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17 Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters

Monday, May 13th, 2013

Creative-Ways-To-Use-Cookie-Cutters

Here are 17 creative ways to use cookie cutters! Each of the activities are hot-linked to the tutorial that will show you exactly how to do each activity and tips to make your projects more fun. Your kids will have a blast as you go through these simple, exciting activities:

#1 Fruit Shapes: I give you tips on how to cut fun shapes out of fruit.

#2 Shape Books: Shape books can encourage young writers to write fun stories, descriptions, or summaries. The booklets are just their size.

#3 Sandwiches: Make these cute shape sandwiches, perfect for taking to your next tea party.

#4 Tissue Paper Art: Make wonderful tissue paper art, such as flowers or stained glass windows.

#5 Pancakes: Make pancakes the shape of cookie cutters. I warn you about my mistakes.

#6 Bubbles: Use a cookie cutter as a bubble blower! (Includes link to more bubble activities.)

#7 Patches: This is how you can make a fun patch for your clothing.

#8 Gift Bags: Gift bags are another one of the many creative ways to use cookie cutters, and the recipients of your gifts will enjoy getting their gift in a unique bag.

#9 Quesadillas: Go south of the border with your cookie cutter mania. These quesadillas are simple and will delight your kids.

#10 Jello Shapes: These jello shapes are easy to make and disconnected from the cookie cutter more easily than any other food.

#11 Garlands: These garlands will make people feel special and only take 15 minutes to make.

#12 Dolls and Pillows: Some cookie cutters lend themselves well to make a felt doll. The gingerbread man cookie cutter is fabulous for this toy.

#13 Rice Krispie Treats: Here is the recipe for Rice Krispie treats, as well as tips on how to get them to come out better.

#14 Scrapbooking: When you need a specific shape for your pictures, you can slap down the picture, grab a cookie cutter of the desired shape, and trace around the cookie cutter.

#15 Soap Shapes: Make beautiful shaped soap without having to buy an expensive kit.

#16 Jam Tarts: Make these easy jam tarts with ready-made pie crust, jam, and a cookie cutter!

#17 Sand Shapes: Ideas for how to use cookie cutters effectively in the sand.

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Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters #13: Rice Krispie Treats

Monday, May 6th, 2013

rice-krispie-treats

Why not create wonderful shapes for your Rice Krispie treats by using cookie cutters? Start by getting the following three ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 package (10 oz.) of regular marshmallows
  • 6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Open a bag of marshmallows and dump those in. Stir constantly until the marshmallows are melted. If you want to add a fun color with food coloring, now is the time to stir it in. Remove the pot from the stove, and dump 6 cups of Rice Krispies into the pot. Stir.

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Spread the mixture into a greased 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan. Make sure the pan is greased, or you will sorely regret doing so. Pieces of Rice Krispies will fly through the air in all directions as you chip away at it with a table knife, trying to salvage what you can in desperation. Take my word for it: Grease the dish.

Place the dish in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Take the dish out of the refrigerator and press the cookie cutters into the the Rice Krispie treats. Use a metal spatula to scrape under the treat so that it doesn’t break apart when your children grab it with their bare hands in their eagerness to eat these yummy Rice Krispie treats!

If your kids are not in the kitchen, you might have enough time to dip the treats in almond bark chololate. Just melt some chocolate almond bark in a pot, and dip the top of the Rice Krispie treat into it. Yum!

Stay tuned for more fabulous ways to use cookie cutters…

 

 

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Flower Cupcakes

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

flower-cupcakes

These flower cupcakes are a fun spring treat and are super easy to make. First get some cake mix and bake cupcakes according to the directions on the box. I used yellow cake mix, but you could choose any flavor you want, including chocolate that would look like soil from which all beautiful flowers grow. Chocolate frosting would look like the soil, too, if you’re into pure chocolate treats. You could even decorate the tops with only chocolate candy…

Go to the candy aisle of your grocery store and find some candy that will look like petals and the center of flowers. Lemon drops, candy raspberries, sour gummy worms, and fruit roll-ups are a good place to start. Place a lemon drop in the center, and place other candies like petals around the flower. Or cut fruit roll-ups to look like petals, and place them on top of the icing around a candy at the center. I used green icing to represent the fresh spring grass.

My children had a great time decorating and eating these yummy spring flower cupcakes!

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Resurrection Rolls

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

Resurrection-Rolls

These easy resurrection rolls take 5 minutes to prepare (plus 10 minutes to bake) and are a beautiful picture of Christ’s empty tomb. This is why it is a perfect treat for the week leading up to Easter. It is basically a crescent roll wrapped around a marshmallow. When you bake it, the marshmallow mostly disappears, creating what looks like an empty tomb.

These are the 4 ingredients you will need:

  • large marshmallows
  • a can of crescent roll dough
  • 1/4 cup of butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

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Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the butter in a bowl and microwave until the butter melts. (This took me 25 seconds, but each microwave is different.) Stir the cinnamon into the melted butter.

