40 Bites! (bites... get it?)

I had a client contact me to make some cookies for her husband's 40th birthday. She had seen a cookie cutter that looked like it had a bite taken out of it and asked if I could make something similar. He was not handling the transition out of the 30s well so she wanted to do something kinda funny. I did 40 of the round cookies, each with a "bite" taken out of it. Then we did a plaque cookie with her joke message to her husband. She wanted me to surprise here with the flavors so I wanted try something new. I'd never been able to pull of chocolate chip cookies so I thought this would be a good time to change that :) It took 2 failed attempts but I think I finally got them right. The other flavor was vanilla bean with lemon icing... some thing a little more light and refreshing. We were originally going to put 40s on all the smaller cookies but she didn't want to rub in the age thing too bad so we decided to do plain frosting with sprinkles (because everyone likes sprinkes, right?). She was taking them on a trip over the weekend, I can't wait to hear how they were received by her husband.

Face to Face Spa... Member's wine and dine

My friend convinced me to go and get a facial last weekend for the first time. She has been going to this spa in Avery Ranch for the past few months and loved it so I thought I'd give it a try. I gave it a shot and had a wonderful experience. If you're in the austin area, give them a shot (they give first time guest a great discount). We were waiting in the lounge waiting to check out and I started talking to the owner, Jenny, who was telling me about her member get-togethers she does every month. I've been trying to be more bold in telling people what I do, so I pulled out a card and started my pitch. I didn't even get further than, "I make custom sugar cookies" before she opened her check book and told me to bring her some that weekend. She said she usually just orders stuff from HEB (our local grocery store) and this would be a lot more fun.

I was given the chance to make anything I thought appropriate, so this is what I came up with. Their logo has a fuchsia orchid so I wanted to so something to reflect their company image. It was a really quick turn around so I knew I needed to do something simple but I still wanted them to look cute and elegant... I love the little silver nonpareils, they work for so many things :)

Birthday Mooses

My mother's nickname is "Moose." She's been called that for years, but recently my parent's decided to join the Moose Lodge, so now she's a double moose :) Her birthday was coming up and she'd given me this moose cookie cutter at Christmas "just in case I wanted to make some moose cookies" (hint, hint). So I decided to go for it. I took her moose head and added a party hat to it, then I took another moose cookie cutter I had and just used his antlers to attach to a cupcake. These also were my first attempt at chocolate chip cookie dough... well not my first attempt, but my first successful one. I didn't tell her they were coming, in fact I sent them late just so she wouldn't expect them. She thought they were hilarious and immediately took them to the lodge to share. I had a lot of great comments on these, I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't the last moose birthday cookies I do.

Rylee's 8th Birthday

I got an email from a friend of a friend asking if I could do some cookies for her daughter's birthday party. Her colors were Pink and Green and she wanted music, guitars, and zebra stripes. She mentioned Justin Beiber but I didn't really want to go there. My original idea was a zebra striped music note but I looked everywhere for a music note cookie cutter and somehow everyone in town was sold out. It was getting down to the wire so I had to do a last minute substitution. I sat down with my sketchbook to figure out what I was going to do and these came out almost exactly like my sketch. I had the privilege of delivering these to them today and Rylee was soooo excited. Their whole house was zebra, cheetah, tiger... you name an animal print and they probably had it, so these fit in great. I know I did more than the mom asked for but I really wanted to make something fun for the girls and I couldn't resist (plus they make a great pic for the blog, don't you think?).

(This pic is from Rylee's mom. I love the zebra platter! Maybe I need to get one of those, it makes the whole theme way more fun :)

Valentine's Day Assortment

Since this was my first Valentine's Day to make cookies, I made a bunch :) Here is a short list of the random hearts that came out of my kitchen this week...

These are on their way to a nursing home that takes care of our great aunt. I wasn't sure of the gender mix there so we wanted to do something a little less traditional pink and red. The text is done with stamps I found at a scrapbook shop, I love that I found multiple messages in the same style so they could say different things.

