Christmas Cookie Assortment

I am very excited to post my Christmas cookies for this year!  I haven't made my regular Christmas cookies in years. Three to be exact. To say I was ready to make them again is an understatement and boy did I go overboard this year!  I have made and frosted 8 dozen Christmas cookies over the last couple of weeks.  Three dozen are for a customer order and the rest are for cookie gifts as well as cookies to bring to my family Christmas. 

When I have this many cookies to bake it takes some intense planning. I write down how many cookies I need, how many of each design I will have (usually in dozen increments for simplicity), and then I draw what the designs will be and what colors I will use.  This helps me plan and organize and save on frosting! It's amazing how much frosting I saved this year with a little planning!  By the end my hand was hurting so badly that I could barely pipe, haha!

I wanted to try a few different cookies this year and I am so pleased with how most of them turned out!  

Everyone loves the commercial side of Christmas! Christmas trees, snowmen, santa, etc., but this year I wanted to make a few cookies that represent the real meaning of Christmas - Jesus!  I love these nativity scene cookies and am sure I could make them even better next year!


But everyone loves Santa and Rudolph!!




I always make snowmen of some kind, but wanted to do something a little different. I love their hats!


The  tree is one of my favorite parts of decorating for Christmas, so naturally a tree couldn't be left out! I decided to go with a lightly decorated and snowy look this year! 

While I didn't put ornaments on a tree, I couldn't leave them out all together! These are actually some of my favorites!


A few different types of snowflakes. I live in Texas, these are the snowflakes I see!


And lastly, polar bears! I really wanted to get a bit more creative with these, but it just wasn't in me by the end! I was completely finished with all of my other cookies and these were the only ones left, so at midnight Friday night I piped some simple polar bears and that was it!  I think they turned out pretty cute! Maybe next year I will make my coca cola polar bears!


The cookies from the order were all individually heat sealed, packaged and ready to go! I set aside 18 cookies for my family and the rest were handed out to friends and neighbors. I also made some white chocolate drizzled pretzels to go with the cookies and we handed them out Sunday evening!

Dr. Seuss Cookies

These cookies were made for a little boy turning the BIG 2 in December! I made three dozen cookies matching his party theme of Dr. Seuss.  I had so much making these and would love to do them again!

Happy 2nd Birthday Bradley!!

Happy Birthday Cookies

My coworker has a passion for music and I am missing her birthday this year so I wanted to do something fun. She plays the flute, she sings in her church choir, and she does hand bells so I thought I should do something having to do with music. I piped the music staff and thought for sure I wouldn't have room for the entire "Happy Birthday" song, but not only did I have room I had extra room. I will definitely be making something similar to these in the future.  

Happy Birthday Diana!!

Rocket Ship Cookies

I made rocket ship cookies for a space themed baby shower. "We love you to the moon and back," I love that! I had so much fun making these and loved getting a new cookie cutter - any excuse, right?  

Thank you Magan for your business! I enjoyed making these! 

Pumpkin Cookies

This year I decided to make some pumpkin cookies that look a bit more realistic. I love the 3D look with the leaves and vines. They turned out exactly how I planned.

Halloween Cats & Spider Webs

Saturday Central Texas SPCA hosts it's annual Barktoberfest this weekend.  This is such a fun day for people to come out with their dogs, dress up in costumes and visit booths for free goodies. The goal is to raise money for the SPCA and to find these dogs their forever homes!  I baked some cookies for the bake sale to help raise money!

(boo on the butter bleed - downfall of making cookies in a humid climate!)

Spiderman, Batman, and Princess Cookies

My cousins are turning the big 5 today and I decided to make them each a cookie to go with the presents my mom is sending them. I emailed their sister to get an inside on their current favorites and of course super heroes were at the top of the list for the boys, Jack and Cooper, and anything princess for Kate.  As per my usual, I sketched out my plans and went to work!
  

Wine Bottles & Wine Glass Cookies

I made two dozen cookies for a wine party for my mom this weekend! I am so excited to be baking and decorating again! I love seeing all my cookie ideas come to fruition and am so pleased when I can actually create what's in my head! Loving these!! 

Airplane Cookies

I made these cookies for my friend Katie's travel themed baby shower that I co-hosted with two other ladies. The invitations were plane tickets and the cookies were the favors, each had a sticker that said "thanks for flying with us." I love them! These cookies were made earlier this month and I completely forgot to post them. 

Butter Cream Rose Cookies

Another order of rose cookies! I baked quite a few cookies this weekend and among those were a dozen rose cookies for a friend. Her friend just welcomed a little granddaughter into the family and she wanted to give her some cookies as a small gift and congratulations!  I hope she loves them!  

