It’s so easy, really. If you can make dough “snakes” from packaged bread dough, dip them in butter and them sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar and wind it up in a spiral, you’ve just made a ginormous cinnamon roll. And the best part – it can rise in the fridge overnight and everyone wakes up in the morning to this glorious fragrance of warm cinnamon and fresh baked bread as the day begins.

What makes this recipe so much fun is this is a great family project and kids LOVE getting involved. In fact, when my boys were little they used to watch me make it, then they helped when they were bigger and now grown and on their own they’ll come home for the holidays and make it together and now I watch! I know it will always be a tradition they will share with their own families when the time comes. This makes me very happy. It just does.

As you can see the finished cinnamon roll is pretty impressive which is kind of the point. It’s unexpected and knocks socks off of any holiday guests that might be visiting.  Of course, it goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway, it tastes  unbelievably good. Beyond good. Caramel-ly juicy lick your fingers kind of good and who doesn’t love that?

I’d love to hear if you’re making it for the first time or you’ve made it before. I know a lot of you have and like always, I love sharing the baking love so you can experience a bite of heaven too and make it your own family tradition.

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy New Year. Thank you for visiting me today.

The festive boys and I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah or however you celebrate hope, peace and love this time of year.

“Naughty” Gingerbread Men Post

Look at those sweet soft layers!

The bottom layer is a shortbread dough that bakes as a cookie. It is spread out into the bottom of a pan and baked. If you’re running in and out of the kitchen you can make the cookie base ahead of time and finish the second and third layer later.

The second layer is the toffee layer made with Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk and other sweet ingredients. It is cooked to a caramel-ly color and poured over the cookie base. The hot toffee layer is then topped with chocolate chips where the heat from the the toffee layer melts the chips to a spreading consistency. If your kitchen temp. runs on the cooler side you can pop the pan into a warm oven to help melt the chips just for a minute or two until they are shiny and then they’ll be ready to spread with a spatula or knife.

After spreading the chocolate smooth is where you can get more creative with your topping ingredients – you can add chopped nuts (I added chopped pecans), shredded coconut and or chopped dried fruit. Drizzling white chocolate or festive color candy melts would also be pretty. 

These would be perfect to serve as a sweet bite after dinner or to take to a holiday party.

Let me know if you try out this recipe.

Sponsored by Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk.

Toffee Caramel Bars

2017-12-20 01:00:03

A three layer bar consisting of a soft cookie crust topped with a soft toffee caramel and chocolate. Very easy and very good.

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First Layer - Cookie Crust

1. 1/2 cup, plus 2 Tablespoons butter, room temp.
2. 1/4 cup granulated sugar
3. 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Second Layer - Toffee Caramel

1. 1/2 cup butter
2. 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
3. 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
4. 1/2 cup Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk

Top Layer - Chocolate & Nuts

1. 12 oz. chocolate chips
2. 3/4 cup pecans, chopped

Instructions

1. For the Bottom Layer: Combine the butter, sugar and flour. Press into a 9x9 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden. Set aside.
2. For the Second Layer - Toffee Caramel Layer: Combine butter, sugar, corn syrup and sweetened condensed milk over medium heat stirring constantly. Bring to a boil and boil 5 minutes or until carmel in color, still stirring constantly. Pour over the cookie crust.
3. For the Third Layer - Sprinkle chocolate chips over the hot toffee layer. The heat from the toffee will melt the chocolate. When the chips are shiny and are melting, spread smooth with a spatula. If the chocolate chips need more help in melting place the pan in a warm oven for a minute or two.
4. Sprinkle with nuts or coconut or drizzle melted candy melts.

Notes

1. Cool in the fridge to harden the chocolate. Cut into squares or bars when the chocolate is set but letting the pan sit at room temp for awhile will make for easier cutting. The bars do not need to be refrigerated once it is set.

