Monkeying Around

So, my boyfriend's sister Amber is expecting a baby this December...and it's a boy! The nursery is going to be so cute-light blue and chocolate brown with cute little monkeys! I'm so excited! Like, SO excited! (I love kids...can you tell?) SO, I hear that she's having a baby shower and what do you think the theme/color scheme is? That's right, blue and brown and MONKEYS! I offered to do cookies for favors....even though I haven't done anything this detailed before. And I had NO idea what to do for the cookies....that is, until I saw THIS cookie cutter. The monkey face came in a 3-pack with a lion and an elephant. And look at how well it matches the invitation!
I used the same vanilla-almond cookie recipe as I did for the Stormtrooper cookies. I think it's safe to assume that's the recipe I'm using unless I state otherwise. It's my favorite! Unlike last time, I tried a recipe from Bake at 350 for the icing also. This is the other recipe and I found that it worked better for me, the consistency was easier to work with.

I must admit, I was intimidated by these cookies. I was terrified to ice and decorate these cookies, since they would require some drawing of sorts....and I am not very artistically gifted. Drawing is definitely not my thing. So as I was outlining these, I found myself thinking "What was I thinking, offering to do these?? I've never done ANYTHING like this before"! But I have to say...I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out. And Amber LOVED them. I think she was mostly impressed that I packaged them individually. =) What a great way to welcome the upcoming arrival of Baby Mason!

Since these cookies, my mind has been racing...What should I do next? Are there any upcoming events for which I can make some cookies?? I'm so excited!

May the force be with you

That's right, folks, cue the Star Wars theme, because we've got Stormtrooper cookies and Darth Vader cookies in the house!! Every year I like to make my dad special goodies for his birthday, and this year I decided to make these super cool cookies. I got the idea from Bridget over at Bake at 350, and they turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I got the cookie cutters at William Sonoma. They came in a 4-pack, but the Yoda and Boba Fett cookies seemed a bit too complicated for my amateur status, so I decided to stick with the simpler characters.
I was super excited for 2 reasons:
1. These cookies looked like a good beginner cookie, all you do is bake them and fill in the imprints with icing.
2. I inherited my nerdiness from my dad, so I was just SUPER stoked for STAR WARS COOKIES!!
I was right, these cookies WERE pretty easy. I used 2 different recipes, a chocolate recipe for the Darth cookies and a vanilla almond recipe for the Stormtroopers. Both recipes are from Bridget's blog and I have to say...the chocolate cookies were good, but the almond cookies were THE BOMB.

I used an icing recipe from Amanda's blog, which seemed really simple, seeing how it only had 4 ingredients. It worked out pretty well, and tasted good...it was a good beginner's icing. Next time I would like to try something a little different though.

What do you think? Not too bad, huh? They were a hit (especially the Stormtroopers) at my dad's birthday get together. These were a lot of fun to do...I can't wait to do more!

I'm Ba-aaack!!

After almost a year hiatus, I've gotten back into baking and decorating, and I apologize for being gone so long. When you bake and then decorate cakes for a living, it's a bit hard to get motivated to do the same at home... "C'mon, I'm getting paid to do the same thing at Sam's club, all I want to do is sleep"...



Well I'm back, and with a bigger variety of interests. I've recently taken up cookie decorating. I love the idea of baking sugar cookies and decorating them, especially for gifts or party favors. I've been inspired by some very talented ladies who blog their cookie masterpieces. I really recommend you check them out: i am baker has some really cute cookie ideas and my personal favorite, Bake at 350 is absolutely AMAZING! Needless to say, I'm hooked. You'll probably be seeing quite a few cookie posts in the coming weeks. =)


So let's get this party started!!
....again.
(sounds a little familiar, doesn't it?)