party food | Desert Chica

Easy St. Patrick’s Day Cookies

byKaren•March 12, 2016

With less than a week before St. Patrick’s Day, now’s the time to make a batch of super easy St. Patrick’s Day cookies. I promise these are the most festive and easiest St. Patrick’s Day cookies you can make at home!

Basically I raiding my baking cabinet and whipped these up with just a few ingredients. You could grab some special shamrock sprinkles to make the cookies extra festive, I just worked with the sprinkles I had one hand. I also used a little green food dye in the batter.

St. Patrick’s Day Cookies

White Cake Mix
1/3 C + 1 TB Canola Oil
2 Eggs
green and white sprinkles
green food dye

Combine the eggs and oil with the cake mix. Add a few drops of green food dye until you reach your desired hue. Then generously add your green sprinkles and stir gently. Chill the dough in the fridge for a few hours. Drop ~1″ balls on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees. Enjoy! Store cookies in a sealed plastic container, just don’t let any leprechauns steal them. 😉

If you’re looking for a more elaborate St. Patrick’s Day dessert, check out these super sneaky Lucky Charms Cupcakes!

Zootopia Donuts

byKaren•March 6, 2016

Did you see Zootopia this weekend? I’m guessing most of you will say yes because Disney Animation had their biggest opening of all time, topping even Olaf and his FROZEN friends! We celebrated today with some Zootopia donuts, I know Officer Clawhauser would approve. 😉 Just in case you haven’t seen the movie yet, watch the clip below before scrolling down to see how I made our cheetah-inspired Zootopia donuts.

Meet Officer Clawhauser

These Zootopia donuts are super easy to make, make them as a fun Zootopia treat for the kiddos or turn it into a Zootopia activity and let the kiddos decorate their own Officer Clawhauser donuts! Start by making or buying plain donuts, I went with premade donuts. 😉

Zootopia Donuts Ingredients

Plain Donuts
Buttercream Frosting
Chocolate Frosting
Yellow food coloring

I had a can of chocolate frosting on hand but made my own buttercream frosting. I think getting the right color yellow frosting is the trickiest part of the recipe. I didn’t want primary yellow, it needed a hint of orange to darken up the frosting to better match Officer Clawhauser’s fur.

Frost each donut generously with yellow buttercream frosting. After letting the yellow frosting harden a little, place a 1/4 cup of chocolate frosting in the microwave and heat for 10-15 seconds. You want it to melt the chocolate frosting a little bit. Use round sponges or q-tips to apply various sizes of chocolate spots to the donut.

Do you think Office Clawhauser would approve?

Don’t miss my 7 Reasons To See Zootopia or Zootopia coloring pages.

Easy Valentine’s Day Cookies

byKaren•February 9, 2016

My boys really loved the easy New Year’s Eve Cookies I made with a box of cake mix and sprinkles. After finding fun multicolored heart sprinkles at Target, I knew another batch of these easy cookies would be perfect for Valentine’s Day. If you want to celebrate simply with an easy batch of Valentine’s Day cookies, just grab a box of cake mix, fun valentine sprinkles and get started!

Valentine’s Day Cookies

White Cake Mix
1/3 C + 1 TB Canola Oil
2 Eggs
Assorted valentine themed sprinkles

Combine the eggs and oil with the cake mix. Then generously add your multicolor heart sprinkles and stir gently. Chill the dough in the fridge for a few hours. Drop ~1″ balls on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees. Enjoy! Store in a sealed plastic container for up to a week, if they last that long! 😉

We don’t get to elaborate for Valentine’s Day, so even our cards are pretty simple for school. If you like to Valentine’s Day easy too, head over to my Valentine’s Day section for lots of fun free valentine printables.

Do you make Valentine’s Day Cookies?

Snow White Cupcakes

byKaren•January 25, 2016

My way favorite to celebrate a movie release is with cupcakes, a costume or both. 😉 Today I’m celebrating the upcoming release of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs with Snow White cupcakes.

I love the look of elaborate cupcake designs but I’ve got to keep it real and simple. I am not a master cupcake baker! I think of my cupcakes as Disney Bounding for food, they aren’t an exact replica of the character but rather inspired by the character. I love creating fun desserts that I know ANYONE can recreate.

