Smile :)

Don't cha just love a big toothy grin?!

I made these cookies for a friend wanting to thank her orthodontist for giving her the perfect smile. Granted, my cookie teeth aren't completely straight - good thing they have braces! But they are awfully cute! I'm willing to bet that they made at least a few people smile :)

Cookies really are the best gift! Even for orthodontists!!

Red, White ... & ... Blue, eh?!!

** AND GETTING BACK INTO ROUTINES** 

HOLY MOLY... it's been awhile!! I've missed you :( Considering my last post was in May I've been a little... err... absent. Blame it on end of school year festivities and then summer laziness! I don't know about other teachers but I think my calendar year runs from September to August! July and August are all about turning it off and September brings new energy and excitement. What better time to get back to a blogging routine as well!

Despite popular belief (cough, cough, choke, choke) I have been quite busy over the summer. And I have a lot to share! My mom will be very happy about this as she has gently reminded me a few times that my blog was in need of a little TLC :)

On to the goods...

In June I was contacted by the lovely Karen who was looking for cookies and cupcakes for a very important corporate event she was planning at the beautiful Fort Gibralter. The order was huge - the largest I`ve done to date - at 650 pieces! I was thrilled to get the opportunity to see what my little kitchen could do!! My mom, sister and even the hubby graciously volunteered to put in a couple of long nights - thank you to them!

The theme of the event was a little Canadian pride mixed with the company`s famous blue colour. A few months back I purchased an edible image printer (more on that to come soon!) and it worked wonders to add the logo to the sweets.

Each cupcake was adorned with a small cookie bearing the event logo... the best of both worlds!

And each guest left with a cookie favour - a round sugar cookie with the event logo,

trimmed in sparkly, gold sugar. Aren`t cookie favours the best?! ;)

A huge thanks to Karen for letting me be a small part of your event! 

Peekaboo Beans... and a **GIVEAWAY!!**

I don't have any mini beans of my own but if I did I would definitely shop {HERE}!

Introducing... Peekaboo Beans - playwear for kids on the grow! These clothes are unbelievably adorable :) Too cute for words really! And... Canadian to boot {gotta LOVE supporting our fellow Canucks}!

Here's how it works...

1. Contact my friend Cory {she's a super cool chick!}

2. Host a Beans Soiree at your house

3. Invite your friends to come to your Soiree and order ridiculously cute, well made, affordable clothes for your beans

4. Have the best-dressed gang on the block!

Seriously, if these clothes were available in adult sizes I would wear them too!

And, because these moms have thought of everything, you can even sell your vintage Bean-wear on the PB website once your kiddos have outgrown your favourite pieces. Says something about the quality, doesn't it?!

Now onto the cookies!! Cory, being the amazing host she is, asked me if I would be interested in making some sweet treats for her Soiree guests. Of course I excitedly agreed and got to work!

The Peekaboo Beans logo is very fun but after a few attempts to recreate it in cookie form I decided to get out my {new and very exciting} edible image printer {more info coming about this soon!!}. It is the perfect solution to logo cookies.

 Did I mention that the clothes are amazing?!?!! Well, they are! For the next set of cookies I was inspired by them. The lollipops are way to much fun and who doesn't love a polka-dot print?! I couldn't resist :)

You can also contact Cory through Facebook to find out more information on Peekaboo Beans.

I cannot say it enough - the clothes are great... you will not be disappointed! And you may even get a cookie or two ;)

** Sweet GIVEAWAY** .....aka fun! fun! fun!

If you're interested in trying out Peekaboo Beans clothes for yourself {and I know you are!} this is the perfect opportunity! Check out the Peekaboo Beans website, take a look around and then come back here to leave a comment below this post telling me what your favourite Beans clothing piece is. One lucky person will win $50 towards their next PB purchase through Cory!

{Giveaway runs until midnight, May 12th}

Good luck

Draw closed - THANKS to everyone who entered :)

...and the winner is... JASMINE TARA!!

