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.

Animal Crackers in My... Soup?

Animal crackers in my soup
monkies and rabbits loop the loop,
Gosh, oh gee, but I have fun,
swallowin' animals one by one.

I recently purchased an awesome set of vintage animal cookie cutters from my local antique mall and immediately thought of Bake@350's posting for frosted animal cookies. I know she's not the first or only one to have this idea, I've seen quite a few of them, but hers was the first one that came to mind. 

I have a friend in college that used to eat these thing by the tub full (well the non-frosted ones anyway, they're "non-fat" so it's okay to eat a bunch, the frosted ones were a treat). I've been trying to think of something to make for her and her family as a nice "thinking of you" kind of gift, and these are going to be it. It wasn't until after I got them all decorated and ready to ship that I realized I broke the cardinal rule of cookie shipping... Don't ship anything with "limbs," and these are nothing but limbs. I'm gonna try and reinforce them a little and hope they make it. With 3 boys, not counting her husband, I'm sure if they are a little battle damaged by the time they get there. Even limbs will taste good going down.


See close-ups of the animal cookies/crackers here.

Summer Gingerbread

I read about this recipe here and just HAD to try it. My husband had a coworker who is leaving this week and shared that he used to love a gingerbread lemon cake his mom made for him growing up. I thought these would be the perfect going away gift... something different, delicious, and deceptively easy to make. This was my first time making anything "gingerbread" and I have to admit I was a little scared, but they came out delicious. I highly recommend you make them today, or better yet let me know and I'll make you some because this recipe is some of the tastiest bowl licking material ever made.

P.S. There were only 3 cookies left when I got home so I had to get a picture QUICK before they all disappeared, sorry there isn't a better shot of them all (for reference, I made half of her recipe and it made 24 cookie sandwiches).