Almost final product!

After 3 lbs of Rice Krispies, buying Walmart out of their stock of mini marshmallows, and about 6 hours in my kitchen armed with a bottle of PAM....

I managed to make 150 Rice Krispy Treats! They are covered with a square of purple marshmallow fondant and monogrammed with a simple M in lime green royal icing.

They're drying right now...letting the royal icing set and harden before they're popped into some treat bags and tied with some ribbon!

Samples!!!

I'm pleased to say that I have a bunch of cookie orders coming up! I try to sample out the cookies for upcoming customers 1) so they can get an idea of their final product and 2) so they can tweak the design however they'd like!

My girlfriend Susan has a little one named Jackie who is turning 1 next weekend!! Susan and her husband are friends that lived a couple blocks away from us in Newport. We've since moved to a land far far away from Aquidneck Island called Exeter. Here's a little sample..unfortunately i just did the sample in colors on hand...little Jackie's cookies will be much more colorful..just wanted her momma to get a feel for the design!

It's been a while....

my blogging adventures took a little vacation...but my cookie making hasn't. Today, I find myself up to my neck in Rice Krispies!!!! You see, my older sister Heather is getting married this weekend. Of course, what type of family wedding doesn't have favors from me :).

Heather wanted a monogram cookie..nothing too over the top, just square with her new last name initial on it. However, the cookie lacked a little bulk...so I figured to plump it up a bit..what better than a rice krispie treat! I love they way they look..and after 5 hours in the kitchen...130 rice krispie treats are now gracing my kitchen.





The treats are covered with a square of bright purple fondant. That's how far I got tonight...I'm tired after dealing with juvenile delinquents all day..tomorrow I will pipe the details in lime green royal icing to match the wedding colors....pictures of the final product will be posted soon!!!

Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail.....

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's way! That's a song I learned probably in the 2nd grade or so (circa 1986).

This week I don't have any cookie orders to fufill. I'm guessing there are no showers, parties, etc this weekend since Easter's on Sunday.

In stead of catching up around the house, doing some wedding planning, or any type of yard work, I decided to bake some cookies and try out some new cutters.

I had a rabbit body and rabbit face and decided I wanted to try some 3 dimensional cookies with the rabbit face. Instead of just a level fondant overlay, I made some fat cheeks with additional fondant. Here are some sneak peeks:



I couldn't decide between freckles and whiskers...I think I'm leaning more towards the freckles...





While I slaved in the kitchen, one of our cats, Annabelle, took advantage of the nice weather and curled up in a good spot in the living room.



I have about 50 other cookies cooling out that will decorated later this week....

Cookie Cutter Sale!

Most of my earnings have gone towards the Holly and Bill wedding fund. After almost 9long years of dating, we're tying the knot in October. Bill didn't take me up on my offer to fly to Hawaii and have a really really nice vacation and get married while we were out there as well. So, now we're having this way too big wedding in RI. So, I've been baking my bee-hind off trying to generate some extra money so we don't go in the red throwing this little party!

However...today I found a sale that I just couldn't pass up!!! I've been buying most of my cutters from Foose Cookie Cutters (www.foosecookiecutters.com). Take one peek and you'll see why i shop there...their selection is HUGE!!!

Here are a couple I can't wait to try out!

Ok..I may be a little early for Halloween!


I love the bikini...makes me think that summer's coming one of these days!



I loved this monkey...not sure what I'll use it for, but everyone needs a monkey cookie cutter!


Another reminder of spring!



Check them out...the code for today and tomorrow's 40% off sale is SPRING! What a deal..with all this week's orders I managed to buy around 40+ cookie cutters (shh don't tell Bill) AND give the limo company a deposit :)

The Most Popular Cutter of the Season....

is the dress cookie cutter! People are going nuts over this cookie cutter and its hands down my most requested order! Here are some pictures for one large order of bridal shower cookies. The bride's colors are ivory and gold. I did one sample with a tiny hint of ivory coloring, but it had a strange look to it, so we went with white. Gold is always and interesting project. There's no type of dye or coloring to tint frosting gold. Instead, I use a product called Luster Dust, mix it with a tiny bit of alcohol and paint it over dried royal icing...quite the project but I think it's worth the result!



This is what 77 cookies look like! I normally put my cookie orders in cake boxes with a thin layer of bubble wrap. The largest cake box couldn't support 70+ dresses...so a xerox paper box it was!


That's alot of cookies!

I'm a Baking Machine

I had three cookie orders for this weekend. I finally wrapped them up and they're out the door and delivered. This was the most cookies I had to make in such a short period of time with roughly over 200 cookies baked, covered in fondant, accented with royal icing, and bagged, tied and ready to go. Here are some shots of my busy kitchen...there were literally cookies cooling on every square inch of table and counter that we own!



Good thing Bill was in Texas on business...our dining room table wasn't usable this week!




Some close ups of engagement cookies...


and some shower cookies..the tiny little hearts had the couples' first initials and accompanied the large heart in the bag

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.