Shooting Stars To You

A Star Was Born...........thanks Pennie for the idea of making Star cookies! You must be feeling all patriotic lately with your Stars and your Patriotic Apple Pie references (more on that later). But a Star was born this week.......well last week really I guess, but this week was when it was made. It was fun to see my follower numbers go from 4 to 12 in less then 3 days. And I was more then excited to make and send you all cookies!

They are in the mail by the way..........unless you live near by - then if I haven't given them to you yet (Susan should be the only one left) - They are in my van. I will drop them by after church. These cookies were pretty fun to make and I took a little extra time to try a new recipe out on you all. A lot of Stars were made. A LOT. So many cookies were sitting out as I iced them that they caught the attention of my youngest and Dawson asked, "Who are you giving these too?" and I said "My Fans" (because it is good to have an ego). He looked at me and said "Are you hot?". "Huh?" and then I realized F-A-N + 5 Year old ='s LITERAL INTERPRETATION........."Oh, not Sweets I am not hot, well......I mean I am hot (remember good to have an ego), but I am not that kind of hot. These cookies are for my friends who read my blog stuff." Generally he leaves once I try to be funny with words, but I guess I peaked his interest because he asked, "They all have fans for you?".........in his head you all were sitting somewhere (probably Chuck E Cheese) holding fans - or standing near fans - waiting for me to show up with cookies. After I told him a Fan can also mean a person who likes cookies A LOT - he cocked his head, looked at me like I had again (and I truly mean again) gone MAD and he went to jump on the trampoline.

Kids are funny like that. So anyway..........back to cookies. I made 2 sorts. And I also took some pics for my sis-in-law (even before she sent me a link as to how to flood cookies) - mainly because another friend told me that the way I was flooding looked too hard. And she was kinda right. The flooding wasn't hard, but the putting the flood icing into a piping bag was a bit idiotic - runny sugar doesn't stay in a bag with a tip hole at the end. Duh Patti. So I invested in a few bottles. Step 1.........line the cookie with the stiff (I don't know how else to describe it) Royal Icing - and let dry a bit. Most sites with instructions say hours - ahhhhhh.........I think I waited 15 minutes. Then take the remaining icing you were using (if you are staying with the same color) and add a teaspoon of water or more - until you have the desired consistency. Pour that into a bottle (unless you have a better idea - as I thought I did) - these can be found at deco stores or at Michael's/Hobby Lobby. And basically flood the inside of the lines you drew.

Simple enough. The trick - is you also need something pointy - like a tooth pick - and then you scoot the icing out to the sides or into the corners (stars have lovely corners) to make certain the cookies are evenly iced. Then you let this dry overnight. Really I would wait overnight - the flood icing has a great deal more liquid in it and it does not dry quickly. So if you are planning on adding any decorations on top wait.

Now I forgot to take pictures of the drawing of the faces..........it was a crazy week. But again - 2 types of cookies. The cookies that are Yellow Faced are Traditional Shortbread cookies. The cookies that are White Faced are Peanut Butter Shortbread cookies. I was interested in trying a Lemon Icing, but time left me. The Peanut Butter cookies are VERY YUM!!

And I would Love Feedback on the cookies please..........and on if any were broken.

Speaking of broken - how to ship them to you was a question. So I searched the deco supply store. I wanted it to be cute - I wanted it to be safe for the cookies - and I wanted it to be inexpensive. Love you all, but I also didn't want to spend $50 shipping cookies. $50 is a crazy amount I picked out of the top of my head - I never really thought........okay I did think it was possible, but since I wasn't planning same day delivery I didn't expect that type cost.

Back to this and out of my head. I picked up these cute little white candy boxes. The shop clerk and I measured them with one of their star cookie cutters. We measure I could fit 9 cookies per box. Done. Bought. Then at home I looked at them............boring...........white...........needed flair. So I added in my other favorite hobby - STAMPING!! I have some great cupcake stamps and there were this perfect saying........so I did that really quickly.

