Busy baker... lazy blogger (and some NSFW cookies)

I really thought that because I've been doing more baking that I'd also be doing more blogging. Wrong. So I'm forced to do another catch-up post.

Wedding cookies, or, Why I still can't move my fingers

About a month ago, I was asked to make cookies for the president of the library's daughter's wedding on October 1st. Like a fool, I agreed. 240 cookies. I've never made that many at one time before. The birthday cookies I made in June were only 3 dozen. This was 20 dozen cookies!! In the shape of wedding cakes and wedding cakes with heart toppers. The heart toppers scared me. I knew there would be casualties. There were only a few actually. Luckily I only had to decorate in two colors, red and white. I left them fairly simple, with easy-ish designs, and two colors, plus black for writing. Here's how the process went over a two week period.

The past five months

It's been a while. Almost five months to be exact. A lot has been happening, and nothing all at the same time. My kitchen is still not done. It's getting there, but there's been a lot of hiccups this summer keeping it from being finished. I'll update the progress on it soon. The other thing that's kept me from baking and therefore blogging... the fact that I'm pregnant. Now pregnancy does not mean I can't bake, but when morning sickness took over my life and I couldn't even keep water down, baking was the last thing on my mind. I didn't start feeling like a normal human being until the middle of August. (Side note: Zofran is one hellofa drug. It made me able to get out of bed in the morning.) So, in the past few weeks I've been baking again. Alot. I've been making a lot of sugar cookies. I'm actually working on an order for 250 cookies for a co-worker's daughter's wedding this weekend. I'll post on that after they're done. So, a few things I've been baking this month, plus one order I forced myself to do in June for a birthday party. Enjoy!

Misc.

I was going to write a post last week about my recent trip to Flour Bakery in Cambridge, and my first attempt at her cookbook. I started writing it and realized how negative it was. Basically I wasn't impressed with any of it. I will do a more in depth review, but I decided I should have made more than one item from the book before I can make an educated critique. Since I'm going to be home with a post-op puppy all weekend, I should have time to bake!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I really wasn't planning on making St. Patrick's Day cookies this week. With Ron away on business this week and my Boston Terrier having health problems, cookies were the furthest thing from my mind. Yesterday was a rough day (personal things I don't think belong on a baking blog) and so how do I de-stress? By baking of course. So I came home and whipped up a batch of granola bars. But that only takes 25 minutes. So I decided to make some cookies for tomorrow. Since I really liked the little white puppies I made for the March of Dimes, I decided to make them again, this time with green collars. Then I did the obvious choice of shamrocks and Irish flags. What lucky co-workers I have that can benefit from my stress!

March of Dimes cookies

*UPDATE: They sold like hotcakes! Thanks to all who bought and supported the cause!

A few weeks ago I was asked to donate some of my cookies for a March of Dimes bake sale. Of course I obliged. I made seven dozen cookies for the bake sale and the biggest decision was what designs to do. The colors of the March of Dimes are purple and white, so there was my color scheme. After going through my sack of cookie cutters, I decided on the MoD logo, tulips, and puppies. And a square whose design was tbd. I ended up doing a lot of marbling, polka dots and plaid on the squares. I hope they sell well tomorrow!

Valentine's Cookies!

I was glad to have an opportunity to make Valentine's Day cookies. We attended a game night at one of my high school friend's house last night. Everyone was expected to bring something. And of course, I bring cookies. My friend Andrea brought beer bread which was yummy, and Jose brought homemade taquitos, also very good. I found out last night, that I am amazing at the PS3 game Singstar, and that Ron was not willing to do it with me. He cannot come out of his comfort zone. Grr. Anyways, the cookies were a hit, and I tried some different designs, deciding to do them all with "wet" designs, i.e. designs that are done while the flooded icing is still wet.

A weekend of cookies

This past weekend was a busy one for me. Lots of cookie making, some for fun (the Superbowl) and others for "work." I was asked by my boss to make a platter of snowflakes for the Worcester Shakespeare Club! Finally a non-work or family related group enjoying my cookies! Last week during the snowstorm I made some snowflake cookies for my co-workers, and when my boss saw them, she asked for me to make some for her club meeting this week. Of course I obliged. While making these cookies, I thought "Snowflakes are nice, but what could I make that's Shakespearian?" Well, I made a book template and tested a couple. As you see, my piped writing needs some a lot of work, so maybe next time I will be able to make them.

