NEW and Creative S’mores Recipes!

This past weekend my family had a clambake on the beach (yup…clams, oysters, lobsters, hot dogs, the works…essentially is a BBQ on the beach on the East Coast). The end of the clambake is always one of my favorite parts with the kids – roasting marshmallows and making s’mores! We are huge fans of s’mores in the summer. Who isn’t? But what is a Mom to do when there isn’t a campfire?

Cool WHIP Smores
Frozen COOL WHIP is the perfect stand-in for marshmallows and instantly makes the classic s’more into a refreshing cool summer treat. 

• 8 graham cracker squares
• 8 ice cream scoop-sized portions of COOL WHIP Whipped Topping
• 4 Hershey’s bars, broken in half

Directions: Make 4 S’mores by combining the COOL WHIP, Hershey’s and graham crackers.

Lego Smores (fun for little boys!)

• 2 graham crackers broken up into the rectangle shapes along the perforation
• 1 bar Hershey chocolate
• 4 large marshmallows
• 16 mini marshmallows

Directions: To assemble. Place 1 quarter of the chocolate bar on one of the graham cracker rectangles. Top it with a heated large marshmallow (heat by fire or microwave – your choice), and top with second graham cracker. Dip one end of a mini-marshmallow in water and stick it on top of the graham cracker so there are three marshmallows per cracker. Eat!

Breakfast S’more Waffles

• 3 toaster waffles, freshly toasted
• mini-marshmallows
• 1 chocolate bar

Directions:Layer the mini-marshmallows and chocolate with the toasted waffles and toast the sides briefly in front of the fireplace or with kitchen torch. Enjoy!

 

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Unique Popsicle Recipe Ideas for Kids (and FUN!)

Looking for popsicle recipes for kids? Want something that’s a little different? Just needing a treat to cool off in the hot weather? Here are a few fantastic popsicle recipes for kids and adults.

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Remote Control Cake for Father’s Day!

Make this hysterical cake for daddy this Father’s Day – a remote control cake! Of course, I am not a proponent of promoting television watching, but in my home growing up, my dad definitely had “control” over the TV’s remote control…or he would fall asleep with it in his hand where you couldn’t move it. Ha!  Bake this cake or even make a big brownie sheet and decorate it with your children for this Sunday’s Father’s Day!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 baked 13- by 9-inch cake or brownie
• Dad’s favorite frosting
• Gel icing
• Various candies

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.     Slightly trim the long sides of a baked 13- by 9-inch cake or brownie to resemble a remote control.

2.     Spread on a layer of Dad’s favorite frosting, then press on various candies (we used Skittles, M&M’s, and Spree candies) for control buttons.

3.     Finally, use gel icing to add numbers, arrows, or other symbols to some of the buttons.

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Graduation Cap Recipe for School’s Out Celebration!

Cap off your child’s school year with a treat that fits the occasion–a chocolate mortarboard with a fruit-leather tassel. You may want to make enough to share with a few classmates. Bon-Apetit!

INGREDIENTS:

• Miniature peanut butter cups
• Frosting or peanut butter
• Chocolate-covered graham crackers
• Fruit leather

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place a miniature peanut butter cup, bottom up, on a plate. Top with a small dollop of frosting or peanut butter, then press on a chocolate-covered graham cracker.
2. For a tassel, tightly roll up a small square of fruit leather. Cut fringe on one end and attach the other end to the center of the graham cracker with another dab of frosting or peanut butter.

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Hand Cookie Recipe for Kids! Fun!

To all of our loyal readers:

I am sorry I have been a little M.I.A. lately! I am getting ready for my wedding that is in 2 weeks (and counting), and working diligently on prepping and gearing up our Le Top and Rabbitmoon websites with our Fall 2012 collections for you shoppers and fans! I promise to be back with great daily blog posts soon, and appreciate your understanding for our minimized  blog posts the past few weeks. Keep busy with your little ones with this SUPER CUTE cookie recipe…could be a cute idea for mother’s day!! Or to even give to your grandmother’s (as long as they aren’t diabetic)!

 

THE RECIPE!
Yield: Makes 8-10 cookies

Cookies are a perfect-size snack for little hands. This recipe was designed with kids in mind!

Older children can use their hand to outline the cookies, drawing around it on the dough with a skewer and using a knife tip to cut along the line. If your child can’t cut with a knife, make a pattern from a manila folder or translucent parchment works well; it will allow you to see the shape of the cookie through it.

INGREDIENTS:

For Dough

• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, for decorating

For Decorating

• 1 large egg white
• 1 teaspoon water
• Sanding sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg, and beat until smooth, about 1 minute.
3. Add reserved flour mixture, and mix on low speed until thoroughly combined. Stir in vanilla. Wrap dough in plastic, and refrigerate for about 45 minutes.
4. Make cookie pattern and heart stencil while wrapped dough is chilling. For the pattern, have your child trace his or her hand on a manila file folder, and cut out the tracing. You will lay this on the dough and trace around it with the tip of a paring knife. For the heart stencil, cut a heart shape from a piece of parchment paper, discarding center.
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. On a well-floured work surface, roll out cold dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out hand shapes. Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes. Dough scraps may be re-rolled twice.
6. To decorate the cookies with sanding sugar hearts, lay the heart stencil over a cookie. Combine the egg white with the water in a small bowl. Brush the egg wash in the heart, and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Lift stencil and repeat with remaining cookies. Bake until edges just begin to brown lightly, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cookies cool on pans for 3 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

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Birthday Cinnamon Rolls

When you’re looking to turn a classic recipe into something so irresistibly delicious, there’s only one thing to do … add a kick of cake mix. Dry cake mix lends a delicious cake batter flavor to the dough, filling, and icing of these totally incredible (and totally easy!) cinnamon rolls. Whether you’re serving them up for a big day or just adding a bit of oomph to your weekend breakfast table, these Birthday Cake Cinnamon Rolls are totally fab!

