Cheeky-Tulips

I am pretty sure that aside from my family and close friends, many don't know that my home town of Thunder Bay had massive flooding. The big storm overflowed rivers and streams, overloaded the water treatment plants that then backed up into people's homes. People fought tooth-and-nail to keep water out of their homes, while others could do nothing but watch as 2 meters of water flooded their basements (that is way over my head). Some even said they had live fish down in the depths of the murky water.

While our region has been dry, this water does not help at all. I suppose we're all just wanting May showers to lead to June flowers, which is why I've made these cookies. I kept thinking of flowers, and people, rain and being stuck in the house. So, in conjunction with a cake project I'm working on, I threw together some cookies. What better to lift the spirits? (Just so we are clear, my family was fine... I'm sure my father was canoeing down the swollen rivers, and maybe even in the back lane).

 I think these cookies helped me to kick myself out of my funk! It was almost 3 weeks between my last post and the Thomas cake I made. I hate when you're creative juices dry up! Unlike the weather

Badum-CHING!

And I love to paint on cookies. I remember someone saying that using food-doodle food writers (edible markers) was cheating, but I consider painting on a cookie to be quite beautiful. I can get more detail into the cookie this way. And I make them pretty.

So, here's to spring, and summer, and nice weather, and fewer rainy days.
And good luck to all those in the Flood Zones!

I am off to finish my cake project... and maybe go to work!

Butterfly Flower Birthday Cake

So, I had a request from a friend for another Flower Birthday Cake. The sad thing was that this request was made on a Wednesday, so I had to do a little creative changes to make the time work for me. Rather than an elaborate Flower-Box cake, I made a flower-garden cake. The cake design was simple, Strawberry cake with Strawberry Buttercream, topped with Sugar flowers and a Sugar Butterfly.

 

Since this is for a young girl's Flower Birthday, I wanted to make the flowers POP! The butterfly on top really accents the colors chosen (Purple and Pink). The only direction I got was that the little girl loved strawberries. Well, Sugar Strawberries make a cute accent. I love strawberries on cakes!

For the Flowers I used Cherry Blossoms, Anemones and a few 'accent' made-up flowers (Click for Tutorials). The colors do not lend themselves to 'reality' flowers, but the effect is just as cute!

 
Okay, First Blog post since the new upgrade to Blogger. I've got to say, I don't quite like it. The images are difficult to past, and I have to go into the HTML editor to delete useless code and get between the images. What a strange and sad change.I would love to complain, but who would listen. Any other bloggers feel the same? I hope so! Maybe I'm missing something......

Hope everyone has a great week. Easter is coming!

 

Flowers are Blooming

The wonderful weather continues! Actually, it rained a little here on Monday, but the sun came out and the rest of the week looks clear and warm! You can even see the buds on the trees starting to come out. We've had a very mild winter. Especially for Northern Canada!

This cake is my finest! I truly believe that this cake represents my best work. My friend's daughter was celebrating her 10th birthday, which was also her "Flower Birthday". How excited was I when I was asked to make the girl's cake.

Of course, this cake in my opinion in whimsical. The only request my friend had was "Lots of Colour," and beyond that, she said go to town. This design is a very classic design. It is known as a "Flower Box" Cake. It is a "Hat Box" cake with flowers spilling over the sides and the lid slightly a-kilter. I made sugar flowers for three days! Orchids, roses, hydrangeas, cherry blossoms, calla-lilies, and ivy leaves.

The sugar orchid below is my absolute favorite flower. I have never made a combined flower (that is flower petals wrapped together to make a flower). Most of my tries result in very broken flower pieces. This time, I was able to make two, one for each side, and they looked fabulous!


I think the best part was the party. I taught the kids how to decorate cupcakes. I used piping bags and we did Cuppy bears. I was super excited. They got creative and made Cuppy-Ducks and bunnies and kitties too! The kids did a fabulous job, and hopefully I'll get the pictures of the decorating fun from my friend. My course at the college, which runs April 4th, is full. I am so excited! This was a great run-through!

Well, I have one last cake for this March Break. I have yet to make it.... So many birthday parties, so many cakes! I am having a super fantastic March Break. I hope you are too!

