More Babys!

I am seriously in love! Head over heals in love! With the richest chocolate sugar cookies! I love these new cookies I just made! They were awesome to work with and I paired them with an almond oil and lemon juice flavored royal icing! Yum! Yum! Yum! I want everyone to get to eat these! A sweet lady I know just found out that she is expecting a new grandbaby; a girl! I thought these would be sweet for her to send to her family. I am a little afraid, yea afraid, of the teddy bears! I  think they could use a little improving. But they worked okay this time around! Again, I just have to say, Yum! Yum! Yum!

A world of thanks!

I wanted to make some thank you cookies for our friend Liesle who was brave enough to watch Isacc on a moments notice! And also recently helped with operation rescue the dog and fish while we were out of town! I made the first few of square "thank yous" and then after the fact thought how cool it would be to make something a pinch more creative. I got the idea while looking for a thank you card and there was one with all the different ways to write thank you around the world! Cool huh! I thought so at least! I made these with a great cake-like dough that was a little difficult to work with but tasted fantastic. And a royal icing flavored with cheesecake oil and lemon juice. Rich and delich! I do think that some of the designs worked better than others to write on; leaving some of the thank yous looking kinda scraggly. Also after going through the pictures again I felt like I could have cleaned up the lines a bit on the outlining too! Over all I am thrilled with the concept and if do it again know what to do and not to do! On a side not we added more to the pot if you will in our family! That's right, I am the proud mother of two bearded dragons, Arnie and Barnabas. That brings the grand total to 5 animals; Bernard the fish, Dewey the hermit crab, and Molly the wiener dog to finish out the gang! What an fun bunch huh! 

Flowers for a friend!

My sweet neighbor who is a stay at home mom of 4 (brave!) just recently had mayor back surgery! So I wanted to make her a little something to lift her spirits. I couldn't afford to ship her kids off for a month during her recovery, so I guess cookies are the next best thing right! :) Tulips for a friend to say - get better soon! 

Cookies today and Cookies tomorrow!

I think these girlie cookies of so fantastic! I made them for my sister that owns/work her own salon. I thought the idea when I saw the cookie cutters was fantastic. One trick I really enjoyed doing was painting the mirrors with the silver dust. I first iced them in a white. Then I mixed a pinch of Vodka in with the dust and painted it in. I hope it really does resemble a mirror. Then we have also the hair blow dryer and the round brush. And then I just did a few circles of her salon's name. A success I think!

Freedom!

I made these for the 4th of July celebration this year! I love the 4th. It is one of my favorite holidays. Simply because there is just something surreal about laying on a blanket, barefoot under the stars, snuggling up to a loved one, and watching a huge display of fireworks! I think we should celebrate that way once a month! So for these cookies I looked up a map of the states and then tried; emphasis on the word tied, to draw in the shapes of them. I think I got away with it because of the sheer tiny size of things and so it is not easy to pick up on any mistakes! Oh and on a side note, If you are the fantastic people whom create/sell the multitude of "light-em up toys" for kids at the fireworks. Ie. a light-up band of sword. Do they really need to be so expensive? I about soiled myself when they guy told me $7 for the small one! Of course that didn't stop my from treating my boy to the biggest one! I had to make sure he was cool with the handful of other little boys he was playing with! But now I have to find a way to explain to him that it only lasts for the one night! Guess we have to wait till next year. Maybe by then I will have mastered the art of tracing in the United States of America!

I DO ...love cookies!

I wanted to try a few other wedding ideas that were a little more playful than the cakes I recently did. I thought these designs looked cute. I wish I would have done something similar for favors for my wedding! The wedding dresses took some patience to get the sparkle in just the right spot and no where else! Especially when you have a little boy pulling at you leg and saying "hold you Mommy." So sweet the way kids put things isn't it? I stopped a handful of times to hold him by the way and found out in the end that he was just trying to get close to the cookies and I was just a means to an end! After 2 cookies he walked back int he kitchen covered in icing and told me, "Now that was just delicious!" I love it! 

B.A.B.Y.

Once again I prove to have culinary ADHD! I just love to try new doughs and icings. I am still just looking for "the one!" We'll I may have found the incing that I wanna stick with for a while. I know you've heard this before, but seriously! The dough had some qualities that I liked, but not the last trial with it for sure! I used a fairly thin royal icing with meringue powder instead of egg whites. It dried very quickly and I am thrilled with the finish is has. It is not as shinny as my other icing. I will need some more practice with it before I can be comfortable doing allot of detail. The dough had a bit of brandy in it which made is rich and delicious! Also there was hardly any baking powder so it kept the shape nicely! But, I over-cooked, under-cooked, over-worked the dough all night and so I am surely in the beginner's stage with this dough. If I was more seasoned with it, it would be perfect. Or could it have been the brandy? Anyways, I made a handful of baby stuff for my husband to take to an employee of his that he just found out is expecting! I love things for babies! And hopefully these cookies will be great for her too!

Cookies on the green.

I enjoyed making this week golf themed cookies for a 30th birthday party on the Golf Course. I couldn't find a golf bag cookie cutter anywhere and so I improvised and used a cupid shaped cutter and cut off the arrow on the ends! I t worked great! Hahaa! I also used a few round circles to add a couple golf balls and a few putting greens.  I enjoyed this project because it was easy and still creative and I was happy with the result! So I think I can confidently state that my cookie game is much better than my golf game!

Have your cookie and eat it too!

I got to enjoy the excitement of a "hard core" bakery this week. And by enjoy I mean spending long into the night hours of frustration standing in 90 degree heat and having to throw a whole batch a dough away because it basically just melted when I was rolling it out! Yep that was pure enjoyment! On the upside, after a few screaming sessions, (and a shot :), I made more dough and it baked off just fine. I went to bed late but woke up with a new sense of determination as I returned to the bakery the next morning to decorate the cookies. Only snag in this idea, a 21/2 yr old "helper" that I had to bring along. So son, if you are reading this years from now I want you to know that I am extremely proud of you and how good you were that day! You "iced" your own few cookies and "put them in the oven for a bake!" And you played with your Spiderman under the table for most of the time. However, I would have gotten things done allot faster if I didn't have to stop every few minutes to get you a drink, a snack, take you to the potty, or just to "look Mommy!" Nonetheless I seamed to be able to put out a decent product despite all the previous drama. What were you doing out of your dainty, air-conditioned home kitchen you may ask? I was making wedding cake cookies for a wedding open house at my husbands restaurant. They booked a handful of deals so I think it was successful! Hooray! I had the cookies match in theme and colors to the table designs of the open house.  I used my regular cookie dough and icing. I have tried lots of different variations, but I think that most people prefer the original stuff! And by most people I mean my lovely husband! I was pleased with the taste and result of the cookies. However, every time I make something, I always think about how I could have done it different and/or better. There is not an exception here. I would like to do a bit of a change in color scheme and a thicker icing. And ideally with a peaceful, temperature controlled, child monitored space!