McCormick, Mixed and Peppermint Marshmallows

What do McCormick, Mixed and Peppermint Marshmallows have in common? More than you think, and it all started when I attended Mixed back in November. Mixed is a fabulous food blogging conference held in the scenic mountains of Virginia. And not just any scenic mountain, but the very same mountain and lodge where the iconic movie, Dirty Dancing, was filmed.

So, yeah, it was pretty fabulous.

While at Mixed, I had the chance to meet Alan Richardson and Karen Tack who are the authors of Hello, Cupcake!, What’s New, Cupcake? and Cupcakes, Cookies and Pie, Oh, My!, all of which are adorable and incredibly inspiring dessert cookbooks, if you’re looking for some whimsical sweets. Karen and Alan were there along with the great folks at McCormick to share tons of ideas with us bloggers about adding dashes of flavor and color to our holiday treats…all year long.

This was one of my favorite breakout sessions because it not only inspired ideas for Jelly Toast, but it gave me so many ideas of treats and goodies that I could make at home with my kiddos, for any occasion during the year.

Take for instance, this rainbow cake. This cake has the Baby written all over it and I am earmarking it for her 5th birthday next year. Seriously, it’s almost too cute.

And this Ombre Cake? It needs no words, but I am seriously in need of some improved piping skills before I attempt it. (see my efforts below):

Yeah…I’m not quite up to Karen and Alan’s level yet, but I’m determined to get there!

Speaking of Karen and Alan, they were so full of ideas on how to use McCormick food coloring and flavor extracts to create beautiful and delicious spins on classic treats, it was unbelievable. Alan is a candy artist, I kid you not.

The sweet people at McCormick shared a box of goodies that included a fantastic selection of food coloring, flavor extracts and baking cups and accessories to help inspire us bloggers to get in the kitchen this holiday season and whip up some treats packed with color and flavor.

Needless to say, my kiddos were completely on board.

We decided to whip up a batch of pretty pink Peppermint Marshmallows that would go perfectly in a piping hot cup of cocoa on a snowy day – which is exactly what we did. I took a trusted marshmallow recipe from Alton Brown and switched out the vanilla extract for McCormick Peppermint Extract and added several dashes of McCormick Red Food Coloring.

I also decided to spread these marshmallows out onto a larger pan with the intent of cutting them into cute little snowflake shapes using my handy dandy snowflake cookie cutter. Well, things don’t always go as planned and my snowflake cutter was no where to be found. Until 3 days later, at least.

Well, we rolled with it and decided to slice these up with my pizza cutter and had deliciously adorable results. Plus the large surface area of the marshmallows had them floating delightfully in our hot chocolate. So, it was a win win situation.

I also made a video to demonstrating the different steps of these Peppermint Marshmallows, including the most important step – enjoying them!!

I hope you liked it!

Happy New Year!!

**Disclaimer – McCormick provided me with an awesome assortment of flavor extracts and  and food colors for me to share some holiday ideas with you. All opinions expressed are purely my own! Enjoy!