Birthday Cake Cinnamon Rolls

INGREDIENTS 

• 1 1/2 cup very warm water
• 1 packet of yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup yellow cake mix (I prefer Betty Crocker.)
• 2 cups flour

For the filling:

• 3/4 cup butter melted
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup yellow cake mix

For the icing:

• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup cake mix
• 4 tablespoons butter melted
• 3-5 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Pour the water into a very large bowl. Whisk in the yeast. Then the sugar. Allow the mixture to rest for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the salt, olive oil, and 2 1/4 cups of the flour. Sprinkle just enough flour over the dough until it becomes pliable enough to knead. Knead the dough until it becomes soft and elastic. Cover with a clean cloth and set aside, allowing the dough to rise for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it’s about 1/2″ thick. Drizzle butter across the dough, sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, and cake mix. Roll tightly into a roll, then slice into 2″ pieces with a sharp knife. Place rolls on a lightly greased baking sheet and allow them to rise for 15 minutes more before putting them in the oven and baking for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

In a stand mixer, beat together all icing ingredients until a spreadable frosting is formed. Drizzle over hot rolls. Sprinkle with rainbow sprinkles. Serve and enjoy!

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Chocolate-Covered Basketball Strawberries

Adorable dipped strawberries decorated in a sports theme… just in time for a March Madness party or the upcoming Father’s Day. They look like something you would pay top dollar for from one of the large mail order companies but actually cost significantly less and are fun to make!

Making the sports themed strawberries is very easy and only requires five ingredients. To see step-by-step instructions and get the recipe, read below.

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Movie Popcorn for the Family! Perfect for Oscar food night!

It can be hectic with your neighborhood friends and family over for dinner and to watch the upcoming Oscars this Sunday…so why not make this fun “make-ahead” popcorn recipe that both the adults and children will love? Plus it saves you time on the day of the Oscars to glam up yourself! Make it fun and have your little boy or girl get dressed up too by letting them take clothes from their closet and play “dress-up” for their favorite movie-character…and for the laid-back parent, maybe let your little girl put on a little lipstick and blush for a “special night” of fun! Enjoy the below recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 5 quarts plain popped popcorn

DIRECTIONS:

1. Make caramel: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine sugar, butter, and corn syrup, stirring until melted and combined.
2. Cover; cook 2 minutes to let steam wash down sides of pan.
3. Remove lid; cook until mixture reaches 280 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 10 minutes.
4. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and salt.
5. Place popcorn in a large bowl.
6. Slowly pour half the caramel over popcorn, stirring to break up clumps.
7. Drizzle in remaining caramel; stir until cooled and no longer sticky.
8. Serve at room temperature.

Note: you can store the popcorn for up to 2 days in an air-tight container. I love a “make-ahead” recipe.

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Funfetti Banana Bread

As much as I am a big fan of only homemade bread, cupcakes, dessert, well…anything that goes in your mouth or your child’s mouth, I am a BIG sucker for funfetti. I saw this recipe and it looks AHHHH-MAAA-ZZZING. It is ridiculously easy to make, and your kids will be all smiles this morning over having sprinkles baked right into their slices.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 (18.25 oz) boxes Funfetti cake
• Mix 
6 eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut or canola oil melted
• 12 very ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl blend together the cake mix, eggs, oil, and bananas in a stand mixer for 2 minutes.
3. Pour batter into three 5.25 x 9 x 2.75 loaf pans which have been sprayed with nonstick baking spray (the sort with flour added).
4. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and allow to cool completely.
6. Makes 3 large loaves.

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Windowpane Heart Valentine’s Day Cookies

Here is a very, very sweet recipe that we know your kids will love and think is fun looking! For this Valentne’s Day we decided to make “windowpane heart” valentine’s cookies! If you don’t have time to make the sugar cookie dough, just buy some store made cookie doe that you can roll out and Jolly Ranchers. You will have a whole lotta lovin’ cookies in no time!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• Hard candy for cookie center (try Jolly Ranchers)

To make the dough:

1.  Using an electric mixer at medium-high speed, cream the butter, gradually adding the sugar. Beat in the egg until evenly mixed, then blend in the vanilla extract and salt.

2.  With a wooden spoon, stir the flour into the creamed ingredients, about one third at a time, until evenly blended. The dough may seem soft, but it will firm up when refrigerated.

3.  Divide the dough in half. Flatten each portion into a disk and seal in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

To create the cookies:

1.  Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Cover a sturdy baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly coat the foil with cooking spray. Between 2 sheets of waxed paper lightly dusted with flour, roll the dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. Remove the top sheet.

2.  Cut out the cookies with a large cookie cutter. Use a spatula to transfer the shapes to the baking sheet, leaving about an inch between cookies. Remove the centers of the cookies with a smaller cookie cutter. (Save the centers to bake later.)

3.  Place a hard candy (we used Jolly Ranchers) in the center of each heart and bake until the cookies start to brown lightly around the edges and the candy is melted, about 8 to 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. To prevent sticking, line your serving plate or tin with waxed paper and place additional waxed paper between layers. Makes 30.

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