How to Make a Fun Adult Mickey Birthday Party

Like I said, it has been a whirlwind of Disney things these last few months.  I guess that it started in February with my birthday.  I decided to have a Disney Birthday (at the young age of 39).  It started because my girls had innocently asked what theme my party was going to be, and I told them there wasn't one.  Their answer to that was that THEY would always have a themed party.  And I realized that I wanted one, too.  I had seen so many fun things and didn't want to wait for a kid's party to do them.

Here is my pinterest board of Disney stuff.  Check it out.

First thing in the morning, my dear hubby made me breakfast with Mickey-Head shaped pancakes!  How sweet.  Love that man-o-mine :)

We had a full day, but I made time while breakfast was being made to paint my toes to look like Minnie Mouse.  Really easy - just paint red and add white spots with a french manicure polish.  It wasn't perfect, but I loved it.

I had my friend with a Cri-cut cut out some big black Mickey-Heads and I hid them all over the house for my own Hidden Mickey Hunt.  Do you see the hidden Mickey on our fish tank?

I made a Mickey Head out of red tissue paper flowers.  I used it as decoration with other items.  

Plus, I added other fun Mickey elements all around the house.

I made Mickey Head Oreo suckers.  It was really easy (more on the how to's later).

I also made my own version of a Dole Whip - which didn't really turn out like a real Dole Whip.  I am going to have to work on this one some more.  Don't get me wrong, they were still yummy, but . . .

Then, to top it all off, I made Peanut Butter Cupcakes to look like Mickey Mouse.  My favorite thing.  These even had peanut butter cups sunk in the middle.

There were a few other things that I thought about making, but ran out of time.

The best part was that all my friends came, we had a yummy dinner made by my husband.  We all sat and chatted (a lot of talk about Disney :) of course) and had a great time.  What a great birthday.

So, just goes to show that you are never too old for a themed party and certainly never to old for Mickey!!

Happy Valentine's - How to make V-Day treats

Hello Everyone,
I am just popping in to say Happy Valentine's Day to you all and to share some yummy treats that you can make for Valentine's Day.  Most of these are super easy that don't need a lot of instructions.

First off, Peppermint Hearts

To start with you need left-over mini Christmas Candy Canes!  I happened to have a whole box that I only used a few from.

Line them up on a sheet of parchment paper in a heart shape, like this.

Next, you will need to melt down your white chocolate.  I used white chocolate chips in my glass 2 cup measuring cup and added just a little bit of olive oil to help make it pour easy and thin it out a little bit.  I microwaved it at 50% for 45 seconds and then stirred.  After that, I would microwave in 30 second intervals (still at 50%), stirring in between, until it is completely melted.

Pour white chocolate into the centers of the hearts.  Pour slowly, or you will over fill them (yeah - I did that on the first one!  You can kinda see in the back left).  It is easiest to start on one lobe of the heart, pour down to the point and then back up to the other lobe.

*tip - I realized about this point, that I should have placed my parchment paper and hearts on top of a baking sheet so that I could pick them up easier and place in frig to harden or move.

While the chocolate is still hot, you can add your decorations.  Use whatever you have.  You can sprinkles, candies, etc.  I happen to have this mold from a Vegas event that I did, so I used my red melting candies to make red hearts.

First, I add red sprinkles in the bottom of the mold.

Then, just squeeze melted red candy in the hearts and let harden.  Then pop them out.  They will be sparkly on top and perfect little hearts!

So, back to decorating the hearts, I sprinkled pink and red sugars on the hot white chocolate.  Then, I placed the red hearts that I made on top.  If the chocolate had gotten to hard, I "glued" on the hearts with a little more melting chocolate.

Of course, after doing half of them like this, I realized that a heart should be on the left, but oh well!  :)

And, that is it!  Let them harden by themselves, or you can speed it up in the refrigerator.  You can wrap them individually or serve on a tray.  They are flat, so you can add them to a Valentine's card, too!

On to the other treats.  I must say that I waited until the 13th to go looking for Valentine's Sprinkle.  I wanted to supplement the red and pink sugars that I had with "jimmies" in VDay colors.  EVERY place was sold out.  I went every where.  I started making my own heart shapes, using the red melting candy.  

Here is what else I made:

I made chocolate dipped pretzel rods.  Super cute, very easy and always a huge hit.  Just melt chocolate in a tall thin container and dip end of pretzel.  While it is still hot,  sprinkle with whatever you want.  I added my hand made heart to each one.

