CookieD-oh

So I got invited to my first Matilda Jane trunk party last week. I had heard of Matilda Jane, sort of, but didn't really know what it was. Turns out it's super cute girls' clothing (big and little girls!). I was asked to make themed cookies, so I had to do a little internet research. I found out later that when Matilda Jane releases a collection, if an item sells out they don't replace it. So at least one of the dresses I based my cookies on was not available by the time the party was held. D'OH! Oh well, I still think they were cute. This was the "Once Upon a Time" collection for fall, and I really enjoyed the colors. These took me out of my comfort zone, too. I tend to do cookies that are similar in style most of the time. These were definitely not my regular style, but they were fun. The girl accompanied me to the trunk show, of course, and she had a wonderful time! She is ALL about clothes right now. *sigh* At 8 she is more fashionabl...

Now that it's almost Father's Day, it seems like a good time to post some Mother's Day cookies. Lemon cookies with lemon royal icing. Three dozen, if memory serves, in some fun spring colors. Well, that's all for now.  Enjoy!

The boy is mildly obsessed with penguins, what can I say? About half the time he wants a penguin on his birthday cake. And since he's my boy, I humor him. So we saw the penguin cake on Pinterest and copied it, only he wanted it to be blue instead of black. I still don't know why. Then he couldn't think of anything to put on the bottom cake, and he really wanted there to be a bottom cake. Since the day of his party was getting close, I suggested an angry polar bear face. He agreed (though he had his doubts) and I think it came out ok. It was definitely unique! We had a combined party for both kids this year and the girl wanted a cat cake. First she wanted a cheetah, because she loves cheetahs, but then she saw a cat cake on Pinterest (I know, I know) and changed her mind. Which was good for me because it was the easiest cake ever. And here they are together: Not a bad day's work if I do say so myself. The penguin was coconut cake, the polar bear was le...

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!

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!

OK, so this isn't baked goods.  But I believe I have already established precedent that says if I have a cute craft project to share, I'll share that as well.  So bear with me while I share a cute craft project. :-) I made this for my niece's birthday. She's quite the talented artist (she comes by it honestly, both of her parents are incredibly talented) and I thought she could use a tote to carry all of her art supplies when she's out and about. The front: The back: The inside: I put just a few art supplies in it for her birthday. Then I filled it up with stuff I found around my house and took a few more pictures. I think she liked it.  I offered to make another one for the girl, but she declined. Oh well. I tried. I found a tutorial on Pinterest. It was a little hard to follow and I made some adjustments along the way, which was kind of a big deal because I'm not exactly a seamstress. But it was a nice weekend project. That'...

One of my coworkers is about to give birth, so we threw her a surprise baby shower. Guess who volunteered to bring cake? I made it to match the napkins. Chocolate cake, of course. Here's a close-up of the bow (in a box and sitting on a non-skid mat for transport): For some reason, I really, really like making fondant bows. I think it's because I loved Play Doh so much as a child. The bow was also sprinkled liberally with disco dust. Sparkly! Here we are spread out over the filing cabinets. And there are the napkins! Another coworker made a diaper cake and topped it with the cutest shoes ever: Anyhoo, it was a fun time.  Lots of food and fun to break up the day. That's all for now. Enjoy!

It seems like there were lots of birthdays this summer. And I made lots of cake.  But didn't take many pictures. For example: I worked really hard on my great-aunt's 80th Birthday cake, and only took two horrible pictures. Here's the better of the two: She's not a pastel buttercream rose kind of gal.  And here you also have a little insight into what my kitchen looks like after a cake. It ain't pretty. Then I took two more bad pictures at the party, so I'll share those, too: Aunt Iva is an Ohio State Buckeye fan, so I made a scarlet and gray cake for her. :-)  As an aside, I love my Agbay .  Best. Tool. Ever. The other two cakes were chocolate.  The one in the foreground had mint chocolate ganache filling.  The one in the back (that you can't see...the pink one) had vanilla buttercream filling. Very tasty all around, if I do say so myself. Anyhoo, that's all for now. Enjoy.

