Happy Birthday, America!

Just wanted to let you know my end of June/beginning of July baking schedule:

June 27-29 (funeral out of town - no baking)

June 30 - July 1- Baking like a Fiend!

July 2 - July 11 (vacation - no baking)

My oven is filling fast with orders for the 4th of July, so please place any orders by June 25 for pickup prior to me hittin' the road for Door County, Wisconsin!

Slacker

I know, I've been a slacker. Over a month with no posts and no pictures. Did I give up baking? No. Didn't have any orders? Not the case. Enjoying summer - bingo! In the spirit of summer, I have beach balls, bikinis, swim trunks, palm trees and of course, the flip flops pictured in my profile! I could also do sandollars, some shells, an umbrella and many adult beverages. The sun, various flowers, and an ice cream cone. Etc. I'm telling you; I have lots of cookie cutters!

Around our house we've been landscaping; looking but not looking for a house; friends getting married, family members passing on; and planning our vacation (July 3/4-12ish). Work has been crazy. We've had some crazy lights out experiences, which makes cookie baking difficult in the dark. : )

Within the last week I've done the following cookies (and you won't see most of them because my camera batteries died!)

Baseballs with the St. Louis Cardinal "STL" on them. Sometimes one must compromise morals to please other people's sweet tooth; and it was Father's Day, after all! GO CUBS!
Tools (hammers and saws)
Green Bay Packer helmets
Footballs
Playing cards
Cars
Sunflowers
Daisies
Ladybugs
Butterflies
Anniversary Hearts
Moving Vans

I promise to try to post more often. Take care!

Various cookies

Blast from the Past...................

These were popular when I was little, and now "they're bbbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaaaccck"!

My first attempts looked like aliens, but I think these are OK.

Chick Week

No, not like chick week as in chick flicks like "Thelma and Louise." Chicks that hatch! The little fuzzy kind (mine will be more sparkly than fuzzy)! See the picture that was in my profile? I'll have them all over my kitchen this weekend and next week! A local preschool is hatching some and one of the mom's has ordered some for that class. AND, I'm doing 90 cookies for a local grade school's entire third grade class who are also hatching chicks! Chick Fever!

Other random cookies ordered for May (and for next month already...........)

• Mother's Day flowers, and phrases of love spelled out with alphabet cookie cutters (Next Sunday the 11th!)


• Volleyballs


• Care Bears


• Birthday cupcakes with candle (cookies, of course)


• Card suites for bridge club - heart, club, diamond, spade


• Transportation cookies (milk and mail trucks, race cars and VW bugs)


• Graduation caps and diplomas


• Baseballs, Basketballs and a school name spelled out for a graduation party


• Wedding dress and tux cookies


• Vintage 50's cookies for a June wedding

*********Not too soon to place your order for Father's Day cookies - June 15. Weber grills, ties, motorcycles, cars, trucks, tools - I have these cookie cutters and more!***************

Thanks for checking in!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A huge thank you to those of you who have passed my name or this site along to your friends and family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

(Cookies say "Merci, Arigato, Grazie, Danke, Thank You and Gracias".)

Graduation and Mother's Day orders are starting to roll in.............................and a possible wedding!

I am very lucky to work with and be friends with (and be related to) so many wonderful people who are excited about what I'm doing to the point that some would like me to stay home and do nothing else. Very tempting but not very practical at this point. (Take a deep breath - I'm not leaving my job).

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suprise 50th Celebration

Ideas

It's been a couple weeks since I posted. I have more pics to post, but some are for a suprise tomorrow so I can't blow it. I promise to post some later in the week. In the meantime, I've been thinking............

Ideas, ideas, ideas. I want to do so many things with the cookies. It is hard to concentrate at work as I think up possibilities...................

• Large decorated cookies - 7 or 8 inches
• Pan sized cookies - like sheet cookies or giant round decorated cookies
• Cookie kabobs - 2 or 3 mini cookies on a stick
• Cookie on a stick
• Provide plain/naked cookies for other people to decorate with their families
• Learn how to decorate parties
• Cookie of the month club - a dozen cookies all the same shape for each month in a corresponding season or holiday shape
• 12 Days of Christmas cookies. 12 shapes. 1st day of Xmas you'd get one cookie. The second day you'd get 2 cookies, etc.
• Possibly flavored sugar cookies – cinnamon/nutmeg; citrus; mint; gingerbread flavoring; maple; eggnog?
• Come-make-your-own dough/cookies (like Dish, but for baking)
• Recipe swaps
• Sell my "seconds" as samples. My boyfriend gets very mad when I throw them away....slightly mishapen ones or ones where the frosting got smooshed............ although there are less of these nowadays.

