There’s never a dull moment around here. The boy has been sick again for the past two days, still not keeping food down. Hoping we get to the bottom of what’s causing this. In addition to being struck with more illness, it also happens to be what I refer to as “testing season”, my busiest time of year at work. Thank goodness for friends and family. They keep me sane. It’s probably for the best that I’m taking a break from my Kitchen-Aid. I have some catching up to do on posting cookie orders that I did right before Christmas.

This was an order for Sabrina, who was having a Willy Wonka themed party for her son’s birthday. Sabrina ordered Alice and Wonderland cookies from me last year for a baby shower. Sabrina comes up with great party themes… so many fun cookie options.

 Below are photos of the cookies individually and a few helpful hints and links about how to make them.

The wonka bars were cut out with a cardstock template I made. The dark chocolate brown icing color was made using Americolor’s brown combined with a little of the Super Black to get it a deep brown, chocolatey color.

In a previous post, I shared two different ways to make these peppermint candies. I prefer the sparkly sanding sugar option!

I love making cookie lollipops! For a step by step tutorial on how to make them, you can read this post.

The golden tickets were also made using a cardstock template. In order to get the gold icing to sparkle, I used Duff’s gold graffiti spray. You spray it onto the cookie once the royal icing had dried completely. I love this product! It covered evenly, dried quickly. and made these cookies super sparkly! Wilton makes a similar product, which I haven’t tried yet. Both brands are sold at Michael’s and are reasonably priced.

The doctor was concerned and scheduled the Boy to have an MRI of his brain on Wednesday… scariest few hours of our lives. We got through it together, and thankfully found out that that the scan was clear. The Boy is on day 8 of a fever and we’re still trying to get to the bottom of it (hoping it’s just the virus from hell!). Talk about putting your life into perspective in a matter of seconds. When it comes right down to it, the only thing that really matters are the special people in my life. Not only have I been blessed with an awesome family that keeps me grounded, but also a core group of friends who are there through life’s unpredictable twists and turns. What I hope the boy takes away from this is knowing that his dad and I will always be here for him. The bond that the three of us share is one of the greatest blessings in my life.

Okay… Now, on a much, much lighter note (I promise!), here are some of my favorite holidays recipes. Hope you’re baking up something sweet t!his weekend!

Peppermint Whoopie Pies

Snowflake Cookies

White Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

Snowman Brownie Pops

Cranberry Bliss Bars

Peppermint Brownies

Chocolate Covered Oreos

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bark With a Secret Ingredient

Rice Krispie Cupcake Treats

Wishing you a weekend full of happiness!

I made these peppermint bark  cookies last holiday season after seeing a recipe in Gourmet magazine (original recipe posted here). I  decided to try it again with a secret shortcut. This time of year gets crazy, so I embrace any shortcut in the kitchen, as long as it doesn’t compromise the taste. Thanks to Betty… Betty Crocker that is, these cookies are even simpler and equally as yummy as the original recipe.

Here’s how it all comes together:

The secret shortcut involves using a package of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix. The only other ingredients you use are a stick of butter, an egg, a cup of chocolate chips, and a few candy canes.

The dough comes together quickly with little mess. The trickiest part is smoothing it out in the pan. If you take a handful of dough at a time, flatten in your hands like a pancake and put it in the pan, it works much easier than trying to spread the dough. Don’t skip the parchment paper in the bottom. It allows you to lift it out of the pan and cut it into pieces when it’s done.

Once the dough bakes for about 18 minutes, sprinkle a cup to a cup and a half of chocolate chips on it while it’s still hot and let it sit for three minutes.

After three minutes, the chocolate chips have melted enough making it a cinch to spread on top of the cookie crust.

Immediately, sprinkle with crushed candy canes, and if you like drizzle white chocolate over the top. Put it in the fridge for a half hour or so to set and then cut into pieces.

These cookies can be easily varied. Switch out dark chocolate for semi-sweet, add Reese’s or Oreos instead of candy canes… the sky’s the limit.

I’m hoping to take these to a party tomorrow night with some of my girlfriends. Crossing my fingers the boy feels better, or I’m going to be stuck with two batches of this yumminess! Someone come save me!!

Click here for the printable recipe.

Seriously, a bowl of cherries doesn’t do much for me… but a bowl of rum-soaked cherries is definitely something to get excited about.  I sent my parents off on their road trip with oatmeal raisin cookies (my dad’s favorite). Since I was already making oatmeal cookie batter,  I found dried cherries in my cabinet and decided to experiment. These cookies were supposed to have chocolate chips in them as well,  but in all honesty I was on my second glass of wine and completely forgot to add them. I remembered to add chopped up walnuts to the batter, which is a twist on my go-to oatmeal cookie recipe.  The people at the Fisher Nut Company were kind enough to send me a whole variety of nuts to use with my holiday baking. The cherry-walnut combo was great. I really think the cherry-walnut, and chocolate combo would be even better, so you’ll have to let me know if you bake a batch.

The boy is in the play-offs for baseball this week, which causes lots of anxiety (for me, not him… he’s fine). Why my son decided pitching was his calling in life, I’ll never know. I try to remind myself that it’s just for fun, but watching the boy up there on the pitching mound is nerve-racking… not what I’d call “fun”. I think  I now have just the trick to make it more enjoyable. If you’re at the game tonight and see me with a ziploc full of cherries, it’s our little secret that they’ve been soaking in rum, okay?

I will be back tomorrow posting some great Thanksgiving printables!

Oatmeal Cherry Cookies (Adapted from my Go-to Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed

2 large eggs

1 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups oats (not instant)

1 1/2 cups rum soaked cherries

½ cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup chocolate chips (don’t forget)

Directions

Pour dried cherries into a glass bowl. Pour 1/2 cup dark rum over cherries (spice rum works too). Add enough water so that all cherries are covered in the liquid and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, set aside. Combine butter, sugar, dark brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla with a hand mixer on low. To cream, increase speed to high and beat until fluffy and the color lightens. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until no flour is visible. (Over mixing develops the gluten, making a tough cookie.) Now add the oats, nuts, and cherries; stir to incorporate.

Fill cookie scoop with dough. Drop 2-inches apart onto baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake 11-13 minutes (on center rack), until golden, but still moist beneath cracks on top. Remove from oven; let cookies sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

The only additional step with these cookies was making the fondant buttons. It was really pretty simple with Wilton’s pre-made fondant on hand. Bridget made the process even easier by posting a step by step photo tutorial on how to make them. The words were written on the royal icing using my new Americolor food writer markers. These markers are now my favorite of any of the food-safe markers I’ve tried. LOVE THEM!

I wanted the cupcakes to coordinate with the cookies, so I carried over the flower and button theme.  Don’t you just love how the buttons look in the center of the flowers… so adorable and girly I can hardly stand it.