Birthday & Father's Day Candy Bouquet

8-27-10
  I tried to post my candy buffet yesterday but for some reason I was having camera/computer tech problems.  So I thought I would post some previous candy bouquets that I did back in June. The bouquets were for a couple of coworkers.  Tiffany wanted a bouquet for her son's birthday using any kind of candy.  We came up with the idea to do it in a sports theme.  Sofia wanted a bouquet for her Father.  She told me not to use sour candy and that her Father liked nuts.  Bouquets aren't always about what you're going to put into the arrangement but sometimes what to leave out as well.  The 2 bouquets look similar but they do have variations as you will see.... 

This was Tiffany's son's bouquet.  Doing it in a sports theme was challenging
because it was hard to find sports candy without going online.  Online orders
tend to have larger minimums

 I really liked the rose buds that I made with candy coated
chocolate covered sunflower seeds. 
They were a bit time consuming though.

I only included football, basketball & baseball as the types
of sports Tiffany suggested

I couldn't remove the soccer ball from the balloon  

These were 3 of the 5 flavors of twislers that I curled.  The M&M blossoms were
strawberry marshmallows stuffed with a cherry and topped with
chocolate & baby M&Ms

As in the 1st picture you can see that I layered peanut M&Ms in the bottom of the vase

NEXT UP.....SOFIA'S Bouquet....

 I used beer steins instead of vases for these bouquets to give them that manly touch.  Us girls would use a vase
after the candy's gone but I didn't think the guys would find much use for a flower vase.

This stein was layered with sesame seed covered cashews, baby M&Ms, toffee peanuts and both steins  were topped
 with a rice crispy treat to give it that foam look.

  I made reeses stems which almost didn't make it in the arrangement (Reeses are the best)

 Viewed looking down into the bouquet was pretty cool.  I try to check all angles to make sure it's all evenly filled.

This is one of my favorite shots, in part because it's mostly chocolate.  Every time I've made one of the reeses flowers
I've improved on the Bulls Eye candy I topped it with.  The 1st one I just added the candy.  2nd time I cut the sides to
give it more of a flowery shape.  This time I topped the Bulls Eye with a tiny ball of carmel.  I also used blue, yellow &
purple cellophane instead of just the red like I did in my first 2 bouquets

Edible Roses

8-25-10

  Today I have lots to do around the house so I won't be creating anything new today.  As I've already mentioned I would be posting previous creations and today I've got lots of pictures of some edible roses.  They take me a long time to do, approximately half and hour for each rose. Besides being so time consuming to make, one of the things I didn't like about making the roses was the fact that they are VERY heat sensitive.  When I was making them it was hot and humid and the roses wilted like real flowers in the heat.  They were fun and nice to look at though.  So here are the different roses made in a variety of candy flavors & colors.



This was my 1st rose.  It was made out of  3 flavors of
Star Burst candies.  It didn't have leaves because
I didn't have any green candy at the time.




Yellow rose was banana Laffy Taffy and green
(I think apple) Star Bursts



I really liked the purple rose.  It was the hardest to do
because I used grape Now & Laters.  Now & Laters break like
glass and are very hard once they're cooled down.




The red rose was cherry and apple Frooties which are
a type of fruit Tootsie Roll.





These roses were made from Tootsie Rolls.  The leaves
were apple flavored Laffy Taffy

I wasn't sure of a rose in one color but it actually looked

fine.  The rose was strawberry Star Burst and the

leaves were cherry Laffy Taffy

 

My rose Flower Patch

 

I like being different & creative so I thought I would

attempt a multicolored rose done in a variety of

Salt Water Taffy.  I made it with my Mother in mind

because she loves Salt Water Taffy.  Besides all the

colors, I thought the variety of flavors made this rose

special & unique



Back Home

8-24-10 

  Well I'm back home from visiting Mo (my Mother) and her dinner party went well.  Mo is 76 years old and can barely walk so having this dinner was a big deal!!!   Mo actually sat in a chair with wheels to move around while putting some of her dinner together.  Mo made Japanese fried rice which she learned years ago from an old friend who was actually Japanese.  My chocolate strawberry cups and oreo truffles were a thumbs up as well.  In fact Mo's best friend Minnie Pearl, yes that's her real name (my 2nd Mom) said the truffles were "to die for".  I wish I could take credit for the recipe.

The bottom of the vase is layered with buttercream mints,
junor mints, gourmet heart jelly beans and M&Ms 

  So since I don't have anything new today I've got pictures of my very first candy bouquet that I did for Mo this past Mother's day.  Excuse the quality of the pictures taken on Mo's kitchen table.  I never thought I would be posting this bouquet. If I knew they were going to be posted I would've removed some of the items on her table.

I used a variety of candies.  The red roses were the "Big Stuffed" reeses
cups that I wrapped with some red cellophane.  Then I topped it
with a carmel "Bulls Eye".

I used any cookie that I could pierce without breaking and
had a flowery shape to it.  I loved the chocolate covered marshmallow
cookies.  The graham cracker cheesecake cookies & the fudge striped
cookies made nice flowers as well.
 

OREO TRUFFLES

 8-23-10   

  I was up bright and early this morning making Oreo Truffles since I ran short of time last night.  I'm supposed to be heading out to my Mother's house (a.k.a. Mo) but I've been having trouble posting my pictures.  I did have to laugh...yes LOL...this morning when I checked a message on FB.  A coworker, Jennifer, asked me to make her some Oreo Truffles.  I laughed because I was just getting ready to make them.  Jennifer tasted the first ones I made and I think she will be a very good taste tester since she likes to bake/cook too.  I have to say this 2nd batch of truffles are cosmetically better.  So since I'm running behind on time here are this morning's Oreo Truffles minus the 2 I ate...

More Strawberries & Strawberry Cheesecake

8-22-10 (Happy Birthday DAD)

  I really liked the strawberries and strawberry cheesecake combination so since I had extra ingredients and will be going to my Mother's house tomorrow for a small dinner party, I thought I would try a new creation. I made Strawberry Cheesecake Cups. They're chocolate cups filled with strawberry cheesecake and a sliced strawberry. As usual, I had to try what I made before serving them to anyone else. I just can't offer something I've never made before without knowing for sure what it tastes like, even if I think it would be yummy. I thought the cups were good but they are a bit messy to eat. As soon as you bite into the cup it falls apart. But that's ok because I love to eat with my hands. Actually I just ate the remainder with a spoon and ate smaller pieces broken off with my hands. The hardest and most time consuming part about making the cups was when I would remove the chocolate from the molds after the chocolate set. I had about half a dozen that I had to remelt because they broke. Since the chocolate cups are so fragile it takes up more time if they break and have to be remelted. I'll make sure I leave PLENTY of time when I make them again.