Spidey!

 What says Happy Birthday to a little boy more than SPIDERMAN?

I'm not sure of much else! Hope the little boy that these cookies were

 made for has a wonderful Birthday!

Happy Baking, 

Jen

Happy Mother's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

I hope you have a great day celebrating your Mom or any mom! Moms are such a wonderful thing and make so many sacrifices in their lives. I never knew the full meaning of that until I had my own child. I would do almost anything to make Trevor's world a better place. And I know for a fact that my Mom did that my whole life...and continues to do that for me and now for my son. I can't say thank you enough to her for everything! Being a Mother has been the best job I could ask for.

 "Being a full-time Mother is one of the highest salaried jobs...since the payment is pure love."

I got pretty ambitious this week with my Mother's Day cookies. Saw several blogs lately that had some fun things to make - but they were all very detailed!

Lady Bugs always remind me of summer....so I thought I could "spring" them up and use some bright colors! They are happy little bugs to me!

One of my favorite places to get ideas is from Cookie Crazie. She posted these basket cookies here this past week. She does a step by step process on her blog which is so helpful. I thought they turned out pretty neat. Lots of little details with the flowers but they look like Mom to me!

I've always struggled on my butterflies and haven't been real happy with my designs yet. With all the other detailed cookies I was doing this week I opted for a simple butterfly and thought this one that The Painted Cookie had was nice.

I got the idea for these potted violet cookies from Sugarbelle here. I thought it was a neat idea to use the cupcake cookie cutter to make a flower pot! The only thing I didn't venture to try from this tutorial were some flower transfers. I just ran out of steam this week as I had taken on so many different designs and had a lot going on. I will definitely have to try them soon as the flowers Sugarbelle makes are so pretty.

I give Glorious Treats the credit for the Morning Glory Cookie design from their website. It was harder than I thought to make the vines look as neat and realistic as they did. I definitely need more practice on that. Cake Central was my inspiration for the flower scene. Such a simple, yet pretty cookie.

 Another beautiful idea from Sugarbelle. Gorgeous Marigolds with a great tutorial here. The marigold petals were made in stages to get the layering affect. You place one layer, let it dry, then go to the next. I think they turned out pretty good and really enjoyed making these.

I used petal dust in the center of the cookie which is a very fun detail to add.

 

What says Happy Mother's Day like a whole assortment of flowers! 

And one more dessert I made for Mother's Day. Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcakes! I found them on All Recipes.Com posted here. And I always have Bailey's on hand so thought they would be something different to try! Following the recipe exactly and they turned out delicious! I put a simple buttercream frosting on top. Definitely a cupcake to make again.

Cookies, cupcakes and ice cream. What could be better, right?

 

 Our main course for Mother's Day dinner was Cranberry Chicken. YUMMY. And so simple to make. Here's the recipe on this link. Only 3 ingredients - french dressing, a can of whole cranberries and a package mix of onion soup. You place chicken in a baking dish and toss those 3 things on top (mix them up a bit). Then bake in the oven. The link I found puts them all in the crock pot which would be easy as well. But I baked it for about 35 minutes (or until the chicken was done). A fabulous flavor and you have a wonderful sauce for the chicken as well. This was great to have for company since there was so little prep work!

 I had a wonderful Mother's day celebration with my Mom (on the right in blue), my husbands Mom, Kathy (in the middle in gray) and my son. The best thing is just spending time with family!

 Happy Baking to all. 

And hope you have a great Mother's day~

Jen

Over the weekend I made some yummy things for a Cinco De Mayo party

 I thought I would share with you! 

Lime Squares made with a Pistaschio Graham Cracker Crust - does that sound like

heaven to anyone else??? 

It did to me when I saw this recipe.

And Martha made them on this website.

They were very tasty and easy to make and had a very strong lemon flavor!

 These Chipolte Chicken Cups were a hit. You can find them here. Super easy to make. The cups are made from wonton wrappers that you bake first. Then add chicken, cheese, bell peppers, salsa and chipolte powder. By the end of the night these were all gone. A very yummy appetizer or finger food!

 

Back to planning my Mother's Day dinner!

Happy Baking,

Jen

Cinco De Mayo

Happy Cinco De Mayo! I'm all ready for my Girls Night Out at my house. Should be a great time! And would a party at my house be complete without some cookies? Heavens no! Especially on Cinco Dy Mayo!

 I had some fun with these cookies and had some new cookie cutters to use. 

Brightly colored Chile peppers and cactus!

Yummy lemons, limes and Margarita's!
And we are all ready for the real thing here too!

Delicious Pineapple!

And my trade mark sun I've many several times.

Lily's Cookies inspired my sombrero's this year found here. 
I thought they were so fun and colorful.

 

 While I was at it, I thought I would try some Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes. Sounded perfect for my Cinco De Mayo party! I found the recipe here. Made with lime, rum and strawberry cake. Yummy. I added the strawberries and umbrellas to be more festive!

 

 I almost forgot my cute sunglasses for the cupcakes! How could I forget the most important thing? I tried to use the frosting that was on the same website as the cupcakes but that bombed. So my frosting came from Cupcakes by Wendy on this site.

Calling All Cars! 911 Emergency!

Happy Birthday to our friend Nick! He's turning 6 and a boy after our own heart. He loves anything fire and anything police! Yes! So here are the police cookies I made for his party. 

For Officer Dodge, we have the police badge. These cookies did take a lot of time, I have to add. 

 I broke down and bought the actual police car cookie cutter since we had Trevor's birthday party last year and I improvised...I like the cookie cutter but haven't found a design that I'm really pleased with to copy...This was okay, but I need to be in search of more...I'm my own worst critic, right?

 Happy Birthday to Nick!

Happy Baking, 

Jen