Easy to Make Chocolate Cigars

Delicious served with steamy cup of cappuccino or as an elegant accompaniment to creamy desserts after dinner, this cookie-dessert recipe is easy to make in advance and keep for serving at any festive occasion.

How to Make Chocolate Cigars

Easy Cookie Recipes For Kids

Rather like brandy snaps, these delicate biscuits are wrapped around spoon to achieve their cigar shape.

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus extra for setting

Cooking time: 4 minutes each batch

Makes 16

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons plain flour

2 oz/ 50 g caster sugar

1 egg white

2 tablespoons double cream

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 oz/25 gm unsalted butter, melted

5 oz/ 25 gm chocolate, broken into pieces

Method of Preparation

1- Line 4 baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment

2- Whisk egg white and sugar together till well blended. Sift flour and cocoa powder into the bowl and stir in the cream and butter.

3- Place 4 dessert spoons of the mixture on one of the baking sheets. Space well apart and spread lightly with the back of a spoon.

4- Bake in a preheated oven 220 C for about 4 minutes till the biscuits have spread and the edges are beginning to darken.

5- Remove from the oven and leave for 30 seconds. Using a palette knife, carefully lift each biscuit from the paper and wrap them round the handles of wooden spoons till they set into shape.

6- Carefully twist the biscuits off the spoons and transfer them to a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining mixture on the remaining baking sheets.

7- Melt the chocolate on a double boiler and dip one side of each biscuit into it, letting the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Leave the biscuits on a sheet of greaseproof paper until they are set.

8- Store in an airtight container till ready for use.

9- Serve standing in a bowl.

Easy to Make Chocolate Cigars

Make the best cookies ever with these cookie baking tips from http://hubpages.com/hub/Cookie-Baking-Tips

Vegetable Recipes Your Kids Will Beg For

Vegetables are a great way to provide the necessary vitamins and minerals to your family. However, how many times have you told your children to eat their vegetables? Probably a lot.

For some reason, children have an aversion to vegetables. They will cry and sit for hours before you finally give in and send them from the table.

Cookie Recipes For Kids

Vegetables do not always have to be the enemy. The key is to find a creative way to prepare them and your family will become vegetable lovers rather than vegetable haters!

Do you remember when you were a child and your mother dropped a soggy green lump of cabbage on your plate. Did you want to eat it? Almost certainly not.

There are various ways to encourage your children to eat their vegetables. You might even need to trick them! Broccoli is an example of a vegetable, which is high in vitamin and mineral content, and there are plenty of ways to prepare it. Here are some tips:

Try it raw. Leave a plate of raw broccoli in bite-size pieces in the refrigerator for your children as a snack. Offer some salad dressing so they can dip it and this is often a hit. Leave the tips of the broccoli on the plate and encourage your child to eat them. You can even make a creative game of this. Grilled vegetable recipes are not the only way to serve healthy vegetables.

If all else fails, bribery often works. Tell your child that they will get a special treat if they finish their vegetables. Make sure you have a treat for them afterwards.

Use cheese. Cheese and broccoli go very well together. If you pour a cheese sauce over the broccoli, you are adding texture and changing the flavor. You might find your children eat the broccoli in cheese before whatever else you have served with it.

Lasagna is delicious with broccoli added. Smothering it in cheese can add to the flavor and disguise the broccoli. Children will be too busy enjoying the cheesy flavor to bother picking out the bits of broccoli. Vegetable pizza is another way of sneaking in broccoli. Nearly all kids love pizza so a healthy vegetable pizza recipe will produce something they associate with fun rather than veggies.

Chop it up - if all else fails, pre cook the broccoli and let it cool a little and put it in a food processor. Chop it up until it is not recognizable and add it to whatever dish you are cooking. Your children will not even know it is there.

Shakes - this might sound weird but it works. Make a milkshake with milk, ice cream, and chocolate syrup. Add some broccoli to the shake (make sure the kids aren't watching!) and blend it some more. As long as you use a chunky type of ice cream, your kids will not realize the broccoli is there and hopefully they will drink the shake too fast to notice any stray green bits!

Vegetables are high in essential nutrients, especially for growing kids, so it is great that there are so many ways to get them to eat their veggies!

Vegetable Recipes Your Kids Will Beg For

Believe vegetable pizza recipe have to be difficult then you need to have some fresh off the barbecue grill! While your at it why not have some of our barbecue grilled vegetable recipes.

You can often find me in the kitchen cooking it is a true love of mine and I love experimenting with new and wonderful taste. I like to share these with visitors to my wife's websites on cooking. Why not try one of their recipes like Baked Dijon Salmon just one of the recipes we like sharing with our four young sons.

Quick and Easy Cookie Recipes - Drop Sugar Cookies and White Chip Apricot Oatmeal Cookies

If you love homemade cookies but you just don't have a lot of time to indulge in baking, here are some cookie recipes for you. Maybe you are a young mother who works or just doesn't have a lot of free time, yet you would love to bake with your children as your mother and/or grandmother did with you. These recipes are perfect for you. Drop Sugar Cookies allow you to make delicious sugar cookies without rolling, cutting and decorating. And the White Chip Apricot Oatmeal Cookies take oatmeal cookies to a new level! So get out the ingredients, grab the kiddos and have some baking fun.

