Cute Halloween Cookie Set

Just a quick post to show this cute Halloween Cookie set I made up for Mr Sweet to take into his work colleagues.

The cookies are double chocolate chip sugar cookies topped with grape, orange and chocolate fondant.

Now take a deep breath........'cause Christmas is coming. I'll give you this weekend as a break with something deliciously chocolate, but then I can't make any promises.

Plus if your in the Christmas spirit or are planning to be remember I still have one Christmas Cookie demonstration date left this year on the 17th of November as part of Hands on Brisbane.

I will be demonstration how I roll out the cookie dough, how I get an even finish and then decorate a range of cookies from elegant snowflakes to these cute babushka snowmen and penguins. The demonstrations are very interactive and limited to 15 people so you can feel free to ask me as many questions about cookies or blogging that you would like. The sessions are on from 10:30am to 12:30 at the Bleeding Heart Cafe Brisbane and are $30. Tickets are available HERE.

Decorating for kids - Easy Eye cookies for Halloween

OK, let's be realistic.

I'm not going to use words like desperate here but if your still looking for Halloween recipes at this late stage in the game you're going to want something pretty easy. Plus it goes without saying you don't have time to shop around for a stack of ingredients.

Don't worry I have your back.

Super easy eye cookies.

Sure these aren't going to win any decorating awards. But like I already said.....Super Easy.

In fact these are so easy that the kids can whip them up. 

I used shop bought frosting, mostly because it's whiter that the buttercream I make, and also because.....easy.

and here's another time saving tip if you are really rushed for time. Use some sheets of shortcrust pastry from the freezer section of the supermarket instead of making up cookie dough from scratch. It's not exactly the same but on these small cookies with lots of frosting seriously who will really be able to tell the difference.

Easy Eye cookie instructions

Ingredients
small round cookies (mine are 3cm or around 1 1/4")
white ready made frosting (or make your own)
M&M's any color you like
butter knife

Spread the frosting over the top of each cookie. Be as neat as possible, but they are Halloween eyes so don't stress if they are a little bit crazy messy. In fact messy may be a bonus.

Take M & M's and press one into the center of each white frosted cookie.

Yup - that's it. Halloween cookies decorated and done :)

*If you have used the ready made frosting it will be a bit sticky still at this stage. Leave the cookies uncovered and  in about 30min to an hour the frosting will crust over (be less sticky).

If you liked this post why not subscribe to my email alerts - it's up in the top right hand corner of the blog :)

Linda Vandermeer is a mum, blogger and author of Sweets on a Stick: More than 150 Kid Friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Munchy Mummy Cookies

These munchy mummy cookies were hands down the kids favorite from the Halloween Babushka cookies I made up.

In case you've missed the last few posts I have a set of terrifying adorable babushka Halloween cookies that I whipped up and am trying to make my way through the tutorials before the 31st of October.

So far I have posted the instructions for:

Evil Ghost (Click here for instructions)
Screaming Ghoul (Click here for instructions) and
Cute Monster (Click here for instructions)

Tip - If you make these munchy mummy's try to roll out the fondant as thin as possible as there ends up being a bit more than I usually use due to the double layer.

You can either use a beige look 'bandaid' wrapping like I did in the picture or the plain white fondant would look just as good.

I was even going to make up a pink version before I ran out of time and had to pack the kitchen up.......maybe next Halloween.

GIVEAWAY

Don't forget if your in Brisbane I have  giveaway  for a double pass to the Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show. The pass will be for a Flavour Session and one day general admission to the show.

The Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show is on from 9 - 11  November at the Brisbane convention center and are lots of super exciting things to do including celebrity chef sessions, exhibitor stands, masterclasses and Chef's Book signings. Pop over to the official website HERE to see all the important information. I will be along one day to check it all out and can't wait.

To enter the competition simply follow the instructions on this Rafflecopter giveaway, it's open until Sunday night.

