Throwback Thursday to the surf board cookies I made just before my daughter's first trip to surf camp.
This was my first foray into using stencils, which I did with royal icing versus airbrushing. I'm hooked! I love the texture it gives the cookies.
Can't wait to try making these again!
The song, "You Are My Sunshine" holds a special place in my heart, as it's one I started singing to my daughter when she was in the NICU. Today, five years later, she's singing it to her baby dolls (and to me every now and then). So when my coworker asked if I'd be interested in making some sunshine-inspired treats for his daughter's second birthday, I had to say yes.
These are made using my tried and true FAVORITE SUGAR COOKIE and ROYAL ICING recipes. But let's be honest -- these cookies are all about the styling.
And by styling, I mean pretty pink, orange, and clear course sugar crystals with matching heart-shaped sprinkle bows and royal icing "cheeks". Because black icing and little kids never mixes well, I decided to draw the sunshine faces on using an Americolor edible marker.
I also played around with the photo "styling" a bit. I am not a professional photographer and even if I were, I think trying to capture fun, high-quality images of flat cookies would be difficult. There are only so many ways one can stack cookies to make them look interesting and still highlight the decorating. Let's just call this a continual work in progress...
Other notes:
When a former coworker of mine asked if I'd be interested in making some treats for her grandson's first birthday, I jumped at the chance to work on a project that didn't entail pastel colors and flowers (not because I don't love them, but because it's just what I usually gravitate toward).
Construction-themed smash cake & sugar cookies
Everyone's inspired by Pinterest, right? But the problem with a lot of "pinned" cakes, especially themed-cakes, is that they're made of fondant -- not exactly great for a little boy's smash cake. So instead we focused on making the cake as editable as possible for a toddler while still encompassing the road construction-based party theme.
What one-year old can resist a triple chocolate smash cake?
I found a great, simple cake on Pinterest (courtesy of The Celebration Shoppe) and recreated it with dark chocolate buttercream frosting and crumbled chocolate pie crust "dirt". I found the CAT mini machines and construction cone candles on Amazon (links below).
Close-up on the chocolate pie crust "dirt"
For the cookies, I wanted to have a few different varieties to make the platter interesting, but stick to simple colors and designs. I decided to play up the yellow and orange from the cake decorations and made hard hats, dump trucks, and construction cones. I also wanted to make it clear that this was a first birthday celebration, so I made a bunch of number one cookies (some with polka dots to keep it fun).
Construction-themed sugar cookies
I really love the chocolate sprinkle "dirt" on the dump truck:
If only real dirt tasted like chocolate sprinkles...
Thank you for letting me be part of your day, Noah! Happy birthday!
Other notes:
In honor of #tbt, I thought I'd share my first experience making decorative cookies, since that's where this hobby all began.
Throwing back
For my daughter's first birthday, we did a storybook theme and hired a professional baker to create individual cupcakes inspired by nursery rhymes. They were adorable...and incredibly expensive. For her second birthday, I found this girly Elmo theme on some modern mother website (I can't remember which one); I loved the idea of taking Sesame Street and putting a really feminine spin on it (if you knew my daughter, you'd understand).
Ingrid's 2nd birthday, brought to you by the letter I and number 2
So I ordered the custom street sign, cut out gross amounts of paper products (cupcake wrappers, invitations, party favor tags, etc.), and got some matching balloons. And then I lost my mind and decided to, for the first time ever, make the dessert.
The cupcakes were fairly easy -- I just bought a cake mix and used some store bought pink frosting. I used my handy dandy idiot-proof Nordic Ware frosting contraption (which is what I called it back in my ignorant days) to make them look somewhat presentable. If you throw enough decorations on there, people won't even notice the lack of consistent frosting coverage.
Nice piping job, huh?
The cookies, however, were a different story. First of all, I had to have the whole Sesame Street theme going, which meant I needed to find letter "I" and number "2" cookie cutters that were the same size (because I'm overly concerned with these things). You know. To mimic the Sesame Street episode thing: Sesame Street is brought to you today by the letter I and the number 2. Clever, right?
So, great idea. Horrible execution. I had no idea what I'd gotten myself into. All I knew is I had a little almost two-year-old girl who couldn't wait to have her birthday cookies and I had no backup plan. Let me break down how it went:
Look at those outlines!
Funny...I was pretty proud of these back in the day...
The cookies tasted better than they looked, and they made my little girl happy, so I achieved that goal.
That was almost three years ago. In a few more weeks, Ingrid will turn 5 and, for the first time since this party, I won't be making cookies because I'll still be standing in line at Disney World, waiting to meet Elsa.
I will say, however, that it was this experience that sparked my interest in baking. I wanted to learn more, get better, be more confident because, for some reason, I got this notion in my head that my making treats for people was a way to show my love and appreciation. And really, how can you resist the smiles you get when you surprise people with dessert?
So, on this #tbt, I reminisce about that party, three years ago, that turned me into a hobby baker and made my daughter smile.
Ingrid, age 2
These Thanksgiving cupcakes are a simple way to create unique table settings for the holiday. There are a number of turkey-inspired cupcakes floating around Pinterest, but I think these are the cutest. And they make four-year-olds to 60-year-olds smile, so they have that going for them.
Start with basic chocolate cupcakes and chocolate buttercream (my go-to recipes are below). You'll also need the following:
All the makings for the turkeys
After you've frosted your cupcakes, insert six (6) pieces of candy corn around the rim. You'll want to insert them enough that the white portion of the candy corn is no longer visible.
A sea of headless turkeys
Then it's time to work on the turkey face. Start with the eyes, then the nose, and finish with the snood. I found it was a lot easier to get the candy to adhere to the Nutter Butter (never thought that'd be a phrase I'd use) if I could avoid the seams as much as possible. I piped the icing onto the cookie, then pushed the candy into it. The nose is the hardest, simply because you have to get it to stay on it's edge. Just hold it in place for a few seconds to ensure it's adhered.
I let the cookies sit for about 30 minutes before inserting them into the cupcakes. To keep the cupcakes from tumbling over, insert the cookie just shy of halfway. This height also provides plenty of clearance for most cupcake holders (in case you need to travel with these).
Happy Thanksgiving!
I made these cupcakes using my ENHANCED CHOCOLATE CAKE MIX and FAVORITE CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM recipes.
