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Cameo Cookies

I didn't do anything for my son for Easter. It's not like I didn't know it was coming...it's just that somehow....yeah, I'm a bad person. I took the Easter Eggs filled with candy that my mother sent and hid those. Yes, my son knew exactly who had sent those eggs. And that is why he loves my mother so much right now. And why he made her the best Mother's Day gift ever. And I'm totally planning on signing my name to his gift. Man...its a good thing those two have each other. I can retain their love just by existing between them. So...I'm a bad mother and offspring. But I make a mean bowl of cereal, and I'm not too bad at cameo cookies either. That's got to count for something, right?

Markers + Cookies = Excellent Idea

Guess who just got her first real set of food color markers? It's ME! It's ME!! I picked up a partial set in a clearance bin a few years ago and I've been using those randomly. But NOW everything is different. NOW I have a brand new complete set of food markers that will bring me magic and happiness in every cookie bite. I'm not exactly what you would call "good" at drawing. But...that's never really stopped me from doing what I want. (Seriously, this is something I just don't understand. I can NOT draw. Sure, I can make a cake that looks exactly like a cowboy boot. But DRAW a boot? No can do.) This is my favorite cookie. There's a lot of  4 year old love in that cookie, I think. (He also did one with his own name. And then ate it. Before breakfast. Don't tell my husband.) These cookies were much easier than I thought they would be. I mean...you just draw on some stick people and you're done. So I had a lot of left-over "empty&qu

Daffodils

I love daffodils. They are my favorite spring flower. I have planted daffodils in every place I've lived that they allowed me to plant flowers. (And in some places where they didn't.) And in every place but one...I've moved before I saw them bloom. I'll probably never stop planting daffodils on the chance that I might be around in the spring. And I hope that I will never get tired of planting them for strangers.   Besides this weird daffodil planting disease, I also have a problem with recipes. My husband teases me about it...but we both know its a problem. I can NOT, for the life of me, use a recipe as it is written. I try...but at the last minute, when no one is looking... my hands move of their own free will and change it.  I tell them to stop, but they won't listen to me. Even macaroni and cheese. From a box. I can't do it. These cookies are no exception. I got the recipe from Sugarbelle's blog . It is Sugarbakers Chocolate Chip Mini Chip Cookies . M

S'mores Eggs

Oh dear. Easter is just about here. I have so many more grand ideas.... and I'm running out of time...and I'm doing absolutely nothing about it. I have stacks of baked cookies. I have designs drawn. I even have the right color of icing just waiting. But they probably won't ever happen. I'm not usually the kind of person to abandon a project after starting it. I mean, I have definitely spent more than my share of nights staying up until 3 or later because I HAD to finish something. But, something is preventing me from making those cookies. And I'm just going to have to take care of it before I can do anything else. These must be made. And they must be eaten. If you have the ingredients...don't even hesitate. Just make them now before they ruin your productivity. (As an added bonus... you don't even have to put down your Easter egg cookie cutter!) S'MORES BARS printable version Honestly, I adapted this recipe from one I saw on the internet somewhe

Chicky Cookies 2.0

I know -- I've already made a gajillion chicky cookies . I should move on. But I'm pretty sure I've already told you that I have this little problem where I just make cookies because I want to. Besides...these are totally different. I mean -- look-- there are flowers on these. I love how one design looks completely different with a change in colors or a different shape of cookie. Sometimes though, it takes me forever to decide on the colors and the shape because of that. I get so nervous. What if I choose the wrong shape? Someone might be offended. Everyone would hate me. No one would eat the cookies and I would have to leave the country -- NOT ideal. Oh, and apparently, I add flowers to my cookies all the time. I didn't realize this. Someone mentioned it a couple of weeks ago and it surprised me. And I told my husband and he agreed. Not about being surprised, but about the adding flowers all the time. I can't believe I am doing this without even thinking about

how I made the colored eggs

So many people have asked about the multi-colored eggs, that I've decided I'm just going to have to tell everyone how I did it. It's not that I mind sharing (at all) -- I just feel a bit presumptuous because I certainly haven't been decorating cookies long enough to be telling anyone what to do.  So let's not look at this like I'm telling you how YOU should make them... I'm just showing you how one person made these one time. (And that person is me and I adore being not hated. So... you know...keep that in mind. ) Okay, so ...clearly I started with some egg shaped cookies. ( Chocolate egg shaped cookies, in case you were wondering why my cookies look burnt to a crisp.) I use only one consistency of icing. It's 12 count thick . I start by outlining a section of the cookie for the first line of color. And then I immediately fill it in. I kind of like the look of lopsided lines...but you know...make them uniform and even and perfect if lopsided driv