I love you a Latte

While these cookies were originally for a sick friend (one whom enjoys going for lattes with me), I couldn't help put think the theme was a little reminiscent of Valentine's day, which is quickly approaching.

The title: "I love you a Latte" is another one of those dorky things Hubbie and I say to one another. The response to the comment is always "I love you amore" which I guess drives home the fact that I am completely dorky in every aspect, and I am officially "ONE OF THOSE MARRIED PEOPLE." YUCK!


Anyway, the theme was of hope. Of course, beautiful monarchs and lattes seems a strange choice for hope, but friendships, like any type of love, are formed through a gathering. To be metaphorical, the Latte cookies symbolize a gathering, as coffee trips are wont to do, and the butterflies symbolize overcoming, rising above (in this case, sickess). Seeing as my friend is neither wanting or ready for metaphors, I figure posting here might explain my dorky choice.

Oh look... there's another ENGLISH MAJOR... with her useless degree flaunting bad spelling mistakes and internet journaling. Isn't she special. (-___-);

Back to cookies. This design is perfect in my opinion for Valentine's day as well. The Latte cup is not a cookie cutter I own, but a hybrid: CUPCAKE cutter with SQUARE cutter on the bottom = LATTE CUP cutter. HURRAY! I think finding new uses for old cutters makes my budget a little happier. Why not find another use?

And what about these butterflies? This is my absolute favorite 'pretty' cutter. Even the normal cutter looks nice. I got it online, and have used it many times. This time, I used it for the monarch butterfly: Outline the black and fill it in!

I actually think the colours of the Monarch are absolutely stunning! I also love the Monarch's story... how it flies to South America every winter, and only it's children will return. How does it know to do that?! What sort of amazing evolutionary mechanism tells it to do that... I still can't train my husband to make coffee. "THANK YOU!"

Mine is better anyway (╤ ◡ ╤)♥

So, here's to pretty cookies, friendship and love. Hopefully I will have some more classy analysis to blither about.
Until then!

More Easter Cookies

There used to be a silly cartoon called "Bumb Bunnies" that some kids I looked after used to watch. The premise was that the bunnies were socially inept, they did not read social cues or even understand how to dress themselves properly. When I made these bunny cookies, that show came to mind. The simple look of the bunny, in comparison to other types of cookies or animals, gave me the impression that these bunnies did not know social cues (if that were even possible for a cookie).

But, I suppose that is what makes these cookies so adorable. First, you get the impression they are clueless, maybe they don't quite understand their place on the food chain. Then, it slowly becomes evident, as I continued to pipe away, that these particular bunnies were truly, not too bright...

I guess it goes to show you that something that is delicious does not need to be particularly smart, or good for you... or :: insert moral here ::

Instead, I figured that my Easter cookies this year should keep with the cute design rather than the classic. More chickies please! But there is an issue, which came first?


Okay, that's my rant for now. Happy Easter Everyone! I can't wait to see what you've all whipped up!

Check out what just hatched!

YAY for Spring! My little chicks just hatched! No really, here's what I found when I woke up this morning:

DIES! SO CUTE!

>_> ........ <_< ....... ^____^;

What, you don't believe me? Well, okay, so maybe it's not the case, but these cute little chicks are so amazingly adorable! And super easy to make. I am in such a spring kick this week, maybe it's the weather. This weekend, the temperatures in the Fort went as high as 16 degrees (Celsius). Which, for North Western Ontario, is actually quite amazing! I love the feel of the sun. It is almost time to crack out the heavy-duty sunscreen moisturizer (you should wear it daily!) Now, we've got lots of rain, which is washing away all the dirty snow. HURRAY! Perfect weather for baking!

Anyway, on my run, I picked up a dozen eggs. Strange thing about the inside...

HAHAHA!
Okay, so at this point I'm not fooling anyone hun? But still, look at the cute little chickies!

While I may not be fooling anyone, I certainly am having fun. I love spring because of the renew of energy people get. I am certainly looking forward to the coming summer.

On the house note (and summer note) gone and seen quite a few houses that our contractor has built (many in the same general design of our home-to-be) and I must say, I am so very excited to get this party started. I love my property so! I am bursting with excitement at my new, large, fancy kitchen! Oh well, I'll make due with my picnic table dining table for now (yeah, we use outdoor furniture inside... to save... our..... *mumbles*).

