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.

Lemon Cookies

I practiced using flavoring in the icing, as well as decorative techniques in this batch. The cookies themselves were a bit hard... a result of too much flour, I think. you can see 'layers' in the cookie from a side view.

I tried to do a more appealing plating/different camera angles for this batch as well... as seen from the complimenting colors and props. I feel the fancier background makes the cookies look that much more 'lemony'.

attempted to create the pulpy -slash- textured look. Used a paintbrush for that effect.

overall.. I would re-attempt these again. think with more experience and a better cookie base, these could be very nice as summer gifts.

In the beginning, we were halfway there

Ok, so TECHNICALLY this isn't the beginning, since I've officially been in business since what.. 2009, and have been posting pictures of my creations since 2007? Nonetheless, this is the beginning of a blog for A Taste of Stepford.

I've been posting pictures on our fan page on facebook with the occasional reminder to check out my website, but have come to the conclusion I've been doing it all backwards. I SHOULD have been posting the pictures to my website or blog, then posting the BLOG links on facebook.

oiy. there really ought to be a manual for this. I suppose there is, but I don't have it, so be prepared to be a little confused for a while. I'm not sure if blogger will let me modify posting dates for entries to make the entries appear to have been posted on when I actually BAKED something, but I can try. At least going forward I have a plan though. that has to count for something, right?

here's to going forward. and, well... looking back on some fun projects I've had the chance to work on.

________

note-- entries from the past will keep appearing as I copy them from my previous baking blog, Crumbles, as well as create blog entries for former projects previously featured on my facebook fan page. If you don't see something I've done yet... be patient... it's coming!


thanks! (carrie-- August 9, 2011)