DROP SUGAR COOKIES

Easy Cookie

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar + additional sugar for topping
2/3 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well. In a large bowl, using a wire whisk, whisk eggs until blended. Add sugar, oil, vanilla, and lemon zest; mix well. Stir the dry ingredients into the egg mixture until well blended. Chill, covered, for at least 30 minutes. Drop cookie dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about two inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Mist the bottom of a 3-inch flat-bottom glass with water and dip glass in additional sugar. Press tops of cookies lightly with the glass, misting with water and dipping into sugar for each cookie. Bake cookies until lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for two minutes then remove to wire racks to finish cooling. Store in an airtight container.

WHITE CHIP APRICOT OATMEAL COOKIES

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
10-oz pkg Hershey's Premier White Chips
3/4 cup dried apricots

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Add flour and baking soda; beat until well blended. Stir in oats, white chips and apricots. Loosely form rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 7 to 9 minutes or just until lightly browned. Do not overbake! Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Cookie Recipes - Drop Sugar Cookies and White Chip Apricot Oatmeal Cookies

For more Quick and Easy Recipes visit http://grandmasquickfixrecipes.blogspot.com

For more "Sweet Treats" visit http://ladybugssweettreats.blogspot.com

Cold Dessert Recipes

Summer dessert recipes can be no-bake cheesecakes, trifles, or frozen pie recipes. With ingredients like ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate pudding, brownies and fresh fruit, there is a cold dessert recipe to suit everyone.

Frozen Strawberry Pie

Easy Cookie Recipes For Kids

Frozen Strawberry Yogurt Pie is sooo refreshing. You can make it days ahead or keep one in the freezer for spur of the moment entertaining.

1 Ready made graham cracker pie crust

2 (8 oz.) container strawberry yogurt

1 (12 oz.) frozen whipped topping, thawed 1 (10 oz.)

1 Cup of fresh strawberries cut up

Mix the yogurt, with 3 3/4 cupped whipped topping and cut up berries and put into the pie crust. Freeze for at least 2 hours. Take it out to thaw about 15 - 30 minutes before serving and garnish with fresh strawberries.

Ice Cream Pie Recipes

These pie recipes are easy and everyone likes them. You can vary them in any way that you like. Our favorite is Hot Fudge Ice Cream Pie:

Ingredients:

1. Oreo cookie crust - I always use a store bought one

2. Smuckers Hot Fudge Sauce

3. Vanilla Ice Cream (or your choose your favorite flavor)

4. Cool Whip

First warm the hot fudge sauce so that it is easy to pour out of the jar. Use half of it to cover the bottom of the pie crust.

Soften your ice cream so that you can spoon it over the hot fudge sauce into the pie crust.

Pour the other half of the hot fudge sauce over the ice cream

Spread a layer of Cool Whip over the hot fudge sauce.

Put in the freezer and bring it out 15- 30 minutes before it's time to serve.

Cold Dessert Recipes

For more cold dessert recipes (and pictures) for chocolate trifle, no bake cheesecake, easy (and cold) coconut cake and fresh peach and blueberry desserts visit http://www.poolfunforeveryone.com/cold-dessert-recipes.html

We have enjoyed the pleasures of having our own swimming pool for over 10 years. Take a moment to get some quick and easy ideas for pool party themes, pool party food and games or outdoor party lights by visiting http://www.PoolFunforEveryone.com/

Leslie Degner

Three Easy to Make Dessert Recipes For Your Tea Party

When it comes to hosting a tea party for a few friends, often times we stress over what type of foods to serve. During a party, yo. u want to stick with light finger-style foods such as: tarts, fancy cookies, biscotti, muffins, pastries, cake and scones.

My guests have often told me that these 3 recipes that I make for my parties, are their favorites. I like to line my platters or dessert-style serving plates with lace doilies before arranging the food goodies on top. It just makes for a nicer presentation.

Easy Cookie

Tea Time Tassies

1 (3 ounce) block cream cheese

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup flour

Filling:

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup brown sugar

dash of salt

2/3 cup chopped pecans

1 tablespoon butter, softened

Let cream cheese and butter soften to room temperature, then blend together. Mix in flour. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour. Remove and shape into 2 dozen 1-inch balls. Place balls into mini greased muffin cups. Press dough on bottoms and sides of each cup.

To make filling: Beat together egg, brown sugar, butter, vanilla and salt until smooth. Divide half of pecan pieces among pastry-lined muffin cups. Add egg mixture, then top with remaining pecan pieces. Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 25 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan.

Mini Tea Cake Balls

1 cup butter

1/2 cup Confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped nuts (your choice)

In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until blended. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Bake in a 350 degree oven on a ungreased cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes or until set. Do not let them get brown. While warm, roll in powdered sugar. After they have cooled, roll the balls in powdered sugar again.

