Jen's own desserts

Well, last week I was doing plenty of sugar cookies! Just not ready to post them. I was working on an order for 7 dozen which took me quite a bit of time. I ended up doing 7 different designs which broke it up nicely for me. But that takes me all week to do - just imagine all the different colors!!! I won't post those cookies until next week but had to do something this weekend so that I could show!!!!

Let's start with Pineapple Cheesecake Squares from Cookie Madness. These are very rich and gooey as you can see - but quite tasty. Unfortunately I didn't have white chocolate chips like the recipe really called for so used butterscotch ones. While it is still good, I do believe the white chocolate would be better.

I ran across this recipe for Creamy Key Lime Bars from Desert Culinary that was so simple I just had to try it to believe it. The verdict??? They were as easy to make as the recipe made them look. And they are very tasty. But these once again are very rich. I didn't have any key limes so mine were "zestless". I also added a bit of crushed pineapple to the mix which was tasty.



So Trevor always wants COOKIES for breakfast. So I went on the hunt to find one to try. I came up with Chocolate Peanut Butter Breakfast Cookies . I found this on the Healthy Cooking Website by suite101 Many of the recipes I found had raisins, dates, and nuts in them. BUT Trevor is a bit picky so none of those would do. The recipe is a bit interesting - zero butter being made with applesauce instead. I was worried how it would all turn out. But they were easy to make, roll out and cook.
This little guy seemed to like them! At least he said he did!! I tasted them and like the recipes above they were very rich in chocolate. I couldn't really taste the peanut butter but maybe I just really like a peanut butter flavor and it wasn't rich enough for me. Pat liked them too. I would recommend trying all of the recipes above....but they are all very RICH - so you wouldn't have to eat very much to get your fill!!

Happy Baking!

Thank you teachers!

The end of the school year is here for Trevor. Wow....did that go by fast or what? He has loved being in Pre-K with a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Binder. And now, drum roll please....we are going to be off to Kindergarten in the fall. I can't believe it, can you? To thank the teachers in Trevor's classroom I of course decided to make some cookies. They have 5 different teachers that all have 12 kids in their group. While Trevor only has one teacher, those other teachers have certainly spent time with him this year and gotten to know him to. So I couldn't forget them.

Strawberries to thank the teachers BERRY
much for all they have done for us this year. I'm glad I have my new cookie tips that are small so that I could make the details on my little worms on the apples! Tedious let me tell you! I got the idea for the little worm from Sweet Celebrate. My happy face apples.This idea came from one of the first blogs I even looked at Bake at 350. She is wonderful and has so many neat ideas and beautiful cookies too. My inspiration from this was my favorite baker friend, Amalia Standard. She is FABULOUS and the best decorator I know. (not to mention wonderful at everything she does - mom, friend, wife, etc). She has a great blog that you should check out. Cookie Construction. Everything she does is amazing. She recently made the cookies below and I had to try them because I thought the idea was so neat. These bees are made out of a circle and a heart cookie cutter put together. Pretty clever, right? I made a few different sizes and had fun making something outside the box! Amalia was inspired by another blog for these...Flour and Sugar Thoughts.

Have to thank our teaches a BZZZZZillion times for all the thing they do for us during the year. Teachers are so very important in this world and Trevor really had some wonderful ones! These flower pot cookies were an idea I got from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. She had another great idea. See the Frosty cookie cutter? Well, turn it upside down and it becomes a flower in a pot! How neat is that? It requires some free hand decorating which I definitely need more practice at, but these were fun to make.
I added some tiny ladybugs to the pots for fun too. Here's the whole assortment of cookies for the teachers.
Here's Trevor carrying the baskets that I put the cookies in. He was so happy to help deliver these! I found the cute little baskets at the dollar store and thought they were neat....that place has some of the best things if you ever stop in there! Thanks teachers! You've brought Trevor a long way - he can write his name, knows his alphabets, numbers, colors....that's my boy!!! And here's to a fun summer session at Brookridge Day School for him. HAPPY BAKING.

