11/17/2008

Tinkerbell Houses

If you're going to have a Tinkerbell Movie Night, of course you must decorate a home for your favorite fairy! These look hard, but they're really not. Just think gingerbread houses, but 3-sided. Let's do it!
Tinkerbell Fairy Houses
Ingredients:
Graham Crackers (5 per house)
Sugar Cookie dough (storebought or your favorite recipe)
Life Saver Candies (I used two small bags for 6 houses)
Royal Icing
Green Food Coloring
Ziploc freezer bags (quart size, 1 per person)
Any candies you want to decorate the houses. Clean out the pantry!
Aluminum Foil
Wax Paper
Candy Melts, optional (I used pink ones just to add some extra color but it's not necessary)

Directions (for one house):
Cut the corners off three graham crackers to make a large triangle (see picture). Use the large triange and the two corners will be extra (crush them for a pie crust or something:)). Using royal icing, glue the triangles together to form a pyramid shape. This is the roof.
NOTE: You do not need any fancy decorating bags, just put the icing in a ziploc freezer bag, snip off one corner, and pipe out the frosting.
Cover with melted Candy melts if desired (I used pink but it's not necessary, the kids are going to put candy on it). Let dry on wax paper. For the base of the houses, lay 2 graham crackers side by side to form a square and glue together with royal icing. Let dry on wax paper (again, you can cover them with candy melts if you want)
Roll out sugar cookie dough into 1/4" thickness and cut out 3 large rectangles. Use a whole graham cracker as a size guide. Place on a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil & sprayed with cooking spray and cut out any shapes you want to make "windows" (see video tutorial).

Put Life Saver candies in a large ziploc bag and crush them with a mallot or rolling pin. Using a small spoon, put crushed candies into the "windows" in your cookie rectangles. Bake at 375 for abuot 9 minutes until candies are melted and cookies are barely brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Take three rectangle cookies, place them on one of the smaller sides and glue together on one of the house bases.Pipe frosting on the top edge of your house and place a roof on top. Tint some icing green and have fun piping out vines and leaves on your house. Let dry (about an hour). Give your child a bag of icing (ziploc bag w/ a corner snipped off), some candies, and let them make this Tinkerbell House a "Home". Enjoy!

Holiday Playlist

My grandmother hasn't been doing well...to cheer her up, I rounded up a few of my musical friends and made an album of Holiday songs fo...