Lemon-Butter Snowbars

Crust:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cups flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Filling:

2 eggs

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

In a medium bowl, combine the crust ingredients, blend thoroughly. Pat dough into an ungreased 8" square baking dish. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

In a large bowl, combine filling ingredients, blending well. Pour filling over partially baked crust. Bake for 18 minutes or until set. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar and let cool.

Three Easy to Make Dessert Recipes For Your Tea Party

Shelly Hill enjoys hosting tea parties for her friends and family. If you would like additional dessert-style recipes, please see her blog at: http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com or her business website at: http://www.workathomebusinessoptions.com

Fun Jello Cookies

If you are looking for an easy dessert recipe, try some Jello cookies. They are quick to make. The cookies turn out light and fluffy, but have the fun colors from your selection of Jello. Make cherry and lime for red and green cookies for the holidays. Use orange, lemon, and lime for spring colors. You are limited only by your imagination and the choices of Jello on your store shelves.

These cookies are great favorites with the kids because of their fun colors. You can always brighten up the colors slightly with a drop or two of food coloring if you wish; the Jello makes a nice pastel color on its own. Make them when you want to cheer someone up; the colorful cookies will bring a smile to their face.

Easy Cookie Recipes For Kids

This dough holds a shape pretty well. You can roll out the dough and cut the cookies out in shapes using cookie cutters. You can also press them flat with a glass or with a mold that has a pattern. You could also make a pattern on them like you would a peanut butter cookie and use a fork dipped in sugar to make criss cross marks. This recipe also works well in a cookie press. You can make all sorts of fun shapes with a cookie press. The Jello provides the color and a bit of flavor to the dough. You can even choose the colors of Jello to match a theme party if you want. Let your imagination run wild; make pink and blue for a baby shower or match colors with wedding colors for a bridal shower. Green would be perfect for St. Patrick's Day, of course, and orange would work well for Halloween.

Some people like to sprinkle the freshly baked cookies with a little sugar; it sticks better when they are warm. Otherwise, you could sprinkle a little on before you bake them, but you need to watch so the sugar does not burn. You can also frost them when they are cool. Cream cheese frosting works well with most Jello cookies. Garnish with an appropriate fruit or put some colored sprinkles on top.

Recipe for Jello Cookies

Kids love these colorful cookies.

What You Need

4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1-1/2 cups butter 1 cup sugar 1 3-ounce package of Jello, any flavor 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla

How to Make It

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, cream the butter, and then gradually add the sugar and Jello. Add the egg and vanilla; mix well. Gradually add the flour mixture, making sure it is well incorporated into the batter.

Chill the dough for at least an hour.

Fill a cookie press with the dough and press out cookies onto a baking sheet. Alternatively, you can roll the dough into balls and press them flat with the bottom of a glass.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 13 to 14 minutes.

Makes 60 cookies.

Fun Jello Cookies

Everyone loves jello. You can make salads, desserts and even a simple cheesecake recipe by using Jello in your recipes. They make quick and easy desserts that bring lots of color to the table. Make some for your family.

JelloRecipes.net - We Don't Make the Products We Just Make Great Desserts with Them!

Finger Jello Recipes

Kids, especially preschoolers, love Finger Jello! They love it
even more when they get to help make it. Let your preschooler
cut the Jello into shapes with cookie cutters when the Jello is
set. Make green and red for Christmas, orange for
Halloween. Making finger jello can be a fun family activity!

Finger Jello Recipe #1

Cookie Recipes For Kids

3 3-oz. pkg. Jello

4 pkg. Knox unflavored gelatin

4 c. boiling water

Mix all ingredients together until dissolved. Pour into
13x9x2-in. baking dish and refrigerate. Cut into squares or use
cookie cutters to create shapes.

Finger Jello Recipe #2

3 3-oz. pkg. Jello

1 c. whipping cream

2 1/2 c. boiling water

Mix Jello and boiling water together until dissolved. Add
whipping cream and continue stirring. Pour into 8x8-in. pan and
chill well.

Finger Jello Recipe #3

1 c. sweetened condensed milk

1 3-oz. pkg. purple Jello

1 3-oz. pkg. orange Jello

1 3-oz. pkg. yellow Jello

1 3-oz. pkg. green Jello

1 3-oz. pkg. red Jello

7 pkg. Knox unflavored gelatin

To prepare filling, dissolve 2 envelopes of Knox gelatin in 1/2
cup cold water. Add 1 cup boiling water to sweetened condensed
milk. Add dissolved gelatin to milk and stir in 1 additional cup
of boiling water. Set aside.

To create layers, prepare one box of Jello at a time. Mix 1
envelope Knox gelatin with 1/4 cup cold water. Add 1 cup boiling
water and 1 box Jello. Pour Jello into greased 13x9x2-inch baking
pan. Refrigerate 15-20 minutes until set.

Pour 3/4 cup filling over set Jello. Chill 15-20 minutes.
Continue layering Jello and filling, ending with Jello on top.
Chill each layer 15-20 minutes before adding next layer.