Sweets To Impress http://www.sweetstoimpress.com/

So, do you think these little guys with the mischievous grins will be on Santa’s naughty list this year?

Have a jolly “holly” day.

Sneak peek of the “Nice” gingerbread men coming up next…

“Nice” Gingerbread Men Post

I took the quiz and my cookie recommendation was for a recipe for Gingerbread Cookies with Spiced Buttercream. Oh my, that sounds so good!

When Krusteaz contacted me and asked if I’d like to participate in this cookie campaign I immediately said “yes”! For years their boxed mix of Lemon Poppy Seed muffins have been on my go-to “quick and yummy” list. Sometimes I’ll add fresh blue berries and a lemony glaze. I didn’t realize Krusteaz made mixes for Hawaiian bread, sourdough, corn bread, waffles and pancakes and cookies and these are just a few of the mixes.

I used the Butter Vanilla Sugar Cookie Mix to make these decorated knitted mitten cookies with fondant and sprinkles.

You can make drop cookies from this mix but according to package directions adding less butter will give you the consistency to roll out the dough for cut-out cookies so that’s what I did. What was nice about this dough is that it didn’t need to be refrigerated before using it which is a time saver.

What are you baking this week for gifts or for a cookie exchange? These cookies will be party favors for my mother-in-law’s knitting group’s Christmas lunch.

I’d love to hear what cookie recipe was recommended for your cookie personality!

Happy baking and happy holidays!

*this post was sponsored by Krusteaz

If you’ve been reading along you’ll know her family is pretty much in awe of this special lady. At 95 she is still very active and gets around and is tech savvy! She is on Facebook, writes emails and prints her own photos. She might even do Facetime with her great-grandchildren, it wouldn’t surprise me.

We celebrated her big day on her actual birthday which also happened to be on Thanksgiving day this year. Her entire family was present – 3 sons, 8 grand-children, 3 great-grandchildren, 1 brother and all the spouses and significant others that come along with the package, 27 total!

Jean has a love and talent for knitting. At her residence she founded a knitting group where the ladies donate their time and talent to Knots of Love, an organization that gives persons going through medical treatments knitted hats to wear so I knew I had to step my my creativity on her cake.

As luck would have it, I recently found a “knitting” mold by Marvelous Molds. This helped to inspire me to make a cake that looks like it was hand knitted.

For the bottom tier I repeated the mold pattern and also decorated it with knit buttons from the same mold line.

To give the cake a touch more elegance, I added gold powder mixed with vodka to a paint consistency and painted it on to the cable knit trim and knit buttons.

What really made this cake special for me is that my son who flew in from NJ for the party greatly helped me out when I hit a major creative snag. Originally, I made the top tier covered in the sprinkles I had decorated the mini pumpkins with, which I loved, but it looked terrible. There was such a disconnect with the understated elegance of the bottom tier against the bright colors of the top. As I scraped off all the sprinkles into the sink we both agreed the sink looked like a clown had thrown up. It was very funny at the time. Maybe you had to be there. This knitted cake was a faux cake using cake dummies because no one in our family likes fondant and would eat it so my other son made 2 of his famous award winning chocolate cakes as requested by the birthday girl but unadorned. My guys are great in the kitchen. Well trained, if I say so myself.

Anyway, I was so disheartened that my original design did not work out aesthetically so we started over on the top tier design with a fondant base. This is where my son’s stellar math skills came into play designing and calculating the spiral spacing and angles. You’d be amazed how much exact planning went into this second tier to get all that perfect. I was also reminded why I don’t make cakes like this on my own anymore and why I have so much admiration for those who do. 

For the topper, I was completely stumped. This was day 2 now. My son thought of a ball of yarn and knitting needles. Genius! We tried different ways to make the yarn ball. You wouldn’t think it would be that hard but it was. We tried covering a baseball, a styrofoam ball, and just making a big fondant ball (such a waste of material) and all my ideas. Finally he said let’s just try wrapping up the long strips of fondant that we made using a clay extruder and wind them up like a ball of yarn. Why didn’t I think of that? That was the solution and it worked perfectly!

