Friday, June 10, 2011

Bride and Groom Cookies



the idea for this lil cake came from the famous Bakerella  website  post: blue makes me happy


It seems like everyone is getting married this year. I don't know about you, but I have at least five girls on my 
fb page with upcoming nuptials. Brad's in one of these weddings as a groomsmen and while I was also invited, regrettably I won't be able to attend. In lieu of my absence, I wanted to make the couple something special to enjoy together before their big day. 














Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Celebration Cookies: Lego or Batman?


Brad's birthday is just a few weeks away and I've been frantically trying to plan a cake and some cookies in his honor. He's a big fan of the Lego video games but is also a lifelong fan of superheros--particularly Batman.



Toy Story 3 Cookies

I am a huge Toy Story fan, but, who isn't? It was the first animated film that got me interested in movies and how they are made as a kid. In fact, when I went to Walt Disney World two years later, I signed up to take an animation class at the Disney Institute. It was the highlight of my entire trip. As a kid, I was mesmerized with the animation process and hung on every word of the guest speakers for our class. Once I came home, I subsequently spent the next two weeks in my room trying to draw my favorite characters on my new, premium sketch paper.

I stood in line opening night to watch Toy Story 3 with all the other adult fans who had fallen in love with these characters over a decade ago. And, when I was on a weekend vacation in Branson with my boyfriend and his family I just had to make a pit stop at the Disney store. Well, two Disney stores. After walking into the first store, I was struck by the sight of an enormous and over-sized Lotso' Huggin' Bear. But, the sticker shock of $50 made me put him back on the shelf. After we stopped at the second Disney store a few days later and my boyfriend saw my face light up again when I spied that same, lovable, over-sized bear, he knew it was love and bought him for me as a surprise early birthday gift. Though, Lotso wasn't too much of a surprise as once he paid for the bear at the counter, he handed him over immediately as there is no good way to conceal a giant, purple stuffed bear.

So, in honor of my beloved Toy Story 3 characters (I'm lookin' at you, Lotso) I decided to bake and decorate their likeness onto some sugar cookies. This proved slightly harder than first imagined as there are no Toy Story cookie cutters out on the market. This led me to find pictures of them I liked online, size them appropriately, and then cut the dough with a knife, using the printed pictures as stencils.



Here are two of Bonnie's toys you might remember from the movie. 

Strawberry Jam


Ugh. It's hot. Really hot. I'm the kind of girl that dreams of days where the temperature is in the seventies, but this last week has been nearly unbearable in the upper 90's. I saw on the news that we had a record high of 98 degrees (yep, just like the boy band) this past Saturday. With weather this warm, I try to stay out of the heat as much as possible and cooped up inside keeping myself busy.

So, I made strawberry jam with some fresh berries my mom picked for me a few days earlier to help use up the last of the berries before they spoiled. The freezer jam was oh so simple and only required eight cups of strawberries, a bit of lemon juice, sugar to taste, and pectin to help it all gel together. It tastes amazingly delicious on a fresh piece of crusty french bread, too.

The jam will keep up to three months in the frig or a year in the freezer, but, let's be honest, I don't need anywhere near that much time to make this jam disappear. 

Herbs

So, I have a confession: Everything I've ever tried to grow has died. The last time I tried growing a small herb garden we nearly had a small flood and all the water was too much for my little buds to take and they died. It's been a few years since then and I tried to gather the gumption to try my hand at potted herbs again. So, here, I present my first buds of Basil. Hallelujah!

Beach Themed Cookies

As a housewarming favor I decided to bake and decorate cookies for Jayne once she was all settled in. Jayne loves Florida and the beach, but nothing more than palm trees. I used cookie cutters I got from a specialty store in Edwardsville, Chef Shoppe, for a few of the cookies and cut the others out with a knife when I couldn't find cutters for those particular items. As part of the beach theme, there are star fish, tropical fish, a few palm trees, a pink polka-dot bikini and matching flip flops. Since palm tress are Jayne's favorite things, I decided to include a few of my favorite things too, scottie dogs. Aren't they adorable? Who wouldn't want a scottie?

Hayleigh's Smash Cake

My sister asked me if I would be interested in making my niece's smash cake for a photo shoot she had scheduled for last week. I happily accepted and this is the end result of our collaboration. Ashley wanted the exterior of the cake to match Hayleigh's outfit so we chose violet, light pink, and hot pink for the cake with a white fondant shell. The cake itself is three layers of strawberry cake with white vanilla buttercream holding it all together.

 Here is a link to more pictures of Hayleigh digging into her cake. Yum! http://bensonphotography.zenfolio.com/p733478582/e398f0d8#h13e5ac24