Congratulations! Please contact me to find out how to get your $50 in Beans Bucks!

"Beep beep beep beep beep!"

... aka robot cookies!

Check out these super cute 3-piece robot cookies!

Last week Jennifer emailed me requesting robot cookies for her little man's 3rd birthday. She sent me a picture of some really cool cupcakes and wondered if I could make something similar in cookie form instead. Of course!!! {Almost} anything is possible right?!?!

I opted for a rainbow colour pallete and was really excited {maybe even a little too excited!} to use my brand spankin' new Americolour Gourmet Writer pens to add the black details.

It just occured to me that I should have mixed up the pieces and made different robots...oh well, another time! I wonder if the birthday boy figured that out?!

The first time I saw 3-piece cookies was here. I think they're great! Not to mention you get to eat 3 cookies for the guilt of one ;) 

chirp chirp chirp chirp...

Happy Easter!

How is your sugar intake so far this weekend?!

Just a quick post tonight to share some pretty little chick cookies to celebrate Spring and Easter. I made these cookies for my own Kinders this year before Spring Break and for my awesome friend Elissa`s Kinders for Easter. I don`t know about Elissa`s students but mine were REALLY excited to get a chick cookie... maybe they just want me to make them goodies more often ;) Hehe!

 

All packed up and ready to go!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday full of turkey, chocolate and family!



An All-Inclusive Celebration

Although the weather has been unusually beautiful for this time of year on the good 'ol prairies there is just something about Spring Break that has me longing for a hot, all-inclusive getaway. I actually long for a hot, all-inclusive vacation approximately 295 days of the year, but who's counting?! Regardless, here I am, stuck in landlocked Winnipeg this week, catching up on some reading and getting the oil changed in my car... jealous? Ha!

All of this all-inclusive business makes me think about indulgence and that makes me think about the triple threat... cakes, cupcakes and cookies. Annnndddd.... a couple of weekends ago I made all 3 goodies for a double-y delicious 1st birthday celebration. An obvious, yet clever, segway if I do say so myself! See how it all comes together in my head ;)

The story of this 1st birthday celebration is a pretty cool one. My friend Kelly had her son, Makai, a year ago. Her sister was pregnant at the same time with her son, Kian. The two boys were born just days apart and so the joint birthday party madness began!

Kelly contacted me about making cupcakes, 2 cakes (one for each birthday boy) and favour cookies for the party. They had chosen a space theme and requested star cupcakes, rocketship cakes and #1 cookies. And so the all-inclusive {Sweets 'n Sprinkles style} birthday party madness began!

The cupcakes and cookies....

...and my absolute favourite cookies that I've ever made EVER!!!

Warning - I took a lot of pictures of these cookies! They were so cute and I was excited!!

Please bear with me :)

I never miss an opportunity to put a monogram {or 2} on anything!

All packed up and ready to go! How cute is this?!

A table full of cookies at the door for party goers to grab on their way out!

I am such a huge fan of the cookie party favour! Who doesn't like to get a delicious sugar cookie to take home {or eat in the car on the way home.... or maybe that's just me}?!

Check out the cupcakes I made for Kelly's baby shower when Makai was just a babe here.

For those of us "lucky" enough to stay in the 'Peg for Spring Break a triple c all-inclusive party might be just the cure for all this vacay-envy going on right now!

Just checked the weather forecast for the week...snow....awesome...

I {Heart} You!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just a quick post tonight of some of my favourite Valentine's Day goodies this year...

In keeping with my new cookie obsession I made a lot of hearts this year. I also learned a **very important** lesson... if your royal icing doesn't seem to be stiffening up in your mixer {and yes, I let it mix for a LONG time!} do not, and I repeat do not, add more meringue powder after the fact!! I have made royal icing many times and have never had this problem. However, on the particular night I decided to ice my cookies I also decided to try a new recipe. Sometimes this works in my favour, other times, not so much. This time, not so much!

