Been a long time....

since I posted any photos. I've baked a lot of cookies in the interim, and most of the photos were taken by Hubby and posted on Facebook. But I did want to put this particular set on the blog because I doubt I'll ever be asked to duplicate this set of Phantom of the Opera cookies, which were special ordered for a birthday party.

It was part masquerade party, too, so I added some purple & gold masks.Some of the designs were borrowed from cookies I saw on Pinterest; some were my own creation. They made an interesting mix! I still have a long way to go until my font writing skills improve....that's the thing that bothers me the most about these cookies. On this point, practice doesn't seem to make perfect...

The Cookie Lady

Wild animals!

Over the last week, my kitchen has been overrun with wild animals!

There were also alligators and snakes, but no photographs were made of them. It's quiet now...all critters have been sent to other homes.

The Cookie Lady

Sorority Girls

This is a set I decorated this week for AOPi [if that cute little Pi symbol is on my laptop, I can't find it]. The sorority had an open house this afternoon for their new 'house' on UT campus:

I understand they expected 350 to show up. I prepared 17 dozen cookies, 68 each of three designs. I was pleased at how they turned out, except a good number of the roses showed butter bleed through the red icing. Phooey....

The Cookie Lady

Fall!

The beginning of fall, for me, is when school starts each year [even though it's in the summer, really]. Every month offers something special. With September, we have school and football games! With October, there's Halloween...

These were made for a Halloween birthday party. I designed the two-piece party girl from the invitation that her mother sent to me: the head is separate from the starry dress [made from a candy corn cutter]. The ghost sports a Halloween banner and the cat is a sillouhette against the golden moon. Adding some pumpkins, the birthday girl's initial "A", and a few spooky houses complete the set.

The Cookie Lady

Playing Catch-Up

This blog has been sorely neglected over the summer. But I was baking! Following is a quick trip through my summer baking sessions - and it's not even close to all the cookies created in the little blue kitchen:

Gearing up now for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! How did summer fly by go quickly???

The Cookie Lady

Mother's Day

May has been a busy month for me as a cookier...there is so much going on in this last month of spring. Besides graduation, baby showers, bridal showers, and birthday parties, there is the sweet holiday of Mother's Day. A co-worker of mine asked for a tray of cookies for her mother:

This is a mix of flowers with a few butterflies and some leaves mixed in. Simple, soft colors.

The Cookie Lady

Long Time No Write

I almost forgot I had a blog except that, lately, folks have told me they've been looking at the photos on my blog! To say I've been busy baking is an understatement. Studying other cookiers' techniques has improved my ability and technique, and I'm appreciative of those who post tutorials for the rest of us to use for learning and practicing.

Following are several photos that Hubby took for me over the past few months:

There are other photos, and many, many cookies baked and eaten since last September. I'll try to do a better job of posting.

The Cookie Lady

Teaching is a Hoot!

I saw a tutorial by Marlyn at Montreal Confections that I couldn't wait to try -- my opportunity came when a friend from church asked me to make a tray of cookies to deliver to one of our local schools for a teacher appreciation event. I tried Marlyn's method of making transfers for the owl eyes and loved how easy it was - AND the cute effect it had on the cookie:

 

 

 

The orange pumpkins really stood out against the purple owls and made a very eye-catching tray. I needed a 'banner' cookie, so I used my Wilton comfort grip oak leaf cutter to cut a couple of cookies to write "Teaching is a Hoot!"

 

This is one of the best cookie sets I've ever done, and it was a lot of fun to design and implement.

 

The Cookie Lady

 



Busy week!

I had two cookie orders this week, and both for little boys' birthday parties. The first request was for dinosaurs for a 5-year-old:

Fortunately, his mom provided a photo to me of the party plate and napkin so I could try to match colors - and his favorite color is ORANGE!

