Makeover time!

Sooooo, notice anything different around here? Yes, I did get a new hair-do and I lost some weight. Thank you so much for noticing! Unfortunately, it's just my header and blog that were the lucky recipients of a makeover courtesy of Jennifer at TrendyGirlDesigns. The real me is not feeling half as cute as my little chicky up there what with my rapidly expanding bump that is currently home to EB. In case you were wondering we are now heading down the homestretch and have entered the 3rd trimester. I've started another blog for my ramblings on that here.

I am so, so excited for this new look, you have no idea. I have wanted a new look for so long and tried to DIY it but there is just no way. I ended up messing it up even more. But thanks to a busy summer I bit the bullet and hired someone and I am so glad that I did! I want to blog more and more. *Sigh* Just wish I had the energy to do more projects. It's sad really. I have these great ideas in my head (well to me they're great anyway) and I turn the oven on but by the time the oven is ready to go...so am I...to my bed for a nap. LOL

There are a couple of projects coming up though and I'm excited for those. I have baby shower favors to do (for my own shower, YAY! Okay, so not exactly proper etiquette but so? I've had specific containers sitting in a box since May and this is exactly what I bought them for. I'll claim pregnancy hormones if I have too!) I also have some wedding favors to do which will be time consuming since the bride wants them hand painted. Did I mention those are due a month before EB? Yes, I'm a little crazy. Where I'm going to find the energy I just don't know but I couldn't pass it up.

Enjoy the new look! I'll be filling in some of the missing items later. Right now I have to tend to the cappuccino cheesecake I made earlier today. I hear it calling from some ganache and caramel drizzle....

1st birthday luau!

In Hawai`i we celebrate first birthdays like no one else. These tend to be huge affairs rivaling one's wedding with tons of food, entertainment for the kids, musicians for the adults, etc. Crazy, crazy. Let me tell you, I'm already worried about planning my little one's 1st birthday and I've still got about 3 1/2 months left before we even meet the little guy! Lucky for me, this has been a summer of toned down mainland 1st birthday parties so cookie orders were placed for 50 and below (with the exception of the order I'm working on now.)

The ladybugs were done at the same as some really cute Hawai`i themed cookies for a former Hawai`i local now living in Vegas (or what we locals call the "9th Island.") You may remember the baby block cookies that were done earlier this year, well these Hawai`i cookies were done for the hostess of that baby shower. Yay for me that she trusts me and after she said "slippers and coconut trees" she let me run with it. Now you know that I don't like the make cookies the same unless I have too. Like coconut trees. What can you really do to a coconut tree to make them different from one another? The answer? Not much so all of my trees were identical but to dress them up a bit I added an outline and sprinkled some sanding sugar on it.

The slippers were a bit more fun. I wanted to have a pair of slippers and didn't have time to order one (okay, I'm lying. I didn't order it because the one I wanted was copper and I couldn't justify the price. LOL) so once again I hand-cut the cookies and made each cookie a little different from one another.

Yes, people wear camo slippers. I actually have a pair from Michael Kors, believe it or not!

I also busted out that faithful #1 cookie cutter again (which will be getting another workout in a week) and had some fun with them.

My favorite of these has to be the honu (turtles) swimming.

Now that these cookies have been eaten I can share a secret. These cookies went out on the same day and when I packed them up I neglected to notate what order was what and the boxes were all the same. I was really, really worried that I was going to get a phone call/text/email/FB message asking me what the heck happened! Thank goodness the right cookies made it to right party!! I've learned my lesson, I swear! The next time multiple orders go out, I'll mark the boxes, I promise!

Ladybugs!

In addition to Diego and monkeys, I also made ladybugs and Hawaiian themed cookies this summer for 1st birthday parties. First up were the ladybugs for the little lady in Arkansas. Such an adorable little girl! I'm branching out into making tags for cookies as well and it packs so much better than tying them with ribbon! For our little Southern cutie I did some giant ladybugs, okay, well not completely giant. They were 4" x 3.75" and gave them a little heart shaped mouth.

*Side note: In February I bought these teeny tiny mini heart sprinkles from Williams Sonoma. They are seriously the best decoration I could have bought. EVER. Remind me to post pictures of all of the cookies these sprinkles have been used for and I have barely made a dent in the bottle! I am not kidding. You can find these online everywhere. Pick some up. And angled tweezers to place the hears exactly where you want them.

Here are the ladies, all bagged, tagged, beribboned and ready to steal the show! At least until the birthday girl comes along! Just for fun, I added some 1 cookies decorated to match. Fun, right?



Hawaiian themed cookies are up next!

Camden's Circus Cake

Today I completed what will be my last cake for a while. It tired me out more than I expected - heck, you try rolling out enough fondant to cover a cake in between bouts of nausea! But apart from a few air bubbles, the cake actually didn't give me a lot of trouble.

The cake was a circus theme and apart from flavors, I was given free reign so I decided to make the cake a show ring and featured 3 acts - a Dumbo-type elephant, a tiger and seal. Honestly, I loved the little elephant and I so did not want to put him on the cake. I mean, look at him! He is obviously too young to be in the circus because he can't even do his act yet, the poor little guy! He's probably just nervous and he'll be better next time. The tiger and the seal were able to do their acts just fine - they're pros, you know.