Once upon a time I read that if you need to add meringue powder to royal icing after the icing is already mixed, dissolve it in water first then add. I tried, no luck. As you will see below you get tiny little dots in your icing. Not the flawless finish I was hoping for. If {or when} this happens again I will just toss and start fresh, as much as it pains me to waste perfectly good-ish icing!

These cookies were donated to the my-dad-wants-cookies-to-take-to-work cause so all was not lost. And, don't worry, I had a few taste testers make sure they were edible first :)

I used Duff's Cake Graffiti spray in silver for the first time on these cookies and I was really impressed with the results. It took a few tries to get a feel for it but now I am addicted! I can't wait to "spray paint" my next set of cookies!!

pretty in pink...

... and some sparkly minis...

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day filled with love, chocolate {and maybe a glass of wine!}!

Everyone Loves a Monogram Cookie

I love a monogram cookie. Really, I love a monogram anything, period.

I especially love a monogram cookie with a fun letter! It's probably the teacher in me but some letters are more exciting than others. Take, for example, "L". Circa - Sex and the City I decided I wanted a Carrie-esque necklace with a pretty L on it... you know, the loopy, curly, handwritten kind of L. The problem with L though is that there are necklaces out there with the boring, right angle, uppercase printing kind of L. Not nearly as fun. So maybe it is actually the font that makes a letter interesting - either way a cookie with a monogram is always a good idea!

Waaayyy back in the Fall my cousin, Heather, and her husband, Ryan, welcomed their second bundle of joy, sweet little Margeaux, to their clan. I finally got the chance to meet baby M over the winter break and, of course, had to take some goodies with me! M is definitely a "fun" letter... couldn't resist a little zebra print either!

Not to be left out of any cookie situation big brother Hudson also got his very own polka-dotted H's!

Both brother and baby are adorable! It was great to see the family and I can't wait for summer so we have an excuse to go for ice cream... ha!

Piping letters is actually a lot easier than you would think. For tips and tricks click {HERE}. Bridget does a really great job of pointing you in the right direction!

A Little Inspiration!

Have you ever wondered about those beautifully decorated sugar cookies that look too good to eat...

Well... I have! How the heck do they make them?!?! Mostly I wondered about the secret icing recipe. How does it cover the cookie in a smooth, shiny layer?!

So, my interest peaked, I began my quest to find the perfect cookie icing, I came across this recipe. While delicious and shiny it just didn't make the cut in the decorating department. Perfect for a quick, simple, one colour kind of job. But not quite there.

Next I tried {insert well-known, widely available baking brand name here} color flow icing. I tried it and I tried it again. Much better for decorating than my first-attempt icing but I found that it didn't always pipe well - it wouldn't "stick" to the cookie, there were bubbles in my lines and it wouldn't always flow nicely from the bag. Who knows, maybe I was over mixing it or under mixing it or adding too much water or not enough water. What I did know for sure though was that it didn't taste great. And if something isn't absolutely delicious then it isn't right for me! So my search continued...

...and then I came across Bake at 350. I have to admit that I resisted royal icing on cookies forever. As far as I was concerned royal icing was used to "glue" gingerbread houses together and tasted really, really bad. But I saw what Bridget at was doing with it {see butterflies above} and I was intrigued. I cautiously decided to give it a whirl!

The very first time I tried her royal icing recipe I fell in love with cookie decorating... became obsessed really! The icing was perfect for piping, forgave me for not thinning it enough for flooding and tasted fantastic! I had to try to make every single cookie I saw on the website. Partially because I wanted to know if I could do it, partially because I wanted to be just as great as Bridget {who, by the way, is amazing!}. I also had Christmas on my side... the perfect excuse to start my cookie decorating supplies collection...hehe! 

My first attempts {Bake at 350 inspired}...

...and Olive inspired too!

The more cookies I decorate the more obsessed I get. I want to turn everything into a cookie! Thank you Bridget for inspiring me to try something new!!