Sunday, December 9, 2012

I love you more than Christmas kids lunch treats


Sometimes you need to throw caution to the wind.

Live a little, love a lot.

Eat sugar sprinkles.


Sushi, fruit, yogurt and healthy sandwiches are great lunch box staples for the kids, but sometimes I like to sneak in a surprise treat like these Christmas sprinkle sandwiches# with a happy note.

When I was growing up we used to call this type of sugar sprinkle sandwich fairy bread and it was a party staple.


I'm sure you don't need the instructions on how to make them but I'll share anyway :)

Take super fresh white bread. Spread with butter, sprinkle one half with sugar sprinkles (non-pariels), cut out a cute Christmas Tree shape on the other half and then press together firmly.

If you don't have green sprinkles don't worry, just use whatever you have handy.

Use a sharp knife to remove crusts (this is an essential step with fairy bread).

Write a note and slip it in the lunchbox with your sprinkly treat.



I used ejector Christmas Tree cutters which came in a set but you can just use regular mini tin cutters, it will work out just the same.

# If you just can't bring yourself to feed your kids sugar for lunch don't despair. Low fat cream cheese spread and sprouts will look awesomely fun too :)



Linda Vandermeer is the author of Sweets on a Stick: More than 150 Kid Friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go. You can pick it up at all good online book shops including these shops:



Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!


Thursday, December 6, 2012

Elegant Ornament Cookies


Elegant Ornament Cookies with hand piped royal icing details and jelly jewels.

Yup instead of baking crushed candy into the holes I decided to use the soft jelly jewels for a little extra elegance.

Which by the way jelly gems are the only type of jewels in this household.


and that was the case even before someone kicked in our front door a few weeks back to rob us. Happily our monitored security and vigilant neighbors stepped up immediately and they were only in the house for a total of 1 minute before fleeing.


Otherwise with nothing else of value to steal they might have resorted to taking my jelly jewels in which case you would totally not be enjoying the pictures of these cookies.

Plus the amount of time I have spent on the phone to insurance, police and people re fixing the door has really eaten into my blogging time. So totally inconvenient - don't those thieves know I have cookies to bake and treats to make. 


Anyhoo back to cookies. I am a fan of white on white Christmas cookies. But I did decided to try out a pink and gold version. Except I was all out of luster dust so the hand painting didn't quite come out like I had hoped, but they were still super pretty. I think perhaps I should have used the edible glitter, it's on my list for next time :)


Edit update I have a youtube video tutorial on how to make the sugar cookie cut out dough up:


Shopping/Photo Details
Cookie Cutter - Fancy Flours
Gingham ribbon, cards and small rectangle tin (set) - Greengate - Originated Shop
Jelly Jewels - mine Culpitt from Party Animal Online
Large round Pink Tin - Just Plain Gorgeous (Balmoral QLD)


Elegant Ornament Cookie Instructions

Sugar Cookie Dough (I used the recipe from Sweets on a Stick any good recipe will do)
wooden rolling pin
Ornament Cookie Cutter
White ready roll fondant (I used Bakels)
brush and water
Royal Icing in a piping bag with small plain tip
Jelly Jewels
small rolling pin
Icing tip with large round tip #12


Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface and use ornament cutter to cut out shapes. Place on a tray lined with parchment paper. Chill for 1/2 an hour until firm then bake in preheated oven (160 C or 320 F) for around 15minutes or until golden.

Remove from oven and quickly using the #12 icing tip cut 3 holes into the cookies (look at pictures for examples). Allow cookies to cool for around 5 mins and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Knead the white fondant and using the small rolling pin roll out on a cornflour (cornstarch) dusted workbench until quite thin. Using the ornament cutter cut out shapes. Brush a small amount of water onto the cookies and then press the fondant on top of the cookie using the rolling pin and gently pressing into place. Use the # 12 tip to press out 3 holes in the fondant ensuring they are in the same spot as the holes in the cookie underneath.

Pipe the desired design onto the cookie with the royal icing and allow to set.


Finally pipe a little royal icing into each hole (I piped around the edge of each round) and press the jelly jewel into place.



Linda Vandermeer is the author of Sweets on a Stick: More than 150 Kid Friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go. You can pick it up at all good online book shops including these shops:



Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!
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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Sweetest Thing Reindeer Cookies for Christmas


Oh my goodness these cookies are just the sweetest things.

I am totally in love with the pretty pastel colors and the flying reindeer shape.

