delightful way!!!

Edible Witches Broomsticks

It's OCTOBER! That means Halloween is right around the corner!  Time to start prepping for your spooky gatherings with great friends and ghoul-licious food!  How about making some Edible Witches Broomsticks?  

Here's what you need:

Pretzels sticks

Mini Reese's Cups

And that's all the ingredients!

Instructions:

Unwrap Mini Reese's Cups and place upside down

Use a knife to carve a little hole the size of a pretzel in each cup

Place pretzel in hole

Repeat until you have enough broomsticks for all of your little witches!

And voila! You are done! Now fly away on your broomstick and enjoy your EASY, adorable, and delicious Halloween snack!!

Recipe photo courtesy of http://kirstycolquhoun.blogspot.com/2011/10/day-137-witches-broomsticks.html

Chocolate Stuffed Marshmallows

I know you've all had a chocolate covered marshmallow, but have you ever had a Chocolate STUFFED Marshmallow?  A few weeks ago, I went to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival in San Francisco with a few friends.  There were so many sweet treats and sweet alcoholic drinks to consume and it was an overall wonderful experience!

One of the booths at the festival was Gud Fud, and they were handing out the Chocolate Stuffed Marshmallows to taste.  As soon as I tried them, I was wishing I had a graham cracker to go along with it because it's the easiest way to create a S'more, in two simple steps.  Since the marshmallow is already stuffed with the chocolate, all you need is one graham cracker, and voila!  

The marshmallow is fluffy and smooth and when you bite into it, it tastes as if nutella has been stuffed inside! Creamy and decadent chocolate mixed with a fluffy, soft, and smooth marshmallow equals some happy tastebuds! So if you don't have time to get all of the fixing for S'mores and you happen to have some Gud Fud Chocolate Stuffed Marshmallows around, grab a graham cracker and enjoy!

Giant Tootsie Pop

Now this is something Mr. Owl will go crazy for!  Not just one, or two, but 10 lollipops inside a Giant Tootsie Pop!! So many and so delicious!  

Tootsie Pops come in Cherry, Orange, Grape, Raspberry, and Chocolate and they ALL have the chocolatey Tootsie Roll center.  That perfect combination of hard candy and soft...and fruity and chocolatey...Just made for each other!  But, how many licks does it take to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop?  Ever tried it?  I can't help but bite into it when I'm halfway through eating my pop.  And my favorite flavor would have to be the Raspberry.  Raspberry covered chocolate because you taste the raspberry first and then get to the chocolate.

I loved seeing the Giant Tootsie Pop when they got delivered to me by Diversified Licensing, just the site of these Giant Tootsie pops made me smile.  I didn't want to even open them because they were perfect decor for my room.  When I finally had it in my hand, it was like opening a present.  I shook it to hear what was inside, unwrapped the wrapper, and found a surprise, 10 Tootsie pops inside!

It made me wish that lollipops grew from trees, oh wait..maybe they do according to that picture!  How cool would that be if the world just became candyland and completely edible.  

If you're having a party, you can buy about 20 of these and make a lollipop trail.  They stick right in the ground and are so fun to look at and eventually eat.  Or buy 5 of them and use them as a lollipop bouquet at your rehearsal dinner.  There's so many fun things you can do with these Giant Tootsie Pops, the world may never know!!

Skewer S'mores

Summers almost over but that doesn't mean the bbq's and bonfires have to stop!  But...if you don't have access to a bonfire, don't worry. Today we're making Skewer S'mores! Easy and delicious!

Here's what you need:

Bag of marshmallows

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 cups chocolate chips

Graham cracker crumbs

Skewer sticks

Here's what you need to do:

Put one marshmallow on each skewer

Heat up heavy cream for a few minutes

Turn off heat and add chocolate chips

Let it sit for a minute

Stir chocolate chips until smooth

Dip marshmallow in chocolate

Dip chocolate covered marshmallow in graham cracker crumbs

Place on wax paper and let them cool

Enjoy!

It's easy and it's fun and it's done in the summer sun!  Now hurry up and make these before summer's over!

Photo/recipe source 

Gummy Bear Dress

Would you ever wear a dress that weighs 220 pounds? What about if it was made out of gummy bears and it made you look absolutely scrumptious? Check out this Gummy Bear dress!

Twelv Magazine turned the unimaginable into reality.  They created a dress made completely up of gummy bears.  50,000 to be exact.  The perfectly sorted colors created a delicious and extremely heavy rainbow.  The dress took three weeks to make as each gummy bear was hand glued individually.  What an amazing idea!  

