Wood and lace cookies

Two of my favorite things in decorating are wood and lace.

These cookies were all about trying out a couple of new techniques.

Swirling two shades of brown to get a wood grain effect,

and using a a very small icing tip to create the look of crochet.  

The lace was seriously painstaking to do.

My hand was saying "ouch" after only a few cookies.

Maybe one of these days I will learn how to crochet with yarn, but until then I will settle for using icing!

Calico Easter egg cookies

I am my own worst critic. 

It isn't too often that I am completely pleased with things I make.  

After I decorate my cookies I hide them away for a few hours and then go back and look at them, hoping that my opinion has changed for the better.  

With that being said, I think these cookies are the prettiest I have ever made.  

That was humble, wasn't it?

They may not be technically perfect, but I adore the colors and old fashioned feeling they have.

They remind me of vintage wallpaper or fabric.

And do you want to know the really crazy part?

I had absolutely no idea where I was going with these.  

I just mixed up some pretty colors and let loose.

I had originally thought I might paint on them with food coloring, but SOMETHING held me back from the paint brushes.

Thank you SOMETHING.

Inspiration is such a funny thing.  

You can't force it - or at least I can't.

It comes to me at unexpected times almost like it has a life of it's own.  

And I am very happy and grateful when it does  :)

I mailed these darlings off to my eldest son Drew, and his wife Genevieve. Drew is in med school and Genevieve is getting her masters/Phd in psychology.  They have been studying their brains out so I thought they could use a sweet treat.  

Drew's birthday is coming up, and I asked him what he wanted as a gift.  I did a double take when I read his email requesting a knot/suture tying practice kit - I had no idea they even made such a thing.  

Shhhhhhh, don't tell him I ordered it!

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Vintage inspired Halloween cookies

My favorite childhood memory - walking in the house after school and finding the Halloween decorations out.  They were the old cardboard ones which were hung on all the windows and doors.  

I decided to do a little cookie riff on these charmingly fun vintage designs.

Gotta love the smiling black cat!  

The cookies are all sitting on one of the old window decorations from my mom's house.

Owls are back in a big way, and I am quite glad.

The witch cookies remind me of my favorite door decoration.  It was a green articulating witch with a very large nose.  I have her as well, but she is too fragile now to display.

I guess some things never change, because getting out the Halloween decorations is still my favorite day of the year!

Vintage Vixen cookies

No, these are not autobiographical cookies.  

Well, maybe the vintage part.  

Actually, I made this batch of cookies for a darling young cousin of mine

 who is opening a boutique that not only features vintage goods, but is also an

that will feature local artists.  What a fantastic idea!

And I had a hey day riffing off of Molly's logo, and coming up with vintage inspired cookie designs.  Along with the gingham plaid, I added some black vintage lace.

Very Dita Von Teese.

Every vixen needs a flower or two, and what is more old fashioned than a daisy?

And then I jumped on the TRENDY BANDWAGON, and did the cute pennant banner look,

and then some owls and poodles.

I also tossed in some little cookies - some with sanding sugar, some with polka dots, and some with two V's.

So, if  you are looking for a fun new shopping experience in Warsaw Illinois, stop by the 

VINTAGE VIXEN and say hi to Miss Molly!

P.S. She also does killer hair and makeup!

Genevieve's bridal shower goodies

This coming weekend is going to be a big one.  I am part of the woman posse going to New York City for Genevieve's wedding dress fitting on Saturday.  Afterward we are heading to lovely New Paltz, NY for her shower which is on Sunday.  My contribution to this event is, of course, cookies.  

I began by making sugar cookies in blue with lace detailing.

Next came chocolate sugar cookies.

I made a whipped frosting flavored with Kahlua.

O.M.G.

Let's just say that chocolate and Kahlua are a match made in heaven.  

Kind of like Drew and Genevieve.

On to white chocolate cameos and rose meringues.  I don't make meringues very often, and I have to ask myself why?  They are so good and so easy to make.

Here is something I haven't done before - painting with food coloring gel onto sugar cookies.  I only did a few because I wasn't sure if I would like them.

I like them.  I also did a few "quilted" cookies.

For the shower favors, I made a brown sugar shortbread.  I cut out three sizes of circles and stacked them into tiny wedding cakes.

I topped each one with a gum paste rose.   These will be individually bagged and tied with a soft blue ribbon.

I just love the softly romantic color scheme.  

The only tricky thing about this group of confections, is that I had to make them all in advance and mail them to New Paltz.  We are taking Amtrak from Philly to NYC, and I couldn't figure out how to bring them along without it being a major pain in the neck/disaster.  Two big boxes were mailed on Tuesday that will hopefully have no breakage, still be fresh, and 

GET THERE IN TIME.

Kinda sweating bullets over that one.

I have all of my fingers crossed!

I am also making macarons that ARE coming with me on the train.  They will be a soft blue with a vanilla bean Italian meringue buttercream filling.  

I am looking forward to a very SWEET weekend!

Posies and lace cake

The real title to this post should be

MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT A STACKED CAKE COVERED IN FONDANT

Or,

MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT GUM PASTE FLOWERS

Oh my, where do my true confessions begin?  

I began my little odyssey with the gum paste.  After purchasing my new found treasure at Walmart, I scampered home, opened the package and with the enthusiasm of a child with a new tub of Playdough, I started making flowers.  I have no idea whether I did it right or not because I still haven't read the directions. 

While the flowers were drying, I baked a strawberry cake in a six inch round, a heart shape, and a cupcake.  The rounded top of the cupcake was cut off and made the form for the hydrangea.  

So far, so good.   And whether I did the gum paste correctly or not, they looked OK and I had big time fun with it.

On to the fondant.  

Because I had purchased the gum paste, I decided to make my own fondant -  thriftiness being the prevailing concern.  And it is easy to make, but my experience working with it is limited (unless watching Ultimate Cake Off or Cake Boss counts) and I had never covered a cake with it before.  

GULP.

Looks like a stroll through the park on TV, but it gave me a little trouble. Think I might need to read myself a tutorial two (or five...).  

I piped some lace detailing on it as a bit of smoke and mirrors to camouflage imperfections in the fondant.  This brought me to realize that piping on a flat cookie is WAAAAAAAAY easier than the sides of a cake.  Sigh.  Long story short, it took a rather insane amount of time to make this cake and it was equal amounts of fun and frustrating.


 And maybe, just maybe I need to start reading directions.

Vintage Black Cat Cake

I am a big fan of vintage halloween decorations.  In fact, decorations that I had a a child are now considered vintage * insert sound of deep sigh*.    So with some left over cupcake batter and orange buttercream, I attempted to replicate a black cat reminiscent of an earlier time.

I have never tried this before, but I treated the cake top like a cookie.  After it was crumb coated with buttercream, I did an outline and flooded the cat in black.  Using a star tip, I made stars as a border on the top and all over the sides to look like vintage crepe paper.  Hmmm, maybe if I start thinking of cakes as large cookies, I will like making them more...

After dinner I thought it sounded nice to take the cake outside and have dessert on the picnic table.

ALL OF A SUDDEN SOMETHING STRANGE BEGAN TO HAPPEN.

My cat's eyes began to glow.  I became frightened; not only of the glowing eyes, but also the green mildew growing  on my picnic table.  

It appeared as though flames were shooting from the depths of buttercream the evil creature's soul.  This is creepy stuff, but I guess anything is possible on a dark and moonless night.  The enchanted oven is just getting warmed up for halloween so be afraid ... very afraid!

The black cat is going to be scaring people at
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