Sparkle

Hope your Christmas was full of Sparkle!!  Here are a few of the treats we enjoyed at our house!!!

So many of my cookies I made during the Christmas season were the traditional red and green....so when I saw this idea from this amazing blog.....I had to try it out for myself.  I think the vintage pink and blues were a fun twist on the traditional Christmas colors!

A few more cookies before the New Year and then....I will be working on plans for my little guy's birthday party.  He is already turning THREE....oh how can that be???????

Reindeer Treats!

Found this idea here and thought this would be a fun treat for Sophia and I to make to celebrate the start of her Christmas vacation.  A little chocolate, marshmallows, pretzels, and hot tamales....couldn't be too hard, right??

Well... putting those antlers on was a bit trickier than I had anticipated...

So...we made a quick change of plans...and while I finished up the reindeer.....Missy made some fabulous chocolate covered pretzels...mmmm!

Here's my silly girl...

While we were making the reindeer...S informed me that she no longer likes marshmallows...that was news to me!  But thankfully....Little J loves them and to my surprise ate every part of his reindeer tonite...right down to that cute red nose!  Wish I had a picture!  Back to the craziness of this week....and trying to nurse everyone back to health at our house before Santa arrives:)

Christmas cookies

A big thank you to all of my fellow cookie bloggers ...Marian, Bridget, Callye, Pam, and Linzy for all of their cookie ideas and inspiration!  I continue to be amazed at the creativity of all of these amazing bakers!!! So grateful for their advice, and their willingness to share ideas!  So.....here are some of my Christmas cookies I have made thus far.....I loved Bridget's peppermint candy cookies so much...I had to buy the cutter...tsk, tsk...I don't even want to know how many cutters I have added to my collection this year....but I'm thinking it is far too many...since my drawer that houses them....doesn't quite close anymore:(

Hope your homes are filled with the sweet smell of Christmas cookies this holiday season too!

The Gingerbread Tradition...

Continues!!!

We decided to put a spin on our gingerbread project this year....

Typically we build some walls....add a roof...and go crazy decorating.  But this year... we decided to try something new....a Santa sleigh.

I found this idea for a Santa sleigh in Valerie Peterson's Cookie Craft cookbook last year....and just couldn't resist trying it out.  She designed the sleigh as a centerpiece to hold holiday treats.  And as I was reading again just the other day...she also gave the idea of using it as an Advent calendar.  You could fill the sleigh with tiny cookies...and then a lucky someone gets to pick and eat the day's cookie.  Wish I would have thought of that earlier...but definitely an idea I will use next year!!!

Before I post the picture... I have to give HUGE credit to the hubby....who actually did some "sawing" on my gingerbread sleigh sides in order to make this fit perfectly.  He is definitely the secret behind it's success!!!  Could    Not   Do   It    Without   Him!!!!  (And of course the tuna, green bean and spaghettio cans that we used while it was drying):)

And.... though...the inside is not huge.... I do already have it filled with some Christmas cookies.....to give to special visitors who drop by:)

Decorating

I love the smell of Christmas!  Love the sweet smells of cinnamon and ginger coming from the oven.  I love opening the Christmas boxes and unwrapping our gingerbread houses from years past.  Every year I put gingerbread men on a tiny tree in our back hallway.  When I unwrapped them this year....they just didn't smell as fragrant....so I decided it was time to make some new gingerbread men to dress our tree!  Normally... I just make them red and white...but loved  this idea from sweetopia...another of my favorite blogs!  So I added some green sanding sugar to make the bows!!

This year I used Sweetopia's recipe for gingerbread.  In the past I have used Martha's....but I must say....Sweetopia's  may be my new favorite.  This gingerbread smelled and tasted wonderful!  Here Marian's recipe.  Be sure to check here.... for her DARLING nutcrackers made from this gingerbread!

Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

For the printer-friendly version, click here.

Ingredients:

800 g all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

250 g unsalted butter

1 cup packed dark-brown sugar

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoons ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 cup molasses

*

Instructions:

1.     In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix butter and brown sugar on medium speed until fluffy.

2.     Mix in spices first, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low.

3.     Sift together flour, salt and baking powder and add to bowl; mix until just combined.

4.     Wrap dough in a disc shape in saran wrap. Let it rest by refrigerating until cold, about 1 hour.

5.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface or between two sheets of parchment paper to about 1/4-inch thick.

6.     Cut shapes out with cookie cutters and place them approximately 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

7.     Refrigerate until firm; at least 15 minutes to 1 hour.

8.     Bake cookies until lightly golden; 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Here is the tiny little tree...

Love how sweet it smells when I walk by!

Love how this tiny little space makes me smile....especially the pictures of my now BIG princess and my sweet Willie.

Can't wait to share some more Christmas goodies with all of you!

We are thankful...

It seems that the preparations for Christmas begin earlier and earlier every year.  As soon as Halloween is over....the Christmas music begins playing and Christmas decorations begin popping up everywhere.  Sometimes, it seems, that the Thanksgiving holiday gets a bit overlooked, tucked between Halloween and Christmas.  I tend to do the same with my cookie baking...Halloween and Christmas provide such perfect cookie giving opportunities that I sometimes get so wrapped up in them that any Thanksgiving baking beyond pies and rolls is few and far between!!