Then I packed in the cookies. My Star cutter must be different from the Star cutter they had - because I could only fit 2 cookies per level in the box when I got home. No matter how I finagled the cookies they would not fit 3 across. And I didn't want them broken when you receive them - so I had to pack less in. Still 6 cookies is a Sweet Treat!! And these shortbread's are PERFECT with a cold glass of milk - melt in your mouth perfect. Or my favorite way - with a hot cup of coffee that is hardly sweetened so that the sugar on the cookie pops.

Dang...........wish I hadn't mailed them all - I have coffee right here.

All that said........your cookies are In The Mail. Cute packages - cute cookies - for FABULOUS friends helping me get rolling!! Rolling where is still here to be seen.........but as Pennie said - listen to the Siren. So I am listening.

These cookies are Traditional Shortbread and Peanut Butter Shortbread. Both have a simple Royal Icing top. ENJOY!!

Please let me know what you thought and when you get them how they survived.

Crowning Touch

So as I have mentioned I have been dabbling in cookies. These are 2 that I used for a cake I should be able to upload off of my computer and post soon. I was wanting to mess with the cookies and decorate them, but not eat them. Okay.......I ate quite a few.......but then I just wanted to decorate some and not eat them - thought I would add them to cakes - hence the If You Give A Cake A Cookie cakes.

These cookies were the basic Shortbread cookie recipe. My favorite over a traditional cookie recipe - they melt in your mouth more and honestly they are WAY less expensive to make - no egg - just a smidge of powdered sugar - very yummy.

Another thing I have been wanting to do is mess with Royal Icing. Cookies have allowed me that as well - now I would like to find a moment to pipe some royal icing onto cakes - in a decorative pattern. Every slow week I say to myself "self I will make a small wedding cake with scrolly decorative piping"......and then either a bunch of cake requests come in (like this week - went from 40 palm tree cookies to 4 cakes, 3 doz cupcakes and the cookies that I am mailing - tomorrow hopefully - they are ALL DONE!! Just just just put the finishing touches on them not 5 minutes ago) or life gets in the way. But I really want to do some fun scroll work with royal icing.

Anyone have a wedding? Then I would HAVE to make time to do a wedding cake.

WOW! We reached 10 in less then 2 days!! That was quicker then I would have imagined! Incentive is everything.......as a former counselor and current mother of 3 I know this, but it is one of those things that when applied to ones own situation you totally forget it.

Now........at this exact moment I am sitting on a beautiful porch on the edge of a moutain - at a very nice wood table - listening to turkey and birds and the wind whoosh through the trees and watching the sunrise over a mountain in TN - in the quiet waiting for my family to wake up. While the cabin we are staying in has a great kitchen - none of my tools are here and I have a date to spend the week doing things like ziplining and driving treacherous roads (that make my heart pound) up a mountain to the top peak to then hike back down with my family.

On Monday I will be back to baking for an If You Give A Cake A Cookie cake for my sons teacher to gift the student teacher because she has just scored a job in this horribly under budgeted teacher atmosphere our schools find themselves in. So her accomplishments are being celebrated!! I will bake cookies then and mail them on directly after. They will be in shapes of Stars as Pennie suggested.

I need addresses though. So you can email them to ipsybipsybakeshop@yahoo.com. Promise not to share them with anyone......and if you live near to me then I will simply deliver them.

Now - I would love feedback on the cookies as until 2 weeks ago I have never really baked shortbread cookies. Although the people who have received them sought me out to say "more please" - so they must be worthy. And what are suggestions for more fun things like this?

Oh.......and the cookie pictured here is not my creation - but it is really cute right?

Who Lives In A Pineapple?

So I think this is a cake that went up on the Facebook Ipsy a few weeks ago. I am not a hundred percent sure, but I am fairly certain of my memory skills at the moment without looking. Years and Years ago I did a Sponge Bob for my precious Ben. And although isn't cool to call a boy of age 9 precious......he is still precious. The one I did for Ben was all buttercream though. If I were not on vacation I could find that picture and then upload it for comparison, but since it was about the 4th cake I ever did I can honestly say - this one is much cleaner - but it is always fun to look back and see where you come from. This one was really fun and since fondant RARELY makes me cry these days - notice please that I said "rarely"......because we are not out of the experience woods of tears due to fondant quite yet. Granted it is more "cursing" then "crying" ...... or I will do this thing where I call out to see who is on the first floor with me - because from the angle I do fondant I can't see who is in the dining room, living room or the entry where Dawson likes to play because the floor is nice and slippery - anyway - I will call out and see who is there - then banish them. Yes I did say BANISH. If they initially resist my banishing due to watching television I will more forcefully banish them - still no cursing - and if I still hear the TV going I will do a little Motherly Threatening and ensure them that the banishing is completely for their own safety. Then after they are all gone - if I should accidentally (because I only curse for accidents and to make my friend giggle) - no one that shouldn't gets an earful. Dave knows to stay away because some how ALL fondant problems are his fault - we have been married for almost 15 years - he is a smart man.