Finger Jello Recipes

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For more inspirational articles and tips for everyday living, visit http://www.christian-parent.com.

Easy Chocolate Cake Recipes

I love chocolate

I love chocolate and so does the rest of my family. It doesn't matter what form it's in either, I'll eat it in chocolate chip cookies or death by chocolate dessert or even just by the bar. It's so nice to go out to eat because you get to try a different chocolate dessert almost every time but it's a shame you can't do that every day, or can you?

Easy Cookie Recipes For Kids

You can't go out to eat every day, or at least not many of us can, and satisfying your desire for chocolate in different forms is probably difficult. I only know two recipes and neither of them are very exiting. It's either chocolate brownies out of a packet or chocolate ice cream out of a tub. Don't you wish that you could eat the same things at home that you would if you went out to a swanky restaurant?

Are you stopping yourself doing just that because you think that eating chocolate desserts every day would give you serious weight problems? I know that I do, there must be oodles of calories in those desserts and there probably is in the ones you get in restaurants.

Easy chocolate cake recipes can be low in calories

What if I were to tell you that you could make chocolate desserts that are low in calories and cheap to make? What if you could have thousands of different recipes all with easy instructions that would make eating a different chocolate dessert every day simple as pie?

Well you can have your cake and eat it. The web site below has thousands of easy chocolate cake recipes and other chocolate recipes just waiting for you to snap them up. They even come with videos to show you exactly how to do it, what could be simpler than that?

What I like best about these recipes is that not only are they really simple to make but they are also very healthy too. I never thought that it was possible but yes you can eat dessert as if you were out at a restaurant every day if you want.

Easy Chocolate Cake Recipes

Download award winning gourmet dessert recipes and video tutorials from this-info.com/chocofactory/easychocolatecakerecipes.php

Oatmeal Carrot Raisin Cookie Recipe

Cookies have been around for many centuries. There are many different versions from the early days of baking. They have evolved from what were then called flat "twice" baked biscuits, or savory biscuits. Many different cultures and civilizations have tried the art of cookie baking. Some were more of a hard flat bread, which eventually turned into more of a pastry type of bread or cookie. Then it became more of a light to fluffy biscuit, and then into the smaller bite size bar like a Madeline, and or a type of drop cookie that we are familiar with today. Some of their efforts were savory, and some turned out to be sweet creations. I credit the Germans and the French for getting us to the sweeter side of things that have developed into the sweet cookies of our day.

In the current day we have bar cookies, drop cookies, refrigerated cookies, rolled cookies, and a few more. I think that the most popular are the drop cookies. The drop cookie was made very popular from the Tollhouse Company, by the development of the chocolate chip cookie. The Quaker Company has also helped in this effort to create a rolled oats cookie. They are both a very popular treat with many people all over the country.

Easy Cookie Recipes For Kids

I have created an oatmeal cookie recipe that I hope that you will enjoy. This is a recipe for an oatmeal carrot cookie. It is a little healthier treat than most sweet desserts, and it tastes great if you are an oatmeal cookie fan. This is an easy recipe, and does not take too much time, and it would be fun to prepare with your children.

Ingredients you will need:

1 1/4 Cup of grated carrots

1 Cup of whole wheat flour

1/2 Cup of Raisins

1/2 Cup of I can't believe it is not butter

1/2 Cup of packed brown sugar

1/2 Cup of quick oats

2 Eggs medium size

1/2 Teaspoon of cinnamon and a good vanilla bean paste

1/4 Teaspoon of nutmeg

1/4 Cup of warm water

1 Teaspoon of baking powder

1 Tablespoon of confectioners sugar

Non Stick Spray

First you will preheat your oven to 350 if it is electric and about 325F if it is gas. If you have convection fan turn it off during the baking. It will cause too much browning, and more than likely burn these cookies. You will want to go ahead a spray your baking pan, so you are ready to go directly into the pan after mixing all of the ingredients. I recommend a square or rectangular pan for these cookies.

In a mixing bowl you will add the warm water not hot water, the margarine, and the brown sugar, and the vanilla bean paste, and mix them together. You will then add your eggs and beat it well, and mix with the sugar mixture. You will then add your carrots and raisins, and nutmeg and cinnamon, and mix well.

In a separate bowl you will add the flour, oatmeal and baking powder and mix well. Once all of the dry are mixed together you will add the wet to the dry and mix well.

Pour into non stick pan or sprayed pan and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. You will turn about halfway through the baking process in the oven to ensure even baking. Remove from the oven and let cool, and sprinkle with the confectioners sugar. When they are cool cut them into bars.

Oatmeal Carrot Raisin Cookie Recipe

Chef Shelley Pogue, a Cum Laude, Le Cordon Blue graduate and Executive Research and Development Chef, for Vertical Sales and Marketing, San Ramon, CA. Shelley is also the desserts editor for BellaOnline.com

Kid's Party Drinks and Punch - Recipes and Ideas

When you are planning the menu for your child's party, it is important to remember that the drinks are just as important as the food. If the party is held on a hot summer day you want a cooling beverage and if it's during the winter something warming is called for.