For the knitting needles, we used kabob sticks that I had in a drawer and painted them with the same gold “paint” used on the cake. For the caps on the knitting needles, we used thumb tacks since this was not an edible cake.

To top it off, I had found numbers that were sparklers. Had. To. Get.

Another benefit to making a showy faux cake like this is that it can have many lives that a real cake can’t have, for instance, Jean wanted to show this cake off to her knitting group so we took it over to her place so she can bring it to one of their meetings. She plans on keeping it so when they have an exhibition of their work the cake can make an appearance for a conversation piece and little fun and whimsy.

But for my sons and me it was just a labor of love to show how much this wonderful person means to us.

Happy 95th birthday, “Jeana”… and many more! xoxo

Due to location logistics we hosted the event at our home so I started planning in September. I always start with colors and themes because it’s the most fun and it’s my jumping off point for everything else. The birthday girl’s favorite color is aqua which is very pretty with the golden and orange colors of fall. At this point in the photo below, I was gathering colors and textures to see what I liked together. The blue votives were mercury glass. I loved them!

I had the idea to combine the theme of autumn and birthday and thought “sprinkles on pumpkins” would be the perfect blending of happiness that would bring them together. I planned for these decorated mini pumpkins to be placed on the main dining table on mini cupcake pedestals. When I added a tag it became a special invitation. I wrote a post about the decorated pumpkins with sprinkles but here’s a photo just for you before you click over. I can’t tell you how much I love these sprinkles by Sweetapolita. I found them on her Etsy page.

I bought dozens of pumpkins before Halloween knowing they wouldn’t be available after the 31st. I found a great variety at Trader Joe’s and Pavilions, our local market. I decorated our mantel with about a dozen. I added little warm-colored fairy lights which can’t be seen here but they added such a magical touch.

 I also grouped pumpkins in our color beds in our front and back yard amid 35 flats of color that we planted. I wish I had taken photos of the back yard but you know how that goes when you’re busy prepping in other areas.

Totally unrelated, but we’re going to be painting the house. What do you think of black doors and black trim around the windows?

I ultimately decided on yellow-centered sunflowers with eucalyptus in Mason jars tied with raffia. To bring some aqua into the flowers because there were no aqua colored flowers to be found, I placed pieces of blue, green and white beach glass that I had on hand in the bottoms of the jars. At first I thought using beach glass would be too summery but the shapes were diffused in the water and you could only see the color which worked perfectly.

I decorated our curved staircase with a base of holiday greenery with lights to save time in the scope of holiday decorating but topped it with raffia bundles, silk colored leaves and Indian corn. The green base showing here and there among the more fall textures really made the fall colors pop. The autumn decorations were a snap to remove to put up the more glittery Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving.

More on this crazy, wonderful group and the official birthday cake in the next post!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday with plenty to be thankful for. xoxo

What makes the day even more fun is that her birthday is actually on Thanksgiving this year so we’re going to make certain she knows how thankful we are for her! A traditional dinner is planned with pumpkin pie and multiple chocolate cakes for our brood of 27. 

I wanted to combine both the holiday and her birthday in themed decorations and for the invitation so I envisioned pumpkins topped with sprinkles that would be particularly festive and colorful.

I loved the little white ghost pumpkins that I found this year with their long stems and thought they would be cute as both a decoration and invitation.

I found the sprinkles in Sweetapolita’s Etsy shop where I looked for something bright and happy that said “birthday” to me and “happy birthday to you”.

I brushed on melted white candy coating to adhere the sprinkles. Really, aren’t they the happiest of sprinkles?

I wrapped the stem with ribbon and tied on a tag I found at Paper Source along with raised, gold, stick-on letters from a cookie project last year so I used them. They worked out perfectly to spell out “Birthday Party”. The details of the party I wrote on the back of the tag.

