what you've been missing

There is so much I've done, and so little I've posted for you.  Here's a speed round, and a heap of apologies for keeping you waiting:

Prettiest first, these were from a bridal show last summer.  

 

Also from last summer, ice cream...

...and patriotic pinwheel stars.

 

a Minion birthday...

 

...and a Scooby-Doo birthday (H is for Hannah).

 

my sister-in-law, Kristi's birthday

 

this poor little guy I found on my phone from late 2013!

 

 

Battle of the Books at the library.  (b.o.b for apples, eh?)

 

for the kiddo's Halloween fun fair at school

 

more Halloween fun, with airbrushing and plastic bugs

 

and a Clifford the Big Red Dog themed "Paws to Read" event at the library.  Those bone sprinkles did double duty in graveyard pudding dirt cups for Halloween.

Not far behind, I've got last summer's Fringe Fest where yours truly was the only food artist.  And coming up, a Midsummer Nights Dream, a vintage clothing show, barista aprons, and everything I've been taking pictures of at work with the work phone--just gotta email the darn pics to my computer and I'll be good to go!  I hope you all have a splendid week, and may stay warm!  Now I gotta run to OfficeMax...

 

 

radiant Sons

i was once again tapped to make thank-you cookies for the choir, for the annual Christmas musical performance and potluck.  this is based on s-i-l's emailed drawing; an oval and holly leaf made the shape, outline and flood technique with pre-piped letters made the image, and some pearl dust made it sparkle.  thank you Trinity Lutheran Choir!  and i hope everyone's final 12 days of Christmas are are just as yummy and sparkly.  (it's snowing pretty hard here, we might add a verse of 13 shovelers shoveling.)  coming soon, baby stuff, snowmen, and maybe superheros and owls?

i do... want cookies...

a bride to be liked some cookies similar to these, and i did my best to recreate their features on a dozen for a shower, and i hope the original artist won't hold it against me, but they were pretty, and my pleasure to make, and i came up with a great new technique for making uniform hearts:  sponge food coloring onto the back of a metal mini heart shaped cutter, and stamp the cookie.  i did the same with the square outline and got nice even lines and duplicated the shape each time. awesome.  Congrats and thank you!
coming up, info on the opening of the ITN "Meet Market," a baby shower, a birthday, and some yummy bugs...

bridal butterflies

and then Jackie emailed me and asked if i could do some shower cookies with a purple butterfly theme, with the couple's initials and wedding date.  when i was decorating them i thought they kinda looked like little save-the-date cards being whisked away by a flock of butterflies.  couldn't get the whole flock in the shot though, i had to get them wrapped up for delivery.  busy busy!
thank you Jackie! and i think i have some tulips in my future...  stay tuned, and happy Sunday :)

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.

i can has purrty cookie?

in honor of Valentine’s day, i offered my friends-&-family rate to all “to spread the love.”  cousin-in-law Kati, who ordered owls for baby JJ, shared the link on her hubby Tony’s wall, and he had the great idea to order 2 dozen for the missus.  he said “some hearts” and whatever i think up.

so i consulted my bags of shapes and picked a still-unused Valentine cat from the 80s, courtesy of Aunt Dahlas passing down surplus school supplies.  i mixed the icing a little early so it was deflating a little bit and behaving little more “flowy” than usual, but casual lines worked—instead of fretting if the toes should be more pronounced, or the whiskers longer, it looks a little floppy and kind of like a long-haired cat, right?  [i considered making a few to look like LOL cat sensation “grumpy cat.”  maybe tearing the heart in 2?  another day.]  my twitchy penmanship was just the right font for cute little-kid messages, like “luv u,” “xxoo,” “be mine,” and “T+K.” the flowered hearts were iced white and airbrushed rose pink through a flower paint stencil.  i enjoy thinking of different color combinations for this pattern. a lot.

then, continuing the pink flowers theme, i made cookies for the kiddo and his cousins; mini blossoms in Valentine colors.  i wasn’t attempting any precision with these either—i wanted them to look casual/biomorphic/breezy, rather than symmetrical.  

i bagged ‘em.  they looked pretty.  and i make my tags from old greeting cards.  shazam.

thanks again cousin Tony, and happy Valentine’s Day to all!  coming soon… well, i have an order, but i’m still working on what it will be.  so it’ll have to be a surprise…  and then i have some Indy cars.  stay tuned!