The choices you make should be related to the age of the children who will be attending the event. Although, you will find that many beverages are suitable for any age group.

Easy Cookie Recipes For Kids

If you will be serving an older crowd, consider non-alcoholic versions of drinks such as piña colada's and flavored daiquiris, such as strawberry. These can easily be made without the addition of alcohol. You have the option of buying the 'pre-mixed' drink mix or making them from scratch. Give them different names than the alcoholic version so when they tell their parents about the party they won't mention they had marguerites but lime slushies.

Fruit smoothies are a good option and can be made ahead. An easy to remember recipe is a half gallon of juice to one large container of yogurt and ½ pound of fruit. Add ingredients in batches and blend well. Store refrigerated until party time, then shake well before serving. You could garnish each glass with a slice of the fruit you used in the smoothie.

If you have your heart set on serving punch, there are thousands of recipes to choose from. If you are expecting a crowd, serving punch is very economical. The following recipe for 'Banana Party Punch' is a refreshing change from traditional red fruit punch. (Makes approximately 30 servings.)

4 cups sugar
6 cups water
5 mashed bananas
1 can frozen orange juice
1 can frozen lemonade
1 can pineapple juice

2 quarts 7-Up soda (should be room temperature)

Boil water and sugar for three minutes. Let cool.

Mix juices, following the instructions on each can.

Mix together the bananas and all of the prepared juices. Add sugar and water mixture. Freeze.
To serve: thaw punch for two to three hours. Slowly add 7-UP. This punch is best served when it is still slushy.

Any punch can be kept cold with a decorative ice mold. Fill a small bowl with about an inch of water then freeze. Place a few lemon or lime slices on the frozen layer and cover with another inch of water. Repeat until the bowl is full. Add to the punch when serving as the ice bowl melts it releases the lemon and lime slices into the punch.

For a cold day serve a warm punch. Use apple juice as the base or green tea. Heat to nearly boiling. Add sliced lemons, oranges, cloves and cinnamon sticks. Strain before serving.

And of course there is the old standby of hot chocolate. If your party guests are at least grade school age consider a hot chocolate beverage bar. Fill a Styrofoam cup about two thirds full of your favorite hot chocolate. Offer an array of condiments for the guests to add themselves such as mini marshmallows, small peppermint candy canes, chocolate chips, fresh raspberries, orange slices, caramel ice cream topping and of course whipped topping.

Kid's Party Drinks and Punch - Recipes and Ideas

Get your free booklet Party Ideas for Kids Dee Power is the author of several nonfiction books and the novel, Over Time Dee's hobbies include gardening, and jewelry. She is the proud companion to Rose, the Irish Setter and Kate, the English Springer Spaniel.

Easy Cupcake Recipes For Kids

As last week was National Cupcake Week (yes there really is such a thing!), and Friday brings Macmillan coffee mornings all over the country, we thought we'd share our favourite cupcake recipe with you. Perfect for parties or tea-time treats, these delicious buns are so quick and simple to make that children will also love to get involved in baking them.

To make 12, you will need:

Easy Cookie Recipes For Kids

125g softened butter
125g caster sugar
2 large eggs
125g self-raising flour
Teaspoon vanilla extract
Approximately 2 tablespoons milk
12 bun tray lined with cupcake cases

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees/180 degrees (fan oven)/gas mark 6.

Put all of the ingredients, except for the milk, into a large bowl and mix until smooth with an electric hand mixer (or if you don't have an electric hand mixer, you can use a food processor). Add the milk slowly until the mixture is a soft dropping consistency.

Spoon the mixture into the 12 bun cases and bake for 15 - 20 minutes until the cakes are golden on top and a cake tester comes out clean.

Remove from the tin and allow to cool on a wire cooling rack.

Although these cakes are delicious enough to eat plain, they look gorgeous when iced. To make a basic butter-cream icing, you will need:

75 g softened butter
150g icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, cream the butter until it is smooth, then gradually sift in the icing sugar, mixing as you go. Add the milk and vanilla extract and mix again until you have a light and creamy icing. Spoon or pipe onto your cooled cupcakes and adorn with silver balls, sprinkles, sweets or sugar decorations.

Enjoy!

Easy Cupcake Recipes For Kids

Kid Lunch Recipe Ideas - Looking For a New Twist on Tuna Salad?

Does your child love tuna? If so, and you're tired of making yet another ordinary tuna salad sandwich what about making up some fun tuna swirls, muffins, pasta salad and 'Sunflower' twist on your standard tuna salad recipe?

Here are some of my favorite ways to serve up tuna in a kid lunch:

Cookie Recipes For Kids

Tuna Swirls

Ingredients

1 can tuna, drained

2 tbsp. mayo

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 sweet pickle, chopped

splash of lemon juice

3 slices of whole grain bread

dab of butter or margarine

Combine tuna, mayo, onion, pickle and lemon juice in a bowl. (Can be prepared the night before and refrigerated.)