Snow White Cupcakes

Start by making blue cupcakes in blue cupcake liners. You can add blue food dye to your favorite cupcake recipe or pick up a package of blue cupcake mix like I did.

Then I whipped up a batch of simple buttercream frosting and used yellow food dye to create a nice Snow White yellow color! Then I added it to a ziplock back to pipe the frosting onto each cupcake. Just make the cupcakes are completely cooled first.

I really wanted a little tiny apple to place on top but fell short of finding tiny candy apples. I found round cherry sour candies that worked well for color and size. Then I added a thin strip of black decorating gel to the top to simulate an apple stem. If you want to get even more creative, make your own apple candy cupcake toppers with this mini apple mold.

By the way, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs is available on Blu-Ray on February 2nd and available now on digital HD!

More Disney Inspired Cupcakes:

Tinker Bell & the NeverBeast Cupcakes

Bing Bong Cupcakes

BB-8 Cupcakes

Football Graham Crackers

byKaren•January 19, 2016

Themed foods are always fun to make, fun to serve and fun to eat. They can make just about any event exciting, even if you aren’t a huge fan. Whether you enjoy watching football or not, I know you’ll like these cute little treats!

These football graham crackers are super awesome because they are easy to make and I bet you have most of the ingredients on hand already! Plus they are perfect for any football themed parties you have coming up from a football themed birthday to a Super Bowl Party.

Football Graham Cracker Ingredients

6 sheets of chocolate graham crackers (broken in half)
2T solid shortening
1 cup dark cocoa chocolate melts (chocolate chips could work too)
white decorating icing

Set aside a baking sheet lined with wax paper. In a small bowl, microwave 2 T shortening for ~40 seconds until melted. Add the dark cocoa chocolate melts and stir until smooth. Dip the graham cracker squares into the melted dark chocolate, covering each cracker evenly. Place chocolate coated graham crackers on the baking sheet to set. This will take about 15 minutes. Use white icing to pipe a line down the middle of each graham cracker. Add several smaller lines across the middle line to resemble the laces of a football. Recipe yields 1 dozen football graham crackers.

Looking for another fun football themed dessert? Check out these football cookies!

20+ BB-8 Craft, Food and Fun Ideas

byKaren•December 18, 2015

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has finally arrived!! We are headed to see the movie this morning and can’t wait to see the new characters in action. BB-8 has already stolen our hearts and clearly many other people’s as well. He’s inspired many cool DIY projects and food since appearing in the first preview earlier this year. I’ve scoured the web looking for fun ideas to share with you. Check out my list of over 20 fun BB-8 craft, food and fun ideas below.

Star Wars BB-8 Crafts, Food and Fun

Star Wars Christmas Ideas

Who’s your favorite new Star Wars character?

Grandma’s Fruit Crush Punch

byKaren•December 4, 2015

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. All opinions are my own. #BrighTENtheSeason

My grandma’s fruit crush punch is a holiday favorite. My brothers and I grew up drinking it at every holiday meal. It’s like a cold fizzy, citrus explosion in your mouth. We don’t have big family meals at my grandparent’s house anymore, something that comes with everyone getting older. I’ve missed that yummy punch from my childhood, so this year I made it for our own Thanksgiving celebration.

My grandma always asked me to help make the punch as everyone arrived, being the oldest grandchild did have some perks. So I am the most experienced to make it as well. 😉 The recipe is very easy though, you just need to prep the frozen fruit juice mixture the night before. I think I’ll let Quinn starting helping me make it next time!

GRANDMA’S FRUIT CRUSH PUNCH INGREDIENTS

3 C water
2 C sugar
1 46 oz can of pineapple juice
1 1/2 C orange juice
1/4 C lemon juice
3 ripe bananas
3 2-liters of 7UP®

Start by mashing the 3 ripe bananas and adding it to a gallon size pitcher. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the 7UP®) and stir to combine well. Make sure the sugar is dissolved, then pour it evenly into 3 plastic containers (larger is better than deeper). Freeze the juice mixture at least 4 hours until solid, I suggest making it the night before for convenience.

Pull out the frozen fruit juice mixture 30 minutes prior to serving it. Let it sit out and thaw slightly (20-25 minutes). Then use a knife to cut a checkerboard pattern into the frozen juice mixture. Scoop the frozen fruit juice chunks into the punch bowl and pour 7UP® on top. We use 2-3 bottles of 7UP®, it’s adjustable to taste and of course the punch bowl size.

