Summer of my discontent

So about that stupid summer I previously mentioned:
Just when my bill filled life was getting a little easier, I took on a new morning baker position. Even better. Then hubby quit his job. Not better. Then they asked me to work afternoons. Shrug. Then hubby got a job, but his training hours interfered with mine, so better, then worse again. When everything was back to normal, they didn't need me in the morning, and I couldn't do afternoons. So it goes.

While I was there, I made foxes for the "Fox Trot" race day, squares of beach sand for summer, and apples for the farmers market, though I seem not to have that picure.
I'm currently in foodless seasonal retail, but don't be shy about dropping my name in foodie circles. And don't be shy about getting me to bake you cookies--once the gas got turned back on, it was like riding a bike. Yep that kind of summer ;)
I've since been baking, but not posting, bear with me. On the way are sweaters, baptism crosses, cancer fighting dresses and lots of Halloween. Till then, have a swell weekend!

Brittany got married!

Niece Brittany and her Scotty got married in May, (Jeez Katie, where ya been? Having a summer that made me want to punch a kitten, but back to cookies) and since no one in my family is allowed to have a joyful life event without my cookies (like it even takes any arm twisting tho) i made her some lovely wedding favors.

Her decor was reminiscent of a lady's vanity table--flowers, feminine fabrics, a sprinkling of sparkles and gems like casually placed jewelry, gem studded picture frames with the couple in cute moments.
All that was missing was a make-up compact.  I tried making the cookies look something like that, and a bit like a miniature throw pillow, or the lid to a porcelain candy dish. Or the hardcover of an old romance novel. Or a box of chocolate. The back of a hand mirror... So many ideas.

The final product was tone-on-tone pink or green airbrushed stencils, with a brush of pearl dust, and either a fleur-de-lis, a monogram, or a tiny ensemble of pearl dragees and molded fondant flowers and gems. I even managed to match the pink and green really really close to the bridesmaid dresses.

But even lovelier was the bride... Wedding day highlights included veil vs wind humor, footage of my kiddo line dancing, and mother-of-bride Libby tearing up during the father daughter dance with Brit and step (up) dad, my brother John. It was a really sweet day; kisses and well wishes for you two!
Upcoming: i did make cookies this summer (and punched no actual kittens, nor would i, c'mon) and i'll get 'em posted in between my chores this week, as my "adulting" is finally getting some traction (saving all those poor kittens from my frustration) so hang tight, cookies are coming, have a fabulous week!

spring pretties

A recent Sunday found the family and I at the in-laws celebrating 3 occasions at once—the co-birthday party of nephew Andrew and niece Grace (that Sunday being about the midpoint between their birthdays) and the 45^th wedding anniversary of Jeff’s Ps, Bobbi and Wayne.  Andrew picked blue, Grace picked teal, and I made airbrushed lizards and butterflies for the kids.  For the happy couple, I made blossoms in their wedding colors, peach and white.  I added a few in coral for fun, and some yellow sugar “pollen” for sparkle.  Happy birthday/birthday/anniversary to you, may there be many more years!

The lizard to the right has a smooshy tail, because it was humid.  Commercial kitchens, which I intend to utilize more, are more climate controlled than my home, where I bake for my family.  I will be more into the business of selling cookies for real—licensed, insured, business-carded, advertised, vending to your local businesses, teaching(?), and stocking your parties with awesome treats—in the coming weeks.  So tell your friends! (striking a superhero stance)

These hearts were to welcome a baby girl.  I have no other details, but “welcome!” to the little one.  The little-kid-like scribble flowers were a similar technique to the purple flowers on…

…these cakes, for a bridal shower in Milwaukee.  Cousin-in-law Kati ordered them, and took delivery of them after I elected to take care of 2 tasks at once: to get the cookies delivered to her, and to give myself 2 hours off.  I accomplished this by driving to Milwaukee.  I love and miss driving—all I do in the suburbs is short trips to the same places.  Driving on 94 through that rolling, half-green (it was march), nowhere of space between Chicagoland and when you start seeing outlet malls after the WI border, is like driving across the steppes of Russia, dotted with business parks and RV dealerships and the like.  I imagined that I wasn’t headed for a Starbucks at a busy intersection, but a hut in Ulaanbaatar.  But Starbucks it was, and we all had somewhere to be, so we agreed to get a real family gathering going at some point.  And then I was on my way east across Russia again.

Finally, here are some bits o’beach I did for my kiddo’s school’s Daddy-Daughter dance, the theme of which was “under the sea.”  Fondant shells and pearl dragees, and 3 kinds of sand colored sugar made little seaside circles sparkle.   