Cut the crust of the bread. Gently flatten each slice with a rolling pin. (Don't roll too hard or you may tear the bread.)

Spread a thin layer of the tuna mixture on the bread. Roll up. Spread a little butter or margarine on the seam to seal it.

Tuna Melt Muffins

Ingredients

1 can tuna, drained

2 tbsp. mayo

1 cup chopped pickles

1/4 cup medium cheese, grated

1 English muffin, split in half and toasted

Combine tuna, mayo, pickles and cheese. Spread on one side of a toasted English muffin and top with other side to make a sandwich. Let cool. Wrap up in plastic or seal in a container.

You can also make the tuna mixture the night before, cover and refrigerate until morning when you can assemble into a tuna melt muffin sandwich.

Tuna Sunflowers

Ingredients

1 can tuna, drained

1/2 cup shelled sunflower seeds

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 tsp. basil, dried

1/2 cup yogurt, plain

2 slices of whole grain bread

Combine tuna, sunflower seeds, onion, basil and yogurt. Cool mixture long enough for it to set (approx. 20 minutes).

Using a flower shaped cookie cutter, cut out a flower from each slice of bread. Spread the mixture on one half. Top with the second half.

If you have a small circular cookie cutter you may wish to cut out the middle of one slice so you can have an open middle and the sandwich when assembled looks like a sunflower.

Tuna Pasta Salad

Ingredients

2 eggs, hard cooked, chopped

1 cup broccoli florets, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

2 cups shelled pasta

1 can tuna, drained

1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup green onions

1/4 cup ranch dressing

Combine ingredients. Toss to coat. Pack in containers and refrigerate.

Kid Lunch Recipe Ideas - Looking For a New Twist on Tuna Salad?

Tuna is just one of the many sandwich fillings you can be creative with. For more kid lunch recipe ideas visit www.school-lunch-ideas.com, a website featuring healthy lunches your kids won't trade.

Cooking Christmas Cookies With The Kids

Christmas cookies are as much a part of the Christmas tradition for many as a visit from Old St. Nick himself. The cookies are often prepared in hopes of his pending arrival by children that are as excited as they can possibly be with all sorts of visions of great things to come dancing around in their bright and shining little eyes. Preparing the cookies in these instances can be a great time of bonding with your little ones but can also be a trying time if you don't follow a few of the tips and hints listed below.

If you want to make cooking Christmas cookies and/or candy with your little ones the very best experience for you all that it can possibly be make sure you do it on a day when this is the only thing on your calendar. You do not want to rush through this time that is not only important for bonding with your child as a parent but also a time that is an important opportunity to lock in a few precious memories of great times you'll spend together. This is one thing that you want your children to look back at Christmas and remember doing with you and you want to be able to look back on Christmas and remember doing this with your children.

Easy Cookie Recipes For Kids

You should also make sure that everyone is well rested and well fed before beginning the process. This is important now more than ever before, as we know more about the dangers of foods, such as raw eggs, that are included in cookie dough as well as the dough for many of our favorite Christmas confections and candies. You do not want to risk the health of your children through temptation over raw cookie dough.

Be sure that every child gets a turn with the fun stuff. This includes of course using the mixer and watching things spin around as well as choosing their personal favorites for the next batch of cookies. You should also make a few cookies that you plan to let them paint, decorate, and play with just for fun and their own personal enjoyment. This will guarantee a few smiles while also scoring a few brownie points for mom.

Be patient and expect spills and messes. If you can afford a cleaning service once a year, the day after your cookie extravaganza is the day you want to splurge. Seriously, don't sweat the small stuff. We make little messes every day it shouldn't be such a shock when they make a really big mess in one day. This is one of the reasons why you want to plan your cookie making on a day when the calendar is clear-you will need time for clean up when all is said and done.

Make sure you have all the necessary ingredients for each and every single recipe before you begin. This is very important as cookie dough doesn't wait well for that final egg and children don't understand very well when they are interrupted from one project to run a quick errand (also, when was the last time you made it in and out of the grocery store in under an hour?). If you can make it through all the steps above you should be in for smooth sailing and Christmas cookie cooking.

Cooking Christmas Cookies With The Kids

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Mexican Lime Pie - Very Easy and Cheap to Make

In my cooking club we have a different theme each month. In June it was all about desserts. My husband recommended that I make a Mexican lime pie because it is one of his favorite desserts and the last time he ate this dessert was about 15 years ago. He calls it the poor's people dessert because it is cheap to make and many poor people in Mexico make this dessert. You'll need:

5 to 8 limes
2 12oz cans of condensed milk
1 pack of maria cookies
1 medium size vanilla cookie crust pie pan

Easy Cookie

Pour the 2 cans of condensed milk into a medium bowl. Squeeze 5 to 8 medium size limes into the condensed milk and mix well. Use more or less limes depending on how tart you like it.

You are going to layer the mix and the cookies in the vanilla cookie crust pie pan.

