No Bake Desserts

Unicorn Barf

June 14, 2014 by Jenn

Poor poor Sparkle Toes (my Unicorn) hasn’t been feeling very well lately. She must have an upset stomach, as she has BARFED all over the place!

What the..?

Unicorn Barf?? Well, it’s got to be better than the Unicorn Poop cookies that have been making their way around the internet! Isn’t it? It’s magical, pretty, sparkly, and tastes amazing!! All of the things I would imagine unicorn barf would taste like.

Unicorns are one of those animals (unless you’re a Lululemon lover and then it’s a sought after product that can’t be found) that dominate childhood fantasies and dreams, and then one day, you wake up and never think about them again. Lucky for me, I have a (day) job that keeps me in the mindset of 5-6 year olds, and I get to hear unicorn talk all the time. I love the magical aspect of a unicorn- anything bright, sparkly and rainbow like must be magical.

After having seen 30903 versions of unicorn poop cookies on the internets, I knew I had to jump on the craze, but with a different twist. What could be as gross and unappealing as poop? It had to be barf. Finding the marshmallows was the only time consuming aspect of this recipe, as the recipe itself is very simple. I thought about buying boxes and boxes of Lucky Charms cereal and sorting out the marshmallows, but I figured someone probably had already done that for me on the internets. I love the internets. It has everything!

I was pleased to find “Charms Cereal Marshmallows” from Hoosier Hill Farms on Amazon and ordered myself 2 bags immediately. One to practice with and make the barf, and one to . . . uh, eat. Unfortunately for me, only one bag arrived so keep that in mind if you choose to order from Hoosier Hill Farms. *at the time of me writing this, Amazon has refunded my money for the second bag, and Hoosier Hill Farms has only sent me an email saying they are “sorry I filed a claim against them”. Thanks to Amazon for rectifying the situation immediately.

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Filed Under: Cookies, No Bake Desserts, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: barf, cereal marshmallows, lucky charm marshmallows, marshmallow bars, unicorn, unicorn barf, unicorn barf bars, unicorn cookies, unicorn poop

How to Make a Giant Gummy Bear and other Gummy Candy

June 10, 2014 by Jenn

Although I stupidly sound like this is a sponsored video, be assured that it is NOT!! I paid $29 CAN for this fun machine at *cough* WalMart *cough* . Would I admit that I shop at WalMart if I didn’t have to?

This machine looked really cool when I saw it on the shelf (thanks to Paul for pointing me to it!). I knew that if I had kids at home, I would love to hear an unbiased review of it before I committed to purchasing it. So here it is . . . it is fun, bright, and easy to use, but if you already have silicone moulds at home, or know where to find them, you can save yourself $29 and use them and the microwave.

Making gummies is super easy, all you need is gelatin, Jello and water! If you’re so inclined, so can replace the water in the mixture with fruit juice for an extra fruity flavour. I believe that the required amount of unflavoured gelatin powder creates the perfect chewiness, but if you find it too chewy, you can cut back one package. The molds that are included in the machine are for a giant gummy bear, gummy worms, gummy fish and other gummy bears.

I hope you enjoy this review and making your own gummy bears!!

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Filed Under: No Bake Desserts, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: giant gummy bear, gummies, gummy bears, gummy candy, Gummy Candy Maker, gummy worms, how to make, Nostalgia Electrics, Nostalgia Electrics GCM600 Gummy Candy Maker

How to Make Cotton Candy – Jelly Belly Cotton Candy Machine

May 28, 2014 by Jenn

First off, I think that North America should formally recognize cotton candy the way the Australians do- Fairy Floss- from now on. How much more fun is that name?!?! It sounds so sweet.

As a child, I spent my time at the fair watching the cotton candy man “stir” the cotton candy to make beautiful puffy clouds of blue and pink. It kept my attention for a whole 30 seconds or so, which is quite good considering all the distractions on the fair grounds. Every year at the end of August, my parents would take us to the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) which is a 17 day fair in Vancouver, BC. It has rides, exhibits, show homes, trade shows, and of course, FAIR FOOD! Obviously, being who I am, the food was my favourite part.

