Recent Happenings

Hi all!  I know it's been a while since I've posted, so I thought I'd share with you a few of the fun things I've been up to lately.  I have been trying some new recipes (brown butter chocolate chip cookies!), so here are a few photos of the end result as well as some cookies I've been working on for a Texas themed bachelorette party.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yellow Cake with Buttercream Icing

Yellow Cake with Buttercream Icing

Gobble Gobble

German Themed Cookies

 

Smile!

 

Dog themed Birthday



Collie and Yellow Lab Sugar Cookies

Two-layer Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

Latest Creations

I've been a bit busy on the cookie decorating front these past couple of weeks. I have a bit of quiet time until it's go time for Thanksgiving. I'm excited to plan the menu for desserts!

What do you have in mind for Thanksgiving dinner? Have you given it thought?

 

 

 

 

Racing Themed Birthday Cookies

Luck of the Irish!

Happy belated St. Patrick's Day!

Ahoy! Brendan Turns 5!

My nephew Brendan turned 5 this past weekend and he had a pirate themed party. Take a look at the cookies I created!

Merry Christmas!

An Owl-Themed Birthday Party

A very special little girl turned 1 last week and her mom asked me to bake cupcakes and sugar cookie favors for her birthday party. The theme of the party was owls with a pink and brown color scheme. I immediately began googling images of owl cookies and decided to follow an adorable idea I found on The Adventures of Sweet Sugarbelle.  Her work is always beautiful and I feel so inspired every time I visit her site.

If any of you have decorated sugar cookies with royal icing, you know it is a lengthy process that requires decent time management skills.  The main reason I haven't started a side business for baking is that I am a procrastinator and this time was no different!  I baked the cookies Wednesday night and I should have started decorating on Thursday, but I was just lazy and didn't start until Friday afternoon.  I also decided to bake cookies in the shape of a number one just to make the favors extra special.  That meant twice as many cookies to decorate in one afternoon!  To say I was stressed would be an understatement, but I think I ended up managing my time nicely and I was pleased with the results.

Luckily, since I had to let the owls dry for a bit before I added the details, I was able to bake the cupcakes while the cookies dried.  I saved the frosting until the next morning so that they would be nice and fresh.  I decided to bake both chocolate and vanilla since I love both, but I have to say the chocolate cupcakes were the best I'd made!  I used my stand-by recipe, which is from my mom, but this time, the cupcakes baked up perfectly.  I think they were also the favorite at the party.  I had originally planned to make little icing owls to top the cupcakes, but my poor time management skills got the best of me!

As a surprise the the birthday girl's mom, I decided to make a special cookie for family and close friends.  I had Aubrey's face printed on wafer paper so that I could put her adorable little face on a cookie.  I've always said she was so cute I could eat her up, and now I can!  :)

Overall, I was happy with how the cookies and cupcakes looked.  Not to brag, but I got rave reviews from the party-goers!  I think the birthday girl really enjoyed her first cupcake!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, AUBREY!!!

Winter Wonderland Sugar Cookies

Hi!  Long time, no blog!  I hope you all had a great Christmas.  I can't believe it's already New Year's Eve!  This was my first Christmas that I decorated sugar cookies.  While I'm still not an expert, I am happy with the results.  Practice makes perfect, right?

I decided to stay with a pink/white/blue theme for the cookies because I feel like it's wintry and it's a nice departure from the typical red/white/green combination.  In keeping with the wintry theme, I decorated snowflakes, snowmen and mittens.  I decorated stockings and trees as well because I think they're pretty standard when it comes to Christmas.  The sanding sugar really makes them pop and adds to the winter feel!  Like I said, I'm not an expert at decorating sugar cookies, but I think these came out cute and I was happy to share with my friends and family!

I'm off to do some baking for New Year's dinner.  Have a safe and happy 2012!!!