Head on over to Target, my favorite one-stop shop for the holidays and pick up the ingredients for Grandma’s Fruit Crush Punch. Also don’t miss these great Ibotta offers on 7UP® brand products!

Save $.75 when you buy two 2-liter bottles (varieties include: 7UP®, A&W®, Canada Dry® Ginger Ale, RC® Cola, Sundrop®, Sunkist® Orange, Squirt®, Country Time®, Diet Rite®, Vernors®, Cactus Cooler® and Hawaiian Punch®)
Save $2.00 when you buy four 12-pack cans (varieties include: 7UP®, A&W®, Canada Dry® Ginger Ale, RC® Cola, Sundrop®, Sunkist® Orange, Squirt®, Country Time®, Diet Rite®, Vernors®, Cactus Cooler®, Hawaiian Punch® and Tahitian Treat)

By the way, the hardest part of making the punch is finding a silly punch bowl. Everyone has those silly drink dispensers nowadays. If you want to enjoy the fruit crush part of the punch though, you need to ladle that yummy citrus goodness into your cup!

WANT MORE RECIPE INSPIRATION WITH YOUR FAVORITE DRINKS? FIND MORE IDEAS FROM THESE PERFECT HOLIDAY MOMENTS.

Thanksgiving Turkey Pudding

byKaren•November 8, 2015

I have a confession to make. I am not really a pie fan, especially pumpkin pie. Gross! So I’m always looking for Thanksgiving desserts that are yummy and festive but are pumpkin free. This Thanksgiving turkey pudding is so fun and you can’t beat chocolate and peanut butter in my book.

These Thanksgiving turkey puddings would make an excellent kids dessert for your holiday dinner or even a fun Thanksgiving day activity. Just make the pudding up ahead and let them decorate their own turkeys, just be careful with the melted chocolate it can be hot!

Thanksgiving Turkey Pudding Ingredients:

3.9 oz box Chocolate Fudge Instant Pudding
2 cups cold milk
1/4 cup Brown chocolate melts or chocolate chips
4 Nutter Butter cookies
6 Swedish Fish – 2 red, 2 yellow, 2 orange (cut in halves lengthwise)
8 Wilton candy eyes – regular size
2 yellow and red chocolate covered candies (broken in half)
fall colored sprinkles (optional)
Follow the directions on the pudding box and then transfer immediately into your serving dishes. Cover and refrigerate while assembling the Nutter Butter turkeys.

How to make Nutter Butter turkeys
1. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate melts/chips for 30 seconds. Stir until melted.
2. Spread chocolate on the upper 1/3 of each cookie (one side only).
3. Firmly press 3 Swedish fish half pieces onto the chocolate and hold for one minute to set.
4. Gently flip the cookie over to complete the turkey face.
5. With a toothpick, add a dab of the hot melted chocolate onto the back of the candy eyes and place on the front of each cookie to resemble the eyes of the turkey. Press firmly.
6. Using the same toothpick, dab a small amount of the chocolate onto each yellow candy half piece and attach to each cookie for the nose. Press firmly.
7. Repeat step 3 using the red candy for the beak.
8. Right before serving, remove pudding from the refrigerator and uncover.
9. Optional: add fall colored sprinkles on top of the pudding.
10. ENJOY!

If you like this idea, don’t miss my Santa Chewbacca Cookies that also use Nutter Butter cookies. And I have a few other fun ways to make an edible turkey for Thanksgiving.

Santa Chewbacca Cookies

byKaren•November 3, 2015

This Santa Chewbacca Cookies recipe is sponsored by Nutter Butter.

I figured today would be a great time to share these fun Santa Chewbacca Cookies I made for our Star Wars Halloween Party last weekend. I promise I am not completely skipping over Thanksgiving but let’s be honest, lots of people are already thinking about Christmas. And lots of people are eagerly anticipating the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens next month.

These cookies are all about transforming yummy Nutter Butter cookies into Santa Chewbacca cookies with a little decorating. All you need is melting chocolates, sprinkles and Nutter Butter cookies of course.

