Graduation and Birthday Cookies

This is the first part of an order for Lorelai, a little girl from my son's preschool (the same one that ordered the other graduation cookies).  Her grandma ordered threes and graduation caps to serve at her graduation/birthday party (once they turn three, they graduate out of the program). 

For at least a few months, Lorelai's signature phrase was "I did it!"  She even said it all the time, even when she didn't actually do anything, but don't tell her that.  So I had to do make a couple of "I did it" cookies.  Of course, I left these to decorate last to make sure I got all the order cookies done, and I was incredibly exhausted after 8 hours straight of cookie decorating, so I chose to just freehand them instead of getting out the kopykake.  So they're not perfect, but I thought they were pretty good for freehand.



Later in the week I'll share some pictures of the favor cookies I did for her hawaiian luau-themed party. 

Homemade Cookie Cutters

A few months ago, after seeing a couple of people make their own cookie cutters, I bought one of those make-your-own-cookie-cutter-kits, thinking it would be as easy as they said it was.  Long story short...it wasn't.  I tried to make one of those cute little plaque shapes that are only available as copper cookie cutters, and I'm not yet willing to pay $15-$20 for a single cookie cutter.   About five minutes later I gave up.  I'm really not a quitter.  I'm the type of person who works really hard at something until I master it (like cookie decorating, for example).  After breaking the metal because I bent it the wrong way and then tried to fix it by bending it the other way, I just knew I didn't have the patience for it. 

I think it all has to do with the achiever in me.  According to the strengthfinders test I took years ago when I worked in an office job, achiever is one of my top strengths.  In their description of achiever, they state that achievers tend to not want to do something if they know they can't achieve the goal.  I hate it when those things prove to be exactly right.

Anyway, earlier this month I received an order for luau cookies, and I decided that I had to do a hibiscus flower.  After looking through my cookie cutters and searching all of my favorite cookie cutter retailers, I could not find a cookie cutter that I thought would make a good enough hibiscus flower.  And then I remembered that dreaded kit I bought months ago.  So I gave my husband the prettiest smile I could muster and talked him into doing it. 

And I'm so glad I did, because as much as he really hated doing it and has insisted that he really doesn't want to do it ever again, he did great and I LOVE the way it turned out.  I know I would have lost my patience and given up after the first petal.

I took the opportunity to experiment with the cutter when I made those train cookies a couple of weeks ago, so I just used those colors I had on hand.

It took the longest time to convince him of the fact that it was perfect, but I guess we all judge our own work harsher than others do.

Fleur de Sel Caramel and Vanilla Cream Fondant Spirals

Wow, that's a long name for a candy.  Anyway, I bought the cookbook Sugar Baby a couple of weeks ago and have been dying to try some of the recipes but I wasn't able to find the time until yesterday.  I don't have a whole lot of experience cooking sugar, so I was a little bit nervous about it.  I decided to start off with this recipe for delicious caramel swirled with vanilla bean fondant, both of which require cooking sugar.  It was a lot of work (and oh, the dishes!), but they turned out perfectly and taste delicious! 

You might remember that I mentioned that I had TMJ, and that I just got my braces off that were meant to fix the TMJ.  So today, I really put it to the test.  If I had eaten these two years ago, I would have had immediate jaw pain and that achy jaw feeling for at least a day or two.  Today, after eating two of these (and they're actually pretty big), I feel zero pain!  Thank you, Susie (my orthodontist)!

Train Cookies

My friend Sonja asked me to make some train cookies for her little boy's third birthday party.   So after lots of researching train cookies, I decided to keep the design simple.  The party colors were red, turquoise, light turquoise, and white.

I made a centerpiece cookie also, but by the time I finished all the other cookies I was really tired and too lazy to get out the kopykake, so I just freehanded it.  Which is why it's totally off-center, but for freehand, I didn't think it was too bad.  I wasn't going to include it, but changed my mind at the last minute. 

And my sweetest little creation had a fun time at the party.  (Sorry, I know this blog is supposed to be about cookies and sweets, but I have to throw him in whenever I can.  He's just too cute!)

Happy Birthday, Noah!  I hope you enjoyed the cookies!

eMBA Logo Cookies

I don't have a whole lot to say about these cookies because I don't really know what they were for.  I was given a printout of a logo and I put it on cookies.  The end. 

I'm so glad I have a kopykake because there's no way I would have been able to do these without it.  Or at least they wouldn't have turned out nearly as well.

Graduation Cookies

Last week I made some graduation cookies for a little girl at my son's preschool.  I was given pretty much free reign on them, so I chose to make pink graduation caps because this little girl is so girly and always has the cutest frilly outfits on.  The coloring was awful in the pictures, but I had already lost the light and they were delivered the next morning.

Texas Cookies

My friend Sonja asked me to decorate some Texas cookies for her to take to a party for her brother-in-law, who is moving there.  I kept it simple with Texas flags on Texas-shaped cookies:

And I made some that have a tiny star sprinkle on the city that he's moving to:

And the stars were just a little too plain, so I added some sugar outlines to half of them.

Cookies for My Orthodontist

I have some good news.  Well, for me at least.  I can now eat popcorn and nuts.  I know, that doesn't sound that great, but I also have the pleasure of no longer having the inside of my lips cut up all the time.  Yes, I got my braces off today!  Just over a year and a half ago I made the decision to put myself through braces because I was told it might get rid of my TMJ.  And now my TMJ symptoms are pretty much gone, and a nice side effect is that my teeth are straighter too. 

I bought tooth and toothbrush cookie cutters awhile ago intending to make my orthodontist some cookies once the braces came off, and that day has finally come!  My orthodontist and TMJ specialist have been so nice and taken such good care of me that I needed to reward them with sweets.

This was my first try at using my kopykake for writing and it worked beautifully!  I was afraid it would be tricky, but I thought it looked great, or at least better than I could have done freehand.  I definitely won't stress out in the future if anyone asks for something written on a cookie.