MOTHERS DAY COOKIE HATS: 
I scoped out the cutest cookie recipe on one of my very favorite sites, Bakerella. Perfect for a Mother's Day Tea Party! You can change the colors for different themes like Mother's Day, Easter, Showers, Tea Parties Kentucky Derby, Red Hat Society, Mom or Grandma's Birthday and more! 

 Example: These are the cookies Bakerella whipped up! She got the idea from this great cookie book called (Cookie Swap)! Find it on Amazon.

  From the book. Here’s what they are supposed to look like. Gorgeous, huh! These are made using royal icing to coat the hat and pipe the perfect little dots. Fondant is used for the flowers and the bands.

  Time Saver: To save time and to avoid waiting for royal icing to dry you can improvise.. and use fondant; as shown here with tinted and rolled fondant.

Details, Details: Also sugar pearls can be used to add detail. To help them stay in place, Bakerella used the pearls to press indentations around the hat. Then, I put a tiny amount of water on the sugar pearl and placed it in position.

And More Details......  Here they are with and without the tiny pearls. The base of the sugar cookie hats should be rolled thin before baking and the top part of the hat should be thicker to accommodate the fondant band. Bakerella used the shortbread sugar cookie recipe in the book, but feel free to use your own recipe and decorate.

Note: To get the fondant and cookie shapes to match in size, Re-cut the cookies with the cutter when you take them out of the oven and while they were still warm because they will spread a little.

You can attach the fondant to the cookies with a little bit of icing and you can attach the fondant flowers with a little dab of water. Fondant Flowers: Pick up a fondant flower plunger for this cute decoration.

 Whats Mothers Day Without Flowers? 

You can cut shapes out of fondant and by pressing down on the plunger, you can make center indentations… or not. You can also press the plunger into the fondant and remove the flower shape to then press and release onto a sponge or paper towel. This will give the flowers a curved shape. 

 We Call Them Curvy: See how they curve when you press them into a soft surface and release? If you wanted, you could also add sugar pearls to the centers or pipe with icing.

 And.....Voila!!

 

Baby Chick Cupcakes

I know what your thinking...Easter?!?....What about St. Patrick's Day....well I promise I will have some cute St. Patricks Day posts to come... but I saw these darling Easter Cupcakes on the Food Network website and I couldn't resist these adorable spring treats!

Ingredients

• 1 vanilla cupcake, recipe follows
• About 1/3 cup White Fluff Frosting, recipe follows
• Green coconut grass, recipe follows
• 6 small candied malt balls (2 yellow, 2 pink, 2 white)
• 1 yellow chick peep
• White Airhead candy

Directions

Frost a cupcake with fluff frosting. Press a circle of coconut grass on top. Nestle the malted eggs on top of the grass. Gently press the peep onto the center of the grass. Cut the white Airhead into a 1/2 oval shape; trim one side so it has a cracked egg jagged edge. Place egg next to chick.

Vanilla Cupcakes:

• 2 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups cake flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup cupcake tins with paper liners. (To avoid cupcakes sticking if they overflow slightly, lightly spray the tops of the pans.) Put tins on a baking sheet. Set aside.

Process sugar and butter in a food processor until very creamy, scraping sides as needed, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs and yolks, one at a time, pulsing after each addition. Add the milk, water, and vanilla and process to blend.

Whisk both flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients, in 3 batches to the wet, pulsing, and then scraping batter off the sides of the processor as needed after each addition. Process until the batter is very smooth and pourable like pancake batter, about 2 minutes.

Evenly pour the batter into the prepared cups, filling them 3/4 of the way full. Bake until the cakes are just firm and spring back when gently pressed, and the tops are golden, 18 to 25 minutes. Cool slightly in tin, and turn out of tin when cool enough to handle. Cool cupcakes completely on a rack before frosting.

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Inactive Prep Time: 30 minutes

Ease of preparation: easy

Fluff Frosting:

• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 5 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
• Pinch fine salt

Whisk the milk and vanilla extract together in a small bowl.

Slowly beat the butter and sugar, in another medium bowl, with an electric mixer until incorporated. Raise the speed to high and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 to 7 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the sides of the bowl down with a rubber spatula.) Add the fluff and salt and reduce the speed to low. Add the milk and vanilla mixture, scrape the bowl down, and mix until fully incorporated. Raise the mixer to high and beat briefly until fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Frost cupcake immediately.

Yield: 3 3/4 cups

Copyright 2009 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved

Coconut Easter Grass for Cupcakes:

• 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 to 2 teaspoons liquid green food coloring
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon liquid yellow food coloring

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place a mesh rack on top, if available.

Put coconut in a shallow bowl. While tossing with a large spoon, add food coloring drop by drop until the desired color is reached. A little more green than yellow makes a pretty grass color. Add a few tablespoons water to moisten the mixture and help disperse the color evenly. If the color is too dark, add additional water, as needed, to dilute to the desired color. Drain the coconut in a sieve or strainer.

Spread the coconut in an even layer on the rack, or directly on the lined baking sheet. Place in the oven until dry, about 10 to 15 minutes. Use immediately, or store in covered container for up to 3 days.

Cook's Note: Food coloring can be messy and can stain your skin. To prevent this, wear latex gloves. You may find it easier to color the coconut in a large zip top plastic bag, tossing it to color evenly.

Yield: 2 cups coconut grass