Bake sale preview... round 1

Last night I finished 18 Texas flags, 12 stacked sunflowers, and about 4 dozen Texas cookie "bites." Tonight is going to be fall leaves, something new :) I'm getting excited about dropping these off on Saturday, I hope it turns out to be a great sale. If you're interested in attending the sale, check out http://austinbakes.wordpress.com/ or their twitter page @austinbakes.

I'm baking for Bastrop :)

Austin Bakes for Bastrop is a group that is organizing a SEVEN location bake sale this Saturday all around Austin. Everything is donated and all proceeds to go benefit the victims of the recent wildfires here in Bastrop. I was very excited to get an email from Kathryn this evening inviting me to participate with bunch of very talented bakers that are all doing something to try and help. If you are out and about this Saturday please check out the website and find a sale near you. I will be updating with pics, so far I plan to make a dozen and a half Texas flags, some fall leaves in a new brown sugar spice flavor cookie I just found, some two flavor sunflowers and a bunch of texas theme "bites." Wish me luck, should be fun :)

I want a purple hedgehog...

Whew! It's been a very busy week and these were so much fun to make, and so girly too. Happy Birthday to Ms. Finn, who turned one on Tuesday and is having a petting zoo themed party this weekend. Her mom's favorite color is purple so since Finley can't talk yet, purple it is. I can't express how happy I am in the way these came out. I just bought a few new fancy icing tips and I can really tell a difference. I can't wait to see how the kids like them... maybe we'll give the hedgehogs one to share ;)

You can see a few more pics here.

UnderToe is under way...

I have a friend of a friend that is starting a business down in Mexico called UnderToe (UnderToeInMexico.com). She is going to be selling toe rings and renting Stand Up Paddle Boards along with floats for cruise ship tourists that visit the small town where she's setting up shop. I helped her create her logo which lead to business cards, post cards, beach flags, banners, koozies, temporary tattoos... you name it, there's a flamingo on it. Carolyn, my friend, wanted hot pink on everything, it was fun project. So when I came across a flamingo cookie cutter in the store the other day, I knew I had to make a handful for my hot pink loving friend. I forgot to take pictures before I gave them away so I was lucky she didn't eat them all in the car on the way home :) These were a blast to do as a just for fun cookie.

Anna and Drew are turning 4!

I got an email from my cousin asking if I could do some semi last minute cookies for her twin's 4th birthday party this week. I my first question was, "what are the kids into right now?" I wasn't quite prepared for the answer... Buzz Lightyear and Princesses... how was I supposed to combine those two things into one cookie? After many, many sketches... I gave up and decided each would get their own cookie instead. So Anna (who's favorite colors are pink and red), got an "A" with a sparkly red crown, Drew (who's favorite color is blue), got a sparkly "D" with Buzz Lightyear wings coming off of it. Then each bag got a big gift cookie as well because it was a birthday party after all and gifts are just part of the fun. This was my first time trying to play with edible glitters... I learned a lot and made a big mess in the process. These are in transit right now, I cannot wait to see how the family likes them :)

Update: Jenny (the mom) totally made my night with a comment on my facebook page when they got their box yesterday..."We just received the cookies and they are amazing!!! Anna and Drew are so excited! Thank you for making their birthday so special!! Everything right down to the packaging is just perfect!! I can't believe you got three in each bag!!!!"

Happy Birthday Wizard 101... 3 years and growing!

We have a small company out here called KingsIsle Entertainment that puts out an amazing game called Wizard 101. It's a massive multiplayer online game for kids (and adults) of all ages, kinda like World of Warcraft meets Harry Potter. If you aren't already one of 20+ million players then you should check it out (Wizard101.com), you can play for free but it's only available on the PC :(.  Okay, enough sales pitch for one day, back to the story. So the game is 3 years old today which is awesome and I'm very proud of my Austin guys for coming up with something special that everyone seems to love so much. I wanted to do something extra special so I decided to make a large arrangement of cookies with all new flavors that would correspond to their 7 schools of magic (Life, Death, Fire, Ice, Myth, Storm, and Balance). I've never done this many cookies at once and I can say it was way more work than I was expecting but so worth it in the end. They ate it up, literally, and loved the new flavors.

On a side note, Texas passed a law that became effective yesterday which legalized home based baking businesses... so I'm now official and legal :) Look for way more news and changes to come, I can't wait to start seeing where this all takes me.

This is what 181 cookies look like, and this was only half!