3D Cookies

I am Ironman

After finishing a birthday order last weekend I got  a little restless. I have a bunch of orders for 2 weeks out but was looking for something new to challenge myself with. I've been wanting to try Ironman for a while so I decided to try something new. Here is a 5" tall 3-D Ironman cookie. The details drove me crazy but I love the possibilities that a 3D cookie brings. Check this out.


And here's the birthday order for a rainbow loving girl that I just finished.

Spring Cookie Bouquet

What I learned this week? Believe it or not, making 5 cookies takes just as long as making 20. Normally I ask people to let me know at least 2 weeks out when they're going to need cookies. If I'm not too busy, I can do it in a week. How long can making cookies really take? Well, I have kids, and carpool, and errands, and carpool, and meetings, and carpool. The life of a Stay at Home Mom. Sometimes I swear I would be so much less busy if I just went back to work. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.

So, my friend called and said she just needed a cookie bouquet, and oh yeah, she needed it tomorrow. There are very few people I would do this for. Maybe 2. One is my mom, but she would never ask. She's one of those weird people that don't like cookies. And her daughter is a cookie decorator. Go figure. I'm sure a shrink would have a field day with that.

Well, for those of you that aren't cookie decorators, the icing takes 24 hrs to dry before it can be packaged or stacked. So, I am very proud to say that this cookie bouquet was ready roughly 26 hours later.

 Oh, and I did get some sleep. 

First Referral Order

I've been busy filling cookie orders and I'm very appreciative to everyone for placing their orders. If you didn't know already, every cent that people pay for the cookies, I donate directly to Camp For All Kids. It's an organization that sends disadvantaged youth to summer camp. Pretty soon I'm going to have to start covering the costs of my materials but right now, it all goes right to them.

One of my dearest friends placed an order for her older daughter's 7th birthday party a few weeks ago. What else does a 7 year old girl want but peace signs? So here they are:

Sorry for the horrible picture, I forgot to snap them before I bagged them. Notice the note attached to the cookies... It was very important to this little girl that her friends know that these were no ordinary favors. She wanted her friends to know that by purchasing these cookies, she was performing a mitzvah, or a good deed. So all of the cookies had notes attached to them letting everyone know that all the money was going to Camp For All Kids and a brief blurb to let them know what that was. Sweet girl.

I'm very pleased to say that from this order I received my first referral order, from a complete stranger. Up until now its been friends and acquaintances ordering. A mom of one of the girls who got a Peace cookie told her sister-in-law about the cookie and then she placed an order for her son's 2nd birthday party. And if peace signs are for a 7 year old girls, what could be for a 2 year old boy? Sports balls!

What I've been up to...

I know, I've been horrible at posting what I've been up to so forgive me for writing a bazillion blogs at once this morning. My baby turned 2 last month so of course I had to do everything myself. Cookies for treats, cookies for favors, and cookies on cupcakes. Throw in some homemade marshmallows and call it a party!

Party Favors for the kiddies

Sweets tray for the adults. 

Sorry, by the time I took a pic a few parents already helped themselves!

And the yummy cupcakes for the kids. 

Homemade yellow cake with homemade buttercream and a sugar cookie topper.

Marshmallows!

Let me start off by saying that there's simply nothing better than marshmallows. Growing up my Aunt Cathy was probably the most influential person in my marshmallow loving life. She taught me how to make taffy out of store bought marshmallows. Yum! And totally something that my 6 year old self excelled at. The only problem was that I discovered that the tastiest part of this recipe was also the messiest. If you pull the marshmallow apart and stretch it over and over again it turns into a yummy, gooey mess. So this was how I ate marshmallows for a good portion of my life. My best friend in middle school (still my BF today) was thoroughly disgusted with this, as is my husband. My husband overlooks it though, as one of my very few flaws. So with my new baking obsession what was the next logical thing to try to make? Marshmallows! Vanilla marshmallows, sugar covered marshmallows, simply delicious. It was much easier than I thought it could be and they turned out just fabulous!

These were amazing! They were great to hand out as party favors to the kids at my daughter's b-day party who were allergic to dairy, soy, eggs and nuts. All the other kids got sugar cookies so I would have felt bad that they wouldn't get a yummy treat. They were very excited that they got something that they could eat.