Pour about a third cup of mix into the vanilla cookie pie pan then place the maria cookies evenly over the mix. Pour another layer of mix over the cookies then add another layer of cookies over the mix.

Finish the pie off by pouring one more layer of mix over the cookies and spread evenly, then place the pie in the refrigerator overnight. If you like, place thin slices of limes around the pie to decorate.

The pie taste similar to a key lime pie. As you can see, there is very little ingredients, really easy to make and taste like you really put some time into it. Instead of buying a store bought pie, impress people by making your own dessert. Enjoy!

Mexican Lime Pie - Very Easy and Cheap to Make

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Easy, Homemade Birthday Cakes For Kids - You Can Do it Too!

Have you ever dreamed of making the perfect cake for your kid's birthday? I remember as a child how thrilled I always was with my Mom's wonderful birthday cake creations and I vowed to make my own kids' cakes once I had my own family. I loved the idea of making a really personalized, homemade cake rather than ordering the traditional sheet cake from our local grocery store. I was nervous starting out but soon realized that with a little patience and practice anyone can do this!

Here are some helpful hints that will allow even the busiest moms to bake the perfect birthday cake for their child:

Easy Cookie

1.) Don't make your cake from scratch. You can save plenty of time by buying the boxed cake mixes and they often taste just as good as a cake made from scratch. In fact, at my most recent kid birthday party I was even asked for my cake recipe because it was so yummy!

2.) Start by using a shaped character pan. They generally have very detailed and easy-to-follow directions. You can also buy them fairly cheaply (check out eBay for affordable used and retired pans).

3.) Use pre-made decorator or royal icing. I like Wilton's decorator icing since it tastes good and is great for piping since it holds its shape well and dries fairly hard.

4.) Use pre-made and pre-colored fondant. My favorite is Satin Ice since it has a nice vanilla flavor; unlike some other pre-made fondants, and you can get it in a number of different colors. You can also flavor fondant with candy flavoring.

5.) Fun cake toppers can really make a cake sparkle. If you're making a more traditional rectangular or circular cake, you can dress it up with fun cake toppers. This is an easy and affordable way to make a theme cake.

Finally, don't be afraid to try new things!

Above all, have fun and enjoy the look of delight and pride on your child's face when they see their special cake and tell their friends that their Mommy made it just for them!

Easy, Homemade Birthday Cakes For Kids - You Can Do it Too!

Julie is a busy Mom of 3 young children and a Marketing VP at an online startup. She also has her own website http://www.cakesandkids.com where you can see pics of some of her homemade kids' birthday cakes and get helpful cake decorating tips.

Cookie Monster Costume for a Delectable Halloween - Cookie Monster Costumes for Kids and Adults

Are you and your children fans of Sesame Street? Why not try a cookie monster costume this Halloween for a change.

People associate Halloween with witches and ghosts and goblins and other scary things. While that's great for a traditional theme for the holiday season, an equally good choice would be a costume that makes them feel happy and gay.

Easy Cookie Recipes For Kids

Enter the cookie monster costume.

While everyone else is prancing around in costumes meant to frighten, your child (or you) can spread holiday cheer as one of the favorite Sesame Street Characters. This lovable character has blue fur and has a voracious, insatiable appetite, particularly for cookies, but can and will consume anything.

Imagine the laughter and fun as your child goes trick or treating saying "Me want Cookie" or "Me want candy" as his Sesame Street counterpart might say.

This costume is especially suitable for infants and toddlers, who love to have a fun experience and not be ruled by frightening images. This cute costume is comfortable to wear and zips up just like a night time sleeper. Some children become so attached to wearing this costume that they wear it way beyond Halloween. Your young child is sure to be thrilled with this easy to wear costume.

Of course, this costume is not just for little kids. It also offers a refreshing change of pace for teens and adults.

For teens the costume comes with a plush blue long sleeved shirt and an enormous headpiece with two great big googly eyes. It is a costume sure to catch peoples attention at trick or treat time.

For adults this character is also sure to be a hit at the party. The male version is a blue long sleeve shirt with of course the huge headpiece, ready made for a fun and light- hearted holiday party.

The female version is sexier, and is sure to turn heads. It includes a plush blue mini-dress, a head band with the trademark googly eyes and bright blue knee-highs. Put this costume on and have a fantastic Halloween.

Cookie Monster Costume for a Delectable Halloween - Cookie Monster Costumes for Kids and Adults

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Easy Cookie Recipes With Few Ingredients

Cookie hunger can strike at any time. This is an easy cookie recipe that requires few ingredients - three ingredients, to be precise. Its simplicity and the fact that it only takes a few minutes to cook means that you never again have to be short of cookies for more than a few minutes.

Many cookie recipes require odd ingredients - or, at least, ones that you won't necessarily have in the house. This one has only three: egg, peanut butter and sugar. You don't even need flour, which means that it's perfect for coeliacs and those with gluten intolerance. This is truly the easiest cookie recipe out there. If you're pushed for time, or entertaining at short notice and need to impress without going out to the shops first, this is one to go for.

