Conversation Heart Minis

I just finished some mini conversation heart cookies for Valentine's Day. It's been quite awhile since I've had one of those candies, so I bought a pack of them as "research" so that I could get the colors right and so that I could have examples of the messages.  Those candy hearts are not what they used to be though.  There were some pretty creepy ones.  Aren't those candies supposed to be for kids? 

Anyway, I decided to go with the old candy heart sayings that I remember from my childhood instead.  

Valentine's Day at last!

Valentine's Day is here at last and I'm done with all my orders!  After making about 120 cupcake bites yesterday (and another 60 or so earlier in the week), I'm ok with not seeing another cupcake bite for awhile!  

I also had a special order of rice krispies treats for Valentine's Day.  I had never made them before, but luckily they were as easy as I thought they would be.  Here's a picture of the final result:



No more orders coming up, so hopefully I'll have some time to try out some new recipes and ideas soon. 

Valentine's Day Cupcake Bites

For Valentine's Day, I decided to offer cupcake bites by the dozen, sprinkled with Valentine's sprinkles, of course.  I tried to take some better pictures of them this time around.

My husband was kind enough to help out so you could see the inside.

 And I found the perfect boxes at a local cake decorating shop, and the cupcake bites fit perfectly in the candy insert.

Roses - Sanity Sundays

I'd like to introduce you to Sanity Sundays.  To make a long story short, I used to have plenty of time to bake.  Back in August, we got my toddler into an early intervention program (long story) that was four days a week, 15 miles away, so not only was I exhausted from the program itself and the drive, but it left me with only one nap (his, not mine, just to clarify), at which I had to make dinner.  Conclusion:  no time for baking.  After about a month of this, I broke down to my husband that I was worn out, and I had no "me" time to do the things I love.  Enter "Sanity Sunday", or so I've decided to name it.  A few hours on Sunday afternoons that I get "me" time.  I often use that time to try a random dessert I've been wanting to make, but lately I've been using it to sharpen my cookie decorating skills and experiment with new techniques and recipes.

This past Sunday, I decided to practice my flower-piping skills.  It's been awhile, and I'm afraid if I don't do it often enough, I'll lose that skill.  Also, I saw the cutest rose bouquet cookies on Loren's blog that I want to try, so maybe next Sunday I'll make the cookies and decorate them with some of my roses.  Also, I ordered some 101s tips from Wilton and I wanted to try out some roses with it.  Here's the full roses I made.  My icing wasn't stiff enough, so I only made a few before moving on.  The big ones are with tip 101, and the babies are with tip 101s.

I'm having the hardest time finding the proper lighting in my apartment to get the colors to look right.  My beautiful maroon-ish red looks almost brownish and the violet looks bluish.  Oh well.  Someday I'll figure out how to get the colors to come out right.

So then I tried Loren's ribbon rose technique.  I need to practice a lot more if I'm going to get mine as nice as hers.  You wouldn't think they'd be harder than the full roses (above), but they were a bit trickier to me.  I guess I've got a lot more practice with the other rose technique.

Then I practiced my favorite, the rosebud.  I made a ton.  They last forever, so I can use them for the rose bouquet cookies and save them for cookies in the spring or for Easter.  The red came out truer in this picture.

Happy Valentine's Day!



Valentine's Day Cookies

Right after I finished the legos cookies order, I was sad when I realized that I didn't have any more orders coming up.  Luckily, my husband reminded me that I now have time to make cookies for fun.  I can try new recipes and I can try new designs.  So I've hit both of those ideas in one cookie batch.  I tried out a recipe for lemon poppy seed cookies and decorated them for Valentine's Day.  I really liked the cookies (my husband isn't big on lemon, so he wasn't a huge fan).  And while I usually find the royal icing a bit to sweet for my taste, I thought it tasted great with the tart lemon flavor.