CORNEY COOKIES, TEPEE CUPCAKE, GOBBLING-GOOD CUPCAKES, MARSHMALLOW PILGRIM HATS, SWEET T.O.M. TURKEYS,

All of These are super easy and fast to make. The children will have a blast showing off their artistic ability.

CORNEY COOKIES

These candy-topped treats are a blast for kids to help decorate for your feast -- or a Thanksgiving school party. You can use the sugar cookie recipe here or store-bought dough.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Vanilla frosting
Green fruit leather
M&M's or Reese's Pieces candies

DIRECTIONS:

Using an electric beater, cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in the flour a little at a time until the ingredients are well combined. Chill the dough for several hours or overnight.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Divide the dough into 3 parts. Working on a floured surface with one part at a time, roll out the dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. Using a knife, cut out corncob shapes about 4 inches long. Place the cookies on ungreased baking sheets and bake for 9 minutes or just until the edges brown. Let the cookies set on the sheets for about 2 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frost the cooled cookies. Next, use kitchen shears to cut husks from the fruit leather to fit the sides of each cookie. Press the husks in place atop the frosting, with the tips down a bit. Now fill in the middle with candy kernels gently pressed into place. Makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies

SWEET T.O.M. TURKEYS


Candy corn plumes and shortbread wings turn cupcakes into irresistible turkey sweets for Thanksgiving.

INGREDIENTS:

Cupcake
Chocolate frosting
3 oval shortbread cookies (we used Keebler Sandies Right Bites Shortbread)
6 to 10 candy corn pieces
White icing
Black decorators' gel
Red fruit leather (we used strawberry Fruit by the Foot)

DIRECTIONS:

Frost the cupcake, then press in a cookie head and 2 cookie wings.
Press in a row or two of candy corn tail feathers.
To make an eye, add a small dot of white icing to the head, then add a dot of black decorators' gel for a pupil.
For a beak, cut the white tip from a piece of candy corn and press it in place.
To make the wattle, cut a 1-inch square of fruit leather. Roll it into a tube and stick it in place over the beak.

GOBBLING-GOOD CUPCAKES

If you want to hatch a novel holiday dessert that your kids can help make, these tasty turkeys fit the bill. They're also great for a classroom party.

INGREDIENTS:

24 frosted cupcakes
24 Nutter Butter cookies
2-3 tablespoons of white frosting or decorator's gel
Mini chocolate chips
Fruit leather, various flavors and colors
toothpicks

DIRECTIONS:

To make each turkey, press the lower portion of a Nutter Butter cookie into a frosted cupcake for the bird's head.
Use tiny dabs of frosting to stick on mini-chocolate chip eyes and a red fruit leather wattle.
For each turkey's tail, use a butter knife to cut out a dozen feather shapes (about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide) from fruit leather.
Lay 6 of the feather shapes on a flat surface and place a wooden toothpick lengthwise atop each so that one end of the toothpick extends about an inch below the feather. Layer another fruit leather feather layer atop each of the 6 shapes, sandwiching the toothpicks between them.
Press the 2 layers together to make them stick, then fringe the edges of the feather with a butter knife. Now your child can stick the colored feathers into the cupcake behind the cookie head.

T IS FOR TEPEE CUPCAKE

Kids will gather around for these tepee cupcakes.


INGREDIENTS:

1 cupcake
1 large cupcake
Brown frosting
3 thin pretzel sticks
Red whip licorice
Orange fruit leather

DIRECTIONS:

Unwrap both cupcakes and, with both upside down, stack the smaller atop the larger, with icing in between.
Frost the stack.
Insert the 3 pretzel sticks at angles so they cross at the top, tying them together with licorice.
Wrap the fruit leather "hide" around the cupcakes and, using a writing tip, decorate it with designs

MARSHMALLOW PILGRIM HATS

Here's a treat that looks old-fashioned but is made with two favorite modern-day sweets: marshmallows and chocolate.

INGREDIENTS:

24 chocolate-striped shortbread cookies
12-ounce package of chocolate chips
24 marshmallows
tube of yellow decorators' frosting

DIRECTIONS:

Set the chocolate-striped cookies stripes down on a wax-paper-covered tray, spacing them well apart.
Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave or double boiler.
One at a time, stick a wooden toothpick into a marshmallow, dip the marshmallow into the melted chocolate, and promptly center it atop a cookie.
Using a second toothpick to lightly hold down the marshmallow, carefully pull out the first toothpick.
Chill the hats until the chocolate sets, then pipe a yellow decorators' frosting buckle on the front of each hat.
Recipes from Family Fun