One of the ladies from church asked me to make a cake for her mother's 100th birthday celebration.  I was honored, to say the least.  All she wanted was pink and purple and NO FONDANT. The rest was up to me.  No pressure! Anyhoo, that's what I came up with. It was massive.  14" and very, very heavy.  I make weird roses. I have only made one other 14" cake, and I had forgotten how big that really is. It ended up being too tall for the box so I had to prop the lid open.  It never occurred to me that the cake box wouldn't be deep enough. I felt a little betrayed by the box. Plus 40 cupcakes for the nursing home staff. Because who doesn't like cupcakes? I thought it came out nice, and she loved the cake, so yay! That's all for now. Enjoy!

So there is technically no Barbie on this cake.  In fact, to look at this cake you'd wonder what the heck Barbie has to do with it at all.  Let me explain. The girl has become enamored of "Barbie: Life in the Dream House" on Netflix.  There are 4-ish episodes available to stream.  We may have seen each episode approximately 32 times. But, getting back to the cake, in one of the episodes Chelsea is turning 6.  Chelsea gets a birthday cake.  My precious little princess wanted a replica of Chelsea's cake for her birthday. Chelsea's cake: The girls' cake: Here's the deal.  When I mixed the fondant and started decorating on the morning of the party, the fondant was the shade of pink in the first picture above.  By the time we got to the venue (ok, my brother's house), it had faded to the shade directly above. I was a bit annoyed.  I was out of Americolor Pink, so I used Wilton instead.  Never again. But, it still came out cu...

A friend of mine asked me to make cupcakes and cookies for her daughter's birthday recently.  The theme was Sofia the First. She supplied Sofia cupcake picks for the cupcakes, which was nice.  I forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes.  You can thank me later. But here are the cookies! I have decided that I need a KopyKake. I am no good a freehanding designs.  I ended up tracing a small heart cookie cutter onto the cookies with edible marker, then piping over the outline.  And bagged and beribboned. I don't have a tiara cutter.  Fortunately, the wonderful ladies at Cookiers R Us saved me by suggesting a plaque cutter.  They are actually about 2/3 of a plaque cutter.  Half was too small.  And my girl decided she needed to make a special cookie for the birthday girl so that the birthday girl would be happy. She did a great job!  And used lots of disco dust! That's all for now. Enjoy!

My niece turned 10 recently, and she asked me to make some cookies for her birthday party.  Yay!  My kids never want cookies for their birthdays.  Punks. Anyhoo, the theme of the party was Lego Friends, so here are the cookies I made. The logos were royal icing transfers. They came out a little rough, but they were ok. Lots of blocks.  Easiest. Cookies. Ever. And with all of those dots, I only had six or so craters.  It was a birthday miracle. On the platter for the party. That's all for today. Enjoy!

My, it's been a little while since I've posted.  Things have been rather up-in-the-air around here lately with school starting and our schedules being upended. I'm sure we'll adjust eventually, but right now we're just trying to work it out. A coworker of mine was throwing a bridal shower for her sister and asked me to make cupcakes.  She sent me a photo of some cupcakes and asked me to recreate them. I did my best, and I think they came out kind of cute. They're high heels!  I had never seen such a thing.  If anyone knows who came up with this idea, please, let me know.  They're cupcakes with Milano and Pirouette cookies. Making them fit in a cupcake box was an experience. The lid just barely fit over them without squishing. Anyway, these were a lot of fun, but rather time consuming.  Sorry for the awful pictures.  I fell off the wagon and went back to using my phone.I need to charge my camera. Well, that's all for now. ...

About a year ago a friend of mine asked if I would be willing to make cupcakes as favors for an event her porcelain-painting group was holding. Of course I would be happy to! Fast forward 12 short months, and it's time for the big event. Because the cupcakes were favors and not technically a dessert, my friend thought it would be cute to put them in teacups. I agreed. This is what we ended up with: I thought they came out cute. Half were vanilla and half were chocolate. She needed five dozen, so I had stacks by the time it was all over. There were cupcakes everywhere! I think the purple swirls with the pearls were just about my favorites. I may have been a little more partial to the pink ones. I saw the design over at Bird on a Cake and had to give it a go. The blue ones were fun, too. All-in-all, not a bad cupcake haul! But when it was all done, I had some leftover cupcakes and some extra blue and purple icing.  So I made hydrangeas. Do you...