Corby (heart) Melisa

Then my sister-in-law Kristi's best friend Melisa's mom Barb called and asked if i could make cookies for Melisa's bridal shower. sketches were sketched, and the final pick was purple hearts with pre-piped ivory initials, and gift boxes with toothpick-dragged hearts and purple bows.














pearl dust was brushed on both for that sparkly romantic look. and what did i get the bride? ...cookie cutters. :)

Steve (heart) Bailey

so my former-coworker friend Lisa's cousin Cassie's friend Bailey has accepted Steve's proposal, and it called for a shin-dig worthy of custom cookies. Cassie emailed me with a bunch of ideas, so i emailed her a bunch of sketches. about 8 emails later we narrowed it down to flowers in purple tones, and circles with their initials, butterflies somewhere, pearl dust, and a particular shade of green.
this order was awesome. usually i get told "you're the artist, just do whatever" but this one challenged me--in a good way. the end result, as described by one guest with lots of exclamation points, was gorgeous and tasty:


letters and butterflies were pre-piped on wax paper, raw sugar provided the ivory border for the circles. periwinkle, lavender and raspberry-sherbet toned icing was brushed with white, purple, and red pearl dust (respectively). i imagine if they were real flowers, they'd be tiny, shade loving, and vanilla scented. :)
best wishes to the happy couple!

once upon a time...

...i was looking at my cookie cutters and thought, "i gotta do something with this chick and this acorn," because cookies based on storybooks are the cutest of all. we already recognize and love the characters. it's doubly delightful to bake and decorate them. ladies and gents, here's chicken little.

when i take out henny-penny and the rest of the bird bunch, the background still makes a darn good farm scene!












also check out the slideshow--i'm trying out 2D backgrounds made of fondant, like the "backdrop" behind chicken little and the tree. i'm working on a night scene next, but i'll let you guess...

you can even eat the wrappers!

my sister-in-law Heather has the right idea: 2 kids, 2 summer birthdays, 1 party. last year i brought ice cream cones a la cookie, this year it was candy.

this is one shape that i might go back to for flavored-icing experiments. maybe a vanilla mint green swirl, or lemon yellow. or tie-dyed tootie-fruity. :)
happy birthday Andrew and Grace!

Christmas in July!

i know all the cookie greats are beginning their holiday dazzlement now--what you'll see in this season's catalogs, magazines, how-to shows, and high-end bakeries, is coming together in crazy minds like mine, and prototypes are being baked in this terrible heat. yes, we suffer for our craft. :)
my yearly Christmas-cookie-night with Mom is incomplete without some Perry Como playing in the background. the first track on the perennial set list is a reading of "The Night Before Christmas," with all the glitzy, yet cartoon-like, big band accompaniment. it's actually one of my favorite poems, and if i could cookie-tize the whole piece i would, but here's one scene, when "away they all flew like the down of a thistle."


a little zooming in, and you have "the luster of mid-day to objects below" (i did those buttons with a toothpick!)
i think i'll make this one my family's 2010 Christmas card. then again, i have a growing list of holiday imagery that i want to try. maybe i'll make a whole set of cards...
coming soon, a nursery classic, candy, and bride's-to-be and their love of purple.

baby Ivy's shower

Kate is having a baby girl! rubber duckies were requested, with "baby Ivy" piped in. i added the bubbles. the whole time i was decorating them i was singing Earnie's 'rubber ducky you're the one.'
shipping them to WA was an experience--the p.o. says "if it fits, it ships" but the express box they give you is better suited to ship something shaped like a laptop. 8 of the 36 little guys didn't make it. the ones that did, i'm told, were a hit. (Katie and Kate share an interstate high 5!) now go have that baby, lady! and send pictures!

little cookies, big thanks

i've been unemployed and seeking a job more cookie-related and less spreadsheet-related. i came upon a chocolate shop where, i learned, an independant vendor sold her cookies. so i took a business card and emailed Julie, the manager, a few questions adding that if she were to answer, i'd happily bake her cookies.
turns out that having a business license, renting retail kitchen space, etc, is what it takes to be such a vendor, and is more than i have time or cash to start up. this sounds like a setback, but it was actually very reassuring--a whole catagory of my employment quest could be crossed off, leaving me that much more able to focus on my other opportunities.
so, super-pleased to be on my way again, i baked her these:

i delivered them, and she seemed surprised that i bothered, but happy too--who doesn't like hand-delivered cookies?