CookieD-oh

I never knew there was such a thing as Elvis UNO cards (and I do enjoy a good game of UNO), but a friend from church asked me to make some Elvis UNO card cookies. So after she sent me some pictures I realized I couldn't make those cookies because I'm not an artist. So I improvised. Silhouettes seemed to be the way to go. We've got some young Elvis and some old Elvis. I kind of liked the Jailhouse Rock Elvis in the middle. Then I had to explain to my children who Elvis was (ouch). And as a result I've had "Blue Suede Shoes" stuck in my head for DAYS. Two dozen total. Please pay no attention to the Christmas plate. It was unavoidable That's all for now. Enjoy!

I really don't get the baby feet cookie thing. I guess it's just not my bag. But people ask for cookies, and I aim to please. :-) I was rushing and didn't get a good picture. Again. I make more cookies than what I post here.The problem is by the time I'm done making them, I don't feel like taking pictures. I need an on-call photographer. Who makes house calls. Anyhoo, that's all for now. Enjoy!

Actually, it was my church's 50th Anniversary. And how better to celebrate than with cake! And lots of it! Ok, I'll start from the top: 6" Coconut, 8" Lemon, 10" Red Velvet, 12" Almond, 14"Chocolate. It was very heavy. And for my gluten-free friends, gluten-free cupcakes to match! Well, that's all for now! Enjoy!

Themed because I don't do character cakes...I'm not that talented and I don't want to run afoul of copyright laws...I'm funny that way. Cake: Topper: Matching cupcakes: I think there were 30 cupcakes, so I got to make 30+ fondant strawberries. But it was fun. And I think they came out cute. The topper was to be placed, upright, on the cake. But it didn't fit in the box so I left it off. Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. That's all for now. Enjoy!

So when I made macarons for my friend's wedding, I also made sugar cookies. Because that's kind of what I do. I also made some more of the caramel-filled chocolate chip cookie cups ...but that's another post. I did not make the cupcakes. The wedding colors were shades of purple and white, and the theme was butterflies. I was pretty excited that I got to bust out the butterfly stencil I got at CookieCon way back when (not the CookieCon that just happened...the one before that). But that's pretty much the only picture I got, so this is going to be a short post. That's all for now. Enjoy!

So I spent a few weeks trying to conquer the French Macaron. It wasn't easy. There were lots of failures, both epic and not-so-epic. But the end result was worth it! What do you think? Not perfect, but not too shabby. Lavender Macarons with lemon curd filling. Quite tasty.  A while back we drove up to a little lavender farm just outside Cleveland. We bought some culinary lavender and I'd been holding onto it, just sort of waiting for the opportunity to use it.  Then a friend from church asked me to make cookies for her wedding (!). Then I found out her colors were purple and white (!). My lavender suddenly had purpose!! The only problem was, I had never made a macaron in my life. And I had heard they were difficult, to say the least. So I set out on my macaron journey. I pinned pins, I watched YouTube videos, and I made batch upon batch of macaron batter. Some turned out ok. (These were filled with mint chocolate buttercream.) Some, not ...