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 ...

Graduation cakes for a friend's daughter. She's going off to nursing school, so that explains the second one. The first one I forgot to take a picture until it was in the box. I was fighting humidity, so I was afraid to try to take it out again. Just pretend you can see it all.  It was gold and purple. The nursing one wasn't quite so problematic. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

This year the girl wanted a ducky cake for her birthday. She didn't really have a reason, just that she wanted ducks. I think she was trying to copy her brother's turtle cake without being too obvious about it. So I found a ducky cake on Pinterest and shamelessly copied it. She was quite pleased. I took the leftovers to work and people kept asking who was having a baby. Because, really, it's a baby shower cake. But, hey, it made her happy. Especially the giant sunglasses-wearing rubber ducky on top. It lights up. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

Pink and green baby shower cookies. It's a girl! I actually haven't been blogging because I haven't been taking pictures. These were e-mailed to me from the party. Maybe someday I'll get a good camera and learn how to use it. But probably not. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

OK, so not so much flag cakes galore as two flag cakes. One for a friend: That is one ugly tablecloth. And one for a family picnic: And of course, the inside. It worked out a little better this year because I made them smaller and was able to use a 4" cookie cutter to cut the middle out of the blue cake. Much easier than trying to cut a circle with a template and a knife. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

They were celebrating a retirement at my mom's place of employment and she asked me to make some cookies for her. Turns out the retiree is a big Mickey Mouse fan! And it just so happens that my cookie-friend Lisa gave me some genuine, officially licensed Disney cookie cutters a while back. Yay! So as usual, I did not take a picture of the cookies before they left my house. My mom did get one, though, and she sent it to me. I kind of liked how they came out. I did have a couple extras that I got a close-up of. I did not have any extras of the Minnie bow. :-(  So no close-up of that one. I used a butterfly cookie cutter (Thanks, Sugarbelle !!) and did the outlining and details in black to coordinate with the rest of the set. I think I might make these again sometime. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

As usual, I'm a little late, but these are the cookies I did for Easter this year. Simple chick and bunny Peeps. So easy and so cute! In the spirit of impending Spring, I also did some in green and blue, but I didn't take pictures of that batch. Oops. I seriously love these cookies. They're so easy and so cute. Did I say that already? Because it's true. I don't even keep the Peeps cutters with the rest of the cookie cutters. The Peeps live in a kitchen drawer, where they'll be safe. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

Cookies, cookies and more cookies! I've been busy decorating cookies and it's been great! Unfortunately, I'm not so good a taking pictures and posting them. So last month was another Operation Cookie Takeover . I sent a couple dozen cookies out. Various shapes in patriotic colors. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have made red white and blue Peeps cookies since it was around Easter-time. Maybe next year. As usual I forgot to take pictures until after I bagged them.  *sigh* Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

So, if you remember from my last post, I donated some Minion cookies to the kids' school for a basket-raffle fundraiser. Well, the boy's class had a basket, too. His theme was The Ohio State University. So I made some cookies for that, too. Pardon the horrible background. The photos were rushed, as usual. Nothing fancy. Just some footballs, helmets and block "O"s. I've had that football helmet cookie cutter for at least 10 years and this is the first time I've used it. Anyhoo, that's all for now. Enjoy!

The kids' school had a fundraiser recently and one of the fund raisers they employ is a basket raffle. The basket the girl's class made was Minion-themed. So I made cookies. I think I was the only parent that donated an item featuring the purple minions. Oh well. Although these cookies did teach me that I can't make a round circle even with an Art-O-Graph (KopyKake). Again, oh well. That's all for now. Enjoy!

My co-worker Maria asked me to make her some cookies for her birthday. I won't rat her out and announce her age. :-) Again, sorry for the horrible pictures. My husband asked why my phone turned the pictures yellow. Because his doesn't. Even though they're the same phone. Anyhoo, there were candles, cupcakes, party hats and a monogram. The monograms were royal icing transfers and came out pretty nice. Of course, the girl asked me why I didn't use the copy cat. Which was adorable. (And I guess I could have, I just didn't feel like setting it up.) Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

Ha!  Fooled you!  It's not a chocolate and caramel and pecan birthday cake. (Although that would be lovely, in my opinion.)  It's a cake shaped like a turtle!! Because that's what the boy wanted. I was actually quite happy with how it turned out. I got the idea off of Pinterest, of course. The design as a whole is a mash-up of two different cakes that I saw. I wanted to do more on the base cake, but I was literally finishing up the border as we walked out the door. My time management wasn't the best with this one. The square cake is two giant layers of lemon cake, torted, with two layers of home-made lemon curd filling and one layer of buttercream filling. It was gigantic. It stood almost 5 1/2 inches high (not including the turtle on top) and was incredible heavy. I should have weighed it. The turtle is a 6" round cake, vanilla-almond with buttercream filling. We served it at the party and then I took the rest to work on Monday. It was pretty good. I...

I didn't make these until after Valentine's Day.  But I made them! I'm still on the turquoise kick from Christmas. Only this time I added a little Americolor Sky Blue to brighten it up a little.  I'm quite pleased with the results. I got to indulge my weird obsession for wet-on-wet decoration. Then I did some simple piping. Because I'm all about simple. Started to so some more complicated designs, but petered out after the first coats. And tried a fancy camera angle. Not really, but whatever. Anyhoo, that's all for now. Enjoy!

Based on the title of this post, I'm guessing you can surmise what I made. ...aaaand a close-up. ...aaaand the inside. On a sideways chevron plate. You're welcome. Turns out you shouldn't make ganache with chocolate chips because they don't flow correctly. But I didn't have any other chocolate and I wanted to put ganache on my chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. It was kind of a last-minute decision. Took it to work for a potluck. It didn't last long. Anyhoo, it was really good. I made the icing with 1/2 peanut butter, 1/2 butter, but next time I will use less peanut butter because it nearly broke my mixer.  Too thick.  Way, way too thick. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!