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)

Joe's 90th birthday

i had a temporary post of my sketches for these cookies, and the explanation of my doodles, but lets look at the cookies instead.

tada!  i mentioned that Benita was throwing a party for her father Joe's 90th birthday, and that the colors for the party were tan brown and gold, and that last senior i saw in brown was the endearing Mr. Frederickson in the movie "Up," which made me think of fabrics in masculine patterns--a favorite chair, or shirt...  in the end, when i had them all laid out in rows, these cookies reminded me of the table of ties at a department store, with their little patterns, and satiny finishes.  each was airbrushed with a different stencil, 2 of which were hand cut from plastic lids, the 3rd was a section of needlepoint grid. then detail lines were added with edible marker, then a border of gold, and a coat of gold pearl dust.
the whole time i was doing these patterns i was imagining them in different color combinations.  how awesome would some blue look for a baby shower.  right?  or some Christmas sweater cookies...  or red and pink argyle hearts for Valentine's day.... (losing focus)
baby owls and tiny gymnasts are next, stay tuned, and happy birthday Joe!

A is for Ava

so i'm trying out my new computer.  we'll see if i blow it up when i try to upload something.  so far facebook doesn't like uploading my pictures.  if you see a pretty white cross with little pink flowers in this post, then we're back in business.  these were for the baptism party for Ava, daughter of hubby's friend Gabi.  mini fondant cutters made the flowers and leaves around the base, and like Evan's baptism cookies, the A was stenciled. some pearl dust finished it nicely, and each were bagged in favor bags.  welcome little Ava! 

"shiver me cookies!"

it's talk like a pirate day and i actually have pirate cookies to show you! Karina works with the Hubs and was attending 2 birthday parties, and one was pirate themed.  the parrot is actually an eagle with the beak nudged down a little before baking.  across the top is a crown with the 2 inner points pinched together.  that leaves a mini-bell shaped space right where his ear goes.  and when they all bake together, it makes a little boy with a bird on his shoulder.  the skull and crossbones were prepiped so i could draw the little boney details in edible marker.  awesome.  i mean, "yar, they be awesome."     (high 5!)

the other party was Mickey Mouse themed, and since i don't prefer to do licensed characters, and don't have a Mickey cookie cutter anyway, i offered Mousketeer hats made easily with a large circle cut in half, then 2 smaller circles perched on top.  tada! 

i've always liked doing something besides the character him/herself.  like, if ever i do a Snow White party, i'll bring red apples.  Harry Potter would get white owls.  the cake is usually the showpiece, i bring the little birds and flowers for the background.  it's like... accessorizing!
much thanks to Karina! and happy birthdays to my new little cookie fans.  more on the way, and i just finished more baptism crosses and new-baby birdies. making neat stuff for kids is seriously activating my polar elf genes.  are my freckles sparkling?

a baby blue baptism

hubby's mom's cousin's daughter Michelle had a little sweety boy named Evan.  cute as a button and so little compared to my now-horse-sized 4 year old; they had an adorable round of making 'aaahhhh' faces at each other.  Michelle asked if i could do baptism cookies, any style.  the cousin in that opening sentence is a retired pastor, so i did my homework and consulted a Gospel or two and liked the image when, after Jesus is baptized, the clouds part, which i painted with 2 shades of blue icing and white food coloring, with the "spirit descending like a dove" in edible marker.
the E on the crosses is my new favorite trick. usually one uses a stiffer stencil for cookies or cakes, but i used a floppy wall-painting stencil.  turns out if you nudge a dab of icing over it with a modeling tool and lift, you get a spiffy monogram.  nice for light-on-dark letters, which isn't really doable with the airbrush.  still need more experimenting with the white food coloring, but check back in winter, i have some snowy ideas.
welcome little Evan, and congrats to your family!  stay tuned all, more is on the way.  had them all listed, but this laptop ate my original blog entry draft. boo.  well, now we'll both be surprised. :)

pow! boom! zap!

