The Nightmare Before Christmas

When I was a kid, I remember seeing commercials for a new movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Now, I'm not sure why, but I had made up my mind long before I actually saw it that it was going to be a.w.e.s.o.m.e. I literally counted down the days until it premiered on tv with excitement and made sure I had the tv reserved for that night. Yes, I said tv, as in one tv. Look, I'm a baby of the 80's so one tv was normal back then, I promise you. When it finally aired, I was so disappointed and a little horrified. I guess it was a little over my head and I never watch it again. But, someone who did enjoy it growing up is my good friend Stephanie. She loved it and watched it all the time. So, when she put out the word she was wanting a Jack Skellington snuggie for Christmas last year I took a mental note and made sure that when her birthday came around, I would make her a Jack Skellignton cake, because who could possibly want the snuggie but not the cake?!

We met up at The Loading Dock Bar and Grill in Grafton, Illinois and prayed that the rain would hold off. Luckily, it did and we were able to take in the spectacular views of the water, fireworks!, and a bonefire across the river. Not to mention, we managed to get the best seat in the house. Nothing but the best for Steph! After our dinner and many, many celebratory drinks, we sliced up this bad boy and managed to stuff ourselves silly with a slice of both chocolate and vanilla cake. Happiness ensued.

Seattle Seahawks

A friend of mine got married a few months ago in Jamaica (jealous!) and after her and her new husband got back home and settled in, they were able to plan a small reception in our hometown, at her parent's house. Emily said she wasn't looking for anything too special and had actually just planned to order a couple of sheet cakes (eek!) but I was able to convince her quite easily to let me make the cakes instead. Her mom and I put together a sketch of a beach themed cake that unfortunately I wasn't able to snap a picture of before I dropped it off. However, I did manager to take a few of the groom's surprise cake: a Seattle Seahawks themed cake to be exact. Too be honest, I wasn't too familiar with their logo but after a quick google search I got the general idea.

Go Team Go!

More Picnic Fun

In addition to the Peanuts gang cupcakes I whipped up for the church picnic, I also made a few dozen Seseme Street themed cupcakes and about twenty cookies. I really didn't have time that weekend to put together a whole smorgasbord of goodies so I limited the cookies to two themes: more Snoopy (can't get enough of that lil guy!) and some St. Louis Cardinals themed cookies. I live in Southern Illinois and it's the only respectable major league baseball team to root for around here ; )

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to snap a few pics of the other cupcakes (that included cookie monster, oscar the grouch, and the count!) but I'm sure you can use your imagination!

I hate shelling out the money for tons of new cookie cutters (especially the ones I will only use a few times each) so I make it a point to google a few good pictures of the design I want to use for the cookies and then save and print them out onto card stock. From there, I just cut out the images and lay them over my rolled out cookie dough. Using a clean x-acto knive I carefully cut around the cardstock design and then remove the cardstock from the cookie dough. I make sure to keep the cardstock cutout nearby when I'm decorating the cookies though, so I can better free-hand the designs onto the baked and cooled cookies.

Birds!

Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and the whole Peanuts gang

My church throws an annual church picnic the first Sunday of August. Lots of locals are kind enough to donate food, beverages, crafts, and their time. Up until this year, I've only donated my time and by donate my time, I mean work the dime toss. The dime toss is usually good fun as it's in a shaded area with a fan blowing nearby and gives us a chance to interact with the church youth and youngsters. This year brought two big changes however....my beloved dime toss was shut down and replaced with a football toss game that I got the chance to work at and I donated some bakery goods too. 

I wanted to make some goodies that the young and young at heart would appreciate so I whipped up a few dozen batches of cupcakes and after filling and frosting them I applied fondant cutouts I had made the day before. I picked up a set of four edible ink pens that worked really well for drawing on facial features to the fondant cutouts. For anyone new to them, I would suggest letting the fondant dry for at least a few hours if not an entire day before drawing on it though. 

Here's one batch of the Peanut's themed cupcakes I sent to the "country kitchen" that the church sells freshly baked goods from on the morning of the church picnic.