CookieD-oh

Well, not really.  But he is pretty darned smart.  And since he's only 8, his little brain isn't polluted by images of the way things SHOULD be.  For example:  I cut out a baseball cap cookie in order to make this for a baby shower platter: Please excuse the poor piping.  I was having squiggle issues with a Wilton #1 tip.  I need more PME tips.  Like, for real. Anyway, the boy looked at the little naked ball cap cookie cooling on the rack and said, "Why did you make a bird?"  I replied that I had done no such thing and asked him to explain himself. Well, long story short, he tried but I couldn't see it.  I'm really bad at alternate uses for cookie cutters.  The best I ever managed was turning a surfboard into a needle and thread.  But that's another post entirely. I gave him the edible markers and asked him to draw what he saw.  This is what he gave me: Isn't it great?!?!  If I ever want to do something...

Just a generic boy shower cake for a girl at work that I don't know.  :-)  I get volunteered for lots of stuff.  Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and chocolate fondant bow and accents.  Enjoy!

I just like to put ninjas into everything these days.  My son is a bad influence.  He's very into ninjas these days.  (Thanks, Ninjago...you're the best!)  He put a sign on his bedroom door that says "Ninja Dojo".  In 8-year-old boy printing.  It's adorable. Anyhoo, the lady at church, Lisa, who is having the boy, got a platter of cookies at our last bible study of the summer.  She's due very soon, so I was glad she waited to get the cookies before giving birth :-) As usual, I didn't take pictures until I had them wrapped up.  One of these days I'll get this blogging thing down. A couple close-ups: Aaaand, that's it for now. Enjoy!

Toll House Cookies Sometimes, you just have to get back to basics and make great stacks of Toll House cookies. These were the first cookies I ever made, back when I was a little girl helping Mom in the kitchen, and I still love to make them today. Enjoy!

Well, that's an odd combination once I see it written down! A birthday cookie platter for someone who loved the Christmas Ninjas I did this year.  (What?  You have a problem with Christmas Ninjas?  They were precious.  And deadly.) Anyhow, here are some more pictures:   I did not get a photo of the finished platter.  Of course.  Oh well. Enjoy!

Ok, these are not baked goods, but they're cute, so I'm going to post them anyway.  Two ladies at church are getting ready to be new moms, so I made some burp cloths as shower gifts.  The pirates are for a boy (obviously), and the Winnie the Poohs are for a gender unknown. :-)  They're pretty easy to make.  You need some prefold diapers (Gerber will do, although I would never use a Gerber diaper as an ACTUAL diaper...and we used cloth diapers on the girl), a little flannel, some ribbon and some lace.  I can usually get 8 burp cloths out of half a yard of fabric.  And if you're only buying half a yard, you don't feel so bad about getting more expensive fabric.  :-) They give a lot of coverage.  Personally, I love to use them. I am not an expert seamstress by any stretch of the imagination, but if you can sew a straight line, you can make these.  Free tip of the day: Grossgrain ribbon is much easier to deal...

Due to family coming into town/leaving town on different days, I got to make two graduation cakes for the same graduate!  The first cake was for the less formal family-in-from-out-of-town cookout, and included the graduate's school colors.  This next cake was for the official Graduation Party.  The graduate loves Tinkerbell, so she wanted a tinkerbell theme.  Her mother threatened death if a representation of Tinkerbell actually made it onto the cake, so we went with Tinkerbell colors instead. :-) On a side note, I really need to refinish my kitchen table.  But then I'd have to do the chairs, too.  And I don't want to do the chairs. And this is what she asked for.  It's a little much for my taste, but I hear she absolutely loved it.  (I wasn't able to make it to the second party.)  As I seem to say all the time, you can't tell, but it was sparkly because it was liberally sprinkled with Pixie Dust.  For real.  Disco Dust ...

I was supposed to make a wedding cake for a friend, but the wedding was postponed due to a family emergency, so when another friend asked me to make a graduation cake for her daughter, I made a mini version of the wedding cake, just for practice.  And to use my sparkly new cake bling.  That I ordered just for the wedding.  It's not perfect, but it came out ok.  An the cake bling really didn't show up well in any of the pictures I took.  The light in my house stinks.  Even by the windows.  But you'll have to trust me that it was very sparkly. Strawberry cake on the bottom, strawberry and vanilla alternating layers on the top.  Vanilla buttercream. Enjoy!