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Open the can of crescent rolls and pull apart each piece of dough. Unroll the dough on a cutting board, so that it is ready for the dipped marshmallows. Now dip the marshmallows into the melted butter. It’s almost like you’re baptizing the marshmallow, symbolizing that Christ had to die and be buried.

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Place the marshmallow into the center of the dough and scrunch the dough around the marshmallow. Christ was buried for three days.

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Now put the resurrection rolls into the oven for 10 minutes. When they come out, you will see that the marshmallows have disappeared, leaving an empty tomb.

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Rainbow Cake

Monday, March 11th, 2013

rainbow-cake

My kids squealed with joy when they saw how beautiful this rainbow cake turned out. It was not difficult to make.  Buy a box of white cake mix and some white frosting. Mix the cake batter together, and divide the batter equally into six bowls.

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Using cake icing dye (that you can find at craft supply stores in the cake aisle), put a few drops into each bowl with the following colors: red, orange yellow, green, blue, and purple.

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After mixing them well so that they look like bold colors, spoon three colors one by one on top of each other. Try not to mix the colors. If you want the cake to have straight colors, you could bake each color layer separately, but being a busy mother, I don’t have that kind of time. So I just put red, orange and yellow into one greased and floured round cake pan, and green, blue, and purple into the second pan.

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After the cakes come out of the oven, cool them on a rack. Place them on top of each other, and put them in the fridge to make the cake easier to frost and  cut smoothly. Mix green food coloring into the frosting, and frost the cake. Now you can enjoy your delicious rainbow cake.

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Marble Fudge

Monday, December 17th, 2012

Marble fudge is simple to make and delicious. If I had known how easy it was to make, I would have made it sooner. Look at the cookie plate at the bottom of this page; the marble fudge is on the far left. When my husband took this plate to work, the marble fudge was the first to disappear.

In one saucepan, throw:

  • 3 cups of white chocolate chips
  • 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Throw these ingredients into another saucepan:

  • 12 oz. of semisweet chocolate chips
  • 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda

You need two people, one to stir each pot. When both chocolate pots are melted (after about 5 minutes), take the pots off the stove and add to both pots :

  • 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

Then add to the dark chocolate:

  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Now scoop out the white chocolate and dark chocolate in blobs, placing the melted chocolate on top of a 13 by 9 by 2 inch glass pan lined with non-stick foil. Grab a table knife and swirl the chocolate on the top of the fudge. Place it in the fridge for 3 hours. Then remove the foil and place on a cutting board.. Cut into squares. You now have delicious marble fudge to give to family and friends. Or you can eat it all yourself until you feel sick.

marble-fudge

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Peppermint Bark

Friday, December 14th, 2012

peppermint-barkPeppermint bark is super easy to make and only requires two ingredients: white chocolate chips (2 bags 12 oz. each) and peppermint candies (one cup).

Start by unwrapping the peppermint candies. Kids love to do this. Place the unwrapped candies into a ziplock bag and whack it with a mallet. (Kids also enjoy smashing candy to smithereens.)

Microwave the white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl for one minute. Stir. Microwave for another minute. Stir.

Dump half the smashed candy pieces into the melted white chocolate and stir. Spread out on aluminum foil that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Sprinkle the rest of the chopped candy over the top. Refrigerate for 3 hours.

Take the peppermint bark out of the refrigerator. Pull off the aluminum foil. Break into pieces and place on a plate. Give to family and friends to impress them, even though it took you a total of 5 minutes to make!

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Snowflake Cookies

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

snowflake-cookiesSeveral years ago after exiting the Christmas candlelight service, there was a long table full of hundreds of Christmas cookies. I saw some snowflake cookies that I knew would delight my children, so I took four, one for each of my children. A woman who was standing to the side looked at me with hatred and venom. She must have thought I was taking them for myself.

This just goes to show that nearly 100% of our judgment of others is false. God says we do not know other people’s motives, and for that reason, we should not judge, lest we be judged. (Matthew 7:1) If God says we don’t know their motives, then God is right. God is not a liar. The only exception to the rule of not judging is if you see someone clearly stealing or something that you know for sure is wrong, as far as an action that is condemned by God, then you should tell a fellow believer to stop, because they might be blind to their sin. We are never to judge the unsaved.

After delivering the cookies to my children, I went back to the table, and by that time, my favorite snowflake cookies were gone. I thought, oh well, I’m gaining weight anyway and don’t want to get fat. But I was sad not to have a snowflake cookie. My stomach growled. I looked at the woman who had judged me, but she was too busy micro-managing something else.

So this year when I was at a craft supply store, I picked up a snowflake cookie cutter. I made a sugar cookie recipe, frosted it with white frosting, and had the children decorate with light blue frosting (use blue egg dye) and sparkly white sprinkles. Our finished snowflake cookies didn’t look nearly as good as those magical cookies that Christmas night years ago.

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