Thanks for stopping by; coming soon, Shakespeare…

season opener

happy spring everyone!  i got a last minute email from Wendy asking if i could squeeze in some "thank you" softballs for her daughter's team.  i could, and i did, and i didn't take a picture, but they were yellow circles (i really didn't know softballs were yellow) with piped red stitches, and "Thank You" in blue and that’s really it, but the blue and red could have been darker. 

anyway, despite not being very exciting, they prompted another order for the same, but with the team name, "Diamonds," in cursive (and darker), and something blingy to dot the 'i'.  with more drying time, i was able to use the red edible marker to make nicer stitches, and after a trip to the store for royal blue, not sky blue, the letters were lovelier.  to dot the letter i, i rolled out and painted a small sheet of fondant, cut out squares and cut off 1 corner from each, and dusted them with white pearl dust, to make classic diamond shapes with a gem finish.  Wendy confirmed, they were a home run. :) Thanks again, and go Diamonds! stay tuned for some farewell squares, and a butterfly bridal shower, and I have a tulip idea that i’m liking.  meanwhile, here's hoping and hopping your Easter was awesome, a Happy Birthday and Have-a-bird Day to my little man Rowan, and a special hi-5 to a little Ryder who's got some baby shower cookies coming his way.

praying and playing--a busy weekend!

Vicar Fred Gaede has been ordained as a new pastor at Trinity Lutheran, and though he's to be installed this coming Sunday, my M-I-L Bobbi requested early celebratory cookies to share with her Bible study class.

specific requests included "Pastor Gaede" in gold, and a red cross, but off-center with flowers was my idea.
being a cookie illustrator with a 4 year old sometimes means you do your decorating overnight (like this project), which is no biggie for me, it's like writing a term paper, but those without the cookie-touch are wowed by my devotion; i think in this case, if one is devoting himself to a life of spiritual leadership, i can buckle down and make some lovely cookies.  right?  but don't worry, you don't have to be ordained to get me to take a cookie order seriously.

that same night i also made a pile of Es for Evan's Sesame Street themed first birthday. i have so many cookie cutters, i was able to do 3 different fonts.  so yeah, his party was brought to you by the number 1 and the letter E.  get it?  :)
Welcome Pastor Gaede to your new post, and Happy Birthday little Evan!  coming soon, i just found out i have a Valentine's day order.  oh, what to make... (pondering)

pretty in pink

hubby's cousin Dana had a lovely outdoor wedding in California last month--tons of flowers, hanging votive jars and crystals, all in a palette of pinks.  prior to, i was tapped by m.o.b. Aunt Donna to create the bridal shower cookies.  i went with a lacy umbrella, embellished with fondant flowers with dragee centers.  D for Dana, and J for Josh were stenciled on adjoining hearts.  Dana emailed back with exclamation points that she loved them.

so closer to the wedding, i offered to make cookie favors for the big day.  Dana was totally on board and described her midsummer-night vintage vineyard look, and i played with sketches and ideas and the clues i had from the invitation.

here's part of it...

here's what 12 dozen looks like...

and here's the final product.  "silver" curls and pink blossoms, with scrolly lettering on classic 3-tiered wedding cakes, and a final brush of gold pearl dust.  so many steps, but once you get to the end of the counter, the other side is dry and ready for another detail.  it was cookie after cookie, with that nice zen-like busy feeling.  (it ain't work if you like doing it!)
Jeff's Aunt Dahlas helped with the shipping once i got them baked.  humid late August is the worst time for waiting for icing to dry, so i was nervous that even Dahlas's painstaking saran-wrapping and double boxing, or however she did it, couldn't keep them from squishing, but in the end they made it from IL to CA in perfect condition. (whew! thanks AD!) Dana bagged them and added ribbon and a personalized label, and had one at each place setting.  Congrats to Dana and Josh; many more sweet and sparkly memories for you!

