Pugs-N-Kisses Cookies

Until I became owned by a little pug, I would have never thought of myself as a "pug" person. Perhaps I assumed they were yippy and hyper like some small dogs tend to be. Boy, was I wrong! Our little pug has been such a joy and comfort to our family. There are just no words to express how big my heart beats for her.

So anyway, what does this have to do with cookies?! I've been wanting to do a set of "Pugs-n-Kisses" cookies for a long while now and just in time for Valentine's Day I finally got to it!

You can find the cutest pug cookie cutter at Pug Java HERE
(a portion of the proceeds goes to Pug Rescue Network ).

To give these a little extra special touch; I used Red Velvet cookie dough - yum!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

A few years ago I posted about how to make your own Pumpkin Pie Spice and how tasty it is to add it to your favorite sugar cookie recipe. It also a great way to spice up Oatmeal Scotchies, pancakes, and coffee. I've used the same spice mix in these little cuties but instead of simply adding the spice to my regular sugar cookie recipe I also swapped out half of the butter with pumpkin puree. The result is the unmistakable flavor of pumpkin pie in a soft moist cookie! OH MY YUM!

Available in our shop!

New Flavors In The Shop!

You now have a flavor choice when it comes to your custom decorated cookies! I'm excited to share with you two new flavor offerings: Red Velvet/Cream Cheese and Mint Chocolate/Mint. These are tried and true flavor combinations in the cake and cupcake world and I wanted to incorporate these trusted combos into our menu. Don't be shy about the icing colors. The icing on these flavors can be colored to whatever your heart desires.

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Royal Icing

The Red Velvet cookies are amazingly moist and buttermilk-chocolaty. The snappy bite of the cream cheese flavored royal icing is a nice contrast to the moist crumbling cookie.

Mint Chocolate cookies with Mint Royal Icing

The Mint Chocolate cookies are chocolaty rich with a satisfying note of peppermint. The minty royal icing has a little al dente bite that softly cools the palette.

We are selling gift boxes of these cuties in our shop right now. The gift boxes are also a great way to test-drive the flavors if you are not sure which flavor to choose for your next custom decorated set. Soon we will be offering sampler boxes with several flavor varieties in one box.

We hope you love them! Stay tuned, we have new flavors coming soon!

Summertime

A Proposal

Red Velvet Halloween Cookies

To capture the perfect Red Velvet flavor (and color) in roll out cookie form buy yourself a bottle of Red Velvet Cake Emulsion from Karen's Cookies and then follow this Red Velvet Roll-Out Cookie recipe by the amazing Sweet Sugar Belle.

Quick and Easy Tiki Heads

These quick and easy tiki cookies were inspired by ribbon purchased at a local craft store. A standard batch of dough was divided into four sections and colored prior to rolling, cutting, baking making these super easy to decorate. Bonus easy bit: you don't need cookie cutters to make these. After rolling out the dough I simply used a pizza cutter to cut vertical and horizontal lines at various angles to create the random tiki head shapes and used a paring knife to round out some of the edges. I ended up with little scraps left over of each of the different colored doughs so I gently pressed the scraps together to form a ball and rolled out again to create the marbled effect (you can see this effect best on the big pink tiki head). The biggest time saver of all was only having to make a small batch of white royal icing!

 

Ladybug Cookies

We recently had a little impromptu get-together with family and friends to celebrate my niece Sophia's 3rd birthday. {Have I mentioned that my husband and I have 10 nieces and 3 nephews between us? Some are here in Arizona and some reside in South Africa} 

Sophia's birthday wish was to have a Ladybug Party!  My sister did a great job of fulfilling Miss Sophia's spring-buggy decor request, especially considering we are smack-dab in the middle of Fall. She posted about it HERE.

As soon as my sister mentioned ladybugs, a photo taken of my daughter from several years ago popped into my head. This photo:

A sweet memory circa 2005. My little girly admiring a bounty of ladybugs. A rite of passage of sorts, isn't it? I HAD to try and translate this into ladybug cookies.

Rarely does a cookie plan execute itself as well as what I visualize in my head. More often than not I am disappointed by my inability to produce what my mind sees or what I assume another cookier would certainly be able to create with ease. But then there are moments where my hands create something unexpected. Such as these little ladybugs. I am not sure how this idea came to me. I had consumed an Ace Pumpkin Cider by this point, perhaps that did the trick. Yum.

I used Sweet Sugar Belle's 20-Second Icing for these guys. The bugs shown above were made as samples on a napkin and poorly photographed {sorry about that}. The ladybugs you see on the cookies in the other photos were made right on the flooded and dried cookies. I suggest practicing making a few samples like these on a napkin or parchment paper first. I guess you could make them on parchment paper, let them dry, and then transfer them to a semi-wet flooded cookie. You can do whatever floats your boat. Who am I to tell you what to do? I'm the one who drinks beer when I make cookies.