Unfortunately for me, no one paid me money to make this video. I was hanging out in my favourite store (Target) and saw the box for the Jelly Belly Cotton Candy Maker. I knew that I had to figure out how to make cotton candy at home. I followed the enclosed directions, which were easy to follow, put the machine together, and started right away. I feel that this machine is great for people of all ages! *The inner core get quite hot, so kids should definitely be supervised while using the machine.*

My machine came with 6 cotton candy cones as a “bonus” but what would have also been nice would have been the inclusion of the sugars. I tried making cotton candy with granulated sugar, and it worked, so perhaps that is why flavoured sugar isn’t included in the machine package, but who wants to make white cotton candy?? I purchased an additional pack (Jelly Belly Cotton Candy Making Kit) of 2 different flavoured sugars (blue/pink) and more cones for another $20. If you are a died hard cotton candy fan, this would be a great investment, but if you are looking to make cotton candy for the masses, you probably want a machine that is larger and faster. It takes 5 minutes for the machine to heat up, another 1-2 minutes for the sugar to start to floss once added, and another 1-2 minutes to collect the spun sugar onto the cone.

Once the sugar is spinning, rolling the cone along the flossing ring can take some getting used to, but as long as you are moving the cone and “catching” the floss, there is not really a right/wrong way to do it. Stay away from the centre core though, as it’s heat will melt your spun candy, and it will also slice into your neatly piled floss! All in all I think this is a great, fun machine! If you’d like to see more machine reviews, let me know in the comment section!

Filed Under: No Bake Desserts, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: candy floss, candyfloss, cotton candy, cotton candy machine, fair food, fairy floss, how to make, how to make cotton candy, jelly belly, jelly belly cotton candy machine, jelly belly machine

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Bouquet for Mother’s Day

April 30, 2014 by Jenn

Mother’s Day is one of the most special days for all of the amazing women in our lives! If you are lucky enough to have a Mom like the one that I do, you are incredibly fortunate. My Mom and I recently starting working together and we are currently teaching the same grade, at the same school. Being that we both have the same last name, it’s a little tricky for the adults in the building, but our 5 year old students seem to understand the difference just fine. It’s quite funny actually. The adults seem to stumble over how to refer and differentiate between the two Kindergarten teachers, but the kids, just go with the flow and line up with the right person each day. Having this new working relationship with my mom has been very special, and it has allowed me to see the genius she has in her craft of teaching. She is an amazing role model to students, parents and to her colleagues.

I wanted to make her something special for Mother’s Day this year, and knowing that she loves chocolate and strawberries, I knew I had to turn them into a bouquet for her this year. Last year she got a cupcake bouquet, which she loved, but I know that when I make this again for her on May 11, 2014, she’s going to love it even more than she did her bouquet last year.

Gathering the skewers together in the centre of the vase was the only tricky part to this video. I used a twist tie to secure them in place, and this also helped to stabilize the structure. The length of the skewers can make standing the up can create quite a tilt in the vase, so make sure that your vase is secure before you abandon it on the counter!

The tutorial is very simple and can be done with kids of all ages. It is also a healthy alternative to other sweets that you might be inclined to make for Mom . . . not that there is anything wrong with that, but with the push for people to stay away from sugar lately, this is one of those tutorials that does just that!

I hope you have a great Mom in your life like I do, and that you take time to recognize the amazing woman that she is!

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Filed Under: Holiday Baking, No Bake Desserts, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate strawberries, chocolate strawberry bouquet, fruit bouquet, mother's day, mother's day bouquet, strawberry bouquet

Homemade Marshmallow Fluff (Marshmallow Creme)

March 26, 2014 by Jenn

Marshmallow fluff, or creme, as it is sometimes called is basically a spreadable version of marshmallows. Think campfire melted marshmallows- without the char! Usually it is sold by the jar, for relatively cheap, but if you know me and that my recipes are made from scratch, you’ll know that I’m not going to just buy a jar of something because it’s cheap. I have to learn to make it!

Making marshmallow fluff is a precursor to a couple of bigger projects that we have coming up on our YouTube channel. Laying the foundations, and the ground work is critical! No, I’m not building something that needs to be structurally sound- I’m trying to make “fluff” sound like a big, important deal.

Did it work?

So yes, back to the fluff. It’s sticky. It’s gooey. It can be a pain to work with, but it is oh, so, good. Apparently people make sandwiches with it, and despite my never squelched sweet tooth, I think that might be disgusting. If you’ve tried it, let me know what it’s like . . . I can’t bring myself to do it. I would have to buy bread.

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Filed Under: No Bake Desserts Tagged With: creme, fluff, fluffernut, fluffernut sandwich, homemade, marshmallow creme, marshmallow fluff, marshmallow sandwich, marshmallows, white

Rainbow Fruit Kebob with a Watermelon Grill

February 22, 2014 by Jenn

While we were in LA last week, we shot a video with Don Monopoli from The Learning Station, who is a very talented children’s entertainer. You’re probably thinking, how can a food based channel and a kids music channel doing a collab together? You put a Kindergarten teacher into the mix!