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

CHRISTMAS COOKIE DEMONSTRATIONS IN BRISBANE


and also if you are in Brisbane don't forget that I have another Christmas Cookie demonstrations on the 17th of November as part of Hands on Brisbane. I will be demonstration how I roll out the cookie dough, how I get an even finish and then decorate a range of cookies from elegant snowflakes to cute babushka snowmen and penguins. The demonstrations are very interactive and limited to 15 people so you can feel free to ask me as many questions about cookies or blogging that you would like. The sessions are on from 10:30am to 12:30 at the Bleeding Heart Cafe Brisbane and are $30. Tickets are available HERE.


Munchy Mummy Halloween Babushka Cookies Instructions

Ingredients and Equipment
Babushka sugar cookies (baked and ready to decorate I used the recipe from Sweets on a Stick)
Babushka cookie cutter 
Beige or white Ready Roll Fondant
Black Ready Roll Fondant
small rolling pin
clean food safe brush and water
Sharpe Knife
cornflour (corn starch) or crisco/oil for rolling out fondant
Edible Eyes - shop bought or make your own from Royal Icing CLICK HERE

1. Knead the beige (or white) fondant until pliable. Dust the workbench with cornflour (corn starch) or rub on a little crisco/oil and roll out the fondant until a couple of mm's (1/8") thin. Using the cookie cutter, press down and cut out a babushka shape.

Brush the cookie with a small amount of water and press the fondant onto the cookie. Use the small rolling pin to adhere the fondant to the cookie by pressing down lightly, if necessary gently roll out the fondant to the sides of the cookie by lightly rolling the rolling pin towards the edge.

2. Roll out a small amount of black fondant in an uneven circle and attach to the face area using a small amount of water.

3. Cut some of the remaining beige fondant into thin bandaid strips using the sharp knife.

4. Brush a tiny amount of water onto the fondant covered cookie, avoiding the black face and then adhere the bandaid strips in a random fashion, leaving a stripe of black face showing. Use the sharp knife to trim the excess bandaid strips away from the cookie.

5. Brush a little water on the black strip and adhere a set of eyes to the face area.

** The cookie cutters I used are from Bisk-art and the easy vanilla sugar cookie dough recipe I used is from Sweets on a Stick.

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Screaming Ghoul and Monster Babushka Halloween Cookies

Screaming Ghoul cookie

OK this past week did not go exactly as planned.

Nope not even close.

I was supposed to post tutorials for these 2 cookies during the week and be up to a new one today. Real life can be so time consuming sometimes.

My new kitchen is almost finished, tomorrow they pop on the finishing touches and then there is just the painting to go.

Oh and install lights, which sadly will not be the chandelier that I bought and had to return due to the fact that Mr Sweet could not actually walk through the room without ducking.........Oh my goodness I am so dumb sometimes I don't think about that stuff.......next house for sure.

Nervous Monster Cookie, or maybe he is super scary but needs to pee....

Anyhoo I am trying a new tutorial style today to save me a bit of time and plus these particular cookies are pretty simple so I hope y'all like it.

CHRISTMAS COOKIE DEMONSTRATIONS IN BRISBANE

and if you are in Brisbane don't forget that I have some Christmas Cookie demonstrations on the 27th of October (yup next weekend) and the 17th of November as part of Hands on Brisbane. I will be demonstration how I roll out the cookie dough, how I get an even finish and then decorate a range of cookies from elegant snowflakes to these cute babushka snowmen and penguins. The demonstrations are very interactive and limited to 15 people so you can feel free to ask me as many questions about cookies or blogging that you would like. The sessions are on from 10:30am to 12:30 at the Bleeding Heart Cafe Brisbane and are $30. Tickets are available HERE.

GIVEAWAY

Plus also for those of you in Brisbane I have  giveaway  for a double pass to the Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show. The pass will be for a Flavour Session and one day general admission to the show.

The Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show is on from 9 - 11  November at the Brisbane convention center and are lots of super exciting things to do including celebrity chef sessions, exhibitor stands, masterclasses and Chef's Book signings. Pop over to the official website HERE to see all the important information. I will be along one day to check it all out and can't wait.