Well....I didn't want to forget the importance of this holiday this year....I do have so much to be thankful for!  So I was glad to be able to make this set of Thanksgiving cookies for a very sweet family!  And my S and J sure loved getting to meet and play with the V family even if it was just for a bit:)

Of course... I couldn't make a Thanksgiving order without including turkeys....

The inspiration behind these came once again from one of my most favorite bloggers...  Trust me....read her blog once and you will be forever addicted!!

The other part of the order was for boy and girl Indian cookies....So for this... I had to go to my drawing board....  Here's what I came up with...

And with a little bit of cookie dough and lots of color mixing...Here is the final result...

Hope all of you were able to spend Thanksgiving with all those closest to you! I guess I can now get ready to pull out all of those Christmas cutters.  But first I'll be back with a little Christmas decorating project I am working on!!!

CHOO-CHOO for TWO!

An old friend asked me to make Thomas the Train cookies for her little C's second birthday!! What a perfect excuse to practice for my little soon to be THREE year old.  I'm guessing he might be asking for a Thomas party soon too!

Here are some pictures of the stages of the cookie. Realized after I had bagged and sent off the cookies that I had only snapped a few shots using the camera on my phone during the cookie making....wish I had taken some with my camera!

Here are the Thomas' before attaching the bumpers and the headlights.  I made both just by piping my royal icing on wax paper first, then letting them dry before attaching them.

Happy TWO, little C!  Hope you had a great day!!!

A little bit of Happy

I am way behind in my posting.....but after feeling a bit under the weather for quite some time.... I needed to post some baby cookies that just make me happy!!!  Hopefully my mixer can start whirring again soon!!!

Punkin cups!

I admit... I am a bit of a neat freak...which is hard to be when you love baking as much as I do!  I love to make cupcakes and muffins...but absolutely despise trying to neatly get the batter into the pan!  When I saw this idea  I decided I had to try it on my next batch of muffins.  I wanted to make those same apple muffins that Bake it Pretty showed....but of course Miss S has decided she does not like apples in her muffins anymore... This time she requested pumpkin.  I really really want to order the cute brown polka dot portion cups that Bake it Pretty has on her site...but I haven't done it yet...so my plain ole white ones had to suffice for tonight!

The judge hasn't yet given her opinion...we will have to wait for breakfast for that...but I did catch her fingers in the batter more than once....so I'm guessing that is a good sign.  And as for the mess....didn't even have to dirty a muffin pan...just put these punkins right on the baking sheet and voila!!! 

Here's the recipe from dine and dish adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 1/4 cups plus extra sugar for dusting

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon for tops

Preheat oven to 350.  Place portion cups on a baking sheet or liners in muffin pan.  

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.  

Stir together some sugar and cinnamon for tops in another small bowl, reserve.

Divide batter among cups, and fill about three-fourths full, then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Bake until puffed and golden brown or until toothpick comes out clean. ( I baked mine about 23 -25 min), and I made about 13 or 14 muffins.  

I'll be back with some more cookies to share by the end of the week!!! Happy Monday!

"Painting"

I have always secretly wanted to be an artist.  I remember when I was little....My cousin and I used to sit and watch Bob Ross on TV as he effortlessly painted beautiful nature scenes.  (Remember that, Thad???)   I remember wanting to go to the art supply stores to buy the expensive art brushes so I could try painting those same pictures.  I tried....but not with much success:)

So when I found this amazing cookie decorator's "cookie artwork" I decided... I had to give it a try for myself!!!  I even got my sister to come along with me in search of the perfect "paint" brush.  Miss Ali B gives a remarkable tutorial on how to make these cookies here.  Please be sure to visit her blog.....you will be amazed at her attention to detail in all of her cookies.

After I read her tutorial.....I made these:

They truly were so much fun!  I really felt like a true artiste....using my fancy paint brush!!!

Be sure to check out another one of my favorite baking bloggers,  Flour and Sugar, for her rendition of this same technique.  She incorporated it into her own flower cookie design you can see here.  BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

A few others I have been working on...

Dotty Cupcakes

And last but not least.....a special little girl got these birthday treats from her special Aunt.  Her birthday was a "close to Halloween B-Day" and I thought the designs she picked were perfect for this occasion!!! Hope you had a Happy Day!

And...these below are not cookies...but I have to post the cupcakes my little girl requests every Halloween!

My little S.....she is not a big candy fan....but my oh my....a cupcake and ice cream girl..she is!!!  Here are my two little ones after their big night of trick-or-treating!  They love to sort their candy and look through it....but still not too keen on eating it (unless it is a lolli for J!)  I guess I hope they keep this aversion to candy for a while:) because I certainly don't mind baking for them!

And have to leave you with the rootin tootin cowboy and cowgirl from Toy Story!!!

Stay tuned for a few fun November cookie orders!!!

Sugar and Spice...

and everything nice!  Thought these little girls turned out sweet!  Next time I'll have to make blonde-haired and blue-eyed girls...to match my sweet little girl!!!

Back with some more SOON...Happy Weekend!!