Friday, December 10, 2010

Christmas Mice

Madeline, my five year old, has this kids Christmas cookie recipe book and she absolutely loves it. This morning she sat and read all her favorite recipes to me, it has picture step-by-step instructions. Really great, right? Well, I thought it was a Christmas cookie book, but it actually says "Christmas CookING" but I had told her, "You get to pick a recipe for us to make and that will be our cooking challenge entry." She picked Christmas Mice. It isn't a cookie, it is more like a very unsubtle cavity attack, but don't kick me out on this technicality.

This is what Christmas Mice are supposed to look like: cute right? And EASY I thought... no baking, no waiting to decorate. Just 4 ingredients to mix and shape and decorate, fun!


So you know where this is going. First of all, the ingredients are Powdered Sugar, Coconut, Sweetened Condensed Milk, and pink food coloring. So pretty much.. sugar, and a little red dye to really make your kid freak out. What the hell was I thinking?!
You can imagine how very sticky those first four ingredients are when mixed, can you not? Well, I'm ahead of myself. Here are the pictures to tell the story:

Maddie: OMG, I'm still sifting these two cups of powdered sugar!? (after 30 seconds, I ended up sifting the rest while she videotaped the madness)

Slowly pour 1 cup of sweetened condensed milk into the SIFTED powdered sugar while your baby protests from the confinement of her high chair.

Add in 3 cups of flaked coconut and stir until arm falls off. I wish to zeus I could've found some unsweetened coconut.


Divide into two bowls and add a dab of red or pink food coloring to one, and then a dab and a half to the other, so that you can have some light pink and some dark pink mice. This is a CRITICAL step.


Dip a spoon in warm water and scoop out some sugary pink coconutty goodness, then shape the little blob into a mouse. It magically comes off the spoon and looks just like a mouse.... NOT!


I would like you to meet our best mouse. Decorate using candy for ears (we used almond joy pieces), pearl decorating ball for eyes, and twizzler peely cherry licorice for tail, or whatever.



These guys were pretty cute, too.


Holy Crap! They really do multiply quickly. You don't want a close up of these, trust me. Ah well, we had fun.... right? And a few cavities never hurt anyone. Merry Christmas!
 



4 comments:

  1. Brilliant!!
    And I love how some of the ears look like misplaced elbows on the "long" shot. :)

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  2. Well done. They do look like cute little mice. But how do they taste?

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  3. I havent even eaten one yet. I did taste the mixture and it's definitely uh.. sweet and coconutty. Not bad, but I think a mouse shaped rice crispy treat would be better.

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  4. SO, the mice were a fun experiment, but they are really barely edible. Maddie refuses to eat them, and her playdate Maggie G. also turned her nose up. Here's a newsflash KIDS RECIPE BOOK WRITERS: Kids don't like coconut. If you like the idea, go with shaped rice crispy treats!

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