Here go the Butterlies and Dragonflies!

More Spring Butterflies and Dragonflies off to a bridal shower this week! It's been a crazy week with all that I've been done!






I was in one of my favorite stores this week and decided to take a picture....imagine me taking a picture of something right? Funny! I love Baker's Rack for all my baking things. Cookie cutters, icing colors and lots, lots more - for cookies, candies and cakes. This is the best place in our area to get my baking things - a great assortment and she is a baker so she really KNOWS the good things!! I got a few new cookie cutters and some cool icing colors this weekend.


Happy Baking!

Happy Graduation

Graduation time for lots!!! Made a few different varieties this week and they are all off now for the graduates! HAPPY GRADUATION!



Got this idea from The Painted Cookie. They will be going to a graduation party this Saturday.

Nothing better than graduating from high school so I thought these smiley faces were fun! These are being sent to Dallas today for my brother's son Conner who is graduating from High School. Sure hope they make it there okay! I always worry about my precious cookies being mailed! Happy Graduation Conner!
And these cookies are being sent to Salt Lake City for a law school graduation. My cousin's husband is graduating from law school. Now having done that, I certainly know how hard that it and what celebrating you want to do. Congrats Jason!


Been a very busy week for me cookie-wise! I've done 2 more orders as well that will be posted later! Whew! I"m worn out. I even had to take a sick day on Tuesday because I literally think I worked myself sick with not getting enough sleep!!! My body was telling me with a huge headache that I had to stay home and rest. And that I did!

Back to baking soon!
Have a great day.

Jen's Own Baking

I did some baking of my own this weekend....had a few misses and a few hits. Thought I would pass on the hits of mine of recipes that I would recommend. I haven't quite figured out how to take the best pictures of any of these creations just yet!!!

White Chocolate Chip Blondies from Nana's Recipes. I've made this before and really liked it. And with baking it seems like I can never make something exactly the same twice even if I follow the recipe! This has white chocolate chips and oats in it! Yummy!



Black and White Cheesecake Bars by Taste of Home. This recipe was super, super easy to make and very yummy. Not too rich. I'm not a fan of chocolate chips so I used white chocolate chips instead. But turned out very nicely and was even pretty after cutting it - which is NOT always the case.
See how nice and neat this was after I cut it?

Oatmeal Raisin Bars from Martha Stewart. I'm a big raisin and oat fan and am always looking for a few recipe to try for this type of bar. This was a bit different since the raisins were put into water and boiled and then into the food processor to make smooth. I do think I like it though!
Happy Baking!

Bridal Shower Daisy Cookies

For my latest order I had a challenge! Create cookies for a bridal shower to match the colors and style of the invitation. The cookies are going to be handed out as favors for each guest. Below is the invitation with all 6 different colors. You cant' tell from the paper but the Gerber daisy centers have a little sheen/sparkle to them. So, the challenge was on!



Mixing colors to match is not an easy task I must tell you. I'm hoping they match the invitation that was scanned to me!!! And I decided regular daisies looked better than my attempt a few weeks ago at the actual Gerber daisy.

Here is my finished product.

You might be able to see a little of disco dust I used in the middle of the flower. The invitation had a sheen/sparkle to it and I was asked if I could do something similar. When you use "disco dust" you end up getting it all over you, the cookie and the kitchen! But it sure does look pretty.

I didn't like the daisy cookie cutter I had so I ordered a new one. And with it came some mini daisy cutters. I couldn't resist but make some of those too. These are all miniature flowers to go with the bigger ones.

The entire assortment of regular and mini daisies. When I laid them all out it was quite a bit of flowers! I had my own flower garden on my butcher block.
And since these were favors for a party, the cookies were individually wrapped in bags with matching bows. The mini cookies were just an extra fun thing I added because I thought they might look cute. Ahh...that order is done....that one took awhile. Surprising how what seemed like a simple flower order was more work than I thought. But I think they turned out good.