Easy Cookie

All you need to do is mix one cup of peanut butter and one cup of sugar together with one egg. Then spoon lumps of the mixture onto a baking sheet that has been lightly greased. Cook for 10 minutes at 350 degrees (make sure you preheat the oven).

Voila: easy cookies with only three ingredients.

You can mix it up a bit if you want. These are pretty sugary and sweet, and so you can try cutting down on the sugar. Instead, try grating some chocolate into the mixture - peanut butter and chocolate is always a winning combination. White sugar will give you a different taste to brown sugar. Also, you'll find it makes a difference if you use unsalted butter. Enjoy!

Easy Cookie Recipes With Few Ingredients

Easy cookie recipes with few ingredients offers more simple and fast recipes.

Check http://www.easycookierecipeswithfewingredients.com for more details.

Recipes For Delicious Sugar Cookies and Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

Delicious homemade cookies are always popular with everyone from the kids to the grandparents. Here is a recipe for a Sugar Cookie that doesn't taste like a wad of doughy sugar and a recipe for a yummy Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies. Give them both a try and make your family or friends happy today!

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

Cookie Recipes For Kids

1 3/4 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
18 marshmallows

In a large mixing bowl, beat the shortening and sugar together until creamy. Add the egg and milk. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and cocoa together and add to the mixture. Mix well to blend and stir in the vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees about 10 minutes until partially done. Remove from oven and add 1/2 of a marshmallow, cut side down, to the top of each cookie. Return to the oven and bake another 8 minutes or so until the marshmallows are soft.

LIGHTLY SWEET TASTING SUGAR COOKIES

6 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg or 1/4 cup egg substitute
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp white corn syrup
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornmeal (not cornbread mix)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups colored sugar (use all one color or a variety; 1 1/4 cups total)

In a mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, and the brown sugar together for two minutes. Add egg or egg substitute and vanilla, mix in well. Gradually beat in the canola oil then gradually the corn syrup.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt; add to the butter mixture just until blended. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheets lightly with cooking spray.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough (working with only half of the dough at a time) to a 1/4" thickness. Using your favorite cookie cutters that are lightly floured, cut the dough into shapes. Place about 2-inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle each cookie with approximately two teaspoons of the colored sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 to 9 minutes or until the cookies are set and bottoms are lightly browned.

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen.

Enjoy!

Recipes For Delicious Sugar Cookies and Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

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Fast and Easy Recipes for Drinks and Goodies for Kids' Halloween Parties

It's fun to flip through the Halloween books and magazines and imagine crafting and cooking all the darling holiday ideas. Then reality gets in the way. You probably don't have an extra 30 hours to commit to preparing your kids' Halloween party, so here's some super easy and affordable food and drink ideas to make your party a hit.

Monster milk recipe

Easy Cookie Recipes For Kids

Encourage your mini monsters to wash their candy down with a glass of milk.

Make monster milk by adding 3 drops of green food coloring to every 8-ounce glass of milk.

Mummy hot dogs recipe

Want your kids to eat some actual food before they go trick-or-treating? Prepare some fun mummy hot dogs.

You'll need:

11-ounce tube of ready-to-bake bread stick dough 12 hot dogs 1 egg a little water a little mustard

Open the bread stick dough package and separate the strips of dough. Wrap a strip around each hot dog. You'll want to leave a gap in the wrapping close to one end. This leaves an area to add eyes to the mummy. Arrange the wrapped hot dogs on a greased baking sheet. Whisk the egg with about a tablespoon of water and brush over the dough. Bake the wrapped hot dogs at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Use a toothpick to place dots of mustard on the hot dogs to give the mummys eyes.

Ghost finger sandwiches recipe

Find a ghost-shaped cookie cutter at a grocery or craft store. It should be about 3 to 4 inches in size.

Then you'll need:

24 slices of white bread 12 slices of deli ham 12 slices American cheese mustard and/or mayonaise

Use your ghost cookie cutter to cut ghost shapes from the bread. Cut the same shape from the cheese slices and ham slices. Lightly spread mustard and/or mayonaise on the ghost bread and apply a cheese ghost to half the ghost breads. Then add ham pieces and finish assembling the sandwiches. Should make 12 ghost sandwiches.

Mad scientist punch recipe

Fill your cauldron at your Halloween party with this yummy green punch.

12-ounce can frozen orange juice concentrate, partially thawed. 1 quart white grape juice 1-1/2 cups water 5 drops green food coloring 2 liter bottle of lemon-lime soda Garnish with an ice ring filled with creepy gummy candies

In a big pitcher mix the juices, water, food coloring and then chill. Next, arrange gummy candies like worms and fingers in a ring mold and fill with water. Freeze overnight or at least 8 hours. When it's time to party, pour the chilled juice mixture in a punch bowl, slowly pour in the lemon-lime soda so it does not fizz too much. Add the ice ring and serve.

Fast and Easy Recipes for Drinks and Goodies for Kids' Halloween Parties

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