i've mentioned before that i dont like doing licensed characters.  being able to copy someone else's art might indicate good hand-eye coordination (or you have a Kopykake projector) but if you want Tinkerbell, i'll leave it to Disney. plus i never understood why Barbie, for instance, when made into a party theme, has to have her face on everything.  if i were Barbie, i'd want flowers, or hearts, or something about Barbie at the party--i wouldn't want to eat my own face.  so when Evelyn turned 4 and wanted a Spiderman party, i wanted to work around just doing red masks and logos.
a neat thing about comic books is that they're full of pictures.  they even have pictures to depict what you cant see--sound.  in text we call it onomatopoeia. but if you draw it, a big colorful blast shape with a KA-POW, etc, right in the middle is a cool graphic by itself.  and who doesn't chuckle when watching fight scenes in old Batman episodes? (Oof! Splat!)
so i made Evelyn some comic-style action sounds in what were supposed to be yellow blue and red, but oh that red, i need a new brand, because i could only get dark pink.  but it's ok, because girls like pink too.
all 3 colors were applied one after the other so they dried flat, then i "inked" them with the edible marker.  the imprecision of the piping lent to a nice sketchy, hand-drawn effect with the marker, like fun little doodles.  the shapes were a flower for 'pop,' 2 asymmetrical flowers for 'boom,' and 2 elongated stars for 'zap.'
and i've mentioned before that not everyone gets up close to admire the cake before it's eaten.  if you're late, or standing in back, you may miss the big communal dessert/art before it's divided up, but once we were done singing, and the cake was being cut, the plate of cookies circled the room and everyone got a fun piece of comic book art, via a cookie. and anyone who had ever read a comic book got the connection without any direct reference to a character.  besides, the birthday kid is always enough of a character :)  Happy Birthday Evelyn!
and stay tuned for cows and lizards and hearts and plants and plaid, and more flowers... and feel free to throw a few suggestions my way for April Fool's Day, i'm pondering that too...

...and a happy new year!

hooray, i now have all 2011 pictures posted.  :)   funny that these are clocks, and they're sooo late. sorry about that, but my computer is way old--rather than install the camera's program (proverbial straw on proverbial camel's back) all my photo unloading happens at my in-laws house.  and now my computer crashed, so i'm doing this on my lunch break.  i'll have it together someday.  meanwhile, lets talk about cookies...
in the dead of winter the air is dry, and my icing can whip up pretty stiff, so i have to thin it with water. (the opposite is true in August, when humidity mandates more powdered sugar) the slightly blobby lines are a result of slightly runny icing.  i maintain that my icing with egg whites is positively luxuriously perfect every time, but sometimes meringue powder needs a barometer.  but i brought these to the office for New Year's Eve and everyone adored them. (i'm my own worst critic. or the worse ones are polite and say nothing!) 
individual numbers were joined to a plain circle and baked together. the blue was for no reason, except it's my favorite.  i added a brushing of dry pearl dust because the holiday needs something shiny.  the clock face was edible marker and a single silver dragee. you might not be able to tell from the picture, but all the clocks were at 5 minutes to midnight. swell fact about this century-- i can make a version of this cookie every year. :)
and there's more on the way! purses are next, and cows, and lizards...  and if you want to buy me a new computer, i'll gladly make you a couple hundred cookies....

some birthday baubles

Brittany, my niece, has followed her job in jewelry retail management all the way to Atlanta, all at the ripe old age (if i'm doing the math right, you know us old people) of 21. (at 21, i was in retail, but one of those know-nothing part-timers.) for her May birthday i thought it was fitting to give her some bling.
her mom, s-i-l Libby, got me the engagement ring cookie cutter from Sur la Table last Christmas, hoping i didn't already have it--i didn't, and here was a perfect reason to use it.
the hardest part was considering how best to make the sapphire look like a cut stone. i spent a good 10 minutes sketching and erasing before i just googled it. then to translate it to cookies, i iced the stone in blue, then painted it with a vodka/blue pearl dust/blue food coloring mixture. when dry, i painted the lines with vodka/white pearl dust. [water will start to dissolve the sugary surface; vodka is alcohol and will evaporate.] the silver was dark gray icing brushed with white pearl dust.
and i picked a blue frosty stone for 3 reasons: it was Will and Kate's wedding weekend (recall Kate's engagement ring); Brittany gave me a sapphire pendant one Christmas; and Brit is one of the few gals i know that can pull off wearing frosty blue eye make-up. i've tried, but frosty blue just looks better on my cookies than on me. :)
the hardest part after decorating them was sending them to Atlanta via UPS. not because of any actual problem, but if i were Mrs. Corporate-Cookie i'd have my own refrigerated trucks; with delivery services, you just have to hope. i was standing there reading all the things you're not allowed to ship like corrosives, explosives, etc, and under "other" was dry ice. which would have helped. it was like 90 degrees in IL that day. i asked, "can they park the truck in the shade?"
i emailed Brit and said if the southern heat melts them, i'll replace them, but they arrived intact. [whew!] happy birthday Brittany, and congrats on the career! i'd tell her to stay cool, but she's got that covered...
coming soon, Brenda gives cookie thanks to 30 teachers, 6 different ways.