Too little time. Sooooo many possibilities!

Weekend baking marathon

Sorry for the underlining - the blog is doing it by itself.

I decided I'd better sit down and make some cookies to take pictures of for my website that has nothing on it. I've been taking pictures as I've completed orders (sometimes having to pull the cookies out of the boxes - no one said I'm always organized!).

So I have St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Spring, a variety of flowers, some sports stuff, birthday items and girly stuff - like purses and shoes.

This week I had orders for birthday items (cupcake with candle, party hat and balloons) and some diplomas:

Aren't they cute? I admit, I'm a little biased...........

I baked over a hundred cookies Saturday and decorated about half on Sunday. Wedding stuff, baby stuff, patriotic/election/4th of July, school stuff, graduation.........a small selection is shown, but remember, there are still naked cookies in my kitchen! I'll probably try to start posting to the website this weekend. Which will save me from trying to describe them....

If you live around here, you know that this was our first gorgeous weekend of 2008. Gorgeous, kick off your shoes and socks, sittin on the porch sunny weather - mid 60's and no windchill. : )

I had to keep telling myself, there will be others...................keep baking!

Imposter

The only way I've ever decorated cookies is by using some pretty remedial tools - butter knives and toothpicks and such growing up. When I worked part time at a bakery I learned to decorate using icing in a freezer bag with a corner cut by scissors. This is much more efficient than it sounds, and once you get used to using this bag method, it's very nice. I just didn't feel like I could incorporate much variety...........

And so I decided to take a couple of cake decorating classes. I blatantly admitted my reason for being there - to make my cookies cuter; I am not a cake person. (Have to set the right expectations up front, right?) Now, silly me, I thought it would be all about using the little tips to learn a variety of looks; and maybe have to bake a cake for the last class or something. I pictured little pieces of acetate covered with my practice strokes. The class does cover using tips, but for the second week, we had to bring an iced cake to class to decorate. An already iced cake. Homework. I am not afraid of my oven often. It doesn't often operate the way I'd like it to (see an entry below) but I generally don't like cake. The only cake I had ever frosted was a 9 x 13 carrot cake - you just smear cream cheese frosting on the top. I don't like to bake them, not really crazy about eating them. (This is why I do cookies). Sigh. So I baked a cake and put on that Crisco frosting that the class makes you use (on the sides, too, of this round cake). And I used the tips and my cake was cute!

So we baked a cake a week. I wanted desperately to revert to my crafty ways and just decorate styrofoam, but I caved. I even did a 2 layer cake. (This is where you oooooh and aaaahhhhhhh).

I'm now taking the next level to learn about fondant. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Tip of the week:

Whatever store you take your cake decorating class from, use their coupons for everything or you will go broke. Very fast. And make Wilton (I always picture the volleyball from Cast Away, even though it's name was Wilson) very rich. Also look into local stores that are not chains. We have a lovely Decorator's Grocery here with helpful people and their prices will not jump until May on these items (unlike the store I'm taking the class through - they have already hiked everything).

Cookie Commissions

One of my very good friends was talking to someone she knows that I do not know about my cookies. This person and I chatted and she ordered 9 dozen. She's never seen my cookies (they could be ugly as sin), nor tasted my cookies (could be hard as rocks and 3" thick with that nasty Crisco icing). Based soley on my friend's word, she ordered 9 dozen. This blows me over. And I think, I need to hire my friend! Or get more friends like her! She was asking what kind of commission she could earn promoting my cookies..............my answer, of course, was that she could have some cookies free, which was totally agreeable to her! Life is funny sometimes.