Santa Chewbacca Cookies:

Nutter Butter cookies
White melting chocolate (or candy melts)
Milk or dark melting chocolate
Chocolate sprinkles
Red sugar sprinkles
Silver jimmies

Start by melting your chocolate in the microwave (follow the package directions, it can burn easily). Dip each cookie into the chocolate about 2/3 of the way up, then dip it in chocolate sprinkles. Once your done creating Chewbacca’s furry texture on each cookie, place them in the freezer for about 10 minutes. The freezer will firm up the chocolate so you can continue to work with the cookies without making a sticky mess.

After taking the cookies out of the freezer, dip the remainder of the cookie (~1/3) in melted white chocolate (or white candy melts). Then dip the white section into the red sprinkles, leaving a small edge white like the fluffy trim on Santa’s hat.

The final step is adding Chewbacca’s bandolier. Melt more chocolate and then pipe a diagonal line down from top to bottom. I just use a ziplock bag with the corner cut off. Carefully place 5-6 silver jimmies along the belt. Be sure to add the sprinklers immediately after piping the chocolate, if you try to pipe all the cookies then go back to add the sprinkles, the chocolate will have cooled and the sprinkles won’t stick. Don’t ask me how I know. 😉

That’s it! They are fairly simple to make and don’t take too long either. They’d make a fun addition to holiday parties or Star Wars parties or even as an activity for older tweens/teens. Those that are cool enough to dig Star Wars that is. 🙂

More Star Wars Fun:

Peanuts Movie Treat

byKaren•October 25, 2015

The Peanuts Movie opens in theaters in just under 2 weeks and my boys can’t wait to see it. They’ve been watching the old holiday Peanuts classics in anticipation. Plus we’ve been working on a few fun Peanut’s themed projects from Peanut’s inspired cookies and a Charlie Brown costume hoodie to today’s project: Peanut’s Movie Treats.

You can pick up just a few supplies and make these fun and easy Peanut’s Movie treats. Pop tarts are typically a quick breakfast idea but I think these would make a fun after school snack. Bonus points if you buy the supplies at Albertsons because they are giving away fun Peanut’s Movie Trick or Treat bags with purchase (while supplies last).

Peanuts Movie Treats Ingredients:

Kellogg’s Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts
Kellogg’s Frosted Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts
Marshmallows
Nestle Toll House Mini Morsels
Yellow Chocolate Covered Peanut Candies
Ziploc Bag

Instructions for Charlie Brown Pop Tart:

– Unwrap a package of Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts.
– Place a tablespoon of mini morsels in a Ziploc bag and microwave until just melted (about 25 seconds).
– Cut a small hole in the corner of the bag and use the melted chocolate to pipe Charlie Brown’s zig-zag shirt pattern onto your Pop-Tart.

Instructions for Snoopy and Woodstock Pop Tart:

– Unwrap a package of Frosted Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts

– Cut one marshmallow in half.

– Place your marshmallow half onto your Pop-Tart (sticky side down).

– Insert one mini morsel where Snoopy’s nose should go.

– Use your melted chocolate from your Charlie Brown Pop-Tart to pipe Snoopy’s ear, eye and mouth.

– Pipe Woodstock’s mouth, eye and rear feathers with your melted chocolate.

– Place a dab of melted chocolate onto the top of your Pop-Tart and place Woodstock onto the dab.

– The chocolate will act like a glue to keep Snoopy’s best friend holding tight.

– Serve immediately.

Who’s your favorite Peanuts Gang character?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Albertsons Safeway. The opinions and text are all mine.

Peanuts Movie Cookies

byKaren•October 18, 2015

We can’t wait to see the new Peanuts Movie in theaters next month. Peter and I love watching the original Peanuts cartoons with the boys and love that there is a new adventure for us to experience together as a family! Another fun thing to experience together as a family is cookie decorating. These Peanuts Movie cookies are super fun but also really easy to make!

You can start by making sugar cookies from scratch… or just buy a mix. Whatever floats your boat! 🙂 The key is to get nice round cookies, I’d suggest scooping it out with a ice cream scoop and flattening them down a bit before baking.

Peanuts Movie Cookie Ingredients

Favorite cookie mix
Frosting
Food Coloring
Black writing icing

Once the cookies have cooled, it’s time for the Peanuts Movie cookie decorating fun! Start by diving your frosting (store bought or your favorite buttercream recipe) into 5 bowls. Make one bowl each of red, blue, yellow, and pink frosting using your food coloring. Keep one bowl of frosting white.

