Truckloads of Fun

So this week I took on a project for a little man that's very near and dear to my heart. My very good friend's little boy (and quite possibly my future son in law) is having his 4th birthday party this weekend.

The theme?

Monster Trucks.

Short on time and even shorter on 'monster truck' cookie cutters... I opted for a plain circle in which I could pipe monster trucks on.


little did I know what I was getting in to.

Undeterred, I did some research, printed out a few clip art images, did a few practice sketches in pencil, then dove in.



Some of the first ones weren't exactly the best, but eventually I caught my groove and came up with an acceptable design.


Final count was two dozen, and the birthday boy should receive them tomorrow.... with plenty of time to spare for his party on Saturday.


Final pictures.... here's to a "monster" good party....

Lessons learned? I still need to figure out my shrink-wrap methods. the backs of the cookies looked lump and bumpy, which is PROBABLY because I used too much shrink wrap.

also? if I ever get to a point where I'm charging people for cookies, I have to be mindful of the design and amount of effort each takes. This particular project was done out of love, so it could have been 100x more intricate and I wouldn't give it a second thought... but in terms of something that could be a paying job... I'll need to consider the amount of skill and time certain designs require. I'd be curious to compare my 'speed' to get cookies such as these done now, and let's say.. in another year from now.

Plum Pear Apple

some days, I've got it. other times?? not so much.

Last week, I really wanted to send out some packages that had been kicking around for a while. random love, thank you gifts, belated birthday presents, congrats presents, baby gifts.. you name an occasion, and I pretty much was needing to send something for it.


of all the packages I sent last week, one happened to be a congratulationary gift. Is that a word? if not... you heard it here first!

Anyho... a fellow blogger I enjoy reading recently launched her own company selling super-hero capes for children. Have you seen it yet? It's Pear Plum Apple Designs... and she really does make the most adorable hand-made capes.


As a little way to congratulate her company's inauguration, I decided to send her a little of what *I* like to do.. kind of like a long distance hi-five. I whipped up a batch of sugar cookies, and created one with her logo on it.




and since I had the icing and cookies made already, I made a few extra... one with her name on it, and a few little ones for her little boy, Mason.



LESSONS LEARNED: Although this was a fun 'gift' to make... I made a VERY big mistake. Erin's logo background is white. when doing a white background.. it it EXTREMELY imperative to let the icing dry completely before piping dark colors on top. Thankfully, I took pictures of the cookie the night I did it, because after sitting overnight, the plum, pear and apple dyes bled into the white background. ... as seen by the picture below.



another thing to be noted with white backgrounds... it is better to use a THICKER layer of the icing. Due to the size of the cookie, I baked a little longer to ensure it was cooked thoroughly. This caused some browning on the top of the cookie, which can easily bee seen through the icing because 1 - it's white, and 2 - I did not apply a thick enough coating.

one last (obvious) reminder... the thicker the icing.. the longer the dry time!!! so be patient!

St. Patty's Day

Well... I doubt St Patrick had cookies on his mind when he was in Ireland teaching about the Catholic Faith... but I sure have cookies on MY mind this St. Patrick's Day.

Now that Rhena is older and really wants to HELP with everything.. and Danny is mobile (read has free reign of the downstairs so I'm a walking stress bucket) it's a bit harder just to decide I want to make cookies and get to baking.

step one--- get those cookies BAKED!

This particular batch has taken a total of three days to complete. one day I made the dough, the next Rhena and I rolled, cut and baked... yesterday I did the base icings, and just today I finished the details. oh. I guess that's FOUR days.

bases done... time for the finishing touches!

no matter. the best part of sugar cookies is that they keep extremely well; especially when stored in the tupperware.

for practicality, I tried to keep it simple. only 2 different shapes/cutters, and only 4 colors of icing.

The finished bunch. 21 in all. lucky number?

plated up for a nice final picture. Happy St Patrick's Day!

Lessons learned: I need to watch how much water I add back in to the icing to thin it out for flooding. I noticed that when the larger shamrocks dried, there was some inconsistencies in the color over the cookie. This is most noticeable in the dark colors. This batch was just for fun, and I'd like to think my friends will eat them just the same... but it's definitely something I need to be a little more careful about going forward.