Chocolate Bunny Easter Table

Dear Red Couch Readers!  Hippity-Hoppity Easter is on its way!  As I was pulling together a table for Easter, I had a bit of fun with these chocolate bunnies and some non-traditional Easter colors! 

 

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I knew I wanted to incorporate these guys, and then I remember that I had some basket weave reactive ware plates that were brown to go along with the brown bunnies.

As some of you may know, our lives here at the Red Couch Family have been a bit crazy for the past two years.  Many of my dishes are in storage (yah, there were about 35 boxes), and I do not have access, or it is very difficult to get to them.  If you are ever going to move, I would not recommend having a dish collecting hobby :).  Alas, the reactive ware is not in storage! 

Just a peak of the edge of the dishes.

Just a close-up of this embossed cutie!  These are the real chocolate deal!

 These are the imposters!

These are the little chocolate guys that inspired me.  I have them sitting on a cake plate near my sink.  I bought them years ago at Dillard's, no I mean the Dollar Store!



Just another view of the little guys.



As I was searching in my napkin stash for some napkins to use, I found these CHRISTMAS napkins, and I thought, "Why not?"  As you know, I am a lover of red, and it has the green similar to the green Easter grass  with the bunnies?  What do you think?  As for me, I love it!

Then, of course since there was red in the napkins, I decided to add some red stemware.

Okay, in my crazy mind, this all kind of goes together.  The red and green look great with the background of my red couch, don't you think?



Just another peek  at my table...

This little imposter wishes you all a wonderful Easter.

Thanks for hopping by!

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Table Information:

White chargers, salad plates, bubble stemware, and brown reactive ware plates -- Tai Pan Trading

Red Stemware -- Costco

Flatware -- World Market

Napkins -- Wal-Mart, on sale after Christmas 2012

Napkin Rings -- Bed, Bath and Beyond

Imposter Bunnies -- Dollar Store

Cake Stand -- Home Goods -- They always seems to have cake stands like these.

Posted with Tablescape Thursday

Quilted Mason Jar Sugar Cookies

 

 

So it appears that I am on a cookie kick.  Is that a bad thing?  At Cookie Con we received a fun swag bag, which included some cool cookie cutters.  One of the cookie cutters was a mason jar.

 

 

 

At first I thought, "I will never use this."  But then I saw the artwork done by Kathia, the host of the Little Pink Cake Blog, featured on the website Cookie Cutter Company,  and I was smitten and started to see the possibilities.  She made super cute St. Patrick's Day Mason Jars.

 

Just make your favorite sugar cookie recipe using your favorite cookie cutters.   Funny story!  One of the presenters at Cookie Con, a very talented cookie artist, said she used the cookie chubs from the refrigerated section for her sugar cookie base !!  I use this "no fail" recipe.  I make the cookies thick and I don't bake them until they are brown on the bottom.  Then purchase or make some fondant.  I like Wilton's Marshmallow Fondant.  It tastes good and it is relatively inexpensive and easy to make and easy to work with.  Roll the fondant out thinly and then cut it with your cookie cutter. Then put a taddle bit of water on the backside of your fondant and press on the cookie.  You may have to adjust it a bit and smooth the fondant.   You do not want a thick piece of fondant as it will overpower your cookie.  Just a note, I do think the cookies taste better the first day or two.

 You are right, that is not a mason jar cookie cutter.  I forgot to take pictures with the mason jar so a onesie will have to suffice. 

 

 

Then make some cool design impressions with whatever tools you have. This is a pastry cutter wheel, that my children used to use when cutting out Play-Doh.  I didn't measure it; I just "eyed" it. 

 

I used the bottom of the tool to make impressions where the corners meet.

To get the other effect, I just used a clean, as in washed pair of scissors!  I know there is probably some fancy tool, but this worked for me.   Kathia used a crimper tool to make her design. 

 



 

Next I sprayed the cookies with Wilton's Pearl Color Mist.  The Pearl mist just adds such a nice sheen to the coolie.  Yah, just pretend this is a mason jar and not a Easter Egg.

 

 



I added some decorations attached with a bit of royal icing.  The pearls are in the baking section of Wal-Mart.  The flowers are in the cake decoration section of Wal-Mart. 

 



I cut out some white and purple fondant to make the flowers.  I used the fondant cutter below.  I think it was a Wilton three-piece set. 

 





I hope you try this quilting technique.  It is fun and easy.

Watercolor Fondant Easter Egg Sugar Cookies

 

 

Dear Readers, in my last post I wrote to you about going to Cookie Con in Salt Lake City.  After that wonderful, creative experience I could not wait to get back to the kitchen to create.  Okay, so I will never be like those cookie artists I featured in this post, but I want to try and share with you quick and fun cookie art ideas. 

 

I will never be making these kind of cookies, but oh how I admire their talent!

 

 

 At Cookie Con I learned to put fondant on cookies.  I learned the water color technique from the talented host of Key Art Studio.  So here goes.  This is such a fun and easy technique!  No mistakes here, but if you don't like the way the coloring was applied, you can just peel off the fondant and try again, and that my friend is a wonderful thing! Try doing that with a royal icing cookie!

 

This is my favorite of the bunch!

 

 

So you just make some wonderful cookies.  I use this recipe, but you can use any recipe.  I like my sugar cookies thick and light on the bottom.  Then either buy or make some fondant.  I used the Wilton recipe for marshmallow fondant here, which I think is a good recipe.  I use a bit of almond flavoring, and I do think the marshmallow fondant tastes good on the cookie.  Roll out your fondant and then either place fondant under your cookie and cut around your cookie; the fondant tends to pull and stretch.   Or you can  out the fondant with a cookie cutter.  Of course, if you cut out the fondant with a cookie cutter, you will have to stretch it out a bit because your cookie will most likely have spread a bit.  So it is not a perfect world even in cookie land; each has its disadvantages so you choose. 

 

I chose using a cookie cutter to cut the fondant.

 





 

Place a bit of water on the back of the fondant cut out, and then apply the fondant to your cookie.  Remember you most likely will have to stretch it a bit, and then smooth it a bit.

 



 

Put a taddle bit of lemon extract, maybe a cap or two, into a container along with some food coloring.  This is just the liquid food coloring that you used to dye eggs with when you were a kid. 

 

 

Then take a bit of some paper towel and dab the towel into the lemon extract and food coloring.  By the way, the lemon extract smells so good when you are working with it ;).  Now, I want you to relax and have some fun.  Just a little tattling about myself.  I don't care too much for cutting out cookies.  I do not care to much for making fondant or royal icing, but I LOVE DECORATING THE COOKIES!!

Now press the paper towel with the coloring on the cookie.  You can vary the look by how you press the paper towel on the cookie.  

Then add another color.  I would stick to just a few colors -- no more than four.  Using a lot of colors might make a muddy cookie!

 



Let the cookie dry.  The alcohol  in the extract will help it to dry.  You don't want to use water because it will take a long time to dry and you will risk having a soggy cookie!

 

After drying you will have some marvelous and unique cookies.  I did these by myself, but I think they would be a fun cookie craft for you and some "littles."  I just love the look of them!

 

 

A little flower wanted to be "water colored too."

 

 

 

Just a funny story about cookie making.  I had a few ladies over to my house for a meeting last night.  I had made these cookies during the day and was letting them dry.  Of course, I showed the ladies the cookies, BUT didn't offer them any to eat!  Why not, they were drying and I hadn't photographed them yet for my blog!  Ya Ya, the life of a blogger -- show them your cookies, but don't let them eat them!

 

Thanks for dropping by my Red Couch today.  Make some cookies for those you love!