Lollipop Cookies

Color is definitely catching my eye these days when I'm blog hopping for party ideas. And these play dough cookie lollipops were a real find. I love anything that's easy to make and adapt to your own party colors. A simple recipe, a little food color and you've got a perfect party table treat.

There are quite a few versions of these on the web, including the ones above from Blogoye with a step-by-step photo tutorial, but unfortunately the directions are in Serbian and a wee bit difficult for this Southern girl to understand. Which, in turn, led me straight to this great photo.....

Evite.com has a Flickr site with another set of step-by-step photos using a recipe for Play Dough cookies from All Recipes.

Here's what you'll need:

3/4 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
assorted colors of paste food coloring
24 lollipop sticks

First, you'll need to cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and stir till soft dough forms.

After making the basic dough, divide it into separate bowls and tint each with food color to achieve your desired colors. Wrap each bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours. After the dough chills, roll each color into 3/4 inch dough balls.

Next press your colored dough balls together into one larger ball and then roll into a 12" long snake as pictured below.

Take your snake and coil it around into a 2 3/4 inch round cookie. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet, 3" apart and insert a lollipop stick into each cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.

Adorable!

And while we're talking playdough cookies, check out this great version from National Cookie Network. So cute! Rainbows seem to be taking over the party world, and you know, with such a long, cold winter, it's no wonder.

Happy Monday Everyone!

More Cute Valentine's Ideas!

I've got some more great Valentine's ideas today for those of you who still need some cute ideas for those parties on Monday. Katrina from Snickerdoodles Bake Shop is the creative genius behind these little projects. I've loved Katrina's ideas since I first saw her "Ice Cream Sundae" party favor last fall. She definitely has a knack for putting together some adorable party treats!

First up, Katrina makes easy, cute and inexpensive Valentines favors out of chop stick cellophane bags. These measure 1" x 8" and you can find them online at GT Bag for only $4.00 for 100 bags -- I just love how unique and simple these are!

Katrina says, "On the back of the tag I also included a stamp that says, 'to a sweet friend.' My son helped me punch the tags and stamp. Then he signed his name on the back and is going to pass them out to his classmates on Valentine's Day. These turned out really cute and were a lot of fun to make! I am looking forward to making them for other occasions . . ."

And how about this one for a fun Valentine for friends..... candy cellphones!

Katrina says, "I made these for my son's Pre-K class this year. These are so easy to make and are just too cute. He can't wait to pass them out. I especially love the Pixie Stick antennae! All you need is silver card stock but you can really use any color you want. For the size, find two standard playing cards and tape them vertically together. Trace the connected cards onto the paper and cut it out and you have your phone. Just fold in half and round the edges with a scissors or corner rounder. Candy buttons and pixie sticks that can be found at a local party store. I used the label program in Word to create the names on the front of the phones and the "text" message on the inside. I also used a heart sticker for the power button."


She also made these little brownies bites and added a few easy Valentine's touches..... some sparkling sugars in Valentine's colors and a sweet Valentine candy corn. You can purchase brownie bites at most grocery stores -- I buy them all the time from Sam's. Add a little icing to the tops (you can even buy this in a can with a decorating tip ready to go!) and top it off with you candy -- totally do-able!

Another quick idea from Katrina are these cute heart lollipop Valentines using a little scrapbook paper for a "flower" embellishment. I love the addition of the Hershey's kiss, too.

Don't you just love all of her super easy and super quick ideas?

Snickerdoodles specializes in delicious cookie jars as well as cute and fun items for gifts, party favors and party decorations so be sure to take a peek at some of her wonderful creations in her Etsy shop. She truly has some of the cutest and most original items I've seen! Here are those adorable Ice Cream Sundae party favors I mentioned earlier. How cute is that!

I also wanted to thank Kristy from The Purple Pug for the fun interview she featured yesterday with me about Shindig Parties TO GO. Kristy is a fellow "party girl" and vice-president of the Children's Party Network and quite an amazing talent, too. It was a honor to be chosen for her "Crush of the Day" feature, so go take a peek if you want to find out the REAL DEAL on yours truly.

Have a GREAT Friday, girls!