To enter the competition simply follow the instructions on this Rafflecopter giveaway, it's open until next Sunday...Ummm I'm a little unsure of the actual time due to timezone difference but the Rafflecopter has a countdown thing going on.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

OK and for everyone even those not in Brisbane......on to the tutorials. If you totally hate this new collage style I have done up let me know :)


Screaming Ghoul Babushka Cookie

Ingredients and Equipment
Babushka sugar cookies (baked and ready to decorate I used the recipe from Sweets on a Stick)
Babushka cookie cutter 
Black Ready Roll Fondant
small rolling pin
clean food safe brush and water
cornflour (corn starch) or crisco/oil for rolling out fondant
Small amount of white fondant

1. Knead the black fondant until pliable. Dust the workbench with cornflour (corn starch) or rub on a little crisco/oil and roll out the fondant until a couple of mm's (1/8") thin.

2. Using the cookie cutter, press down and cut out a babushka shape.

3. Brush the cookie with a small amount of water and press the fondant onto the cookie. Use the small rolling pin to adhere the fondant to the cookie by pressing down lightly, if necessary gently roll out the fondant to the sides of the cookie by lightly rolling the rolling pin towards the edge.

4. Take a small amount of white fondant and using your fingers shape it into a ghoul face (see step 4 for example) and press onto the cookie in the face area. Shape a small amount of the excess black fondant into eyes and mouth (once again see step 4 for example of shapes).

5. Press the black fondant eyes and mouth onto the face where you would like them. Use a tiny amount of water if necessary to stick the black fondant down, make sure you do not use too much or the black will run into the white fondant.


Nervous Monster Babushka Cookie

Ingredients and Equipment
Babushka sugar cookies (baked and ready to decorate I used the recipe from Sweets on a Stick)
Babushka cookie cutter 
Green Ready Roll Fondant
small rolling pin
clean food safe brush and water
small sharp knife
cornflour (corn starch) for rolling out fondant
Small amount of white fondant
Black edible pen

1. Knead the green fondant until pliable. Dust the workbench with cornflour (corn starch) and roll out the fondant until a couple of mm's (1/8") thin.

2. Using the cookie cutter, press down and cut out a babushka shape.

3. Brush the cookie with a small amount of water and press the fondant onto the cookie. Use the small rolling pin to adhere the fondant to the cookie by pressing down lightly, if necessary gently roll out the fondant to the sides of the cookie by lightly rolling the rolling pin towards the edge.

4. Using the sharp knife cut some of the excess green fondant (that is still rolled out) into two monster arms, shape see step 4 for example. You may need to manipulate the monster fingers a little with your own fingers to get a shape you are happy with. Stick the arms onto the cookie at each side.

5. Roll out some of the white fondant to make a large oval eye and stick onto the cookie where you would like it using a tiny amount of water to adhere if necessary. Allow the cookie to dry for an hour or so and then use the edible black pen to draw a black dot on the eye, a mouth (I made mine a little wonky) and a short line at the bottom to make legs). *

* Note any of these directions are just suggestions, it's a monster it could have 5 eyes and no legs :)

The cookie cutters I used are from Bisk-art and the easy vanilla sugar cookie dough recipe I used is from Sweets on a Stick.

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Babushka Ghost Halloween cookies

I'm in the middle of packing up my kitchen so they can rip it out this week and pop in a new one.

It's kind of exciting and totally exhausting.

So I really hope that it looks great when they put it in.

Oh, and I hope it stores stacks of stuff which is what I really need. I am a total cake and cookie decorating hoarder. My dining room has been a total cluttered mess for a couple of years now.

So no baking now for at least a week.....and probably more as I imagine it will take me a while to sort out where everything will need to go.

Luckily this week before I packed everything away I made up some easy to decorate babushka doll cookies that I will be sharing with you over the next couple of weeks.

I'll start with the easiest cookies requiring the least equipment and work my way through to the more difficult ones. Today we have the evil ghostly babushka cookie. Next up will be the screaming ghoul cookie :)

Because I have a few of these to get through I'll be back to my old posting schedule of a few times a week so check back on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The cookie cutters I used are from Bisk-art and the easy vanilla sugar cookie dough recipe I used is from Sweets on a Stick.

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Ghostly Babushka Cookie if you like your ghosts a little bit cute rather than a touch evil just change the eyes to a more rounded shape and the mouth to a smaller happy smile.