I remember I was in second grade when we had birthday treats for some little kid. And they brought in home made sugar cookies. And at that time, I thought all moms shared recipes, so I had no problem tearing into this cookie with enthusiasm. Only problem was, obviously their mom's recipe was not my mom's (technically, my grandma's) because I spit out that cookie and threw the rest away. I guess this proves I was sort of a cookie snob from the beginning. Another oddity? This sugar cookie recipe that I use for my cookies (with a little extra sugar added - sorry, Grandma!) was from my cooking grandma and not my baking grandma. So, I owe them both. They are probably baking up a storm in heaven, one making pudding pies and the other cinammon rolls and divinity.

Pink Santas

I feel like I have to give history here so you don't think this is a fly by night thing I think I'm suddenly good at. Years of trial and error. Loving cookies and not liking cookies. A very long learning curve. I could start just posting pictures left and right, but that's why I reserved a domain name, right? I've been taking pictures as I make cookies for people, and I try to make extra cookies each time I bake in a different style so that I can post to my website. Right now it is naked: www.toocutetoeat.com I'll let you know when it's been populated with cuteness.

I anticipated all kinds of set-up time. A slow-to-start sort of deal. My sister asked me yesterday how many dozens of cookies I made in March - I did about 20, mostly for St. Patrick's Day and Easter, and a couple birthdays and bachelorette parties. Then she asked how many are already ordered for April. I told her 15 so far and a possible baby shower (and 7.5 dozen chicks for the first week of May). She asked if I realized that there aren't even any holidays in April.............which makes me very scared for Christmas.

And that takes me back to the family decorating, of course. It's been fun through the years to see the kids take on different roles as they grew up. When they were little, they just decorated (and only a few before they got bored.) As they grew, some like to roll out the dough and cut, others to bake and others to decorate. And my mom made the cream cheese frosting for years and colored it using the McCormick little 4 squeeze bottle set of primary colors. And then we would settle down with our butter knives, toothpicks and sprinkles, and set out to make what we thought were masterpieces.

The yellow always looked more orange, anyone using the blue looked like a smurf (remember those?) for days, and the red was never really red. We had a lot of dark pink Santas. I guess he was showing more of his feminine side, or trying to set a trend. (Thank goodness for discovering Wilton gel colors a couple years ago!) I think that's why I use such bright colors now - because you can actually get them to be saturated enough, and mix them together. . . .without having to use a ton of color, and it doesn't change the consistency. This year, we'll be adding a new generation to the decorating, my great-nephews, who will be 2 and 3 by Christmas. I can't wait!

Storage and Organizing Frenzy

I just knocked out seven dozen cookies. Rolling and baking, that is. I'll do the decorating tomorrow. 7 dozen isn't really a lot. Unless, of course, you have a stupid oven that you have to watch like a hawk, bakes unevenly, and you can only use the top rack and a smallish cookie sheet. Sigh.

I've started compiling a list of requirements for a home bakery, and of commercial spaces that I could possibly rent in the evenings or on weekends. My kitchen is just too small and does not have the required items, but who knew this would happen? Like I said, I took cookies to work one day, and now I'm playing catch up. I plan to remain anonymous until I get something worked out, so that "THEY", whoever they are, won't nail me to the wall for making the cutest cookies you've ever seen from my house. Then I'll edit this so they'll never know I was bad. : )

And yes, I tell every person that wants cookies that I do them from my home. If they have concerns about that, that is OK; they are welcome to use the bakeries in town. I will not be offended.

And storage.............I need more. Buying stuff from Sam's Club these days - way cheaper for real butter and vanilla than the grocery stores; and 7 lb bags of powdered sugar.... Oh, and did I mention I have acquired close to 400 cookie cutters for practically any occasion? Mmm hmm. And I am an organizational freak, apparently. Most people are happy to throw their cookie cutters into a bin and spend 10 minutes looking for one each time they want to make something different. That drives me up a wall. Not me, oh no. Plastic shoe boxes with lids that are stackable (thank you, Dollar Tree!) labeled and sorted by season or holiday or types of cutters. Summer, Birthday, Girlie stuff, baby, sports, animals, guy stuff, Christmas...............the list goes on. I think I have 30 different bins.

