Bake Away the Winter Blues

When the weather outside turns frightful, baking homemade treats will be so delightful. Whether it's with friends, the kids or even by yourself, making treats is a great way to keep warm and active when snowed in.

Try these tips from Wilton for fun indoor activities during wintry weather:

• Plan ahead. Stock up your pantry ahead of time with baking and decorating supplies, so you'll have what you need during snow days.


• No two snowflakes are alike. It's easy to make a deliciously unique treat. Bake a large brownie or a cake in a Snowflake Tube Pan (see recipe below). Decorate it with icing and marshmallows, sprinkles, candy-coated chocolates or chocolate chips.


• Build tasty snowmen. Instead of getting bundled up to build a snowman outside, make fun snowmen cookies with a two-piece Melted Snowman Cookie Cutter Set (see recipe below). After decorating, enjoy the cookies with a cup of cocoa.

For more fun and tasty winter recipes, baking tips and inspiration, www.wilton.com.

S'mores Snowflake Brownies

Ingredients

• Wilton Snowflake Tube Pan
• 1 box (18 ounces) brownie mix
• Water, oil and eggs to prepare mix
• 4 graham crackers, broken into bite-size pieces
• 1/3 cup milk chocolate chips
• 2 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare tube pan with vegetable pan spray.
2. In large bowl, stir together brownie mix, water, oil and eggs until well combined. Fold in broken graham crackers. Pour into prepared pan and smooth so batter is evenly distributed.
3. Bake 24-26 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of brownie comes out nearly clean. Cool in pan on cooling grid 10 minutes.
4. Remove from pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let sit 5 minutes; spread over top. Cover with marshmallows. Let chocolate harden before serving.

Spicy Snowman Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Wilton Imitation Clear Vanilla Extract
• Wilton Melted Snowman Cookie Cutter Set
• Cookie Icing: White, Black, Orange Brown and Red

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and chili powder.
3. In separate large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until combined. Add flour mixture; beat until just combined. Divide dough into 2 balls.
4. On floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approximately 12 inches diameter by 1/8 inch thick. Dip cookie cutters in flour before each use. Transfer cookies to ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Bake puddle cookies for 12-14 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Bake hat cookies on separate cookie sheet for 8-9 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.
6. Cool cookies on sheet on cooling grid 5 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on grid.
7. Decorate cooled cookies. On puddle cookies, use white cookie icing to outline and fill in. Pipe black icing facial features and buttons, orange icing pull-out dot nose and brown icing arms.
8. On hat cookies, use black cookie icing to outline and fill in. Add red cookie icing hatband. Attach hat to main cookie with dot of icing.

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