Birthday Bouquet (March 2014)

Growing up in a house with two younger brothers, at times I would be jealous of my friends with sisters...someone to understand all that girl stuff plus double the wardrobe to share, right?  Well, it's not like I don't love my brothers, but I admit that I feel lucky to have some pretty awesome sister-in-laws (all of whom also grew up as the oldest with only brothers as siblings...there's an unspoken bond there for sure :)

One of my sister-in-laws just had a milestone birthday, and although she is still younger than me, I won't disclose her age just in case.  However, we had a little family celebration, so I definitely wanted to contribute some dessert...cookies.

The flowers were pretty straight-forward using, well, flower cookie cutters both big and small.  I used The Cookie Artisan's Springtime in Paris cookie platter as inspiration, but I wanted to add leaves to the some of the cookies for a little variety.

I used different sizes from Wilton's leaf fondant cut-out set, and I overlapped the flower and leaf with the dough prior to baking.  I think the double-leaf flowers are my favorite (but they were pretty big!).

Using the same colors, I had some fun making the monogram cookies, although it took a bit of trial and error.  Originally, I had photocopied some monogram initials I liked, put some wax paper over the paper, and piped the icing on top of the wax paper.  However, next time I'll need to choose a thicker font and be more patient in the drying process, as they all broke when peeling them off the wax paper.  Ah, live and learn.

I ended up free-hand piping the letters on after some practicing.  And, although each "R" looked a bit different, they all got the message across.  :)

I liked this little design so much that I made "M" and "C" monogram cookies and placed them each in a favor bag with accompanying flowers for other friends in gratitude and for celebration.

This color palette just makes me think of spring.  As of March 20th, it is officially here...

And to my awesome sister-in-law, Happy Birthday!

New Babies (March 2014)

 A few of my family's friends recently had new babies born, a little girl and a little boy.  So, to help them celebrate, I rationed off some of my cookie dough intended for a large platter of cookies, and created a little favor for each of them.

For little Jane, I used a onesie cookie cutter and one of my favorite "baseball tee" designs.  

Then, I thought I'd try one of Sweet Ambs' floral patterns as seen on her blog.

The whole design is made with wet icing, so I had to work quickly, but I was pretty happy with how they turned out, especially for my first try.

 The mini swirl roses were Sweet Sugarbelle's design and made while also creating the wedding shower platter for my co-worker.  

(Actually, all of these colors can be found in that cookie platter, making the mixing of icing colors not any more labor-intensive.)

For Chase, I used a bear cookie cutter, starting first with his belly and snout, then adding his head, feet, and ears with 20-second icing, and finishing up with his arms and a small blue heart (Build-A-Bear style).  His eyes and nose were drawn on with a food-coloring marker.

Such fun occasions to celebrate.  

Congratulations to all the new parents and grandparents!

I think this is one of the reasons why I continue to love decorating cookies...a very positive undertaking, celebrating life's most joyful moments.  

Aww, hugs and kisses all around!

Frozen Friends (March 2014)

Ah, birthday season is upon us at our house, and this year, the theme was easy.  Disney's "Frozen" movie has seemed to become intertwined in just about all aspects of our lives since its viewing in late December.  We dress in their costumes, sing the songs, watch the you tube videos (now limited to 1x/day!), and make-believe we are the different characters daily.  Not only was it our daughter's first movie in the movie theater, but it soon became our son's first too.  We found one of those sing-a-long showings, and wow did they sing!  It's amazing how they really have no inhibition at this age.  And, it's so fun as parents to watch them watch/sing/play with something that they are so in love with.

So, Frozen it was for the birthday party.  Since she was set on character cookies, which were quite a challenge, we opted for an easy brownie dessert (with a decorated cookie as a garnish).

I found these snowflake sprinkles from Kreative Baking Shop on Etsy, and I thought their colors went well with the Frozen decor.  The brownies are actually a recipe I found on Bake at 350's blog, and they are the best (if I may say so!).  She calls them "Birthday Cake Oreo-Stuffed Brownies," and they are exactly what you think.  Birthday Cake flavored Oreos baked inside these fudgy brownies...yum!

  The cookie platter was more time consuming.

 I played it safe with my go-to snowflake minis and new favorite snowman, Olaf, as seen in a previous post.  He was made from a snowman cookie cutter, with the hat trimmed a bit.  He was a necessary addition to the platter, especially with all the boys we had at her birthday party.

I was much more worried about the Anna and Elsa cookies.  I found some cookies for sale on Etsy from Pastry Tart Bakery for these characters that helped me form my own design.  Here is their take on Anna and Elsa.  I liked how they sort of cropped the girls' dresses and how they styled their hair, but I wanted my girls to have their eyes opened, a risky endeavor I later found out.

You know, I am not the best at free-drawing, especially when it is Disney I'm trying to imitate.  It was funny to me how each of the girls looked different, despite using the same decorating techniques.  My best friends for this project were Americolor's Food Decorator Pens, especially when I was drawing the facial features, to get all those small details.  And, while overall, I can critique each one, once they were on the platter, I think they resembled the characters enough that they still were "like" each character enough...you know, "Anna-like" and "Elsa-like."

And, I'll take that.

A very happy birthday, to our now 4-year-old, who is definitely "worth melting for!"

Spring Weddings (March 2014

See how optimistic I'm being with the title of this post?  I, like every other midwesterner, is completely over this never-ending winter.  Let's bring in the spring with some wedding celebrations.  I just love this design from Dolce Desserts.  I thought it was simple and elegant...just the thing for my friend's mom's wedding. 

She is using purple as her accent color, and therefore, so did I.  A nice color pop against an otherwise pretty neutral platter.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, underneath the decorated cookies are a bunch of my lemon-glazed shortbread cookies, one of her favorites, and specifically requested for this platter.  

Wishing them much happiness for their upcoming wedding this weekend!

And congratulations to my co-worker who is also getting married this month!  Today was her bridal shower at work, so I made this platter for her using the same inspired design.

Her colors are pink and grey (so pretty!).  I tried my best to replicate her simple, but very elegant full ballgown and her bouquet of pink roses.

And, for minis, I used a mini pumpkin cutter to create Sweet Sugarbelle's new rose design, accented with some sanding sugar.

Let's hope all these warm wishes melt away some of this stubborn snow! :)