So what do you think, would you wear it? Wedding dress perhaps? Maybe prom? ;) I know I'd like to have a photo shoot in this dress for sure! 

Sour Patch Extreme Candy

This may be one of my favorite reviews I have ever done since my candy of choice is anything sour!! When The Candyland Store told me they were sending some Sour Patch Extremes my way, I was so excited.  Always loving everything and anything sour, I knew going into the taste test that I would immediately be pleased and sure was I right!  

The new Sour Patch Extreme candy is unlike any other Sour Patch Kid I have ever tried.  I'm all about the new flavors.  Each piece has double the flavor and double the sour!  The flavors come in:

Orange Blue Raspberry

Watermelon Grape

Sour Apple Strawberry

These sour combinations go extremely well together.  My favorite one would have to be the Orange Blue Raspberry, second is the Sour Apple Strawberry, and third is the Watermelon Grape.  Being third on the list does not even mean that it tastes even close to being bad, it's still so good!  I just love the Orange Blue Raspberry combination, have always liked Blue Raspberry flavors, but surprisingly I'll have to admit that my least favorite original SPK is the orange.  Ask my brother and sister.  They'll tell you how we would all fight over who would get any flavor other than orange.  This Orange from the Orange Blue Raspberry tasted different to me since it was mixed and I loved this new creation.  I also love that my favorite flavor is blue and orange, Mets colors, my favorite team!

Each bag contained about 20 pieces of Sour Patch Extreme faces that were split horizontally with colors.  Being the sour expert, popping these Sour Patch Kids in my mouth was not extremely sour, as I was expecting.  Others that I know who do not have desensitized tongue thought they were extremely sour, so based off of your sour consumption, these may or may not be that sour for you.  For me, they were just right.  Not as sour as a warhead, but more sour than the original SPKs.  

I would HIGHLY recommend these to your friends, family, and sour lovers.  Thanks to The Candyland Store for introducing me to another great product that I will continue to consume at the movies!

Baby Boy Bubble Gum Cigars

Babies are born everyday and half of the time, they are boys!  My newest nephew Kyle arrived almost 2 months ago and is the 7^th neice and nephew of mine.  As soon as The Candyland Store told me to pick out some candy to review, I saw these It’s A Boy Bubble Gum Cigars and immediately wanted to review them.  Lucky for me, the stork delivered this bubbly package in no time.    


The package was super a-dorable.  It looks like a little cigar box, all decorated in blue with a big stork on the front of the box and the words "It’s a Boy" printed on the front.  On the side of the box, there’s baby stats for parents to fill out their child’s birth measurements.  

When you open the box, it’s filled with about 50 blue, individually wrapped cigars that each say, you guessed it, "It’s a boy!"  This is a must have for a baby shower candy bar that’s decked out in blue candy.  The gum tastes like blueberries and is long lasting.  If the flavor runs out, just bite off another piece of your cigar. Eat each cigar in rounds since the size of the bubble gum cigar is rather large and most of the time, cannot be consumed in one big gulp.  At least not for me anyway, I ate mine in threes.  


So if you are having a boy or planning a baby shower for someone who is, make sure you stock the candy bar with these yummy bubble gum cigars and your whole party will be blowing and popping blue bubbles 'til the break of dawn!  Great for kids age 5 and up as well. 


Thanks to The Candyland Store for letting me review these candy cigars, definitely a fun, must have for families celebrating a birth of a new baby boy!

Cupcake Bites

Cupcakes have been trending for the last few years and Cupcakeries have been popping up all over the country.  The cupcake craze has been putting smiles on people's faces and filling up tummys all over the world ever since!!  The Candyland Store introduced me to a whole new cupcake experience when they sent me some Cupcake Bites to review.

I tried them and immediately loved them.  They're addictive as well.  They're made from the makers of Cookie Dough and are the perfect combination of Funfetti, (which you may remember is my favorite cake, yum!), and cookie dough.  

You pop these bites in your mouth and your mind immediately starts to sing Happy Birthday!  They are perfectly sized cookie dough bites, with sprinkles in every bit.  Just think: cake batter, cookie dough, and sprinkles all mixed together...and that's what you'll taste when you try these Cupcake Bites!

Receiving these treats on my birthday month of June to try was just perfect.  They are the closest thing to my birthday cake of choice, Funfetti, that is easy to eat minus the baking!  It's like you're sneaking a lick of the cupcake batter before it goes into the oven, rolled up into a soft and chewy bite.

Thanks to The Candyland Store, located in my old stomping grounds of New Jersey, for making my birthday month that much sweeter.  SPOILER ALERT: More reviews to come from The Candyland Store soon!