Ready for the Easter Bunny

After weeks and weeks of cold weather, it is finally a beautiful, spring day in Chicago.  The cookies are baked, the lamb cakes are in the oven, out of town guests are arriving this afternoon.  .  .  I'm ready for Easter.

I made a variety of cookies for family and friends, including Glorious Treats gingham pattern and a sweet, little lamb inspired by Sweet Sugar Belle.

This year I decided to package individual cookies for the 15+ children who celebrate Easter with us.

For the older boys. . .based on a card I received  several years ago.

For the teen girls. . .an Easter parade of pastel bunnies

For the nieces and nephews who have joined the urban trend of raising chickens. . .design inspired by Klickitat Street

For the toddlers. . .another design inspiration from Klickitat Street

All dressed up for the party!

Happy Easter. . . Happy Spring!

Baby Girl is About to Arrive

The blankets requested on the gift registry were just too cute not to make into cookies!  Loved the colors and the cute little animals in this set. 

It's St. Patrick's Day. . .

. . .and if you are a Chicagoan you are Irish, at least for the day.  I'm Irish on my Mom's side, so we did grow up with all the traditions of this festive day. 

I had some left over dough so I used it to make a Leprechaun, my first attempt at creating a 3D cookie.  Thanks Susan, GeminiRJ, for the cutters.

The 3D cookie didn't quite fit into the plastic boxes I received as a gift from  Donna, so I placed the cookie in a bag, cut the top off the box and put the cookie inside a gift bag with tissue and ribbon.

Cookie Classes

Diane R., Diane (Cookie Friend), Kathy, Joan)

Last week I had the opportunity to get together with some friends who wanted to learn how to decorate sugar cookies.  I baked some cookies, decorated a few as samples and prepared a few that they could use to practice piping.  All of these women cook and bake far more than I do, so it was a fun afternoon of sharing.  We all went home with new recipes and new ideas.  In addition, Joan borrowed my onesie cutter to make cookies for a baby shower.  I'm looking forward to seeing her creations.

We may be retired teachers, but we still have a passion for learning!

 

I used a few basic spring cutters in an effort to show them how you can change the look of a cookie by using different colors, techniques and sugar add-ons.   I had fun using LilaLoa's tutorial to make the rainbow shamrock.  Their favorites were the Fuzzy Bunny and the Gingham technique from Glorious Treats.

In addition to teaching my friends the basics of decorating sugar cookies, I also had the opportunity to take a class this week on making Springerle and Frankfurter Brenten cookies at House on the Hill.

The credit (blame?) for my new interest in cookies molds is the result of a photo posted on Flickr by Parr's Pantry.  I started reading about cookie molds on the Internet and heard as many negative comments as I did positive regarding the flavor.  When I discovered that House on the Hill was located just a few miles from my house, I decided to enroll in a class.

There is definitely a learning curve to mastering these cookies, but I'm going to keep working on it.  Connie, the owner of House on the Hill, has a "how to" video on her website, but I learned so much more through her class. The first cookies that I baked are far too puffy, so I will have to keep trying.  If I can't master the cookies, I can try making paper craft from the 2 molds that I purchased.

Megan is a State Champ

Congratulations to my great niece, Megan, who is now a state champion.  She is a member of her  high school Certamen team that recently won the state championship in a quiz-bowl style competition for Latin students.  Everything old is new again--when I was a Freshman in high school we were all excited that the Latin requirement had been dropped from the curriculum!