Megan is Sixteen

Megan, my great niece, is celebrating her sixteenth birthday. The cookies that I made for her were designed to reflect her special interests, including: Latin, Soccer and Running.  Her younger siblings were my "design consultants" for the cookies.  Mary Grace (7) said "blue and soccer. "  Leann (4) said, "green and apples."  The result is an eclectic collection of cookies.

Happy Birthday to a very special person, we are blessed to have you in our lives.

The traditional collection. . .

The bows were inspired by Ali Bee's very helpful tutorial:  http://snargblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/bow-tutorial.html

The Latin cookies. . . I used the internet as my source for the Latin version of "Happy Birthday,"  I hope it's correct.






Finally, the sports collection. . .This was my first attempt at making soccer balls and I was very happy with the result. The mini shoes were inspired by my good friend, Donna.  You can view here work at: http://carrollscookies.blogspot.com/

Ooops, I forgot to get a photo of the apples.  However, since Leann is only 4, I think she will be too busy eating Megan's cookies to notice that a picture is missing from the blog.

My great nieces, Kaley and Chiann, celebrated their 16th birthdays before I started blogging, but I thought I'd share pictures of their cookies.

I am very fortunate to have a large extended family.

Playing Hard Can Lead to Ouch

Kyle, my ten year old great nephew, was looking forward to a large family gathering at his homecoming football game, but it was not to be.  Playing hard at recess resulted in a fractured knee cap for the little guy.  Hopefully, this set of cookies will bring a smile to his face when they arrive in the mail.  Get well soon tough guy! 

Special Stars for a Special Friend

Cookies for a very special friend with a card. . . "Perhaps they are not really stars in the sky . . . Perhaps they're openings in the heavens where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy."  I wish I could be there with her right now to give her love and support in person.  However,  since distance makes it difficult, I'm depending on phone, email and the US mail to deliver some cookies baked with love!

Happily Ever After

It is always fun to make cookies for a wedding.   Last summer it seemed like a friend or family wedding occurred on a weekly basis and I used the same cutters over and over. I made yellow dresses, brown dresses, blue dresses, purple dresses. . .cakes, rings, hearts, and even Disney influenced cookies. This summer only one wedding, so I had lots of fun last week making 5 dozen dresses for a shower.  I have to admit that white-on-white cookies with just a hint of bling, are one of my favorite designs, there is something elegant in their simplicity.

Love and Hugs. . .Just Because

 

Isn't it great how hobbies bring people together?  I first started baking sugar cookies when a co-worker brought her wonderful cookies to work and agreed to share her recipe with me.   The rest as they say, was history, and cookies became my signature sweet treat.  Over the years, I often brought cookies to work to share with my colleagues.  Donna, a good friend and colleague who was approaching retirement, said that she would like to learn how to bake cookies for her grandchildren, I decided to give her a lesson and a starter package of cookie supplies as a retirement gift. After one lesson Donna was hooked and my name,"Cookie Friend," was born.

Although we are now both retired and lots of miles are between us, Donna and I communicate via phone, text and email several times a day to discuss our shared hobby.  She constantly encourages me to move out of my comfort zone and try new techniques.  In addition, Donna introduced me to FLICKR, Facebook and blogging as methods to share cookie photos with other decorators all over the world.  That's Donna (l) and me(r) at Spring Fling Cookie Convention.

Last week, I planned to make some cookies to send to Donna just because--she's a wonderful friend who is facing a difficult challenge and I wanted to tell her I am here to support her during this difficult time. 


Just as I was deciding what designs to make, I received a package in the mail.  Surprise!!!!!  A gift from Donna.  She was shopping for new cutters from a new supplier that everyone is raving about and she decided to buy a few for me.



I tried a new frosting recipe on this set of cookies.  The new icing is tasty and softer than the RI that I usually use for decorating.  I often use food marker writers on cookies and I realized when I was making this set that the softness of the new frosting would require lots of practice for me to get the neat appearance on the cookie surface that I usually have with RI.

Royal Icing on the left,  Royal Glaze on the right

As I read all the different blogs and forums, I've decided that RI, glaze and royal glaze are a matter of personal preference both in taste and ease of decorating, but isn't it nice that so many cookie decorators are willing to share ideas via the internet?

Donna, my very,  special friend gets cookie love and hugs, while I send cyber love and hugs to all the great cookie decorators that I have come to know via the internet
 
To learn more about Donna and why she is such a special lady, read the blog entry that she wrote at the end of a very difficult day:
http://carrollscookies.blogspot.com/2012/08/one-sweet-gesture.html

Cookie Cutters are available at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PlasticsinPrint

Royal Glaze Icing Recipe:
http://sweetpssweets.blogspot.com/2012/06/is-it-royal-or-is-it-glaze-royal-glaze.html

Simple Birthday Cookies

A few quick, simple cookies for a friend.  I didn't have a lot of time to make anything very personal or unique, but they look pretty all dressed up in the gift box from http://www.brpboxshop.com/.

Happy Anniversary

When it comes to cookies, my husband is my quality control person.  He eats the rejects, gives me honest feedback when I try new recipes and tells me what's good and bad about my decorating.  Even though he gets plenty of cookies through this process, I realized that I have NEVER made cookies just for him.  We don't have children, so no Father's Day cookies,  on Valentine's Day we're usually still counting calories from the overeating during the Christmas holidays. . . so for our anniversary this year I decided it was time I made some cookies just for him.

The little crab cookies are an inside joke because these cute little critters were the only "guests" at the wedding!  Every time we have the opportunity to go back to Hawaii, we visit the beach where we had our wedding and the little crabs always come out to bite Matt's ankles.

              Happy Anniversary!