Rose Cookies

I am slowly getting back into baking. I bake some cookies, wait 6 months and then bake some more.  Here are some rose, butter cream cookies that I made for a birthday party! These are so easy to do and I have made them before!  Really, i think these are my personal favorite cookies. I usually don't eat my own cookies, but I always try one of these! I have a lot of cookie ideas rolling around in my head and I hope to get back into gear and start decorating again! It's so fun and I love thinking of what to do next!  So for now, here are some pretty, pink roses!

Hand Print Christmas Ornaments

I have a Christmas in July post!  I ordered our family's Christmas stockings yesterday and I am already planning out Christmas gifts and cookie platters! I am getting a bit ahead of myself, but thought I would go ahead and post these ornaments that I made last year.

Last December I stopped by Michaels and purchased a package of 4 glass ball ornaments, some glue, ribbon, and glitter.  At the time our kids were not quite 11 months old and still liked to clinch their fists, so I knew this was going to be a difficult task, but it was so worth the effort.

I poured glue on paper plates and let them swirl around one hand in it. Then I carefully handed them the ball and tried to flatten out their fingers. T's (the red hand print) was perfect. She grabbed it and then let go. That ornament was done in one shot! C's (the green hand print) took two tries because he did clinch his fist immediately after letting go of the ball smearing the glue. I had to do the print again and he was totally up for playing with more glue so I heard no complaints from him.

Once you have the hand prints you can take a Q-Tip and touch up where glue didn't hit, like the center of their palms or right where the base of the finger meets the palm. After a few touch ups I dipped the ball in a pile of glitter I had poured onto separate plates. I rolled it back and forth insuring I covered all the glue with glitter.

These are by far my favorite ornaments on the tree now and I will always remember making these with them and will treasure seeing their tiny hand prints in the future as I unpack all of our Christmas ornaments!

blueberry muffins

I have been on the look out for a healthier muffin recipe that I could make for breakfast for my kiddos and came across a whole wheat strawberry muffin recipe on pinterest, find it here. I thought I would take a shot at it Saturday morning before the kids got up. Well, my little girl was already wide awake so I enlisted her services to stir as I added ingredients to the mixing bowl. She did a fantastic job!  

This was a last minute decision so the first issue I ran into was the small, insignificant fact that I didn't have strawberries or strawberry yogurt. Hmm. I had to improvise with what I had so I made blueberry muffins, which turned out wonderful. I will say, while I think they are delicious because I do not particularly like sweet muffins, Husband did think they were a little bland.

Whole Wheat Strawberry Blueberry Muffins
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
5 ounces blueberry yogurt ( my little container was 5 oz and it worked fine)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla (I added more because i love vanilla)
3/4 cup of small frozen blueberries

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400*. Line muffin pan with wrappers and slightly grease.
2. in a large bowl combine both cups of flour, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir until well mixed. 
3. In another bowl whisk eggs, yogurt, vanilla, brown sugar, and butter. 
4. Combine both bowls together and stir until combined. 
5. Fold in blueberries. 
6. Scoop batter into muffin tray. 
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes.  

Enjoy!  I froze the rest so we will have them ready to go in a pinch in the future! 

Mickey & Minnie Themed 1st Birthday Party

My two turned one in January and I am just now getting around to posting this. I baked up a storm the Saturday before their party making both cupcakes and cookies. It started very simple, I thought to myself, "I want a minnie and mickey themed party and I will make some easy cupcakes with yummy frosting topped with mickey shaped sprinkles."  I found some mickey shaped sprinkles at a baking shop near me and had to buy them! 

And then I went crazy and spent way too much time in the kitchen making cookies and cupcakes, but they turned out adorable if I don't say so myself!  I used the mickey cookie cutter to make all the  mickeys and minnies and then hand cut and shaped each minnie bow for the cookies. I also made all the fondant pieces for the ears and bows. 

I ordered a bunch of signs off of Etsy and spent hours cutting out all the individual pieces, but they added so much to the party! I just loved them! My husband made the birthday invitations (which I do not have a picture of), the food signs, and the sign on the front door!I love that I got to re-use my holiday wreath.   I bought three plain condiment bottles and drew a mickey head on each one. I loved that little addition!

5/13/14 Update: I was contacted by a sweet lady from 1stWishes who is on the look out for great children's birthday parties. She let me know that my mickey and minnie mouse cookies were chosen to receive a Fabulous 1st badge!  That is so exciting!