90 years young!

Sharon, who ordered the tiny elephants last fall, wanted to commemorate her dad Henry's 90th birthday; her last honoree was just 1--my cookies are for kids of all ages.

i asked what visuals she was thinking, maybe fireworks or shooting stars, she said. i got to thinking about 1921, and the early 20's remind me of things like seersucker suits, and patriotic bunting, and real silver coins. i wanted something equally blue/metal/banner-waving, with Sharon's ideas of stars and federal-holiday-sparkle....

and i made these. one medium star and 2 mini stars were baked with a 9 and a 0 (one of my favorite tricks--the dough spreads as it bakes and glues itself to it's neighboring parts.) pearl dust was brushed on just-dried icing. i dropped them off at the hospital where Sharon is a nurse and when the ladies at the front desk overheard that i was there to drop off customized cookies, we had a little show-and-tell. one asked if i sell them, and i always have to do the 'yes, but... not licensed or anything... customers so far are just friends and family... just a crazy lady who bakes, etc.,' to which she replied, "who cares? these are beautiful!" so much of my feedback is encouraging with a tone of urgency. i'm looking into my job options; if my own store is out of reach, maybe i'll help another shop rise to stardom. (jazz hands!)

speaking of jobs, hats off to Sharon and her fellow nurses. :)

get it? hats off? (ahem.)

drop by again soon, birthdays are keeping me busy, Easter has me stumped....

my kid ate my homework (& thoughts on bake sales)

friend-of-the-fam' and previous client Brenda asked if i wouldn't mind donating my wares to Fox Ridge Elementary's fundraiser last month. i agreed, then pondered all over the place... the suggestion was to do baskets, maybe 2 of a dozen each. i only had to provide contents, but i thought of my reserve of cookie-appropriate containers and how to fill them in some delightful way. it came down to 2 blue mugs and a candy dish, to be tied in my usual cellophane poofy-topped way, containing a scholarly selection--apples, pencils, letters numbers, and rows of sticker-sized gold stars. the idea was to have 3 gift sets, with the candy dish having more of each shape. then my terrible-2y/o got into the candy dish, so i made the mugs and a few favor bags instead. (thanks kid)

luckily i made these, also in favor bags. the designs are piped dots, some dragged with a toothpick. the "metal" is black icing with pearl dust. i was pouting as i was getting to the end of decorating these--i wanted to make one in every combination of colors and patterns. maybe i'll get a wedding/baby shower gig soon? hope so, i can't look at this picture without getting more ideas.

i threw out a line on twitter and facebook, wondering if any area followers wanted to co-donate to a basket, but no bites. meh, we're all busy, it's ok. but with the funds that need raising all over, i'm looking forward to any movement in bake sale culture. they could be like little conventions of local artists (cakes cookies) gardeners (preserves pies) and kitchen warriors (aforementioned and then some) networking their secret recipes into American hearts and pallets while offsetting what's gotten to be a sad [i paused a while here] everything.

secret shoppers from huge food magazines could discover the next home-baked celebrity or publications/blogs could spring up to cover the bake sale bandwagon that everyone is hopping on so they'll be featured in said publications/blogs. all proceeds to charity. are we doing this already? links please, i'm on board. and magazines, i'm for hire...

Brenda says the cookies were a hit, and i'm glad to help. (high 5 Fox Ridge!) coming soon, cherries and blossoms, Heather's baseball birthday do-over, and Henry partys like it's 1921.

because krylon would taste funny!

my hubby, best boyfriend ever, Jeff, got me an airbrush for Christmas. i didn't ask for one, hadn't even considered it since i was pleased enough with sanding sugar and pearl dust. but Jeff is probably my #1 fan and has had some pretty enthusiastic ideas about what i should try next (even physics-and-chemistry-defying ideas) so when he proposed an airbrush i probably brushed (pun!) it off as superfluous, an expense, some tool to fumble and never really learn, like if i tried playing the oboe. i had forgotten that he mentioned it. then one came in the mail.
i eyed it suspiciously for a day or two. (it looked like an electric crack pipe.) then i figured either i'd hate it or i wouldn't, and if i didn't, then i might get good at it, and i had to get moving on cookies for Vanessa and Theresa for covering Jeff's hours Christmas weekend.... so i made some white squares.
then i went to Michael's and rounded up a few stencils. then i watered down some food coloring. then i took a deep breath and made an awesome gorgeous mess of some cookies.
i was incorrectly intimidated. food coloring through stencils on cookies, once the spraying hand can gauge what it's doing, and the stencil-holding hand isn't bouncing everywhere, is pretty simple. i rolled out some fondant shapes, like the square and circle combo, or made a little coil like the ones that say "dream". some of my stencils came from the paint department, others were die-cut scrapbook pages. the pink and purple tiny square pattern in the lower right was a plastic needlepoint grid. pretty soon i had a list of ideas, and my next 2 projects turned out surprisingly well. (posts coming soon!) thankfully Vanessa and Theresa don't mind when tasty cookies are funny looking, so they each got a dozen of my prototypes to say: coming soon, Libby's "boudoir" birthday dozen, golden lemon brocade, (as yet unconfirmed) animals, tractors for a little girl (?) and i'll probably whine a bit about making icing in January... also looking into a cookie party situation. (woo!)