iCookie

who? yeah, it's an owl. everyone is doing owls, i'll do an owl. the twig is fondant. back to me.
on this machine that Steve Jobs invented, i too learned of his passing. on the ol' tube, i listened to Anderson Cooper talk to Steve Wozniak, and i learned that Jobs had the crazy ideas and hand-shaking skills, Woz was the builder. Jobs would say, "we need a way to carry around 17 days worth of music in a back pocket, can you program that?"
i've been blogging about looking for a job, but i think i might do well with a Jobs too. i know how to make the cookies, to bake them, ice them, render a skillful image; i'm missing that entity that can make my thing happen to everyone. someone to hammer out that railroad 'cause katie's driving our cookie train. Wozniak was described as the guy who would have built it all for fun. i know i'd bake for fun. [i'm sure my dad would grin a bit at the idea of a cookie operation that he owns and manages, while i'm the artist/laborer. i say "fine, you do the paperwork, stay out of the kitchen." :)]
but i could use someone to sell the idea to the world that cookies are it, cakes are so last millennium, and you want cookie art like s/he and i are gonna bring you. and the irony--thanks to the 2 inspirational Steves, i could click a few buttons on this computer thingy and show you thousands of talented cookie artists. may we all be so fortunate to know people that make it happen. someone who believes magic can and should be baked, and who can tell everyone how great it is to hold pictures in your hand.
"who" indeed.
(thanks Steve.)

poisson d'avril! il trompe l'œil! [my cherry amore!]

my favorite little guy Rowan was almost born on Grandma Bobbi's birthday. i was to be induced the 31st, Monday morning. we were nodding off by daybreak on Tuesday. he just wasn't budging... but finally my little April fool was born. now he's three and knows all the words to "happy birthday" and sings it to Grandma ("have a bird day") then the next day everyone calls him to sing it, then on Sunday we go to lunch and sing it all together... the kiddo just sings and eats cake all weekend. he's in heaven.
Bobbi will say her grandkids are sweet enough, but as a diabetic, she's missing out on that guilty pleasure (that we should indulge in responsibly!) of having a mouthful of frosting. but despite not partaking, she always admires and encourages my cookie aspirations, so i've been on the lookout for a sugarfree recipe i can live with, but then i'm left with the dilemma of decorating them. they don't make sugar-free powdered sugar. splenda will dissolve into the egg whites, not build up peaks.
i had to resign myself to a reduced sugar project for now. i did this with my regular recipes, i just used a little frosting for the borders and branches, and added fondant cut-outs that can be removed before eating.
i'd guess it's at least a third less carbs per cookie, though i doubt that's significant enough, but she loved the look nonetheless. the cherry blossoms were cut with a tiny fondant cutter, then rolled a bit with one of my clay-modeling tools, then dotted with a pearl dragee and dusted with pearl dust.


then i pondered how to commemorate the kiddo's half of the weekend, and what went with cherry blossoms, and i realized i had acquired a cherry cookie cutter that had yet to be used. cherries it was.
happy birthday, favorite mother-in-law Bobbi and favorite little man Rowan! coming soon, Wayne planes and Brittany bling...

my halloween disguise: fondant master!

i recently had an opportunity to apply for a cookie decorator position (i know, can you believe it?) and was asked if i had any pictures of my work with fondant. (i know, can you believe it?) they were really looking for cake decorators who also probably did cookies. i'm finding a sort of friendly bias against cookies among the pretty-dessert fans. i get that a monumental wedding cake, or a complex scene around the birthday cake is no small task, (believe it or not, i watch all the cake shows for ideas. i figure anything they can do vertically, unless it involves motors, can certainly lie flat on a cookie, right?) and that the magic that a cake creator is conjuring involves all the party goers all getting a chance to admire the piece, exclaim that they cant believe it's edible, and what hours it must have taken, and to let all that wonder seep in like they're looking at the thing itself, not the 3 foot recreation in devil's food, ganache and (you know it) fondant. i get that it's about the big ta-da. cookies are more one-on-one, but a cake is for the group's visual pleasure--then the party-goers relinquish its beauty to the knife, and everyone is served something that is only as wonderful as the execution of its recipe. in fact, their portions of the fondant shell are peeled off by those who know, or sampled, then peeled off by those who just figured it out: fondant is just for show.
a funny thing is happening to cakes though--they're shrinking into cupcakes. photorealist painter Audrey Flack (check her out) wrote about how culture is transported over time and space more by the small things we can carry--our totems and ingots and trinkets--than by the megalithic structures that are eventually abandoned or built over. economic pressure makes people take what's easy to carry. and i'm betting that during a recession, a box of cupcakes is way easier to drive around than a cake. they're also way-easy to make at home since a) you can fake it with a boxed mix and b) decorating is more about alluding to the flavors (a sexy swirl of chocolate drizzled with caramel, etc) rather than making the cupcake look like a frog (though the team behind Hello Cupcake are geniuses at that.)
plus, cupcakes are perfectly suited to that urge in humans to have something special all to themselves. that big 3-tiered cake is not yours alone, you have to share it. you only get a piece of it, with a fondant remnant stuck to the side. but a cupcake, with it's flourished whipped peak, and dazzling sprinkles, and perfect gooey bite of something in the middle--that is the essence of a full cake contained in a single serving art-form that you can take your selfish time enjoying.
but cupcakes are more like cake-meets-truffle. when i say "decorated" i mean "to look like something." frosting and sprinkles, though decorative, is really just "frosted and sprinkled." i like the illusions that people are inventing with cake. and if it must be wrapped in fondant to look like a giant birthday frog or whatever, so be it. but what if it could look like multiple whatevers, and be personal servings, and stackable and transportable, and didn't have fondant at all? (pointing obnoxiously to the cookies)
i must wait for this idea to gain momentum. until then, i must make friends with fondant.
i've worked with kneadable media. ceramics mostly, modeling clay, marzipan, all delightful. fondant has been my backdrops for my little scenes, but only as a canvas for icing and sugar. fondant on cookies seemed unnecessary, unless you want texture rolled into the surface, and i've even seen a neat printed effect, but both involve cutting out the same shape in fondant, then attaching it to the surface of the cookie. the whole surface. what do you do when that dries? scrape the cookie off the back with your bottom teeth? or try to look cool while you eat a big mouthful of fondant? maybe, i thought, since it is edible, if not exactly palatable, it were just tiny little bits that you might not notice? so i made a few prototypes. forgive their smudges, these were only for practice...


