Lila Loa challenge

Hello All!

I follow LilaLoa.  I love her blog!  Oh, how she can make me laugh!  Plus, her cookies are amazing.  She has a challenge this month to sketch a design and then make the cookies.  I decided to join in the fun.

My girlfriend, Kasey, bought me a new shamrock cutter.  I decided to make a couple designs with it that were inspired by Lila Loa. 

As you can see, I was thinking of using my frame cutter as well.  Couldn't think of what to do with that one :(

I made some shamrocks for Kasey

I then made some round cookies with blue hearts. 

I used gold dust for the outer heart. you can either use vodka or extract to mix with the dust to paint on.  I have always used vodka. We only have the good stuff in the house right now :)

I also tried some pink heart cookies.  I love my AmeriColor Electric Pink!

I had to get both bags ready for I would need to use them one after another for each cookie.

I flooded the cookie with white then put pink dots on right away.

Then I took a toothpick and drug it through all the dots to get the heart look.

Thanks for looking!
Have a great rest of the week :) 

My Favorite Store

Hello All!

I thought I would take a minute and share my favorite store with you. It is Lynn's Cake and Candy Supplies in Fridley, MN.   check her out here  Without them, I would not be baking!  I can't count how many times I have had to stop what I was doing and run up there.  Or, called the store in a frenzy and they have had all the right answers.   So, here is to Lynn and all her wonderful employees!!

What color cupcake liners would you like today?

I think this is where I developed my sprinkles addiction.  There are just way too many to choose from, I must get them all!  This isn't the whole shelf either, this is only half the shelf :)

The wall of cookie cutters!!  My new found love :) 

I love walking in the back of the store where the candy supplies are.  If you are having a bad day, go back there and inhale the wonderful smell!  It is heavenly.  I love her chocolate for it melts so smoothly in a double boiler.

I bought just a few things tonight for this weekend.  I have a baby shower cake due and am hoping to make some cookies for the Super Bowl.  (Yes, those are more sprinkles!)

Please remember to support your local small business!  They are the backbone of America! 
Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Decorating Cookies

Hello All!

When you work with royal icing everything has to be grease free.  You have to clean all your tips, spatulas, bowls etc.  I use vinegar to de-grease everything.  You cannot do that to anything plastic like tupperware or cloth bags.  I used to use a separate plastic bag each time.  Gets to be a little expensive.  I have learned a new trick for piping royal icing.  Karen has a great short video on how to do it: karens cookies

I was in love with it the first time I tried it!  Will never go back.

Lay a sheet of saran wrap on your counter.  Drop some icing in the middle. 

Fold the corners together the triangle way.  Roll it up.

Then do a hard roll, like a wet towel.  Just don't try to smack anyone in the butt with this  :)

Put the icing in your plastic bag that is fitted with a coupler.  Secure the open end with a rubber band.  Snip off the other end and put your desired tip on.  You are ready to pipe!

These were my Christmas cookies.  I made the outline first, then flooded the cookie right away.

 

Hope you have a great day!
Thanks for looking!

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3

Hello All!
I know it has been a while.  I have been busy planning a wedding :)  We are to be wed July 20th 2013.  Lots to do in the next 5 1/2 months! 
I will be making my own cake and cupcakes.  The cake will be a dummy cake, so I can have that done in June.  Paul wants the traditional tiered cake sitting there for looks.  I didn't think it would be so hard for me to pick a design.  I looked for about a week straight for ideas.  I think I finally came up with something. 
The one I found has some stencil work on it.  I have never stenciled on a cake before, so I thought I better start practicing!  I haven't baked since Christmas so I thought I would make my favorite chocolate cake.  It has chocolate chips mixed into the buttercream in the middle.

I had some royal icing left over from Christmas.  I mixed it a little to make sure there were no lumps.

I put the stencil on the top of the cake and used my straight edge spatula to smooth on the icing.

Peel off the stencil and I was done!  Not too shabby for the first time :)

I tried the side of the cake.  That was a little trickier.  The stencil was smaller which made it harder to handle and stay in place.

I then made some cake pops from the leftovers.  I thought I would show you the difference between dipping once vs twice in chocolate.

 

I hope you all have a great weekend!

 

Thanks for looking!

Christmas time

Hello All!

I know I am a little late with posting, but it has been a busy, hectic time!  We hosted our first Christmas here in our new home on 12-23-12 with Paul's family.  I made Tetrazzini and dessert.  I have wanted to do a dessert table for a while now, but haven't had a reason to.
I wanted to keep with a few colors, red, green and white. 

I made one of my favorite cupcakes: Red Velvet.  Don't you just love my new cake stand :)

Paul's favorite are white chocolate covered oreos.  I used leftover Royal Icing to give them a little color.

I made sugar cookies.  Stockings and presents.  I learned a new trick with icing bags for Royal Icing that I will post another time.

 

I also had red and green M&Ms

I was super happy with how it turned out! 

Hope you all have a great New Years!
Thanks for looking!

Merry Christmas!

Hello All!

Back story:  Paul and I met July 2005.  I worked with his friend Peter.  Peter introduced us.  We all three went to see the new Batman movie.  Afterwords, we went back to Paul's and hit it off. 

It has been an amazing 7 1/2 years :)  We bought a house this August.

It is Christmas eve. We have had two Christmas dinners these past two days. We were not suppose to exchange gifts till tomorrow. I am very impatient. I made Paul open his gifts tonight :) I got him a Blichmann Beer Gun and accessory kit for his new kegerator.




Anyhoo, Paul gave me my present..

Inside....

Paul was on his knee with the ring :)

I was surprised!  And I am a baker, so I must say it with cake

Hope you all have a Christmas!!

Thanks for looking!

Bake Sale

Hello All!

My girlfriend Katie and I participated in a bake sale last week.  My work puts on a craft and bake sale for all the employees every December.  I sold cupcakes last year.  I asked Katie if she would like to join me this year in selling cookies.  We picked 4 different designs to make.  We also make a Peppermint Cupcake to sell.

We made some mittens.  Katie brought some white sprinkles that really added to it!

 

We made a tree inspired by http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/  I just love her website!!

 

The presents are also from Sweet Sugarbelle

We also made snowflakes.  They were very fragile, kept breaking on us :(

Katie had an idea for the cupcake frosting.  It was a peppermint buttercream and we wanted the two colors showing.  She told me about putting one color of each in separate bags.

Then I put my big tip in one bag and put the two bags inside.  You have to get them both at the bottom so it will come out in unison.  Worked pretty well!

 

 

Hope you all have a great day!

Thanks for looking.