HURRAY FOR COOKIES AND SPRING!

Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?

Hurray! SPRINGTIME!
No really!

The snow is melting, there is a light rain in the air...
I CAN RUN OUTSIDE AGAIN AND NOT WEAR ONE THOUSAND LAYERS!

It is so amazing to finally be able to go outside and see everything melting. Sure, there is dog poop everywhere, and it's hard to go for walks for fear of being splashed by cars, but the final result of glorious sunshine makes it all worthwhile.

I love Summertime in the Fort! We're so close!

Anyway, I have spring fever. My windows are all open and I'm cleaning up, getting ready for summer. To celebrate, I decided to do a cookie. It has been a long time since I've actually taken my time on a nice looking decorated cookie! To honor spring, I made cute little spring lambs. Yes, yes, they look like sheep to me too, but let us use our imagination for a while. Look, all bubbly-cute!

I made a few types of lambs to figure out how I wanted to decorate them, in the end, these lambs were the nicest (other than flat coats and non-peril topped coats). Each bubble is put on, then let to dry (10 minutes or so) then another layer, then another until finally you get this cute bubbly/puffy look. Makes for a great coat!

I'm the black sheep in my family :) But I could just as easily be the one below (Scary Lamb).

Personal Happy News, kinda boring. BE WARNED:
This summer, hubbie and I are building a home on the lake. We are super excited to see all this snow melt so we can get started... TIME IS TAKING FOREVER! Honestly! But, I am confident that it will all go down without a hitch. We just got the blue-prints back from the engineer. HURRAY! I cannot wait to get out there. Hubbie and I went out to the property last month to take photos; there was snow up to our waists! Only one more month I'm sure, then all of this will be almost gone!

Anyway, rant done. I'll post more more fun ideas soon! Ta-Taa!

Red Velvet Cuppies

A friend of mine recently ordered a set of Red Velvet cupcakes for Easter. So in between making a turkey for the in-laws, I produced these dreamy, creamy, soft and fluffy delights.



I LOVE Red Velvet. Someone once asked what they taste like, I said "Soft Chocolate." The idea is that they are chocolate cupcakes (in essence, since they have cocoa in them), but the intention is to not have A LOT of chocolate. To make the perfect Red Velvet cake/cupcake, you need only a little cocoa, two TBSP or so. The chocolate is more of an afterthought, or a compliment to the taste. RV Cuppies are also fluffier than the average cupcake.
Anyway, I thought I'd share my favorite recipe. It is not hard, and works like a charm. So that you too can open wide the delicious red cuppie which has gripped North America.


Red Velvet Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Icing.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 c buttermilk
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vinegar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cocoa (Dutch Process)
1 oz (liquid)/ 1/2 tsp (gel) red food colouring
1 tbsp vanilla (pure)
2 c flour

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Mix dry ingredients (cocoa, salt, flour). Add eggs, baking soda, vinegar.
3. Mix in Vanilla, colour. Mix on low.
4. Alternately add dry ingredients and Buttermilk until JUST MIXED. (Do not over mix).
5. Put into cuppies cups (3/4 filled). Bake for 20-25 minutes). Let cool before icing.
Makes 12-16 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Icing:

1 pkg cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup butter (softened)
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tsp vanilla
1-1.5 cups Powdered sugar.

Cream cheese and butter. Add vanilla and sour cream. Mix in Powered sugar. Blend until smooth. Load piping bag, ENJOY!


One not of caution. These are addictive! Enjoy them Marla!

Hoppy Easter

Hoppy Easter everyone!

This week has been buys, as it has been for all cookie makers. I had a couple of cute orders this week: Eggs and Bunnies mostly (cupcakes to come). I just thought I'd share with you some of the things I've made:

BUNNIES AND EGGS!

These were some greedy bunnies. They were trying to make off with the swag. Shame on you!
Easter Pastels make these eggs super cute.

Package them up, and they are ready to go on a family trip. Thank you Alice!


Next up: Personalized Eggs.

Thanks to Kimika for her order. These special eggs were custom for family and friends.

Hopefully she hides them around the house. I love Easter-egg hunts! They are a blast.

Packaged and ready. Enjoy!

Hope you all have a safe and happy Easter, wherever you go!