Cherry Blossoms

Where I live, cherry blossoms are kind of a big deal. Like, a really big deal. They have trips and tours and festivals all centered around cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms are their own season. Like winter. A pale pink, cotton-candy winter. The blossoms even dance through the sky and pile up in drifts on the side of the road. It's lovely . Except in my neighborhood. My neighborhood is barren of these pink little gems because of some strange, cosmic imbalance that maintains my dwelling at a temperature at least 10 degrees colder than the rest of the town. And I will have to wait at least one more week to see them from the comfort of my pajamas. Unless, of course...I cheat and make some out of cookie branches and fondant. These were a struggle between form and function for me.  In order to make the branches edible they had to be twice the diameter of a regular branch. Otherwise, they wouldn't hold the weight of the blossoms. They would have been prettier if I'd just made

pysanky cookies

These cookies were a long time coming. (And by "long time" I mean that it took more than an hour before I HAD to make them.) A few weeks ago, I saw a beautiful egg design and I was determined to make it into a cookie. And then, while over at MegaCrafty , I learned that the design was called "pysanky." And I was even more determined to make them into cookies. And THEN, I found Sugarbelle's Easter cookie round-up and  saw that Haniela had made some beautiful pysanky cookies last year. And then I didn't want to make pysanky cookies anymore. I mean, seriously -- have you seen Haniela pipe?! And then Haniela told me to do it anyway. So I did. You know, because I'm totally susceptible to peer pressure like that. PS: I have a theory about tiny little spaces and the dreaded dents. I tested it with these cookies -- and NO dents. It doesn't prove anything, but I'm going to share it with you anyway. My theory is that in small spaces, the top of the i

colors and secrets

SURPRISE! My blog is all different and stuff. I kind of feel bad that I just switched everything up on you without giving you time to adjust. It was so hard to keep it a secret. And I didn't like it. Now I feel like I have to tell you a secret just to make up for it. So... I like foaming soap. Like, LOVE foaming soap.  I think the person that invented it is just brilliant. I would like to make them cookies. How did people with children get along before foaming soap came into this world? Seriously, I love it so much that I may or may not have taken some with me when I moved across the world. Just in case they didn't have any there. (They do.) You know what else? I'm a "non-outliner." I just can't handle adding one extra step to cookies. I probably could if I tried. But I just don't want to. It makes cookies like these a little easier actually. But then...the addition of 9 jillion colors sure doesn't help on the clean up end of things. And I like c

using a stencil on a cookie

As requested...I am going to tell you everything I know about using stencils. This should take about 3 minutes. Seriously, these red egg cookies were the first time I had ever used a stencil. So I'm definitely not what you would call an "expert" or even "good" with stencils. This is just how I did it. Some basic needs of stencil work: 1) A stencil . The stencil I used is part of a set called " Flower Explosion ." It was designed for cake, not cookies. I do what I want. You can too. 2) Thick royal icing . THICK. Like cookie dough thick. If you think it's thick enough, turn the bowl upside down. If you hesitated -- it's not thick enough. 3) Some sort of flat edge to spread the icing -- spatula, scraper, firm ruler... 4) Cookies . You can stencil on a nekkid cookie, cover it in fondant, or flood it with royal and let it dry overnight before stenciling. I went with fondant because I'm impatient like that. If you have never u

Super Hero Cake

I have made a few cakes in my day. (Most of them while I was still in my twenties.) I've made cakes with fondant and with no fondant whatsoever and some covered in peanut butter and chocolate. I've made gluten free cakes, and ice cream cakes and cakes that taste like tres leches. I made a cake for a Halloween wedding and a cake that looked so much like a real boot that it grossed me out. But, do you want to know which cakes are my favorite to make? Cakes for four year olds.  Because they are just figuring out this whole "birthday" thing and everything really excites them...and most of all...because they are crazy specific about what they want in the most adorable way possible. My own little 4 year old wanted a dinosaur holding a pencil for his cake. He later changed his mind to a fish thinking his name . Today I got to make a buttercream superhero cake with dolphins . Here is the obvious superhero part of the cake. At least, I hope it's obvious. Tell you wh