Another friend of my daughter’s turned 1 this weekend! AJ’s parents both coach baseball and softball so AJ has spent much of his young life on the field. And the kid loves to throw! He throws anything and everything. He even pretends to throw when there’s nothing around for him to get his hands on. And he’s got a good arm too!
Anyway, it was only fitting that they throw him a baseball-themed 1st birthday party!
We love when people give us creative license to do whatever “floats our boat” when we decorate their cakes or cookies. Jessica asked us to make her baby shower favors and she sent us a few ideas as well as her invitations and shower colors. But she was open to all of our ideas and trusted us to make something fantastic.
So we made a standing cookie favor! Mel “pinned” this on Pinterest long ago and has been wanting to try it (do you follow Mel on Pinterest?) so this was the perfect opportunity!
“No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s dirty looks…School’s out for summer!”
-Schools Out by Alice Cooper
Yes, school’s out! The kids are on the loose in the neighborhood. But before they left the classroom, the teachers probably tried to teach them one last thing before their brains turned to much over the vacation.
During the last week of school at Burney Elementary School in Plant City, the children celebrated the opening of a brand new butterfly garden on school grounds! And to make the celebration just a little bit sweeter, we made butterfly cookies for the students.
We can’t wait to hear what kinds of butterflies the students see when they return to school in the Fall!
Spring is upon us! In fact, Easter is this Sunday! This week, we made these Speckled Easter Egg Cookies for 3 different clients. 1 order was shipped to Georgia; 1 order went to Plant City; and 1 order stayed here in Tampa.
Our logo cookies have been a huge hit lately! But we don’t just stop at business logos. A client recently requested that we make cookies topped with her sorority crest and a logo. Consider it done!
People keep asking, what recipe do you use for your rolled cookies? It’s no secret. I got it from Cooking Light Magazine (my favorite, by the way)!
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 11 1/4 oz)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
10 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large egg whitesLightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Place granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla and egg whites. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Divide dough in half. Shape each dough half into a flattened disk; wrap each disk in plastic wrap. Chill 1 hour.
To bake: Unwrap 1 dough ball and place on heavy-duty plastic wrap. Cover with additional plastic wrap. Roll dough, still covered, to 1/4-inch thickness. Repeat procedure with remaining dough ball. Chill dough 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Remove one dough portion from refrigerator. Remove top sheet of plastic wrap; turn dough over. Remove remaining plastic wrap. Using a 2 1/2-inch cutter, cut dough into 18 cookies. Place cookies 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough half.
Ok, that’s the recipe straight from Cooking Light. But, now here’s how I do it:
-Prepare the dough as directed, but I like to chill mine overnight.
-Spray a Silpat with Pam for Baking spray. Set the dough on the Silpat and spray the top of the dough a little. Roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness, and cut cookies with desired cookie cutters.
-Remove excess dough. Rewrap it in plastic wrap and place in the freezer or refrigerator to stay chilled.
-I work on 3-4 Silpats at a time so that I have one loaded with cookie cut-outs and ready to go in the oven.
-Each cookie shape will bake a different length of time so I just keep an eye on the first batch. I remove them JUST BEFORE the edges start to brown. It’s tricky…that part takes practice.
-The key is to keep the dough chilled while you work with it. If it becomes too warm, it will stick to EVERYTHING. If that starts to happen, wrap it back up and stick it in the freezer for a few minutes.
When I decorate my cookies with Royal Icing, I use Wilton’s recipe. And, for fondant, I like Satin Ice.
For Day 5, here are some Christmas lights sugar cookies. These are much more simple in design than yesterday’s ornaments, but I love them all the same.
I’ve been getting quite a few emails asking for my recipe so I’ll share that with you in an upcoming post! Happy Friday, everyone!
With Day 2 of my 12 Days of Cookies, I thought I’d include some snowman cookies since it’s been so darn cold outside lately! Last night, we hit lows in the teens…in FLORIDA! Yikes!
So I was thinking…what does a “Florida Snowman” look like? This was what came to mind:
But let’s face it, THIS is what a real Florida Snowman looks like:
*This adorable cookie was created by Meaghan at The Decorated Cookie. She calls him Mr. Melty. Don’t you love that?! She’s awesome, and has a book out!
From now until Christmas, I’ll be posting a different decorated sugar cookie for your viewing pleasure. I’ll sprinkle a few cakes in too – because I can’t resist. We’ve done some pretty cool cakes in the last few weeks, and I can’t wait to show you!
Day 1 – Christmas Trees 3 Ways.
How do you decorate your tree? With lights, ornaments, garland? Do you use ornaments that have memories and special meaning to your family or do you color coordinate everything?
Is your tree up already or are you one of those who waits until Christmas Eve?