Happy Baking!

Happy Birthday Zebra Print Style

Hello there! Not many updates lately although I have been busy with orders. Just haven't posted them yet! So here are a few I've been working on.

I got the chance to do my zebra print cookies again! Have to give credit one more time to The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle for me using her ideas and tips on this cookie.

These pretty tiaras are for a five year olds Birthday party. I actually did some cookies for her last year at her party and she remembered and liked them. How's that for a compliment? Children certainly don't say things like that just to be nice :)

I got some fancy new cookie cutter tips -PME tips- more expensive than what I've been using, but I have to say you really do pay for what you get sometimes. I don't think you can tell in the pictures but they really allow you to do more details and are more precise. I'm excited to be able to use these new tips more. I ordered them from a favorite website of mine - CopperGifts.com. Another great website is Karen's Cookies and they have these too.

Back to baking!

Mother's Day Dessert

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the Mother's out there. Here's a picture of me with my Mom and my son, Trevor. A great reason to celebrate - Mom!!! Being a Mom is so wonderful - and can be so challenging at times too! But I wouldn't trade that job for the world. I have the very best Mom and the very best son I could ever ask for. I could not be luckier. We celebrated Mom's day on Friday night at our house with veggies and chicken on the grill. The weather was wonderful and we were able to enjoy our deck before dinner.

Grandma Kathy was able to come to - Pat's Mom. So both Grandma's came over for dinner to celebrate! Yeah.

This was my Mother's Day dessert. Nothing fancy and didn't make too many desserts this time! But it turned out wonderfully so I had to share. Martha Stewart's Cream Cheese Pound Cake. It is a must to try - very simple to make and very yummy. I would definitely make this again.

Have a wonderful Mother's Day! Being a Mother is the most wonderful job in the world. And it's the most difficult and rewarding too.

Teacher Appreciation Week

So Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Trevor has a wonderful teacher and I wanted to make her a little something. I wanted to make something for her but also wanted to practice making something for an order I have coming up....so double duty. And I'm glad I practiced!!! I wasn't going to post these because they aren't pretty...but hey, I'm not perfect and never pretend to be! So these are what NOT to do...LOL. The order is for Gerber Daisy's...I'm going to have to do just a plain old daisy. What we have here are flowers that have webs on them in my opinion! Oh MY! Not my finest hour, I'm sure you will agree.


The regular daisies are much better. I will stick with these!!!!

Don't forget to tell all the teachers you know thank you this week. They work so hard and are so very important in the lives of all the children they touch. They have one of the most important jobs of all.

Spring Cookies

Nothing like having to post again....there was something wrong with Blogger...so this post I did the other day wasn't saved...so nothing new, just wanted to put it out there again on my blog.

Here's another Spring cookie order that just went out the door!! The event was today and I think they liked the cookies. Just an assortment but thought I would share what I've been up to. Some of the cookies are the same but I try something a bit different with each cookie...even though you might not be able to tell!

BZZZZ


There is a story to tell behind the finished product of the dragonfly. I was working on this order early, early AM last week. I was taking forever to decide which colors to use to go with the rest of them and had finally made my decision. Working nicely and about done with my flooding. When what should happen?? My WORST NIGHTMARE. My sleeve must have hit the cookie sheet that my cookies were on and they all went tumbling to the floor...and broke into little pieces. Only one dragonfly was salvaged. WOW. I wanted to cry. I think I did for a few seconds. Then just pulled out the mix master and made another batch of cookie dough, rolled out more dragonflies and started all over. You can imagine how devastated I was!!

Here is how they finally turned out. A lot of time and tears on my part!
Some butterflies....

Tulips with stems

More tulips.

Daisies

And the whole assortment together

Happy Baking!