Monday, April 25, 2011

Yoda Cookie Tutorial

Finally, finally I have completed a little demonstration/tutorial video. Many people have asked me to make one so I finally was able to photograph my way through my Yoda cookies. Now please keep in mind, this is a pretty advanced cookie and I've had a lot of practice. I should have made a basics video first, but this is the way it happened. I'm working on straight forward star cookies this week and I'll try to video the basics. You need to start with a good quality cookie (smooth and without rounded edges) in order for your icing to work right. So enjoy this video and remember it was my first one so don't be too harsh! I'm not claiming to be an expert by any means! This is just what works for me. There are many, many schools of thought regarding cookie decorating, and I know several decorators that could decorate circles around me!
And for all you who have no desire whatsoever to stay up all hours of the night baking and decorating cookies, I'm sure it will be interesting just to watch. It is kind of neat! You'll also see how much time I put into my cookies! if the video is choppy, press pause and let it load a while before you watch it. took me a while to figure that one out!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Piano Cookie, Star Wars Cookies, Pillow Cake, and a Garden Tea Party Cake!

Wow! It's been a busy few weeks! Needless to say, kitchen clean up awaits me. Ugh. Here are a few of my baking projects from recent weeks.
These cute piano cookies are actually from a while ago, but I'm trying to go back and post old pictures from January-March. These were for a piano recital at Burlington Day School. Thanks Laura!


These were for another BDS student who celebrated his birthday last Sunday. He shared these with his classmates and the rest were for his family party. I added 3 new characters this time! All of these are hand cut, and several of them are have hand painting. I photographed my way through the Yoda cookie and I'm working on a tutorial! Thanks again Shylon!




This was a fun project. This is a pillow cake I carved from a 8 inch square cake. Covered in fondant and made a gumpaste crown. I love the matching cupcakes! Thanks Helen!



And my last project for this wonderful Easter weekend. A sweet little cake for a tea party birthday. The birthday girl requested dirt, grass, pink, purple, tulips, roses, butterflies and a caterpillar. Whew! I'm glad she wasn't too specific! It was really fun trying to have all of those elements on the cake and throw in a teapot too. I love how it turned out. This one is the main reason my kitchen is such a mess! Gumpaste flowers = big mess. At least in my kitchen! Thanks a bunch Susan and I hope the party was lots of fun! Elizabeth is such a sweetie!





And now...clean up!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Hollywood Themed Cake

This cake was for Burlington Day School's auction night. It's a big fundraiser they do every year. I'm so glad they asked me to make the cake. It was a lot of fun! I had to have enough cake for 150, so I did the big 3 tiered cake, and 3 side cakes in chocolate. Everything on the cake is edible except for the sticks holding the sign on top, the pictures and the wires the little stars are on.
The popcorn is made out of mini marshmallows.
Cookie stars.



It was so fun to go and be able to set up the table all fancy. I had to laugh though as I was leaving. The boys had to go with me to set it up and it took me longer than expected. The guests began arriving in formal attire as we were leaving. You should have seen the boys. They had been outside all day and were pretty dirty. We only got a few strange looks! Just a few!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

He's Got Moves

We have an electric keyboard in our little office/school room/library. I'm glad we live in the country and our neighbors are far enough away that they can't hear or see what goes on when we get "the beat" going. The beat helps us clean up. The beat helps us sing our family worship songs. The beat helps us bust a move when ever the spirit moves. Here's Samuel making some serious tunes with the beat on his slide whistle and egg shaker. The boy has moves.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Baby Shower Cookies

It's been a LONG time since I've posted any of my goodies. Frankly, I've just been too busy with orders! After hours in the kitchen posting pics on facebook has been as far as I've gotten. So, to get back in the swing of things, I'll post my most recent project. These are some of my favorite cookies I've made. I just love doing the different designs within the same color scheme. These traveled several hours away to a baby shower. They will be arranged on a platter for the shower. I can't wait to see pictures of the platter!





I think these may be my favorites!

These are my favs too!

Thanks again Abby! I hope everyone enjoyed these!