1. Squeeze out one drop of red icing- I used a Wilton Squeeze Bottle
2. Squeeze out one-half drop of black icing right next to your red drop
3. Using a toothpick, inserted slightly into the black drop, drag a bit of black down the red back of your bug
4. Using a toothpick, slightly dab the pick into the black drop,
5. Remove the pick and lightly dab it on the back of the bug to make the wing spots
6. Smile and admire your cute ladybug creation

Photo by my sis: Back Country Belle

Photo by my sis Back Country Belle

The bigger round ladybugs were inspired by these plates on Amazon.

My sister took beautiful pictures and posted about these cookies HERE. On a special note: the silver candy dish she displayed them in, once belonged to a true lady and loving baker, our grandmother. We love and miss her deeply and hope that we make our families feel as loved as we felt loved by her.

Thank you for stopping by~
Heather

Happy New Year

Cookies for a sweet young woman celebrating her 18th birthday on New Year's Eve

 These are the last cookies I will make this year; my first year of making decorated sugar cookies. I didn't realize a year ago how much cookies would become a part of my daily life. They have become something of an obsession. No, obsession sounds negative, let's call it a passion. Not a day goes by without me saying the word or seeing any given object as subject matter to be put into cookie form. There is never any danger of running out of ideas or special occasions. I plan on spending more time this new year playing with dough and icing; finding new ways to celebrate people and their special moments. I am thankful for friends and family who encourage me in my high-caloric eccentric hobby. If only I had a passion for running...

I wish for you a happy and blessed new year.

Thank you for stopping by~
Heather

Merry Christmas!

Thank goodness for Pinterest and pinners! My creative juices were not flowing too well so I turned to Pinterest and found the inspiration I needed to get busy cookie-makin'. My Christmas cookies this year were inspired by these pins:

Reindeer Cookies
Snowman Cookies
Christmas Tree Cookies
Pinwheel Cookies

Wishing you and yours a happy holiday and blessed new year.

~Heather

Spiced Oatmeal Scotchies

I had a hankerin' for an oatmeal cookie. I also had this Pumpkin Pie Spice burning a hole in my pantry. Wouldn't you know it, I also had butterscotch chips in the freezer.

I followed the old tried and true Nestle's Oatmeal Scotchies recipe printed on the back of their butterscotch chip bag with only 2 teeny modifications. Replacing the 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and optional orange peel with 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice and 1/4 tsp Orange Baking Emulsion.

Have you baked with emulsion? I am still developing a feel and taste for it. It may be used in place of extracts in your baking. Extracts contain alcohol and some of their flavor bakes out while emulsions contain no alcohol and retain their flavor after baking. In theory you may substitute equal measurement of emulsion for an equal amount of extract. However my palate is pretty sensitive to the emulsion flavors therefore I prefer to use a light hand when including them in my cookie dough. For example, in place of 1 tsp vanilla extract I use 1/2 tsp Princess Flavor emulsion. I am curious to know how you use it and if you change up the measurements too.

Spicing these up with good old nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon took good care of my craving. Yes, I shared. Oh, get this, my daughter who 'hates' pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon and pretty much anything I like...she said these were her 'FAVORITE'!

Thanks for stopping by
~Heather

Happy Fall

I live in the desert where the seasons do not make a dramatic entrance. Yet, I know Fall is officially here. The reason I KNOW is because of the candy corn harvest as evidenced at my local drug store. I've already eaten my yearly ration of candy corns. The crops are good this year. I've moved on. Now I have pumpkin pie on my brain. How about sugar cookies with a pumpkin pie flavor? After a little searching I found an amazing roll-out cookie recipe here: Jewel Bakes: Pumpkin-spice-sugar-cookies. Save this recipe; it is a keeper!

I was lacking the key ingredient: Pumpkin Pie Spice. I usually end up buying a jar or two of the pre-made spice each year. Where were they? Grr! Again, I did a little more searching and discovered this recipe from: Joy the Baker - Pumpkin Pie Spice. Even though I did not have all of the ingredients on hand that she lists in her recipe, reading it gave me the confidence to just try blending what I had. I plan on grabbing the other spices soon and mixing them properly next time. Shown below is what I had on-hand and the measurements I used.

I am VERY glad I didn't have the pre-made mixed spice on hand. I used 1 teaspoon of the final mix shown in the above photo. The spice in these cookies was PERFECT, well-rounded, and not overbearing. I could see myself sprinkling this mix over my iced coffee. Oh man, why haven't I done that already?!

I am thankful for foodie bloggers who share their recipes and open up my little cookie world! These little yummies are for you!

Thank you for stopping by

~Heather 

Linked to: addapinch.com 

Health Fair Cookies

Cookies laden with butter are probably the last thing you think of when it comes to {Health and Wellness}. However I put together a batch of MINI decorated cookies that related to a Health and Wellness theme. The idea being that things like cookies are OK, in moderation.

My hope is that these silly cookies make you giggle. There may be a bit of a gross-out factor on one in particular. I am curious to see if you think so too...

Brush 'em!

Yup, that is real floss.

Ok, real floss inserted here. What do you think? Gross or kitschy? These were the last ones to get eaten so it looks like the floss helped with that whole moderation thing.

It is all in good silly fun.

