The Challenge! Get out of your comfort zone…

Have you ever just did the safe thing? Always wanted to try something new but chickened out in the end? That’s me when it comes to cookies.

Now that, I think, I’ve got royal icing down. I thought I’d try to challenge myself and this week I gave two new to me decorating techniques a try.  3D cookies and stained glass.

First up, 3D cookies.  So I’ve got a lot of friends who are having babies and instead of the same old bassinet cookies I thought I’d try to make the bassinet out of cookies.  I mean Julia Usher is the queen of these type of cookies and I aspire to be like her. Well you’ve got to start somewhere.  Now practice makes perfect but for the first time I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.

I looked at pictures of bassinets on the web and then made up a template for the end pieces.  Then I cut the rectangular pieces to fit.  I iced them, let them dry and then put the pieces together.  What I didn’t account for was shrinkage.  There were a few gaps that I had to fill in with royal icing.  I also made some minis to put inside the bassinet. All in all I think it turned out pretty cute.  I gave these to a friend down the street who had a baby girl this week.  Congrats Angela and Jeff!

Next up I tried stained glass.  Have you seen Maggie Austin Cake??? They are the most beautiful stained glass painting on cakes ever.  I wanted to try but on a smaller scale.  So I took a small piece of fondant that was the same size as a cookie and gave it a go.  I Google’d Stained Glass hearts and found this pattern.  My impatience gets the better of me and the black wasn’t completely dry when I added the colour.  After the paint dried completely I popped the fondant on the top of a cookie the same size that just came out of the oven.  The fondant melted to the top.  I then piped a shell border in royal icing and gave it a little sheen.  For my next try I’ll have to go bigger, maybe even a cake :)

Ok, so now I need more challenges.  Give me some ideas.  I’m up for anything.  I will attempt the bassinet again, just so I can get it a little more smooth and I’m definitely going to do the painted stained glass on a cake!

Update on my back:  Well the last epidural didn’t work at all, in fact it made things worse.  Next doctor appointment is Monday and then I believe it’s time to meet a surgeon or two for an opinion(s) (yikes). But don’t worry, since standing is one position that doesn’t hurt much I’ll still be coming up with sweet treats :)

Thanks for looking!

Best Summer Vacation Ever

A bunch of us wack-a-do cookie people were chatting about doing a fun post about summer, so we chose to create cookies of our favourite summer vacation.  Now most of my favs have been since my kids were born and usually centered around a certain mouse but I wanted to do something unique.  I chose the summers we spent as kids in Muskoka, Ontario.  Cottage country as we called it.  Beautiful lake country on the Canadian Shield that are the summer getaways for Southern Ontarians and some uber rich celebrities.

As kids we went up north to Lake Muskoka and spent the entire summer.  My parents rented a cottage and we boated, fished, hiked, canoed, jumped off the boathouses, swam and generally spent every waking moment outside.  It was an awesome way to spend the days.  At night we had campfires, or hung out inside playing board games because the only tv station we got wasn’t even clear.  We’d take the boat into Port Carling for ice cream.  We’d go to Bala to the only bakery for the absolute best scones ever and as we got older we’d return to Bala to go see some amazing bands at the Kee.  Having a cottage was awesome.  Most cottages were a combination of eclectic furniture and modern conveniences.  Now this was back in the 70’s so by modern I mean we had a party phone line and a phonograph to play music.  Again awesome.

Now cottages are like going to another modern house that' is situated on a lake and you only go there during the summer or on long weekends.  It’s not the same but still the best way to spend some time.

So I decided to paint my cookies to make them look like Tom Thomson (Group of Seven artist) and then since it was my brother-in-law’s 50th birthday who has a family cottage in Muskoka, I gave them to him.

HAPPY 50th Pete, Hope you had an awesome birthday!

Thanks for looking!

So do you want to see the other awesome cookies? of course you do, so check them out

• The Baked Equation
• Sweet C’s Bake Shop
• Sparking Sugar Sweets
• Created by Diane
• Sweet Williams Cookies

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Ok, this will be short because way too much to do today.  But here are my Dr. Seuss cookies.  I wanted to try painting cookies like my awesome cookie friend Liz at Arty McGoo.  They aren’t as awesome as her stuff but I’m pretty proud of them!

Thanks for looking!

Linking with:
Foodie Friday
Sweet Tooth Friday