Christmas Cookies 2012

Here they are... the Cookies that took me a week and a half to make, shape and decorate...  It is a labor of love...and a stress reliever... and fun...


My very favorite are the heart santas.  Thanks to Foose Cookie Cutters website for the idea...

 Thanks to Lizy B Bakes for the santa pants idea.  I love theses as well... So cute!

 If I could buy royal icing already colored and in the perfect consistency I needed- I would, but I can't... so I struggle to make it...

 Santa's Pants during the decorating process...

My workstation...

I also made about 25 Snowman and Christmas trees.  These were treats for my friends at work. I didn't get real good pictures before I gave them away....

These are the cookies that I have left.  I'm tired and ran out of time... These will be for New Years! :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Blogger Cookie Swap 2012

I was super excited to find out about the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012 http://www.fbcookieswap.com and participated for the first time this year.  

Here’s what we did:
I received the names, websites, and addresses of three awesome food bloggers. I sent a dozen  Chocolate Caramel Cookies to each blogger, hoping that they would travel well and not be a gooey mess once they traveled across the country.  This year, the registration fee for the cookie exchange is being donated to Cookies for Kids' Cancer-a national non-profit organization committed to funding new therapies used in the fight against pediatric cancer. As a gift for registering OXO sent us all a "be a good cookie" spatula. Awesome... 

Who did I send cookies to?

• Anne from Bakin' Friends (and Other Sweet Things):  http://bakinfriends.blogspot.com/
• Erin from  Whip It Good Cookies: http://whipitgoodcookies.blogspot.com
• Megan from  Country Cleaver : http://www.countrycleaver.com

What did I make?
I sent them these Chocolate Caramel Cookies, which are made from a basic Chocolate Cookie recipe, but with a twist. I added a rolo to the center of each cookie to give it a nice gooey, unexpected center.

Here is the recipe...

Who sent me cookies?
 I received these beautiful sugar cookies from Lizy B's Bakeshop-www.lizyb.com

and these awesome wafer cookies from Nerdy Baker... http://nerdybaker.wordpress.com

and... yummy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies from
 white and dorky chef- http://whiteanddorkychef.wordpress.com

I'm looking forward to next year's swap! 

Tractor Birthday

My nephew turned 2 years old this month. Since he can't tell me what kid of cake he wanted his mom and dad choose the theme of tractors.  This kids loves tires and anything that has a motor, really...  I attempted to make a 3-D shaped tractor.  It didn't work out quite like I had hoped- One of my nieces said it looked like a "race-car-tractor".  O.K.  I'll take that... She also told me I was "The best cake maker in the whole world"... O.K.  I'll take that too... :)

Can you see by the pans below how I would use them to make a tractor?

Lindsey helped me "glue" some tires on...

 The rest of the gang helped as well...

Blowing out the candles...

Everyone got into helping...

Here is the birthday boy chowing down on one of his tires...

Super Cute birthday boy! 

Apple Tart

I made something a little different for Thanksgiving this year.  Thanks to pinterest,  I stumbled upon these beautiful apple tarts's that looked like roses.  I knew instantly that I needed to try them.

For details on how to make the rose apple tart visit Tikkido's website here: http://tikkido.com/node/750

She provides great directions and even a video to make sure you core the apples the right way to assure you have one side of the apple slice with skin, to give the apple tart I nice rose color.

Here are some pictures of my assembly:


I did learn that I needed to microwave the apple slices for about 30 seconds in small batches to make sure they could bend as needed to wrap around each other in the tart pan...

 I added some butter and brown sugar to the bottom of the pan to give it more of a caramel flavor..

Here they are all ready to go in the oven...

Right before they went into the oven I decided to add some cinnamon and brown sugar to the top as well- Just a little bit...

 Here they are all bubbly and warm... They smelled so good and tasted great as well!

70th Celebration

 My Uncle turns 70 Years old this month. Tonight was his surprise party and boy was he surprised. It was so nice to see our family together tonight.  The cake was inspired by one that I saw on cakecentral. My cousin's helped to decide between the many different styles of hunting themed cakes that were out there.  This hunting scene was fun to make.

Deer assembly...

 Making rocks...

I love his camouflage pants...

 Adding the eyes makes a big difference....

The "pieces" getting ready for transport...

 The water is piping gel with blue color added.