A Winner!

The Colts will be a winner next Sunday...but I'm talking about another winner.

A few years back when Joan was researching icing for cookies for her niece's wedding, she decided the perfect icing was color flow. It is, we like it, have never used anything else. We have to buy our color flow from Michael's, it's not cheap, and we can't decorate without it. There have been many times I have gone to decorate cookies and realize I'm out which means an unplanned trip to the store.

I follow a blog, Cookie Crazie, check her out at www.cookiecrazie.blogspot.com. She does the most absolutely gorgeous cookie decorating I've seen. She uses an icing that contains Karo syrup. I tried it on these. I'm very happy with the results. The color turned out perfect (I couldn't have achieved this dark color with color flow). This icing dries with a nice sheen. The texture is slightly different than color flow, so next time I'll thin it a little so it looks smoother.

It still has to pass one final test--does it freeze well? Time will tell, but I'm guessing a winner!

The Queen of Hearts...

A double batch of Valentine cookies sit ready for purchase and consumption in my freezer. These ones are decorated with the flooding technique. They were fun to make.

Let It Snow...

While taking orders for Valentine's Day, I received an order for a Birthday bouquet and a cheer bouquet. I've been wanting to make snowflakes. I usually take the cookies that need writing on them to Audrey because she is much neater. This time I thought that I will never get better unless I practice, practice, practice! It was stressful, but I think it turned out OK. Stay tuned for the cheer bouquet and for flooded hearts for Valentine's Day.

First Things First

The Colts are going to the Superbowl!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll be using this cutter real soon.

Secondly, more Valentine cookies. I used edible glitter on some (the photo doesn't do them justice), they turned out very pretty.

Cheesecake Cookies

I was searching for a new and exciting cookie recipe and ran across this.

It's from The Pioneer Woman. If you haven't visited her, you must. Not only is her life interesting, she has wonderful recipes and a new cookbook, which of course I have and you are welcome to borrow. You can find her at www.thepioneerwoman.com. (Sorry, I'm having trouble inserting a link, you'll have to cut and paste or type it in). This particular recipe is from her Tasty Kitchen and you can find the link through her site.

The verdict: I love cheesecake, but I like mine plain, no fruit or flavoring, so I thought these were just OK. My husband thought they were delicious. My kids won't touch them with a ten foot pole. I had my youngest son critique them based on the picture from Tasty Kitchen compared to how mine looked. He said "Yours are messy, I hope you're not selling these!"

I'm giving lots of these away, so if you are a recipient, please feel free to post your opinion here. And don't worry, I'm not out of the sugar cookie business, I'll bake some of those this evening after the Colts win!!!!

82 Hearts

And that's just the beginning.

I baked and decorated 82 of these beauties this weekend for the upcoming "holiday". I especialy like the smaller ones with the scalloped edge. By the way, the heart plate is from Walmart ($1.50), and I bought a few smaller ones there for a buck.

Need cookies? Place your order early (like Rodecia did), as these are some of our most popular. They will disappear quickly.

Cookie Containers

We are often asked where we get the cute containers to put our cookies in. The answer isn't simple. A lot of thought goes into container purchase--size, shape, cuteness, and of course cost.

In general, we don't spend more than a dollar on a container. After all, we are donating them. We have been known to spend more on something special or on something we know that we'll get back. Many of our customers will return the nicer containers so they can be reused.

We shop at yard sales, dollar stores, Big Lots, Target, Walmart, Goodwill and Salvation Army. There are bargains to be had everywhere.

The cute chicks came from Goodwill and will be perfect for Easter Cookies. The stack of red tins I got on clearance at Walmart after Valentine's day last year for 50 cents each. Many of the pots that we buy at Goodwill and Salvation Army are FTD and Edible Arrangement containers.

Today I bought the square heart decorated and purple striped ones from Target. I can't wait to start filling them with Valentine cookies!

Baby Boy

I made these for Becky's baby shower that will be held later this week. Enjoy!

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I decorated these for our annual New Year's Eve party and to share with another family.

I made New Year's cookies last year but I think I just did snowflakes. It's hard to remember after I've baked and iced thousands of cookies.

For 2010--I think we'll keep a "cookie count" running on the left bar of this blog. I'm curious to see how many cookies we make in a year.

Christmas Cake Pops??

My husband's coworkers LOVE cake pops and requested them for the shift party. After looking at different shapes on the internet --nothing really interested me too much. So I thought of Christmas lights with a milk chocolate base and different colors on top. The shape was a little hard to cover and I think they look a little like tulips. At least they tasted good!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

SHOPPING FRENZY!!! And we've lost our minds.

We have 14 bouquets and 10 plates of cookies to be sold tonight. Prices range from $8-$25.

In case you've forgotten, Shopping Frenzy is at Damascus High School, 6-9 p.m., come early in case the weather gets bad. If you buy the cookies and don't need them right away, they can be frozen.

Our favorites--Joan likes the trees, I made those. I like the snowmen, Joan made those. Together we LOVE the snowmen, mittens and stars together, so I'd call those our favorite. What's yours?

Put a Fork In Me, I'm Done!

We were done making cookies for the holiday, after all, we have to get on with our lives.

But nothing can fill these containers like Santa cookies can. So I had to make one last batch, as I knew our customers would expect it.

Do you know how hard it is to find a Santa cutter? Sure, I could order one on-line, but that takes too much time. I settled for an upside-down ice cream cone, cute and resourceful.

But wait, if you have Santa--you have to have his reindeer too......