Onsie Cookie Order

These onsie cookies are my favorite to decorate, so I was pleased to have the chance to make more of these onsie cookies for an upcoming baptism.

I am still working on perfecting my royal icing consistency... Can anyone share some advice on getting it thick enough to do fine piping, but not too thick? I was very excited to use my new button candy mold from Bake It Pretty. I think this little added detail was just what the cookie needed!

Helpful Tips on Smores Cupcakes

Ok, so as soon as I saw these cupcakes I knew I had to make them. I stashed the recipe from Bakerella away until I had the chance to make them. With a lot of anticipation, I got busy last night to make these scrumptious cupcakes for a family get together. Unfortunately, I felt like the recipe requires a lot of "tweaking", but I didn't discover this until after making them.

The changes to the recipe that I would make are as follows:
1. The recipe can make about 2 dozen cupcakes, rather than 12.
2. I had to cook my cupcakes for closer to 30 minutes, rather than 15.
3. Do not overfill your cupcake holders.
4. I would use milk chocolate for the ganache, rather than semisweet.
5. The cupcakes will come out of the oven looking nice and puffy, but will shortly collapse in the middle... don't panic. Once you add the ganache and marshmello, you won't even notice.

Overall, these cupcakes were worth the little extra work. Now that I realize that I can make a few changes, I think I will be more successful next time.

Seafood Celebration

This weekend we hosted our 4th Annual Seafood Celebration! It seems that each year we perfect our seafood concoctions. This year our pride and joy was a clambake. We followed the directions from Martha Stewart's July issue (demo on Today show) and it couldn't have been easier or more tasty. Along with the clambake, we had salmon, crab legs and numerous decadent side dishes.

As for desserts, I whipped up more of the "HOT" mini cupcakes on a stick, which were gone in seconds. I also added to the sea food theme with chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate lobsters and crabs. Lastly, I dressed up traditional Rice Krispie Treats with fun homemade paper boxes. I couldn't have been happier with these boxes and have plans to use them again for future projects. (check back for a downloadable template soon).

One of my favorite projects for this party was the homemade labels I made for root beer and ice tea. After searching the stores for bottled beverages for this and some other upcoming events, I decided that spending $7.00 for a 6 pack of ice tea or lemonade was a little silly, when I could make my own. So, I purchased some glass bottles, made some ice tea on my patio and attached some hand-stamped labels. For about $15, I had twelve super cute, personalized beverages that can now be reused for future events.

"Bun in the Oven"

With so many friends and family members expecting babies, it seemed logical to make a cookie basket with a pregnancy theme. What better than ice cream and pickles to dress up the pregnant lady cookie. I am really excited to give this basket to the mommy-to-be's!

And The Winner Is...

Congratulations to Blogger Sam who is the winner of the $25.00 Bake It Pretty Gift Certificate giveaway. Please contact me via e-mail @pinzy4@hotmail.com to receive your prize.

Bloggers, be sure to check back soon for the next giveaway!

I Scream for Ice Cream!

These ice cream cookies are part of a larger project (check back soon for complete project details). I was super happy with the way they turned out. They were extra easy to make. A couple of tips: use a very small tip when piping the stripes on the cone and allow the icing to dry while the cookie is flat (I stood mine up and the pink icing ran into the white on some of mine).

I also recently saw someone making cookies on a stick and they inserted the stick immediately after the cookie came out of the oven... I was doing it before they were baked. I will definitely try it their way; it looks much easier!

A real Brookie!

When I first came across this recipe for Pillow cookies, I didn't really see why they were called that, but once my first batch came out of the oven, I quickly realized how they got their name. These GIANT cookies filled with a soft gooey brownie puffed up with a delicious outside cookie case.

Making these brookies (cookie/brownie) is fairly easy. The recipes says to use 1/2 cup of dough, but mine came out better when I used less dough and made a round ball. Since the cookies expanded tremendously, I only cooked 3 at a time on each cookie sheet.

Picture courtesy of Bakerella

Bake it Pretty & Free Giveaway!

Now that I've had more time to devote to my passion for baking, I've spent a lot of time looking around for inspiration and have been amazed at the amount of talent in the world. One of my favorite places to spend time is at the site Bake it Pretty. This site is filled with wonderful cooking "add ons" and tons of creative baking ideas.

Spread the Word: Each month I will be doing various giveaways and freebies, so check back often. This month's give away is a $25 gift certificate to Bake it Pretty. To enter, click on the "Follow Me" button. The winner will be drawn at random and announced on July 16th!

Fire Crackers!!!

Although a little trickier to make than I thought, these Rice Krispie treats turned out very festive.

Happy 4th of July!

These Patriot Pops are mighty tasty. Filled with red velvet cake and covered with white and milk chocolate, these cupcakes were a perfect addition to many Independence Day picnics!