Anyway - enough about the past and banishing. Spongebob was fun! I covered him in buttercream and then topped him with fondant. I am learning that any big "extra" pieces - like the arms or legs on Spongie here - should be done a few days before - helps them set up and move around to be placed easier. However, I wasn't sure that I should be able to make them correctly sized to scale if I made them ahead of time. So I waited.

For the most part this was not a problem. And while you can't see it - the only difficulty not making the extra pieces ahead of time caused were having the legs attach at the body. The pants wanted to let go of the legs and droop a bit.

Outside of that small problem the only time consuming part was making the different colors and creating the pieces. Which really wasn't a problem at all. Just a time clock thing.

One thing I did find interesting was that when the kids saw the end product they said "Why are there green dots on him?".......so I explained the indention thing and that in many pictures from the cartoon I googled about him they were a green shade and not just a deeper shade of yellow. So they did their own google - and yes they did come up with a few pics that show it a more gold or golden tan - and they made a strong point of making sure I could have gone the gold colro route.........but most of the pics had green spores - so they did concede a bit. That was a fun lesson for them about how you can look at something all the time and may not really see everything it. I could go into in deeper detail about this lesson with them - but since they were just coming to this realization and I was the only thing they were focusing on the conversation really went into how they never noticed these different not so flattering things about me..........but at least they were learning right?

This cake was Chocolate Chocolate Chip. Vanilla Buttercream icing and a Vanilla Fondant. Although I am always surprised how many people think a yellow or brown fondant must be lemon or chocolate.......funny how our brains work right?

Now go look at something for a few minutes and write down all the things you noticed and see if you got them all right.

Goals and Following

OHMYGOODNESS - we are up to FIVE Followers. Yeah, I know the Evil Voice in my head is saying - Come on Patti 5 is kinda Lame isn't it? I mean other cake blogs have THOUSANDS - Geez O Bakerella has HUNDREDS of thousands!! You have 5.....and no matter how cool those 5 followers may be - 4 of them are directly related to you in some fashion. So don't get all geek'd out excited.

Maybe that is True I tell the Evil Voice in my head - but I have FIVE people who are remotely interested in actually seeing what I put up.........enough that they have clicked a button to follow it!! And that is the Beginning of the Positive End you Evil Voice in my head. I mean today 5 - four months from now maybe 7 - and then so on and so on and so on. Shoot - Mrs. Burns just pointed out that I have a typo on my Ipsy Bipsy Cake Shop card. Maybe once that is corrected (takes a teacher to notice a spelling error right? Because my IT husband who was hired to do the spell checking - he get free muffins (pun intended) - wasn't able to see it)the Cake Blog World Will Be Mine!!!

Now imagine my excitement when the Blog Reaches 10!! Shoot at 10 followers I think I will ask for EVERYONES address and send them cookies. Let's plan for that - what kind of cookie cutter shall we make the cookies in? What is a sign of success? Shamrock is luck......I cataloged my cookie cutters (yes I am a dork - I told you all this a million blogs ago) and it seems I have almost 200 cookie cutters - this is counting the tiny ones. So give me some suggestions of what shape these cookies should be in as a sign of reaching a goal.

Speaking of Goals........I have made enough profit off of cakes for friends that I bought my son a new mattress!! Okay I have bought other things too - like the payment of bills, but that is not nearly as exciting as a mattress right? Oh, it is? A mattress is kinda lame too? Hush Evil Voice - no one invited you here. Well I have also purchased a bunch of new bakery tools too. I could list them, but it would bore most of you to unfollow me - and that is working against the goal. Since we are Goal Oriented here let's not do that.