The second order was a Cookie Monster theme to fit in with the overall theme of Cookies. I had bought the cookie cutters for Cookie Monster and Elmo a few weeks ago, just to have on hand for 'someday':

These turned out so well, I couldn't believe it! My only boo-boo was when I messed up the street sign - I only intended to put Easton's name across the bottom but I was looking at "Sesame Street" and began spacing out the letters from the middle. After I had written the E-space-S-T, I realized what I was doing and had to change my plans. Anyway, I hope Easton enjoys these on his special day tomorrow !!!

Next week: a baby shower order!

The Cookie Lady

An Apple for Teacher

I'm not sure why we associate apples with teachers...apples keep us healthy? when we are healthy, we learn? teachers help us learn? Anyway, apples represent one of those signs of Autumn and is a favorite symbol of the season. I was asked to prepare a couple dozen cookies for the daughter-in-law of a church friend to present to her son's preschool teachers. There were two trays, very similar:

I hope the teachers enjoyed these as a 'sweet' beginning to their new school year!

The Cookie Lady

Ahhhh, Autumn is here...

and with it comes SEC football - in particular, Tennessee Vols football! To celebrate, and because it was my turn to bring breakfast treats to Sunday School, I made a tray of football cookies in vanilla and chocolate to accompany fruit and white powder doughnuts:

Included with the traditional orange and white was the new color of smoky gray [the Vols have new uniforms this year]. I'm very fond of the gray! The stadium is from a design courtesy of Ali at Ali Bee's Bakeshop. Not as cool as hers, but it will do.

So, in case I don't get around to it again....GO VOLS!!!!

The Cookie Lady

Bright & Funky Teenage Birthday Cookies!

Just finished a really fun set of spunky cookies for a new teenager! Those Americolor electric gels really create some bright colors:

This tray contained a mix of designs: birthday cake with candle and zebra "H". I just happened to have several types of very colorful sprinkles to add a little extra 'oomph' .

When Hailey saw these, she was all smiles! I hope she has a wonderful birthday celebration!

The Cookie Lady

Superheroes, Part II

This week's superhero is the Caped Crusader: Batman! I did not include his sidekick, Robin. These cookies are headed to a 5-year-old's birthday party and I hope he enjoys them:

The Bat signal features transfers that I made separately and 'glued' to the cookie base with icing. Batman's head was cut from a tulip cutter and then trimmed, as I had nothing else close to that shape. I already have another order for Batman cookies - stay tuned...same bat time, same bat channel!

The Cookie Lady

Superheroes Series

Well, it will be a short series...I've been asked to make cookies for back-to-back birthday parties for the grandsons of a friend at church. This week's superhero was the man of steel:

I am indebted to Callye at The Adventures of Sweet Sugarbelle for her tutorial on the Superman shield! Her ideas made this design work up quick and easy. Some colorful stars with Superman sprinkles and some number "3" cookies for the birthday boy rounded out the two trays of treats.

Next week, I'll post the next superhero....hope those cookies turn out as well as this set did!

The Cookie Lady

Colorful Thanks

My daughter's mother-in-law was so kind to ship two tubes of Mary Kay lipstick in my very favorite color a couple of weeks ago. I was so happy that she found the color still in stock - companies tend to drop shades and add new ones without warning, and I had delayed ordering a new tube for so long that I just wasn't sure it could be found.

In return, I baked a tasty 'thank you' for her, using some new colors that I really, really like [but probably won't be able to create again since I was just playing around with the gel colors]:

In real life, the colors are a dark teal, burnt orange, and ivory. Kind of an early hint of fall....which I'm so ready for!

Shipping out on Monday and hope they arrive unbroken!

The Cookie Lady

Cowabunga!

I'm amazed that I remember that Ninja Turtle byword after all these years, but maybe it's because my son said it a LOT! He was all things Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when the critters first came out in the early 90s. Fast forward 20 years...they're BACK!

These are for a birthday party for a 5-year-old grandson of a church friend. They look better than I thought they would since I had so much trouble with craters in the icing. Not sure why that happened, whether it was the lack of humidity today or the type of powdered sugar I used...or something else. But I hope all the little guys enjoy them, anyway!

The Cookie Lady