Jamie's dresses

this is my favorite kind of order--one that starts with "oooh! you should call katie!" long story short, there have been parties this year featuring my cookies. one guest, former coworker Mary Jo, passed my website along to her daughter Jamie who wanted a fun way to surprise her friends with the big question. she wanted to leave it up to me, citing a creativity shortage on her part, but i said how about a color, or a picture you like, and she sent back one of pastel dresses hanging side by side, and a preference for blue. so i sent back this sketch.
i traced the dress cutter twice, and the mini bell twice for the dress combo, and showed 2 choices for the text. the two have the same motif with the question marks and hangers. once i got a thumbs up from Jamie, i had the big idea to try meringue powder.

my mother and i have been using the same icing recipe since at least the mid 80s. it involves egg whites, and we've never had one complaint about it. raves and requests yes, but not a peep about egg-related dissatisfaction. that said, our plan, once these cookies were done, was to drive them to Mary Jo, who will mail them out to Jamie's friends, as Jamie is in AZ and her friends are all over, like MN. i wasn't exactly worried for the cookies making these journeys, and i mused at those little million-to-one disasters that only happen to your package on the leaky truck, or in the hot weather, and i thought, why not try an alternate to egg whites, because one day we'll need to. this order has intricate piping, travelling, and the deadline was kinda soft, so if i hated it, i could start over. it seemed a good time to dabble.

it took some getting used to. it was a lot thicker, it dried with a glossier finish, and the cookie remained firmer. plus it didn't have that not-quite-dry, not-quite-dense, airiness from whipped egg whites. the meringue powder provided the elasticity, but not the slight fluff. the end result was a little more taffeta than organza, but still pretty with pearl dragees, pearl dust, and opal sugar. Jamie said they were a hit and all 4 ladies said yes. congrats! and thanks Jamie and Mary Jo for a fun order.

i look forward to a few valentines, marriage proposals, etc. it's such a fun way to pass a message. my favorite kind of art has always been the kind that translates and idea. when i was little i cut out snowflakes and papered the windows in wintertime. the view out the window wasn't enough, it had to be a perpetual flurry. in high school i didn't feel compelled to write a script or act it, but i thought make-up and model building were awesome--as important as the acting or writing, it was the visuals that got you there. Jamie could have sent some blank chocolates and a card, but here's the iconic image of the bridesmaid's duty, "The Dresses," all bright and edible and cheerful. there's that moment when your eyes stop seeing icing on a cookie and they see the picture. like when the paper snowflakes in the window become the weather outside. it's a neat thing to conjure up in people. and then they get to eat it! win-win!
ladies, i hoped you enjoyed your surprise, and to all, stay tuned for angels, stars, trees, more stars, snow, and a metagingerbread man.

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!

Bob (heart) Nancy x 50!

Judy from church called and asked if 4 days was enough time to make 4 dozen cookies for her parents' 50th anniversary party. (i did 18 dozen for my own wedding in 3 days--woo!) and did i have any shapes that would work for such an occasion? (hundreds, i tell ya!) i accepted the mission and suggested a 5 and 0 baked together, gold pearl dust, gold dragees, hearts, wedding stuff... she left it up to me. so i revived my heart/rose combo and added the 50 by stamping the heart with number cookie cutters before baking. the lines remained, so all i had to do was follow them with the piping bag. some sugar and gold and a favor bag for each, and these little lovelies were off to the ball.
(if you were here in february, you may remember the same shape with animal prints for valentines day.)
Judy said they were just the perfect touch. i hope so, 50 years is a long time to wait for such a great cookie.
:-D
coming soon, how is a sunflower like superman?