Simple Christmas Cookies and Flying in the North

Hey everyone. Around this time, people are super super busy getting ready for Christmas, and even I can lose track of time. Fear not, I have not negated my baking duties. Actually, this past weekend I took a trip down to Toronto, Ontario == THE BIG CITY == for some curriculum development (OH WHAT FUN). Anyway, since I was meeting a friend down there, I decided to bring down some Christmas baking. While the cookies are not super fancy, they were very beautiful.

I like the way the trees were done. I love the look of non-lined cookies. Sometimes, you can choose to do a flood icing that has a border to keep the icing in as it dries. I find that this is a stylistic feature. Some cookies really look great with this technique, other times I find that having no border at all is better. This look (the one above) uses a flood icing that is a little bit thicker than a normal flood, but not as thick as a border icing. The difference is that when you pipe or flood it, the Icing will settle in about 2 seconds (flowing outward) then will begin to dry immediately. It's a little more tricky to use, but the look, as I said, makes the difference.

To make the trees, I simply made a the top and middle layers of the trees, let them dry an hour, then added the second middle and bottom layers. It makes the tree look like it's fluffy and thick.

I bought these Christmas bulb cutters two years ago and have been too afraid to use it because they are so tiny. I enjoyed the fine-art piping! I think that it looks so elegant.

And Finally, these are my yearly tradition. These snowflakes look beautiful and are super easy to make. When I make my Christmas boxes (of baking), I find that the cookies are the part people love the most. Each cookie takes no time at all, and depending on the creativity, can be quite elegant. Since I made chocolate cookies this year, I thought I'd play with the colours a little.

Now, as I said before, I was in Toronto. I had a blast! There were so many things to look at that I found myself a little overwhelmed. I am like a fish or a raven: If it shines, I want to touch it. You can only imagine my glee at seeing the Eaton Center's gorgeous Christmas displays. In addition to sparkling snowflakes and bright lights, the mall was peppered with giant, 30 feet tall reindeer. It was super exciting to get photos!

And of course, they they had to have an amazing tree as well. The tree in the background (BEHIND MY BELOVED CHAPTERS STORE) was COVERED in Swarovski crystal snowflakes and gems. It was so stunning. Beside me is my friend Neil. He was busy arranging dinner plans... I was busy chasing shinies!

Well, I guess the best way to sum up my trip is the below picture. How did I get from my small town to the big city... Well, flying in an airplane is very dangerous, so our school board proposed another means of transportation:

Nah, I'm just kidding! I flew on a big airplane. It was both fun and scary. In Fort, our airlines are amazing, but small. It was bad enough flying Porter air from T.O and having the crazy turbulence that kept our belts on the whole ride, it is quite another thing to take that same type of turbulence and fly in a plane that has 20 seats total. Luckily, my trip to chapters in T.O kept me busy; I love that I can read books! You don't know how much you miss them until you no longer have access to a good book store. :: swoon ::

Christmas Baking starts this weekend. I'm going to get ready now! WHOOHOO!