Orange Sugar Pie pumpkins are pretty for decorations too. I’ll place these on our appetizer, dinner and dessert tables.

I hope you’re planning on having a special holiday too!

Things you’ll need:

1. Pumpkin (grocery store, home improvement store or nursery)
2. Sheet Moss (home improvement store – I found it at Lowe’s and Home Depot by the interior plants)
3. Succulents (again, a place like Home Depot or a nursery)
4. Scissors
5. Glue gun or tacky craft glue
6. Raffia (optional)

I love how pumpkins are available to purchase in all colors in the last few years and not just orange. My pumpkin had an aqua cast so I also chose my succulents that were more blue in tone to be more monochromatic.

When you look at the finished arrangement you might think there’s a hole cut into the top but there’s not! Actually, if you want your pumpkin to last a few months it’s very important that the surface of the pumpkin has no cuts in the skin anywhere. If there are even small cuts, bacteria will get in and the pumpkin will begin to decay. Think about jack-o-lanterns a few days after they’ve been carved. So start with a perfect pumpkin.

Succulents can be pricey. I found these at my local nursery. The total cost for the pumpkin and the succulents cost me about $30.00. The mini pots had one variety of plant per container but I found a container that had multiple varieties in it so this saved me from buying 4 more individual plants.

The sheet moss is just that – a sheet of dried moss. Grab a hunk that will fit the top of the pumpkin and glue it to the top. It can be trimmed later with a scissors if needed.

Snip a larger succulent that will be a focus flower. I usually make this a little taller and center it. Glue it on. It’ll stay great with hot glue but tacky glue works well too but will take longer to set up.

Next, begin snipping and gluing the succulents to the moss starting in the center, tucking them into one another and working outward.

To finish, I tied some raffia around the moss after the succulents were attached.

That’s all there is to it! I love using mini pumpkins too for place settings so each guess can take one home.

After the fall season, either snap off or cut the succulents from the arrangement and transplant them. You can use them next year!

DIY of the succulent pumpkin arrangement coming soon.

So while I’m watching my A1C, (which by the way is just dandy but I also want to keep it that way), and keeping the calories in check (because seriously how can anyone bake so much and not nibble along the way), I’d like to blog about what I used to write about when I first started almost 9 years ago when my blog was called Pink Martinis and Pearls. Remember that? The blog was sprinkled with posts about crafts, cooking, and decorating here and there and not just about sprinkles on a cupcake.

If you’ve followed along with me from the beginning, you know I would scatter in posts of a more personal nature, about me, my husband and my boys who so long ago were just finishing up high school and attending college. They’re both grown, graduated and even graduated from grad school and successfully living on their own.  One, on the east coast and the other on the west. I’ve also decided to be much more private with my personal life going forward on this blog. The reasons aren’t important and have thankfully passed but I urge caution to anyone with an online presence of having too much personal info available even if you think it’s of little importance. You don’t want to find yourself in a bad Lifetime movie like I was, believe me.

So before this Stella gets her blogging grove back, I just wanted to say thank you for visiting me here and for being old friends or to welcome new ones!  I’ll still be more active on Instagram and Instagram Stories so you’ll see different things there of a more candid nature and in real-time. I hope you’ll follow me and join me there at SweetsToImpress. I love to respond to comments and I respond to all. I can be quite chatty but isn’t that what connecting on Instagram and here is all about?

So with all this said – this is what I’m working on now – big party plans incorporating a birthday on Thanksgiving Day! At this point I’m playing with colors and textures and what I’m going to do for the invitation for the birthday girl who will be 95! My MIL is an incredible woman who has a Facebook page, writes and answers emails, prints out photos and uses her iPad and computer regularly. She deserves another palooza, don’t you think? Here’s a link to her 90th paoolza party when I featured orange and pink as the color palette.

Thank you again for visiting today! Have a great week ahead and happy October!