Chocolate Cardinals...

I was going to do a post about the wheat bread recipe I came up with last week. I had plenty of pictures to post with it, but then my Blackberry went haywire on me. I'd been using it to take pictures because it's always with me and it has a 5 mega pixel camera, which is almost as good as my regular camera. Plus I can just email them to myself as soon as I take the picture. But when the media card on the phone gets an error message and wipes out all of my pictures, I'm stuck. Oh well. I plan on making that bread again so I will take pictures and do a post on them.

Even more cookies

I know. This isn't a cookie blog, but I've been making a lot of cookies lately, and I might as well show them off a little, especially since I'm sitting here waiting for bread to rise. Why am I baking today? Because for the second time in a week, the library is closed and I am at home during this snow/ice storm. If I had known I would have today off, I wouldn't have spent all day yesterday making the cookies for my co-worker Tracey's baby shower at work tomorrow. Though the cookies I made for Sam's shower were well received, I needed to up the ante a little and put more effort into these. They came out pretty well, although I am not very precise in my piping and can't pipe a good circle to save my life! Oh well, here are the newest batch of baby shower cookies for Violet (that's what she's naming her girl-to-be.)

Patriots cookies

So, it seems the chocolate chip cookies I made yesterday were as good as the Pats performance. My brother wanted cookies for his birthday, and I suggested chocolate chip because I found this recipe on one of the cookie blogs I now follow and thought it would be awesome to have decorated chocolate chip cookies. I was not a fan. To me, they tasted like a shortbread, and I do NOT enjoy shortbread. Plus, I didn't like them iced. Oh well, my opinion obviously isn't important since Ron loved them, and my grandmother took half of them home with her. I realize Pat the flying Elvis doesn't really have a face, I knew that if I tried to do the detail work, it would look worse than leaving it out. And since I didn't have a cookie cutter for it, I just used my bench scraper to get the triangle design. I'd say I'd try them again soon, but since they won't be playing again for another eight months, I should just make orange C's when da Bears make it to the Superbowl!

It's a barnyard symphony!

It's been a busy week of cookie making, and it's not over yet. Yesterday was my friend and coworker's first birthday party for her twins. She and her husband enjoy my sugar cookies and they asked me to bring some to the party. Since there was no theme, and she has a boy and a girl, I wasn't sure what to make. I thought about doing "boy" cookies and "girl" cookies on one platter, but decided against it. I then decided on a farm theme, animals and produce. I went to my stash of cookie cutters a few weeks ago to see what i had in a "farm" theme, not much. I had a small cow cutter, an apple and a carrot. I started searching online for cheap cutters, and luckily Sur la Table was having their after Christmas sale and I was able to snatch up 25 cutters for $.76 a piece! Not bad. I bought a barn, a rooster, a pear, a sheep and other cutters. I also decided to be a bit more professional in my decorating and invested in a set of piping tips and couplers, along with disposable piping bags. I did, however, decide to keep it simple with the flooding icing and use my trusty ziploc bags. I'm not usually a fan of my own work, but these came out pretty good. The twins loved them too, which was the best part!

Homemade yeast...Fail.

Update: My yeast didn't take. Oh well. Somehow I knew that some Sunmaid raisins and Worcester water wouldn't give me workable yeast for breadmaking. But it was worth a shot, right? Maybe I'll try again someday with better ingredients. For now, I will stick to buying my jars of yeast at the grocery store.

In other news, I've updated the design of the blog. I wanted something brighter, cheerier. So I went with my favorite color combo, pink and green and found some cute illustrations from a 1950s Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I think it's really cute! I may keep working on it for the next few days, but I think that this look is much happier than the old design.

Mmmm, bagels

Happy New Year all! What better way to start off the new year then with a fresh bagel. I know. That's why I made them this morning. I hadn't made bagels in a few months and realized that I hadn't shown them on the blog yet, so I decided to illustrate the process. King Arthur flour has a few different recipes for bagels, but the one I like best is their recipe for Water Bagels. The recipe makes 16 bagels, about the size of Lender's bagels, not too big, but satisfying. I made 8 cinnamon raisin, and 8 everything bagels, using my homemade everything bagel topping.