I'm calling the colors white, dusky pink and teal.....'cause that's the titles on the food color bottles. But I think you can also call the 'teal', mint green or perhaps seafoam.


I'm not really sure, sometimes I get a bit confused with all those fancy names :)

What I do know is that they look even more adorable in real life and that the teal color with white and a pop of red looks amazing.


Anyhoo......before you all ask......the cookie cutter.


Lots of you may already have it which is great news. I picked it up in a bucket of 100 cutters from Aldi (discount supermarket) last year, for around 10 or 20 dollars for the whole lot.

In the US I have seen them sold as Faberware sets or maybe Roshco 100 piece plastic sets, Amazon has them listed kinda expensive (see below) although I noticed a used one for a good price. Or maybe try Ebay.


Like I said you might already have it or be lucky enough to find a set, but if not you could pick up a similar one by picking up a flying reindeer like the one from the below link.


Now I know the flying reindeers do not have the lovely looking fragile antlers and legs, but that might be a good thing for some. I use a pretty good cookie recipe (the one from my cook book Sweets on a Stick) and the dough was pretty chilled, but I still rolled each cookie out on a square of parchment paper to make it easier to pick  up and pop onto the oven tray. Plus I needed to gently ease/push out the antlers and legs. Not unachievable, or even that hard, but kinda time consuming and not so kid friendly.


 But they do look soooo sweet so for me totally worth it :)


I'm kinda into the whole color scheme at the moment so I seemed to have a stack of stuff sitting around ready for some photo's.

Photo stuff Vendor/Stockists:

Ribbon sets - Tilda (I bought mine @ Sewco Mt Gravatt)
Mint Green Sandy Cup - Greengate (I bought mine @ Originated Shop)
Silver Christmas baubles - Spotlight
Paisley card stock - Tilda (I bought mine @ Sewco Mr Gravatt)



Before I start the tutorial - just a quick reminder that if you don't want to miss out on any posts you can subscribe for free up in the top right corner of this blog by entering your email address. I have lots of Christmas cookies and treats coming up so you won't want to miss a single sweet thing (and facebook is mostly unreliable for updates these days).

Sweetest Thing Reindeer Cookies
If you don't like fondant covered cookies you can follow the general directions using royal icing instead, well y'know piping instead of rolling out and cutting. Y'all get the idea :)

Reindeer cookie cutter
cookie dough (I used the recipe from Sweets on a Stick stockist details below)
White ready roll fondant (I used Bakels)
food color (I used Americolor Teal, Americolor Ivory, Sugarflair dusky pink and red)
Royal Icing (I mixed up a little premix with water)
Edible glitter in pink and silver
Small rolling pin
cornflour / cornstarch
brush and water


Roll out the cookie dough onto parchment paper and cut out reindeer shapes. If you cutter has fragile thin pieces make sure the dough is quite chilled and ease each section out with the base of a knife, or some other flatish thin tool.

Chill in freezer for around 15 minutes and then bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until just golden, remove from oven and allow to cool on baking tray enough so they are firm and easy to move without breaking. Place on wire rack to cool completely.

Take a tablespoon of the fondant and color red. Divide the remaining fondant into 3 evenish amounts. Leave one section white, color one section pink and then the remaining teal using 2 parts teal to 1 part ivory to make a color similar to the one in the pictures. (to color fondant knead it well and then gradually work in drops of food color until the desired color is achieved.)

Dust the work bench, knead the white fondant until pliable and roll out until a couple of mm thin (1/16th ") making sure to pick it up and turn often so it does not stick to the bench. Cut out a reindeer shape with the cookie cutter (ensure the cutter has been washed and is completely dry).

Brush a small amount of water onto the cookie and then gently press the fondant onto the cookie using the rolling pin to gently press it into place.

Repeat for remaining cookies until a third of the cookies is covered with white fondant.

To make the spots on the back of the reindeer, pipe small dots of white royal icing with a #2 tip.For the teal spots (on some of the white deers) I just used small balls of teal fondant pressed into place (use a tiny amount of water to stick if necessary).


To make the glittery reindeer noses lay the fondant covered cookies on clean parchment paper, pipe a small dot of royal icing onto the noses and then before the royal icing dries sprinkle a small amount of edible glitter directly onto the wet royal icing.

The red reindeer noses are just small balls of red fondant pressed into place (use a tiny amount of water to stick if necessary)

Wrapping paper Greengate - frameTarget

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. You can pick it up at all good online book shops including these shops:



Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!
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