Oh, and in case you are wondering. I squished a Wilton mini flower cutter to cut the smiles and pillows. The squishing was inspired by the amazing Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle. See this cool post by SugarBelle in which she calls it {Squoosh-ing}.

Thank you for stopping by~
Heather

Daisies and Bees

Wheew! I have not felt much like hanging out near my oven since the temps here have been in the 100's. I wish I could harness the heat from outside and use it in my oven. I have a ton of creative energy that needs to be put to use very soon. Come on Fall!

These daisy and bee cookies were for a baby shower. It was requested that I use the palest of pale of yellow and gray. No black. The ladies attending the shower and consuming the treats were all going to work directly after the shower. So the "no black" idea was to avoid the ladies walking around with black teeth {which happens when you consume black icing!}. My first thought was, "uh-oh, how do I make a bee without using black?" I immediately started searching the web for bee inspiration and noticed that the yellow/gray combination is a popular trend these days. I then felt a little more comfortable just "going with it". The result -whaalaaah - trendy bees.

I wonder if any of you might recognize where the little base I used to stick the cookies in comes from. My sister in law works for a major craft store that uses these little bases to display pinwheels. They don't sell these bases{they should}. This base was rescued from the garbage! Oh wait, don't worry! It never actually touched the garbage, that would be gross. More gross than black teeth.

Next up in the queue:
250 mini's!

Thanks for stopping by~
Heather

A Girl and Her Shoes

  These cookies were a gift for a young lady who has just graduated high school. Her mom had many great ideas for a cookie platter for her. We could have easily made 50 different cookies to celebrate her kiddo. We were running short on time and decided to go with a simple shoe theme.

Toe shoes to celebrate her many years of dancing.

High heels to celebrate her girly-girl nature.

The girly-girl actually has a red guitar and red boots!

Confession time:
#1- I stink at piping. I will keep practicing, I promise.
#2 -I know there are 6 strings on a guitar. I know this since there are exactly 4 guitars and 1 bass guitar residing in my home. One has every right to question my knowledge about guitars since I put 8 tuners and 3 strings on these guitar cookies. I have no idea how I could have put 6 strings on these guitars (see confession #1) As for the tuners; sometimes my brain takes a vacation without advanced notice. 

As I stressed about these inaccurate details, my hubs, again, imparted words of wisdom. "Do you think people will not want to eat these cookies because they are missing a few strings?" Hmm, good point as long as they eat the guitars first and don't take any pictures of them and post them on the internet. Oh wait...

Thank you for stopping by!

~Heather

Congratulations Graduates!

My oldest niece has graduated from high school. Wow! I can hardly believe how fast the time has flown. I was the age she is now when she was born. Most of the time I still feel that age. Age is definitely a state of mind, isn't it? It has been a great privilege to watch her become a young lady. I am excited to see her next chapter unfold as she comes into her own at college. Congratulations Baby Girl!

You know what I am realizing just now? This graduation sets off what will possibly go down as the GREAT decade of graduations, weddings, baby showers, etc...! 10 nieces and 3 nephews! Looks like I will have no shortage of cookie occasions. Yay! 

Thank you for stopping by.
~Heather

Round Up Cowboy Cookies

Photo by Back Country Belle

A few weekends ago my sis, Back Country Belle , and her family hosted around 300+ people at their ranch to celebrate their spring cattle round-up. It was quite an event.

 We watched the cowboys work with the young cattle.

We ate great BBQ.

 There was volleyball and cool creek water.

A band played throughout the day and into the evening.

It was a wonderful time spent with family and friends. Great memories were made. I even gained a new found respect for cowboys; for how hard they work and how tired their bones must be at the end of the day.

To thank my sis for working her butt off and welcoming 300+ people into her backyard I made her----are you ready for it?--- Can you guess? ---COOKIES---duuurrrr!

Here is a fun tid-bit: these boots are extra special. Oh yes sir, they are! If you CLICK HERE you will see just who inspired them! 

Life is sweet.
Thank you for stopping by.
~Heather

More Tennis Team Cookie Favors

High school spring sports are wrapping up. Summer is right around the corner. (Trav and I had better get the trailer dusted off and at the ready for us to escape the valley heat!) Anyway, back to sports. I had the pleasure of making some more girls' tennis team cookies for a local high school banquet.

I did more hand cutting with this batch since I wanted to match the font of the school's "H". The H's remind me of the letters on a Letterman's jacket. And um, I still don't own a tennis racket cutter, crud.

Paw prints were included to pay homage to the mascot, a Husky. Guess what? I have a paw print cookie cutter, yesss!

I love the way the cookies look when they are packaged, glossy and ready to share. Actually, if I'm honest, the glossy packaging hides any minor imperfections! shh...

These were fun to make. I think I get more confident with each batch. The only drawback to this hobby is the sheer amount of time it takes to complete a batch from start-to-finish. Sometimes it takes DAYS. It would be a challenge to "bake-on-a-whim". Which by the way I did-last weekend-by request of my sweet SIL...I'll post about it soon!

Thank you for stopping by!

~Heather