Ingredients and Equipment
Babushka sugar cookies (baked and ready to decorate I used the recipe from Sweets on a Stick)
Babushka cookie cutter 
White Ready Roll Fondant
small rolling pin
clean food safe brush and water
cornflour (corn starch)
Black edible pen
Small amount of black fondant (white fondant colored black with food color) - optional you can just use the pen if you like

Knead the white fondant until pliable. Dust the workbench with cornflour (corn starch) and roll out the white fondant until a couple of mm's (1/16") thin.

Using the cookie cutter, press down and cut out a babushka shape.

 Brush the cookie with a small amount of water and press the fondant onto the cookie. Use the small rolling pin to adhere the fondant to the cookie by pressing down lightly, if necessary gently roll out the fondant to the sides of the cookie by lightly rolling the rolling pin towards the edge.

If you are using black fondant for the eyes, roll out small amounts of black fondant into small triangles (see picture for example) and press onto the head where you would like the eyes to be. Use a tiny amount of water if necessary to stick the black fondant down, make sure you do not use too much or the black will run into the white fondant.

Repeat for all cookies.

Allow the fondant on the cookies to set for an hour of so until the surface hardens.

Use the edible pen to draw on a large wide smile just under the 'neck' area of the babushka shape (see picture for example) draw small vertical lines across the mouth to look similar to stitches. Draw a couple of dots for nostrils and if you are using the pen to draw in the eyes do that at this stage as well.

Ta-daaaahhh super easy evil ghost cookies come back in a couple of days for screaming ghoul cookie......

Strawberry and Cream Cheesecakes in a Jar

Strawberries are so plentiful and cheap around here at the moment and everyone has those buy 3 punnets for $5 deals so our fridge is full of them.

That is not a complaint.

I love fruit. Mostly we just wash and eat it fresh here.

Seriously I did not fish around to find these strawberries, they were the top 2 in the punnet.

But I couldn't resist making up these strawberry and cream cheesecakes in a jar. The great thing about making cheesecakes in a jar, apart from y'know obviously they look lovely, is that you can spoon on heaps of strawberries and puree some up as sauce and it stays put as you scoop around eating.

If it doesn't happen to be strawberry season for you at the moment - just pop any fresh fruit in the top and it will be just as awesomely delicious.

I have used recycled jam jars, which actually took me a while to collect up, but you can use whatever you may have sitting around. In the past I found drinking glasses or even clean unused glass tea light holders from Ikea work.

Oh and if your a bit of a fan of upcycling and recycling you should check out the latest edition of 'Tickle the Imagination' online magazine.

I have a super yummy recipe for Blueberry jarcakes with cream cheese frosting in the lasted edition.

......hmmmm that styling looks familiar. Nope I didn't do it the same day (I don't have that many jars), although it was about a week apart. I needed to use the jars quick as my friend was collecting used jars to use at a party as drink glasses. Yup another fab recycling idea right there.

This photo is really Bubble and (a) Sweet

Now if only I could come up with an idea for recyling all those plastic fruit punnets I would be set.

and YAY for Bubble and Sweet, we were featured as one of Parenting.com's fav Halloween pintrest ideas for my Double Trouble Witch Brew Cauldron Cake pops. Thanks Parenting.com you can check out all their other creepily delicious favorites HERE.

anyway shameless self promotion over.....back to the cheesecakes.

Strawberries and Cream Cheesecakes in a Jar makes 6
You will need 6 clean 250ml jam jars or similar. If you do not have jars available you can use cupcake papers and bake in a muffin tray. Imperial conversion is approximate.

500g (17oz) cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1/4 cup cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 250g (8 1/2 oz) punnet strawberries
Extra whipped cream for serving

Preheat oven to 140 C (280 F).

Beat the cream cheese and sugar using a mixer at medium speed until smooth and lump free, add the cream and mix until combined.

Reduce speed to low and add the eggs and vanilla and mix until just combined.

Spoon mixture into jars, place on a tray and pop in the oven.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Allow to cool to room temperature and the pop into the fridge to chill for a couple of hours.

Just prior to serving puree about half the strawberries. Chop the remaining strawberries into small pieces. Evenly divide the strawberries and puree between the jars. Top with some whipped cream, decorate with sprinkles if desired and serve with a spoon.