In an apparent fit of having to know what I have (helps avoid buying duplicates) I put them into Excel. Yup. Sortable by type or season. Approximate size and place I got them from. My boyfriend and I play a game when I get new ones called, "What is this?" Since he doesn't have a preconceived notion of what it is supposed to be, it can be anything. We twist them around to see what else they look like. Some of my cutters can be up to 3 or 4 different things, or more, which means I can buy less cutters. (Uh huh - right. It's very addictive.) And of course, they go into the spreadsheet. For instance, a diploma can also be a firecracker, present, or campfire. (Also a canoe with a person in it, but it's a weird stretch).

Nice, huh???? I must be a lunatic, but at least I'm doing something creative in my after work hours. But finding space....a continuous challenge.

A yellow star? WHO would make a yellow star???

When I was younger, I remember making sugar cookies on average 3 times a year. Valentine's Day, Halloween, and Christmas. Each year my family gets together to make Christmas cookies. Used to be we'd do it about the week before on a Saturday. Those were the easy days! Every year it would be me, my mom and my sister, which was pretty easy because we all lived together!

Then nieces and nephews came along. We now plan our cookie baking 3 months in advance so that everyone can request the day of from work, etc. (My nieces and nephews range in age from 28-16.) Interspersed throughout the years were neighbor kids, high school friends - hi Sarahphina!, college friends. Eventually, although not willingly, were boyfriends, fiancees and spouses of the cookie bakers. The boys would all huddle with my dad in the TV room to watch football while us artists slaved away. We finally made a rule that if they wanted to eat any, they had to decorate some. That got them moving and begrudgingly picked up the frosting. I might suggest setting some ground rules, however, if you do not want Hooters Angels in your Christmas gifts to the neighbors! Not exactly family friendly.

My nephew figured out early that he could make ugly cookies fast and that no one really wanted to eat the globs of chocolate and sprinkles and red hots he would pile on - he figured, the more for him! We called them alien cookies. He unfortunately has moved on into the football room these days. We miss him. : ) But did anyone tell him his cookies were ugly? No. Did anyone suggest they might not taste good or appeal in any way to someone else? No. I, on the other hand, decided one year to frost a star white and then strategically outline it with and cover it in yellow M&Ms. Fairly common to see yellow star cookies, am I right? Thank you, I knew you would agree. So my mom says out loud in this serious, condescending voice after looking over all the done cookies, "A yellow star? WHO would make a yellow STAR?" I think she thought it was my nephew. That phrase lives on in infamy, and has to be repeated at least once when someone decorates a cookie in an obvious manner. Like a green Christmas tree.

How it all started................

I guess you could say it all started about a month ago when I took some sugar cookies to work for my cube-mate's birthday.

But that really only refers to the latest stage of my love affair with the cookies and the chain of events it has set into motion.

When I think about it, making and decorating sugar cookies has been a favorite hobby of mine ever since I was 3 or 4. I remember wanting to help my mom in the kitchen around Christmas while she rolled them out but I was in the way. So she set me up at the breakfast counter with my own little set of animal cutters, a tiny rolling pin, and a very, very, very small cookie sheet (3"x4", maybe!). Now the only things I truly remember about this was that:

1. 
   
   I ate more dough than I rolled out
   


2. I had six little animals, but I only used three - a horse, a cat, and a bunny.



3. The cookies were so small and would bake so fast that most of the animal's legs would burn. This was not very attractive, nor very tasty.

Luckily by then my mom's cookies would be out of the oven to decorate and enjoy; and my zoo managerie of burnt cookies made a quick exit to heaven via the garbage can!

Sadly, over the course of years, these little cutters were lost, without knowing when they left or where they went. Maybe to the toy box, maybe they were pitched because they never made tasty cookies, who knows?

On a whim one day, I did some searching on the internet to see if I could find anything similar. And low and behold on eBay, I found "my" exact cutters! The beloved cat, horse and bunny, along with a lion, a dog and a chicken - instantly recognizable even though those were the ones I didn't prefer to use. A little piece of childhood happiness restored in tiny aluminum forms. Sigh. I was telling my mom about receiving them and she told me that my Grandma had given them to me, which is something I hadn't known. This makes them even more special, as I always refer to that Grandma as the "baking grandma." (I had a baking grandma and a cooking grandma. I think my baking grandma is the one I inherited most of my genes from!)

Aren't they cute????