I first discovered The Learning Station a number of years ago while looking for fun songs to sing and dance to in my class. I had a couple of CD’s and subscribed to their channel when they started up on YouTube, so when I found out that Don was going to be in the same program we were in LA, I knew we had to do a collab. The kids in my class LOVE watching The Learning Station videos and LOVE dancing to the songs. They wave at Don every time the intro plays and let out a big “HI DON!” and wave to him excitedly. One of the girls really likes him as she thinks he’s “handsome”! If you have young kids, this is the BEST channel to subscribe to! Together with his wife Laurie, Don has created award winning songs, CD’s and travels all around doing live performances!

For our videos together, we decided to do a Rainbow Fruit Kebob on our channel and the Fruit and Veggie Hokey Pokey on Don’s channel. Since we were in LA, I wanted to use the fresh fruit that is available all year round there. It’s a nice healthy change from the regular treats on our channel, but I definitely won’t be sticking with it, sorry for those of you who are more health conscious!

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Filed Under: No Bake Desserts, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: fruit kabob, fruit skewers, rainbow, rainbow fruit kebob

Heart Shaped Valentine Chocolate Fudge Recipe

January 29, 2014 by Jenn

If you are a fudge connoisseur, I’ll be the first to tell you that this is NOT a recipe for you. If you are a fudge dabbler and want an easy, cute treat for Valentine’s, then this recipe IS for you! How do I know it’s not for fancy fudge eaters? I had a tester.

Serving up this recipe in my practice round was the first time that I have ever doubted how someone was going to react to something that I had made. I know I make good cupcakes and cakes- look at the size of me, I clearly enjoy them! But, when it comes to something like fudge, I don’t really like it. I love chocolate, but not fudge. It’s a glitch in my system. One of my coworkers LOVES fudge and so she was my tester for this recipe. While she enjoyed it, she admitted that it wasn’t like a true fudge where you need a candy thermometer and hard ball/soft ball stages. I’m going to search for a real fudge recipe and see how I do with that one day! But in the meantime, with all of my extra Valentine’s candy hanging around the house, this easy-cheater fudge is perfect!

You can substitute any colour of melting chocolate for this recipe but I love the pink! The more artificial the better, right? That’s what all the people on YouTube tell me when I make rainbow coloured cakes . . . ha. Ya, right. “Do you know how many chemicals are in those colors?” No, and I don’t care. It looks pretty!! Life is short. Live it colourful.

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Filed Under: Holiday Baking, No Bake Desserts Tagged With: fudge, pink fudge, pink valentine's fudge, valentine's day, valentine's day treat, valentine's dessert, valentine's fudge

How to Make Fondant: Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

January 14, 2014 by Jenn

Fondant? That’s the stuff you peel off a wedding cake, right? It’s that white, hard stuff that covers up the cake that doesn’t taste very good?

Before I first started decorating cakes, I really had no idea about what fondant was. I had heard Cake Boss talk about it, except he called it “fon-dawnt” (which has always annoyed me immensely!), and I knew that if I was going to be a wedding cake decorator, I would have to grow to love it, and I would have to find a brand that didn’t have a chalky, chemically taste to it.

I first worked only with Wilton fondant, but found that to be gross, to tear easily and to be better for sculpting figures. I then moved onto Satin Ice and found it to be tasty (as tasty as pliable sugar can be) and to cover cakes super easily. So, I never tried another brand. I know that many other brands exist, but I never felt the need to try them as I was satisfied with Satin Ice. That, and we went through fondant by the 10kg container and I didn’t have time to continue experimenting.

I had heard that you could make your own fondant, but under time restraints, I never took the time to look into it. Now, that we are not doing our cake business, and I have time, I did some research and learned how to make fondant from scratch! This version is made from marshmallows so it smells (and tastes) delicious! It also happens to be one of our most requested videos of all time! Every time we do a video involving fondant, we get asked for our own recipe. So finally . . . here it comes people . . . Enjoy!

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Filed Under: Cakes, No Bake Desserts, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: fondant, homemade, homemade fondant, homemade marshmallow fondant, how to make fondant, make fondant, marshmallow, marshmallow fondant

Unicorn Barf

How to Make a Giant Gummy Bear and other Gummy Candy

How to Make Cotton Candy – Jelly Belly Cotton Candy Machine

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Bouquet for Mother’s Day

Homemade Marshmallow Fluff (Marshmallow Creme)

Rainbow Fruit Kebob with a Watermelon Grill

Heart Shaped Valentine Chocolate Fudge Recipe

How to Make Fondant: Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

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