Just your basic heart shaped sugar cookies.  I add sprinkles, balls, and melting candy.  Another tip for you.  After you bake them and they spread out while baking, you can re-cut them with your same cookie cutter to get that sharper edge!

So, that's it!  I hope you have a fabulous (and sweet) Valentine's Day!

How to Make Race Car Candy Pretzel Rods

Hello All!

This next How To could really be transferred to almost any candy mold.  For this particular post, I took the photos for the treats that I made for my son's class.  I asked him what he would like me to bring and he surprised me by suggesting these candy pretzel rods.  My kids LOVE when I make any of these treats, so I guess that it shouldn't have surprised me too much.
This is one of the finished cars.  I made quite a few, in different color combinations, but the concept is the same.  As it was, since he didn't tell me until the morning of, I was a bit crunched for time to get them completed in time to bring them to his class.  I ended up mixing in some Roses Pretzel Rods for the girls which are a ton faster, since they need less detail and color changes.
So, first thing.  This mold is a Wilton mold available at most regular craft stores like JoAnn's, Micheal's or from Wilton itself.  The mold has 2 car designs and 6 cavities total.  When you buy the mold, it's front has ideas of how to color it, including some of just solid chocolate (which are just as yummy).  I like to use the Wilton's Candy Melts.
To start, I put some black candy into a disposable decorator bag and melted it in the microwave.  I usually do 30-45 second intervals at 50% power.  After each interval, I take it out of the microwave and squish it around and check to see that it is all the way melted.  Once it is melted, I move onto coloring.

With each color that you use, you need to look at the car (or other mold) and determine where it needs to go.  In this case, I need to do the black first, because it is the element that is the lowest in the cavity and will end up covered in the end.  For instance on a flower, you would do the center yellow first and then add the petal color after.  There are 2 things in the car that I thought should be black - the tires and the steering wheel.  I should also mention that black is hard to come by.  It is some secret.  In the past, when I didn't have black, I would use brown by itself or use brown and add black candy tint while melting.  This year, I got smart - at Halloween, as soon as the Halloween baking stuff was out, I bought a few bags and horded them away.  Silly, but the next week when I went back, there was no more black!
So, back to the "painting".  When you look at these, they talk about "painting in the details" and there are even paint brushes that they want to sell you for this purpose.  I have yet to make a paint brush really work.  The candy dries on it's bristles almost immediately.  It is SO much easier to keep it in the disposable bag, snip a small hole at the tip and then paint in the color with it - like you would pipe a name on a cake.  The smaller the detail you need, the smaller hole you snip in the tip.  For the tires, you can just pipe in a round blob in the tire well, but for the steering wheel, you need to have a little more precision.  After you are done with your black, set it aside to use on the next set.  If it hardened by the time you need it, just remelt.
After you have the black finished in each cavity, place the tray in your frig, while you get your blue ready in anew bag.  Use the same process for melting.  By the time it is melted, the black should have hardened up.  Pipe the blue in the windows.

Again, let harden while you melt the first body color.  This is the time to let your imagination work.  Race cars come in so many weird color combinations that you really can't go wrong.  You can use a much or as little colors as you want.  When I do them, I do one set of 6 the same colors for the most part and then switch at the next 6.  For this set, I used yellow strips with green.  Remember, between each step of color where one color will touch the next color, you will need to harden either in the refrigerator or let sit to cool.  If the colors won't touch, you could move on.  Also, sometimes, I will melt more than one color at a time, if I know that I will use the next color quicker.

Fill all the cavity with color.  Any clear that shows, will be make the inside color visible.  As a side note, I usually place a white piece of paper under my mold so that I can see what I am doing better.  I also pick it up and look at the front side periodically to check for air bubbles, missed spots, or anything else that could be fixed now.

As to fill colors:  sometimes, I fill the candy mold with the same colors that I am using and sometimes, I fill with a white or brown chocolate.  In the case of the car to the left, I went ahead and filled it with the car's green body color.  This last fill is more a blob of candy down the center, not quite filling it all the way.  This should be just enough to stick the pretzel rod in, without making it overflow it's sides.

Place one pretzel rod in each cavity and add any extra melting candy as needed to make a smooth transition.  The pretzel rod will stick up from the back of the candy.

I think that many would stop here, but I like to do one final step.  I place a zigzag strip of candy over the back of the pretzel to keep it attached a little better.

Here are the finished backs.  I harden them one final time and then move onto bagging them.  They make special pretzel rod bags that you use twist ties with.  And that is it.  You have a cute gift or treat.
I end with the rose ones:

Enjoy!
Meagan