Bake Sale Goodies

Well, some of you probably know that I am NOT a great cook. I can cook, I just don't enjoy it that much. Lucky for me, Adam loves to cook. So, I usually just keep him company in the kitchen and help him clean up afterwards. When it came to the Christmas Bake Sale, I wanted to contribute. So I was trying to think of things I could do that were cheap, easy, fun for me to make, and would appeal to others.

I had a lot of fun making these four things. I thought that several of these, especially the Snowman Soup would make cute little teacher gifts. Let me know what you think.

Snowman Soup

These cute little guys were so easy and cheap to make. They are basically a little hot cocoa kit with an adorable poem on the back. Great for that little "I'm thinking of you" gift.

Front of Snowman Soup Package

Back of Snowman Soup Package

Want to make these for yourself? The following is a list of "ingredients." You can create your own labels. Or leave a comment, and I will be happy to send you the PDF documents to print out (12 labels/poems to a page). NOTE: If you are not subscribed to my blog (first of all, shame on you :-) secondly, if I don't personally know you, I will not know your email address. You will either have to leave your email address in the comment, or subscribe so that I can send the PDF documents through your subscriber link.

Inside the cellophane bag:
1 Packet of Cocoa
1 Candy Cane
1 Hershey Kiss
8 Miniature Marshmallows (in a smaller cellophane bag labeled "Freeze Dried Snowballs")
(leave me a comment to receive the label in PDF Format)

Outside of the cellophane Bag:
1 Piece of Colored Cardstock 4 1/4" x 4 1/4"
1 Snowman Soup Label (leave me a comment to receive the label in PDF Format)
1 Snowman Soup Poem (leave me a comment to receive the label in PDF Format)

Poem for back label:

When it's so cold that you holler and whoop,

It's time to bring out the Snowman Soup!

Pour the packet in a mug.
Add the snowballs too.
And throw in a kiss from the snowman to you.

Now add some hot water use the cane to stir it.

Sip slowly and you'll feel the warm winter spirit!

To see another take on this project you can visit the site that I got the idea from.

Choctaw Crunch

Hayden got a big kick out of making the popcorn "old school" style. I guess the only way he has ever seen me make popcorn is in the microwave.

Recipe for Candy Coated Popcorn

4 quarts popped corn
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
Wilton's Kelly Green Concentrated Paste Icing Color (found in the cake decorating section)

1. Keep freshly-popped corn warm in large baking pan in 200°F oven.
2. Combine sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt and cream of tartar in medium saucepan.
3. Bring to boil, stirring constantly.
4. Cook to 250°F without stirring.
5. Remove from heat.
6. After boiling action ceases, add flavoring and color.
7. Add soda and stir in quickly but thoroughly.
8. Pour at once while foamy over warm popcorn; mix gently to coat corn.
9. Shape into balls or spread onto cookie sheet and break into pieces when cool.
   
   
   We mixed the "candy coated" popcorn with "regular" salted popcorn for that sweet-salty combination. Let me know if you would like to use this for a fundraiser for your school or organization. I can easily change the name and color to suit you and send you the PDF.

Style Marcher Sticks

These are store bought orange gel sticks covered in chocolate. I just put 3 in a little cellophane bag, tied it with a ribbon and attached a cute little personalized tag.

Dum Dum Sucker Presents

I was trying to think of some other things to do for the bake sale. I remembered that we had a bunch of Dum Dum suckers. I've seen tutorials for decorating flat suckers, but never sphere shaped suckers. So, I was trying to go to sleep one night when this idea HIT ME!! It was all I could do not to jump out of bed, go into the office, and make one right away! First thing the next morning, I started the trial and error process and finally got it to work - YEAH!!

Definitely needs a better name. What do you think of Gift on a Stick?

I wanted to make 50, but only had time to make 20. Here they are all together.
I am so proud of these!!! Can you tell??

So after all of that, the Bake Sale went very well. There were lots of lots of scrumscious goodies, and everything was packaged so beautifully!! You can see pics in this post. By Saturday, when we went to clean the Band Room (future post :-) There were just a few bags of Choctaw Crunch and a few Style Marcher Sticks left. The Snowman Soup and Dum Dum Present Suckers were gone. YEAH!!! So, it appears that the band made a good chunk of money with the Bake Sale!!