For the cake itself I went with bright primary colors. Originally I thought about doing swags of red fondant but having never actually done swags I thought it might be a tad too ambitious and we definitely didn't want it to fall off of the cake so I went with crescent moons, green stars and some sugar animal lay-ons.


You see that big space in the front there? It's still missing a little something. What's a circus without some snacks?? I took a cupcake and piled on some white chocolate ganache and then added some popcorn that I had made out of fondant and then brushed with colored powder. I also made a cupcake wrapper and a popcorn sticker...you know, just in case no one could figure it out.


After everything was put together I think it came out pretty cute. Of course I would have loved to do so much more like a smaller tier for a ring master and maybe some peanuts but I ran out of time and energy. Oh well, maybe I can give it another try later. Or not.

Well, it's time for the circus to head on out of town. They have to get ready for the next gig.

Birthday cookies, oh my!

This summer has been a time of birthday party favors for sure! It started when my sister-in-law asked me to cookies for her 3 children's birthdays. No, she doesn't have triplets, she just decided to ask for all 3 at once. And I thought I liked to plan ahead!

First up was Diego for my nephew. For those of you who don't know who Diego is (like me, I had to google him,) Diego is the cousin of Dora the Explorer (now her I've heard of!) and he take adventures with his baby jaguar which confuses me because I swear jaguars were endangered so shouldn't Nick pick another animal?? What kind of message are they sending here?

Anyway! Here I am thinking this will be easy, he's a popular cartoon character so there's bound to be a cookie cutter somewhere, right? Nope! Then I realize I will have to hand cut this guy. Have you seen Diego? His hair is in points around his head like so:

The cookie could have been made round and then I could have have put Diego onto that but you all know how I feel about the easy way. Besides, then I would have had to use the projector and I just didn't want to do that. So the Craving Sugar solution? Hand-cut them, of course! So here's the finished product, all hand-cut and decorated free-hand, no KopyKake used at all. I'm so proud!


Diego was followed by monkeys for my niece and let me tell you, these cookies were HUGE! As in monster truck huge! I really wanted a cute monkey cutter, and just the face because I think if you have an entire monkey, it's just not as cute. After searching, I finally found a copper cutter that I liked at Copper Gifts.I like Copper Gifts - your order comes with a packet sprinkles that I ended up using on some slipper cookies (to be posted later.) =o)

In all honestly, I did not expect the cookie to be so huge. Yes, I looked at the dimensions before I ordered but it didn't compute in my pregnant brain so it was a shocker! But, the girly monkeys did turn out pretty cute and they all have their own little personality. I think the birthday girl liked them too. (Sorry, picture of the birthday girl not included.)


The next cookie isn't due until November so there's some time to figure that one out. It's Strawberry Shortcake and wouldn't you know it, there's no cutter for that either. And to top it off, there's a made-over Strawberry Shortcake! This will be interesting!

Do I go with the version I grew up seeing? Or the newer, I don't quite recognize her, apart from her hat version?

There are still a few more summer birthday cookies on the way! More later!

A cookie for me!

I have been so quiet lately! It's not that I don't have a lot going on because I do, but it's more the what that has been going on that has kept me quiet the past few months. There's a cookie that I have been waiting to make for a while now and earlier this summer I had the chance to do so. Without further ado, I am pleased to present the cookie that I made for myself! Well, for myself but to be given to other people.


Now I'm not sure how much cookie time I will actually have after baby arrives but I'm still going to try to find the time AND cram as much in as I possibly can now! I will be giving up caking for a while, though. I have one cake that's due next weekend and then I'm wrapping up the fondant. Although now that I think about it, it would be easier to give up the cookies rather than the cake since cookies (a) take up more space and (b) are a lot more time consuming. Hmm, I think pregnancy brain has gotten to me. Better not over-think.
You know, I think I'll eat some B&J's Chunky Monkey and not worry about anything else right now. Back with more updates later!

Wowza, busy month!

This month has been crazy. Really crazy for me! I have been baking and baking since the middle of April and I am happy to have a break! I love baking, really and truly, I do but the dishwasher was being a little vocal about the amount of squeeze bottles and tips on the counter not to mention the lack of space in the apartment.

Here's a quick round-up of May (minus a picture of a birthday cake and the Cinco de Scotty cookies that already had its own post:

I was a little skeptical when I found a cookie cutter for the state of Hawai`i but I have to say, it works! I just need to work on my spacing and we'll be representing the 808!

Cookies for my first corporate customer! The design represents the Core Values of an international company based here in Honolulu.

VROOM!! The monster trucks are rolling in!

These bad boys were made for a special little boy who turned 2! I think this must have been an awesome party with some HUGE (think 5"!) cookie favors! Happy birthday Mr. Nolie!!

Relay for Life cookies for Nolie's mama! She's an awesome woman with a huge heart for others - there really should be more people like her!



Peace cookies for a 5th grade graduation. Most of her classmates got a peace cookie brushed with some luster dust for hippie sparkle, her close friends received a cat cookie with a peace color. Interesting fact - so far, every time I have tried to type "peace" whether here or when emailing back and forth about this cookie, I have typed "peach." Maybe I should buy some peaches....

Well, that's May so far. What's next?