if you popped in yesterday, you saw my brother's over-the-hill cookies. i thought roses looked more mournful, but during the practice run i made a pumpkin patch. those stems are individual chocolate jimmy sprinkles.

this was a mini fondant ghost on a mini tombstone. i rolled the fondant paper thin so i could almost see through it, and so that it tore lightly at the bottom like a little sheet. a fine tipped brush and food coloring did the details.

paper-thin ribbons were cut and placed on wet white icing. the white icing on top made me think the fondant wasn't necessary, unless you didn't want to make time for layers of piping to dry. the red eyes are fun though.



a worm in an apple.










ruffles on some high-heels.








this was 3 colors of fondant rolled together, cut with a tiny leaf cutter, smooshed a little into a curve, dusted with bronze pearl dust, a little vein line painted with food coloring, then adhered to the "tree" to let the "moon" peek through.

hubby brought these to work. reviews were all positive. i ate a tree, and didn't hate the level of fondant, but i did prefer it picked off. would i do it again? sure. all the time? no. "can i work with fondant?" you betcha.

in "dog years" he's dead

i remember it this way: John was about 11 and drew a line drawing of his room. i was 3 and didn't get it because i only saw outlines. cartoons were colored in; you could tell Tom from Jerry, Bugs from Daffy, but in his drawing, i couldn't tell window from bookshelf. then he colored in the lamp. suddenly i had a point of reference, some context for scale and the like, and the rest of the picture fell into place. it fell, it so happens, during dinner while i stared at it, hanging on the fridge. i was like that guy in Mallrats looking at the sailboat. suddenly someone asked me a question, probably about the dinner conversation topic, as though no conclusion was being reached and the 3-year-old might have some insight, and i pointed to the fridge and replied "i look at the light." laughter ensued, and it became a catchphrase in my family, meaning, loosely, "i'm no longer paying attention to you and would rather stare at the light fixture," a preschooler's proto-"talk-to-the-hand."

but i wasn't dismissing them, i was meaning to say "sorry, i wasn't paying a bit of attention, you see that scribble that John made this afternoon suddenly makes sense to me, and my golly, that's his funky yellow metal 70's desk lamp right there!" then i noticed the outlines in cartoons, always a thin black ink line like comic books. then i got into coloring books--more lines. then i noticed nothing around me had lines. then i just had to learn to draw.

and so here i am, still making outlines and coloring them in. and my big brother (whose first word was seriously "cookie") turned the big four-O today. and whether or not the baby boomers are right, and 50 is the new 40, i marked the milestone with a snarky little graveyard.

light gray was piped just after the darker gray was applied so the designs were flush, then coated in table sugar for a stony texture when dry. the roses are icing stems and leaves with fondant flowers.

here's a closer look, and truer to color, in different lighting. that's my pinky in the foreground, so you can see those roses were tiny. i'll have more about fondant on cookies tomorrow. look forward to shiny shoes, leafy moonlit trees, a mummy, ghosts in the graveyard, a pumpkin patch, and wormy apples. mmmmm.....

and coming soon, lil' Lucy lemondrop turns 1. till then happy birthday John, everyone check out his blog (see link on the right, "Conan's Fiero") and happy Halloween-'een everyone!