Charlie Brown Cookies – Make a chevron pattern in the middle of yellow frosted cookies using black writing icing.

Sally Brown – Make black polka dots all over pink frosted cookies.

Linus – Draw black horizontal lines all over red frosted cookies.

Lucy – Make a ruffled collar at the top of blue frosted cookies and then in the middle, draw two lines with a dot at each end.

Snoopy – Make two half ovals on each side for Snoopy’s ears, draw two dots and an oval for eyes and nose. Finish it off with a smile for snoopy

How cute are these? And easy enough to let the kids help decorate! That’s my favorite kind of treat, fun to make and yummy to eat!

Looking for more peanuts fun?

Peanuts Holiday Collection (affiliate link)

DIY Charlie Brown Costume

No Bake Wookie Cookies

byKaren•September 3, 2015

No bake cookies are a family favorite around here. They are so easy to make with only a few ingredients that we generally have on hand. I decided to update the recipe in honor of Star Wars Force Friday.

No Bake Wookie Cookies Ingredients:

3T Cocoa
3C Sugar
1/2 C Milk
1/2 C Butter
2T PB
3C Oatmeal
Chocolate Frosting
White Sprinkles

Start by combining the cocoa, sugar, milk and butter in a sauce pan. Let it come to a rapid boil for 1 minute. While you wait for the ingredients to melt and then boil, lay out wax paper to drop the cookies on. You want to be ready once it starts to boil. After one minute of rapid boil, remove the sauce pan and add the peanut butter and oatmeal, quickly stirring to combine. Drop on waxed paper by tsp (or bigger if you want bigger cookies). Let cool completely before decorating.

Personally I think the texture of the no bake cookies is a perfect match for a Wookie’s fur. Going a step further, I decided my cookies would actually be inspired by Chewbacca, the most well known Wookie of all! Chewbacca is known for his bandolier (ammo belt) so that’s what I wanted to recreate on the cookie.

I used chocolate frosting to draw the belt, diagonally across the cookie. I used a can of pre-made frosting I had on hand, but piping on homemade frosting would work well too. I used a toothpick to smooth out the belt a little and make adjustments.

I attempted to draw the ammo on the belt with melted white chocolate but I couldn’t make consistent rectangular shapes. It was ugly! Plan B was to dig into my stash of sprinkles and pray that I had something useable. Man did I find an awesome solution in these Christmas Light sprinkles. The white ones look like some sort of ammo to me, certainly much better than my messy attempt with white chocolate. If you are a master frosting piper, than you can try it with the white chocolate, otherwise pick up these sprinkles and make this project insanely easy!

More Star Wars Ideas:

Plus check out these other awesome Star Wars projects from my blogging buddies!

Easy St. Patrick’s Day Cookies

St. Patrick’s Day Cookies

Zootopia Donuts

Meet Officer Clawhauser

Zootopia Donuts Ingredients

Do you think Office Clawhauser would approve?

Easy Valentine’s Day Cookies

Valentine’s Day Cookies

Snow White Cupcakes

Snow White Cupcakes

More Disney Inspired Cupcakes:

Football Graham Crackers

Football Graham Cracker Ingredients

20+ BB-8 Craft, Food and Fun Ideas

Star Wars BB-8 Crafts, Food and Fun

Who’s your favorite new Star Wars character?

Grandma’s Fruit Crush Punch

GRANDMA’S FRUIT CRUSH PUNCH INGREDIENTS

WANT MORE RECIPE INSPIRATION WITH YOUR FAVORITE DRINKS? FIND MORE IDEAS FROM THESE PERFECT HOLIDAY MOMENTS.

Thanksgiving Turkey Pudding

Thanksgiving Turkey Pudding Ingredients:

Santa Chewbacca Cookies

Santa Chewbacca Cookies:

More Star Wars Fun:

Peanuts Movie Treat

Peanuts Movie Treats Ingredients:

Instructions for Charlie Brown Pop Tart:

Instructions for Snoopy and Woodstock Pop Tart:

Who’s your favorite Peanuts Gang character?

Peanuts Movie Cookies

Peanuts Movie Cookie Ingredients

Looking for more peanuts fun?

No Bake Wookie Cookies

More Star Wars Ideas:

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