Why You Shouldn't Decorate Cookies Late at Night

I had quite a few orders this past week. Here's the perfect reason why you shouldn't decorate cookies late at night



It's sad to say, but as I went to bag and tie these, I kept looking at them and it finally hit me what was so off...

My Ravenous Baked Good Eating Cat

Bill and I have three cats...they're like our kids. One of my favorite things about Bill when I met him 9 years ago was his fluffy orange tiger cat, Davie. Davie's our boy, and he also goes by the name of Smuggy McSmuggenstein, based on his smug looks he loves to give his dad!

Here's one of his best smug looks while he's curled up on our couch.


Now while Davie's usually a good boy..lately he's been a big Pain in the you know what. When we bought our house and moved to Exeter, the closet vet is a great place called Wolf Rock, whose vets take a holistic approach to their practice. The kitties were switched to all natural cat food made of meats, vegetables, etc. Unfortunately, this has given our ex-kibble crunching kitties quite the taste for "human food." Lately...Davie's choice of snacks has been freshly baked cupcakes. He leaves the cookies alone..maybe sugar cookies aren't his thing!

So while he may look sweet, fluffy and pet-able...he's been driving his momma nuts lately. I let 24 cupcakes cool on cooling racks and this rascal-y cat decided he was hungry and ate the tops off of them. (don't worry, I gave them to Bill and baked a new batch)


Davie also goes by another nickname...Snuggly mcFluffy (this is all Bill!). Now if Snuggly McFluffy knows whats good for him he'll lay off my baked goods. I've resorted to toting cooling racks into the spare bedroom now to ensure the cookies won't be nibbled on and it's making me pretty exhausted!!!

Heather's Shower!

My big sister is getting married! Heather and Steve are tying the knot on June 20, 2009. Today we celebrated these upcoming nuptials at a bridal shower. We were going for a more modern flare and really found a great spot at Vintage Restaurant in Woonsocket, RI. We grew up in Woonsocket and lord knows a place like this didn't exist when we were all living there! Vintage has this great upstairs that's divided into two different rooms- one side is a lounge/bar area, the other was a dining area. After we ate, we transitioned into the lounge are to watch her unwrap all the gifts! Of course...yours truly did the favors! Our bridesmaid dresses are purple, we found a great invite with a bride and 3 purple dresses behind her. Our whole theme centered around the purple dresses!

Here are the favors before I wrapped them. A white dress for the bride and purple dresses for everyone else.


Here are the bridesmaids with the bride...my other sister Heidi, Heather's future sister-in-law Carrie, myself and Heather

My Mom and the Bride to Be

A shot of Vintage. This is the dining area where we ate

Here's the cake (from the Cakery in Woonsocket, RI) and the favors all wrapped up.

Busy Cookie Weekend!

Ok...I must admit that I had no idea what a Backyardigan was until I got this order for a 3 yr old's birthday party...but I quickly learned after googling them! Here are some Backyardigan cookie favors with Pablo..the little blue character






Here are some cupcakes with Backyardigan character finger puppets!

Love is in the Air!

Maybe it's all the engagements that happened over the holidays or the upcoming summer weddings...but I've had tons of requests for shower cookies and engagement party cookies!

Here are some sample cookies I made for a black and white polka-dot themed engagement party. I experimented with the bride/groom cookies and wish my pictures were a little better...I was hurrying out the door to package these and get to work on time!



I think the small bride and groom were my favorites!








Here are some other designs to go along with the white and black theme..

I may not be Irish.....

But that doesn't mean I didn't go buck wild making St. Patty day cookies!

Here are some pictures of some basic Shamrock cookies made for some special pre-schoolers...



Boxed up and ready to be delivered..

Cookie orders are rolling in...

which means every night I've been busy prepping fondant for orders! Here are some shots of me busy in the kitchen last week that Bill snapped!





I knew these huge purple bowls leftover from my UMASS Amherst days would come in handy again! They're perfect for mixed the mashmallowy mess of fondant!



Nice green fondant for St. Patty's Day!



My cute apron...Thanks Mom!

Bridal Showers Galore!

It's going to be wedding season soon...and that means many bridesmaids are out there planning spring bridal showers!

Bridal Shower favors are some of my favorite favors to do! Maybe because I'm getting married myself this Fall or because my sister is getting married in June!

My co-worker, Elizabeth, is in a wedding the same day I'm in my sister's wedding (who knew June 20th was so popular!)

Here are some pictures of the samples I created for Elizabeth!




The most popular cookie cutters for showers and weddings are typically the dresses and cakes. The only special request for these cookies was to have the accents in a hydrangea-blue type color. I think I got pretty close!







I also gave a shot at an umbrella and the little wedding bells...I wasn't wild about them, mostly because they were smaller cookies...guess I'm just a fan of a big beefy cookie! If you're going to indulge..you mind as well go big!




Here are some finished products ready for my customer!

Bridal Shower Favors....

My Mom's been doing a great job of getting me potential clients! Here are some samples I created for a bridal shower for one of Mom's friends.


Cookies fresh from the oven just covered in fondant.


Decorated and personalized for the bride and groom!


I also added some tiny little heart cut-outs with the bride and groom's first initials.


A close up of the final decorated cookie--thanks for the doile help, Mom!






The packaged final products!

Somebody's Grandpa's Turning 90!

Here are some samples for a 90th birthday party! (woo-hoo angela's grandpa!) I always find masculine cookies harder to do...all the pretty icing colors are always different shades of pinks, purples, etc..which wouldn't fly for grandpa's birthday cookies!