You're a Wizard, Harry...

Harry Potter is, hands down, my favorite novel series of all time. I love everything about J.K Rowling's stories -- the magic, the lessons, the Englishness -- it's all pretty much perfection in my eyes. Which is why I was so excited to learn that a favorite coworker of mine is also a Potterhead...because a fellow Potterhead means an excuse to make the Harry Potter cookies I've had in my head for ages.

These were made using my FAVORITE SUGAR COOKIE and ROYAL ICING recipes. The cookie cutters are easy -- most, other than Hedwig and the ties -- were simple shapes onto which I piped the Harry Potter logos and shapes, including a Golden Snitch and the Nimbus 2000.

I love the little gold edible stars from Wilton. These are just sprinkled on for the photos, but next time I'll definitely try to use them on the cookies themselves for a more...ahem..."magical" look.

The color of these cookies was really important, as I wanted to represent the Gryffindor House colors as closely as possible. The crimson was the most difficult to replicate, but after a few attempts, I finally settled on roughly 20 drops of Wilton's Color Right crimson (not red!), with one drop black. The gold was created using 6 drops of yellow and 2 drops of orange.

Other notes:

I got the owl and necktie cookie cutters from Cheap Cookie Cutters. If you ever need a cookie cutter, I guarantee you can find it on their site -- the selection is amazing.
Hell yes, I used a Kopykake on these bad boys. Best money I've ever spent.

1960s-themed Cookies

When I think of the 1960s, I think of happy faces, peace symbols, daisies, and tie dye -- all of which I created in cookie form to celebrate two special 60th birthdays.

These are made using my FAVORITE SUGAR COOKIE and ROYAL ICING recipes. The colors were inspired by Wilton's "Peace Flower" mini baking cup set, which I used on the matching cupcakes.

I really love the way these cookies turned out, but I have to say, making them was a nightmare. Definitely my fault for getting ahead of myself and deciding to try new decorating techniques when I really didn't have time to do so. I guess I've been really fortunate up to this point, because I've never had anything go so completely wrong before. That's what I get for being smug.

As you can see from the picture below, the cookies on top are tie dye perfection. The cookies underneath these are my Pinterest fails. I tried a new decorating method called "dry brushing"; instead of awesome tie dye effects, I got loathsome tie dye effects with a side of pitting and dull finish.

The problem was, these looked great while I was decorating. I completed about 30 of them and, exhausted, decided to go to bed and finish the rest in the morning. I woke up to this and had to start all over again. The good news is, I think the new versions turned out even better.

The lesson here? Definitely try new things...just don't try them 48 hours before you have to deliver four dozen cookies and cupcakes for a joint birthday party.

Other notes:

I got the Peace and Happiness Stencils and Flower Icing Decorations from Copper Gifts. The Peace Symbol Cookie Cutter is from Cheap Cookie Cutters.
The happy faces were created using the Happiness Stencil listed above and a combination of Wilton and Americolor edible markers. I used the Wilton first to trace the eyes and mouth and the Americolor to fill them in for a nice, deep black color.
The sanding sugar daisy centers were applied using a dry application. Read more about this on my YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE COOKIES blog post.

You Are My Sunshine Cookies

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:

I got the Sun Cookie Cutter from Copper Gifts. If I could buy all my cookie cutters from this amazing company, I would. All of their cookie cutters are handmade and are incredibly durable.
The course sanding sugar crystals are from a Cake Boss three-pack I found at Michael's
I always try to apply sanding sugar or sugar crystals (let's just call these sprinkles for the sake of simplicity) after the royal icing has dried overnight. Yes, it means you need to devote more time to decorating the cookies, so it doesn't always work out in terms of timing, but the results are so worth it. If you've never tried the dry application method, do it! All you need is 1/4 teaspoon meringue powder mixed with 1/4 teaspoon warm water and a small paint brush. Just "paint" the mixture onto the cookie where you want the sprinkles to stick, apply the sprinkles (I like to pour some in my hand for a little extra control), and tip the cookie over to remove the excess. Voila! Perfectly applied sprinkles without denting your royal icing or worrying about rogue sprinkles.

Construction-themed Party Treats

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).

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:

I ordered the CAT Mini Machine 5-pack and Construction Cone Candles from Amazon, but I've also seen them at party supply stores.
I found the number one and construction-themed cookie cutters at CheapCookieCutters.com.
To tint the royal icing, I used AmeriColor gel paste colors Egg Yellow and Lemon Yellow (for the construction yellow) and a combination of Orange and Tulip Red for the vibrant orange shade.

Throwback Thursday -- My First Time Decorating Cookies

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.

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:

Find sugar cookie recipe
Attempt to make sugar cookie recipe
Realize sugar cookies are actually pretty hard to make
Contemplate how the bakers at Target make it look so easy
Blame the oven for the sugar cookies spreading into unrecognizable blobs (that's an "I"???)
Curse
Eat a cookie. Not bad...
Blame recipe for being stupid
Find new sugar cookie recipe
Repeat steps 2-9
Find new recipe. Bake. Cookies actually look how they should. Mostly
Attempt to make and use royal icing and piping bags for the very first time ever
Lament at what a horrible mother, woman, human I am
Why did I go to college? I can't even get a piping bag to work!
Go back online and try to find anyone who can make these for me instead
Curse
Go to bed. Try again next day
Use new royal icing recipe. This one is better...meaning I can actually pipe some semblance of a straight line and the icing is only a little lumpy
Delight daughter with my mad baking skills (that means she really like the colors I used)
Come to terms with that whole "It's the thought that counts..." thing
Share results

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.