This was my first time playing with brush embroidery techniques. I wanted to do some simple, yet pretty, cookies for R.O.C.K Horses for Heroes that we were serving Valentine's Day dinner to. We had a set of cookies for each person waiting for them on their place setting at the table, I had a few left over that went home to spouses :)

These were my "have fun with left-over" cookies. I always make more cookies than I need (in case I stick a finger in one) so I had extra blanks. I just played with these and did something quick and simple. I'd never tried to do a scalloped border before but overall they were fun and I had extras to share with friends.

I "Ruv" You

So a friend called and wanted to order some cookies for his wife. I tried to ask all the standard questions but I was getting some odd answers, finally I just asked him to trust me  :) He mentioned that his wife liked chocolate and snicker-doodles. I immediately wanted to try and figure out how to get snicker-doodle flavor into the cookies and I think I nailed it. These were delicious! The only hint I got as to the design was that she liked Boston Terriers and bluegrass music. I wasn't quite sure where to go with the bluegrass but I had lots of ideas for the terrier. This was one of those orders that I was really excited to get done, I still can't get over how cute these were. I was DYING to find out how the wife liked them... he told me it was torture waiting with them on his desk all day but it was all worth it in the end because she loved them.

Hugs and Kisses from Texas

A dear friend of mine is in the hospital right now. His wife (and my old college roommate) is from Hershey Pennsylvania. She LOVES Hershey. I had the idea to try and make her and her kids a box of "hugs and kisses" as a thinking of you gift. I love that the "kisses" were chocolate and the "hugs" were vanilla cookies :) This was my first time playing with fondant that I used for the little tags, and my first time trying to paint metallic silver. I was a process but I could not be happier with these. They came out exactly how I envisioned them in my head, how often does that happen? I've been really busy this week send out lots of surprise boxes out to people but this one is extra special. Lots of love went into these cookies and I just know they are going to love them.

I am going to make another set for my son's school with more personalized "tags" coming off the kisses. I was surprised how easy the fondant was to work with, definitely a new toy I'm going to have to keep playing with ;)

Birthday St. Patrick's Day cookies

I have a friend... she is from Jersey but she thinks she's from Ireland. She loves all things Irish, British, Scottish... basically anything with a European accent :) Her birthday is always just before St. Patrick's Day so in school we'd always buy up all the St. Patrick's Day decorations to use to decorate, even though we'd be a few weeks early. I saw these cookies on Lila Loa's blog (see posting here) and immediately thought of my friend and knew I had to try them. They are not as pretty as hers but I think these are super cute and really easy to recreate. She always tries to tell everyone that she has a friend that makes cookies. Even though she's never had one, I think she's my biggest fan... so it was about time she got to sample the product she's always talking about. I'll let you know how she liked them but I'm super excited to hear when she gets her box.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you... I made the cookies :)

I am surprising my husband's uncle with cookies for his birthday (I hope he doesn't see this before his box arrives). I had a million ideas but ended up just trying to make some fun "birthday" cookies so he could share them with his friends. I love the way the square cookies came out. I've been trying to do more with painting details and I loved how fun they ended up looking... so much easier with a brush than a marker. Since he's never had any of my cookies before, or seen them in person, we wanted to throw a little of everything at him, all my tricks in one box. The cupcakes came out super cute and are by far my favorite. There is something about rainbow sprinkles that just make the inner kid in you smile.

Baby Shower... Babies?

So I wanted to make some bite sized cookies for a baby shower we were having at my office. I saw something similar to these online (I'm sorry but I cannot remember where I saw them). Whoever it was made a pile of tiny faces and they were very cute. I wanted to make mine a little bigger than hers and I loved the idea of giving them rosy cheeks. Coming up with the expressions was fun, can you find the ones making a poopy face? Since they were having a boy and I ran out of flesh colored icing, I decided to compliment them with some nice denim colored cookies as well and once I saw them all together I was really happy to have that little bit of color on the plate.

See more pics here