Ladybug Cookies

Sorry I didn't share anything last week.  I try to keep consistent with at least a post a week, but the macarons I worked on last weekend were macawrongs.  It was a new recipe, and even when I tried out different baking techniques on each sheet, all of them were lopsided.  Weird, right?  They were so ugly that I didn't even bother making a filling for them.  My toddler still enjoyed munching on them though.

Anyway, I did have an order last week for ladybug cookies for a baby shower.  I made them to match the invitation.

Macarons with Pumpkin Italian Meringue Buttercream

In order to show you that not all of my creations turn out perfectly (in case any of you actually thought they did), I have kind of an embarrassing admission to make.  When I first started making macarons and posting pictures of them here, I told you guys I had never actually had one before, but they looked right, tasted great, and the texture was how the book described it.  Well, last week I came upon this blog post and learned that they aren't supposed to have a large air pocket between the top and the bottom of the shell.  How was I to know?  Of all the books and all the blogs that teach you how to make macarons, I haven't seen a single cross section of one until now.  Here I was thinking I was doing it right, and apparently not so much.  I'm pretty sure the reason was that I was overmixing the batter, but to be fair, the book I was using actually told me to mix it really well and then deflate the batter with a dough scraper, and the picture in it showed a thinner batter. 

So yesterday I gave Ms. Humble's recipe a try and things went much better.  And I got to use my blendtec to grind my almonds, and it did an amazing job.  It blended the almonds much finer and much quicker than the food processor.  For the filling, I decided to try a new recipe for pumpkin Italian meringue buttercream. 

And here's a cross section.  Other than one random larger bubble on the bottom shell,  it looks much closer to what it's supposed to look like!

More OMAO Cookies and A New Cookie Cutter

A few weeks ago, I fell in love with a sort of plaque cookie shape that I found on Pinterest and have been searching all over the internet trying to find the cookie cutter.  I emailed the person who made the cookie to find out where the got it, or if the cookie was hand-cut, but the person never responded.  Since I couldn't find it anywhere, I thought I'd try that make-your-own-cookie-cutter kit again.  I found a bunch of objects around the house to use to shape it, but (shocker!) it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  So after a few minutes, my wonderful husband took over (without even being asked!) and made me a cutter.  It was a really tough one to do and the metal snapped in half on him a couple of times, but he just kept going and connected the pieces of metal with double sided tape.  It didn't look perfect, but I was pretty sure that once the cookies were baked and iced it would definitely work.

A couple of weeks ago I had another order for OMAO mayo jar cookies, so I thought I'd try the cutter out using leftover dough.  I decided to make a thank you cookie for the lady who ordered the cookies.  I thought the shape turned out pretty well in the end!





Owl Cookies for a Baby Shower

This is the other order I had last weekend.  The order was for owl cookie favors for a last minute baby shower for some friends of my husband's family.  I was asked to make the owl cookies based on some that Sweetopia did awhile ago.  I did change things up a little bit by using slighly different colors on the wings and belly, and using a different technique on the belly feathers.  After a long week and decorating all these cookies, I was too exhausted to attend the shower, but I was told that everyone loved them.

And here's a picture of my dining room table with both orders.  Needless to say, we ate dinner in the living room on TV trays that night.

And this picture was taken after I had already cleaned up all the piping bags, bottles, and icing containers that also littered the table.

Pretty Pink Princess Cookies

I have had a busy weekend.  I've had a barrage of last minute orders over the last couple of weeks.  It's funny how I can go a month without getting any cookie orders and then get 4 orders within a couple of weeks.  One of the orders I had this weekend was for princess themed cookies for a little girl's birthday party.  I was asked to make tiaras along with some swords mixed in so that the little boys at the party wouldn't be too inundated with pink girliness.

I brushed wet silver luster dust on the swords, and I added larger sanding sugar crystals on the sword hilt to look like little gems.

Budgeting Webinar Cookies

These cookies were a bit of a last minute order from a former co-worker of mine before I changed careers (to being a mom, that is).  They are supposed to look like signposts with the name of the project they've been working on.

The writing on the cookies scared the heck out of me, so I made the cookie as large as I could to make it easier.  It was the smallest lettering I've ever done and I didn't think it was going to turn out so well, but magically I got the exact right icing consistency and it went pretty smoothly.  And of course I used the kopykake.  Best investment ever!

Boring Almond Cookies and A New Toy

I don't have any fancy cookies to share today, just some regular, ordinary cookies.  A good friend of mine called me the other day and siad that she knows someone who wants a ton of almond flavored cookies around Christmas.  It's not a definite order at all, but I saw a recipe for some almond shortbread cookies in one of my cookbooks (Pastry Queen Parties) and I thought I'd see if they were any good.

They were tasty, but I think I prefer my regular sugar cookies with the addition of almond extract.

A couple of weeks ago I also got a new toy for my kitchen.  I've very slowly been working on replacing my less than stellar kitchen appliances with ones that actually work well, and I finally broke down and bought my dream blender, the Blendtec.  I've been wanting it forever, but it's pretty expensive.  So a few weeks ago, since the value of gold is so high right now, I traded in some old gold jewelry that I never wear and got more than enough to pay for the blender.  So after that I didn't feel quite so bad about spending that kind of money on it. 

This thing is amazing.  We've seriously used it at least once a day.  My husband and I used to always get smoothies from Jamba Juice but we stopped because they were getting so expensive.  I found a bunch of Jamba Juice recipes on Top Secret Recipes and we've literally made a smoothie every single day.  And the kid loves watching it go.  He was born with a moderate hearing loss, so I think he gets a kick out of how loud it is.  I can't wait to see how finely I can grind almonds with this thing the next time I make macarons!

Mayo, I mean, OMAO Cookies

One of the ladies at my husband's work ordered some rather unusual cookies last week.  They've been working on a project with the abbreviations OMAO, and because it sounds like "oh, mayo", she ordered mayonnaise jar cookies to share with everyone at the last meeting. 

I searched through all of my cookie cutters because I've never seen a jar cookie cutter and I knew I'd have to get a bit creative.  So I invoked my inner Sugarbelle* and this was the best I could do.  I ended up using a large candy corn cookie cutter, cut off the top, then used the top of a cauldron cookie cutter to get the lip of the jar and squished them together.  I kept the decorating pretty simple because it was a bit of a last minute order on a week where we already had weekend plans. 

Oh, and after these cookies and the eMBA cookies I made back in June, I've officially decided to add an additional charge for lettering.  I hate to nickel and dime people, but it takes a lot of time to pipe the lettering on, especially if it's a specific font, or for a logo.

*For the non-cookiers who may be reading this, Sugarbelle is an extremely talented cookie decorator who gets very creative with her use of cookie cutters and often uses several cookie cutters to get a custom shape.