So in conclusion (because that sounds smart)......10 Followers and then Cookies.

If You Give a Cake a Cookie

This week we decided it was time to do my son, Ben's, teachers Half Birthday. Why a Half Birthday? Well primarily because my friend, Stephanie - our class lead, and the rest of us helping out in the class MISSED her real birthday. That was in September. So close to the start of the school year that honestly we didn't feel terrible about missing it - because we hardly had our backpack's on straight enough to have caught it. Yet at the same time - we LOVE LOVE LOVE Mrs. Burns and didn't want her to think we weren't "thinking" of her. So we counted 6 months from the month and had a party.

Now best laid plans are sometimes better then the actual happening. Stephanie contacted our favorite student teacher - Ms. Brown - who ALL the boys have a crush on (although Ben would deny this.........his friend, Malik, called him out on it by saying, "Dude you know you crush on her because we all think she is hot" - I even think she is very cute so he was totally fibbing). Anyway - Stephanie contacted Ms. Brown who helped her send out notes to the class asking for donations for a gift. Then I made a cake.......since we were buying her a gift card to a scrapping store I thought a cute Scrapbook Replica cake. Had it all planned out to the gumpaste scissors.


Then Ms. Brown let us know that while we could still do the party........it would also be the day they do the Multiplication Ice Cream party. You earn a scoop and/or topping for every times table you complete. Ben earned both scoops and 6 toppings with whipped cream - yea Ben!! Which seems weird since they did 0 - 12........where are the other toppings? So anyway - now we were doing the Birthday at the same time as the Ice Cream - as a parent we did the responsible thing and downsized the cake to a "Take Home Gift". Cake AND Ice Cream might be a party tradition, but it makes for a giant mess in the class and we didn't want to take away from the experience of what toppings they earned.

So the cake morphed. I was still thinking gumpaste scissors - but then I thought about the fact that it was very close to St. Pat's........and we are TOTALLY lucky to have such a Great Teacher.....and I just received a delivery of cutters.....and I was COMPLETELY surprised that the shamrock I bought was GIGANTIC!! and immediately thought "well that is as big as an 8" cake round......and I wanted to try out my cookie cutters and a few cookie recipes.......so why not use cookies to border the cake and top it with a cute Shamrock with a message?

Idea born. Cake Baked (I know Mrs. Burns a chocolate fan). Cookies Baked (I didn't know she was a shortbread cookie fan - bonus!). Cake Decorated!

Turned out pretty cute. A little icing flare at the bottom and the cake only took a few more minutes to decorate. Love the cookie thing. Ben came in as I was finishing and said in an unbelieving and thinking I had lost my mind voice (you know how kids do that?)...."Why would you put cookies on a cake?"....I said, "To decorate it and tell Mrs. Burns how lucky we are to have her teaching you." Ben thought for a minute and then said, "So she gets cake AND COOKIES TOO? She is the lucky one." followed by, "Are there any cookies left?"

This cake was Chocolate Chocolate Chip with a Chocolate Buttercream icing and small Cinnamon Shortbread Cookies and one giant Traditional Sugar Cookie.

Cookie Time!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! One day late - yeah yeah, but I still posted these pretty close to the date I actually made them. So many of the cakes are going up a few weeks - sometimes months after I make the cake.............unless the person I made it for has asked me specifically to put it up here so that they can share it with friends or family.

Anyway - cookies are something new for me. I guess making and baking cookie cutter cookies would seem to be a Gimme since I am decorating cakes, but in my sometimes addled head it seemed as though decorating cookies would be tedious. Honestly........all those sprinkles and jimmies are what I am avoiding.

Then people started to ask - Can You Do Decorated Cookies? And I found myself saying - Sure.........and buying cool cookie cutters and googling Royal Iced Cookies. Although I do already have a TON of cookies cutters! At least 200 - I know this because I cataloged them to make sure that I didn't buy anymore doubles in the same size.

To mess around and for a cake I thought I would make 3 sugar cookie style recipes. 1 Traditional Sugar Cookie - 1 Shortbread Cookie and 1 Cinnamon Cookie (I just added cinnamon - not brain surgery in my kitchen). Then made a bunch of shamrocks!! Tah Dah!!