C.A.T.

My mother-in-law works for Caterpillar and she ordered 3 dozen trucks for a going away party they were having for one of her co-workers. He apparently is a big Superman fanatic so we made one large superman cookie for him too! When my son saw the cookies he asked me, "Mommy what are all these caterpillars about?' So funny; and he always wants to "taste" each cookie order he sees being made! What a good little helper!

Wedding Wonderland!

I had the great opportunity do do some cookies for a wedding open-house that my husband was hosting at his restaurant. Unfortunately I was sick the whole day and felt like my head was a balloon trying to disconnect itself with the rest of my body. But I did not let that deter me! I pushed forward and produced awesome products! And after standing on my feet for 9 hours straight and not stopping to pee or eat; the results were positive!I made two types of cookie dough, white sugar and chocolate. Both were topped with a lemon royal icing. I also offered a yellow butter cake mini-cupcake with a basic butter cream icing and a mini fondant wedding cake topper covered in white dusting sugar. YUMMY!

Flowers

My sweet neighbor ordered a dozen flowers to send to her daughter-in-law for her birthday! I hope that they got there in one piece and tasted beautifully! I did a few different flowers and used a thick icing to give it some different textures. I can't say I dislike these; but I will admit they are not my most prideful array of cookies I have produced to date. Of course they taste awesome, but I think if I had the time I may have scraped them and started again with new icing! Such as it goes, I am sure the birthday girl was thrilled to have such a yummy present!

CHEERful cookies!

I was thrilled to make cookies for Urbana Cheerleaders. Really thrilled until I realized the only cookie cutter I had that resembled a girl or a cheerleader in any form looked like an overweight old lady shape. (And I mean no disrespect to those of us that have given up on our metabolism.)  So I visited 4 different stores in the area praying I would find the right cutter ( you have seen it, the girl holding pom-poms and kicking up a foot)! But to no avail I found that my only option for a figure-conscious pom-pom holder was online. And with a 48 hour notice, that was a no-go! Before baking I googled Urbana High-School Cheer because, being a soccer player myself, I had no clue what the uniform was to look like. I had to spend a good hour tracing before I felt content with the design. I tried just one with the original girl cutter and my husband responded with, "what's that?" I realized I was time to move in a new direction, for the sake of the cheerleaders and my own sanity! So I improvised with a dress cutter, rectangle cutter, party hat cutter, and small circle. I think the results turned out to be fantastic. And for the future, I have ordered the ever popular cheerleader cookie cutter! 

HOTDOG!

This cookie order was close to my heart because I have a beloved wiener dog named Molly! She is my 4 year old little lady and we call her the 1st born! And she has no problems living up to the challenge of her nick-name! A friend of mine in high school's mother ordered these for him as a fun thing and then in the same week he got engaged! So the wedding cakes were an extra I did to celebrate the good news! I used my regular sugar cookie dough and a citrus and almond butter flavored royal icing on top! 

GO TEAM ILLINOIS!

Ironically I got an order for a dozen Illini football helmets the same week that my sister, who works at the football office for the U of I, invited my son to come check things out! He loved it! All he kept saying was. "Wow! This is for football players!" He left happy as could be and loaded down with Illini football gear galore! He decorated himself in orange and blue stickers and filled his pockets with game schedule cards! It was great! These cookies are being sent overseas to a young lady serving in the army! She is also celebrating a recent promotion so I made a few congratulatory cookies against camo-styled squares as well! Hope they get to her safe and still tasty! 

It's a bug's life!

Hello Blog World! I have been off-line for a bit, but still be cooking things up in the kitchen! Much life has been happening on the home front. But the biggest news flash is that one of our very beloved pets has passed. Dewey our crap has moved on to the great big ocean in the sky! R.I.P. dear Dewey! My son is recuperating well to the thought of a replacement pet of some kind, yet to be determined! I think there should be some crab cookies made in the near future to honor our little pal! In keeping with the :little creatures" theme I recently made more of the ladybug cookies. I love these ladybug cookies! They are so fun to make! These were for a 3 year old girls birthday and I made the little cakes as extra just for fun! I have officially; well most likely; settled on a set of doughs that I haven't wavered from in the past few recent weeks and handful of orders. I can use this dough with a regular sugar, brown sugar, or chocolate variation. Also I am settled on the royal icing I have been using but am trying out new flavors often! These were made with a lemon and butter flavored icing and taste so rich and yummy!  

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!