Christmas is here, bringing good cheer...

It's Christmas Cookie Season again.  Last year due to some crazy studying, I didn't have time to bake cookies for anyone and I was very sad.  This year I had huge plans to make 5 types of cookies on Saturday and I came close, but didn't quite succeed.  Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing, White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Macadamia Nut, Chocolate Chocolate Chunk with Peanut Butter Chips.  

This year in an effort to reduce hand cramping, I made the Royal Icing thinner than usual.  This had both some positive and negative effects to the decorating process.  Much easier outlining and filling.  Some bleeding of the colors while drying (this was not photographed) and very sad trees (photographed below).  

I had to fight Sean off of the Chocolate cookies and there was a very sad Snowman fatality while I was bagging up the cookies on Sunday.  It happens every year, and often makes me want to cry.  Without further delay, here they are.  

Hello Crate and Barrel nesting bowls, I love you.

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk and Peanut Butter Chip

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Macadamia Nut

These sad looking creatures are supposed to be trees. Unfortunately, the royal icing was too thin and this is what I was left with.  Feel free to revisit Christmas 2010 to see what the trees should look like.  

Love him!

I made two of these for my Dad and my Sister. I am sad to report that my husband was shocked to learn this is what Maine looks like.  He had some other strange image in his head about the state outline.  

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...

For a friend's son's birthday party I made Harry Potter Hogwarts ties.  In the end, they turned our pretty cute but the road to cuteness was a bumpy one.  Griffendor red is a much harder color to make than one would think.  I started making it with Burgundy food coloring but what I ended up with was HOT PINK! Eek! Panic ensued and then I made an impromptu run to Michael's for red food coloring, because, of course I was out.  After getting some new red and black food coloring, it was back to color mixing.  I was successful in the end by using red, black and brown which looked mauve at first but dried red.  The black edges started out purple and went on the cookies purple but it turned black by the time it dried.  There was some serious Harry Potter magic involved in these cookies looking like the right color.  If I were to make them again, I would use a thinner outside border.  Here they are in all there glory.

Photo Courtesy of Kim L. 

Adventures in Baking - Welcome

This is my first attempt at blogging.  This page will hopefully serve as a post for successful baking attempts on my part.  To start, I should point out that I am not a professional baker and have no formal training.  I am a terrible cook and have been known to burn water.  Baking, at least simple baking, makes sense to me and seems to come naturally. I sort of just fell into it and have been stumbling along for the last few years.  My favorite things to bake and decorate are sugar cookies.  This year I experimented with some new recipes, Shortbread Button Cookies and Lemon Glitter Sandwiches.  

 This is a selection of the sugar cookies that I made this year.  I experimented with Sugar pearls and confetti this year.  

 I just love the snowmen.  Each year I wish I made more of them.

 I am simultaneously working on my photography skills as well. 

I saw this crazy tree statue in a cookie book I have and was anxious and excited to try making one.  I was successful, though I recommend construction of the tree to be done on the site where the cookies will be eaten.  

 These Lemon Glitter sandwiches turned out so light and fluffy.  They just melt in your mouth and were really quite easy to make also. And SO pretty.

 Below are some Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream frosting that I made for some coworkers.   

I love the tiny trees! 

One of my goals for 2011 is to bake more and try new recipes and get better about making my cupcake batter from scratch.  It just tastes so much better.  I love making treats for my family and friends.  I think homemade cookies and cupcakes just brighten people's day.