Valentine's (toilet paper roll) Treats

I. LOVE. HOLIDAYS. But I have always had a love/hate relationship with Valentines Day. It's filled with huge expectations that your significant other (IF you even have one - & that's a whole nother story!) will read your mind and know exactly how spoil you. And as a lady, what the heck do guys even want on this holiday anyway!? All that aside, this year I decided to make a fun little treat for a few of my friends & family. Sooo so easy & thus far the people I have given them to have liked them (& if you're friends with my mom she's already planning to re-gift)! I'd say it's a win-win.

 

 

Here are the supplies: toilet paper rolls, scissors, tape (I used double-stick), ribbon, some fancy paper, & of course ... chocolate!

 

 

 

The first attempt at this project I planned to spray paint the toilet paper rolls. The paint completely soaked into the roll (and instead of turning pink stayed brown) making it not worth the effort, mess, or waste of spray paint. I had some old shimmery pink scrapbook paper that I used instead & bought some cheap pink ribbon.

 

 

First step - cut the paper to fit the roll. Slightly smaller than a half sheet of an 8.5 x 11 piece. Then tape the borders.

 

Fold the end edges in. If you align it so the crease is perpendicular with the edge of the paper (see below) it will help hold it together. The ribbon will end up covering the crease & help it look prettier also! Then add your favorite candy! I used Hershey's Kisses. Fitting for Valentines I thought!

 

 

 

Tie your bow & wah-lah! You have a cute little package to share with someone special!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Cowgirl Boot Sugar Cookies

My little cousin had her "Sweet 16" earlier this week & I decided to make some sugar cookies to take to the party. I'm totally getting into this whole cookie decorating thing. I've got a good collection of supplies going on - the frosting bags, couplers, tips, & of course the fun colors! I've found the supplies at Michael's & surprisingly at Wal-Mart.

I've been testing out different recipes each time because I'm pretty picky about my cookies! I don't like thin, dry, crunchy cookies & the recipe I used this time turned out to be a favorite. I also did not chill the dough before rolling it out. I may have used a tad less flour than the original recipe called for and instead added it while I rolled them out to keep from sticking.

The Recipe:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Now the fun part! Decorating!

Royal Icing Recipe: all of these ingredients vary how much you should use depending on whether you are doing the border or the flooding - it's taken a lot of trial an error on this part! I always start with the powdered sugar in the mixing bowl, add in Karo syrup & coloring, then water until the consistency is right.

Powdered sugar
Karo Syrup
Water
Coloring of choice



I did the black part of the boot border first - along with the spurs! I wish the spurs didn't bleed together as much but the silver dot kind of covered it up.

 

 

 

 

Then flood each boot with a slightly thinner frosting consistency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And repeat both steps with the next color - I chose red! You can clearly see that my border frosting was not thick enough because it flooded over and made a huge mess. Trial & error ...

 

 

 

 

For the white detailing I used the store bought frosting that comes in those stupid tubes that are so hard to get the dang frosting out! If you apply it while the filling is still slightly wet it sinks right in making it have a smooth overall look. The Royal Icing should set and dry to touch. To be honest, the red part of mine did not dry and were a hot melting mess in my car since I did this project last minute & made my flooding frosting too thin! but nonetheless, Wah-lah!