Happy St. Patrick's Day

May the Luck of the Irish be with you this St. Patrick's Day!

Here is what I made in spirit of the holiday!

I made these adorable Leprechaun's last year and wanted to do them again because I liked them so much. Using lots of different cookie cutters to make their cute little faces - circle, ice cream cone, snowman, wreath, cupcake. The idea compliments of The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. She even has a new post on her website for the Leprechaun's here.

A close up of the Leprechaun made out of a cupcake. Can you tell?




I hope you find our Pot of Gold this St. Pat's day. Enjoy the holiday!
Happy Baking,
Jennifer

A Bit of Gold along with some Spring-pillars

I look at some many cool cookie blogs each week - get their updates automatcallly just like you might get mine. I never read many blogs before I started baking cookies and it's so fun to see what the real "experts" are up to and try to copy/borrow ideas from them!

I was once again inspired by some favorite blogs of mine to branch out and try new things! I wish I had such great ideas like so many people come up with!

I also tried a new chocolate cookie recipe so we'll see what the testers think how they turned out this week. I wanted more of a chocolate taste unlike last time. I like strong flavors and not just a hint.

I need to thank Cookie Crazie for this idea below. She calls them her Spring-pillars. When I saw them I thought they were so cute and just had to try them. They were really fun to make. I just cut out several circles and "smooshed" them together. For the head with antennas I actually used a bunny head and reshaped the ears. I thought they turned out pretty good!


Here was another out of the box idea I saw this week and I jumped on trying it because it looked so fun! This cookie was made with 3 different cookie cutters put together. A big circle, a small circle and a small flower. Cut them all out and "smooshed" them together to get the rainbow and pot of gold below. Pretty cool, huh?




Here's the finished product! This was inspired by The Sweet Adventures of SugarBelle. Everyone can use a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, right?



I really liked the gold sprinkles I found that look like gold. Think I found the right touch for these!

Just a few more to finish up for St. Pat's Day! I'm hoping to find my pot of gold some day!

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Not only is it Happy St. Patrick's Day but it's.....HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!
It was one year ago that I started making and decorating sugar cookies!!! St. Pat's Day cookies were my very first venture!!! My oh my - many cookies since then - I believe about 1800! Many hours spent, lots of hard work, lots of research, a whole new vocabulary for baking (ever hear the words coupler, pipe or flood and know what they mean in relation to cookies???) some frustration, lots learned --- what a great thing I found only one year ago. For the past year I've averaged at least making one cookie batch per week. You don't even want to know how many cookie cutters I have....I have had to find new places to stash things with all my baking! My dream is to have a bigger kitchen for all my baking. A real store would be wonderful - but that is a pipe dream!

I got started last year when my Mom gave me a cupcake book. I thought what am I going to do with this??? I can't even bake! I went into the speciality shop that it came from and started looking around. Wow - overwhelming to say the least. Cupcakes looked pretty hard and I ended up starting out with cookies. I reconnected with a grade school friend who is the BEST cookie maker and baker I have ever met. She has helped me with my progress - I've used her recipes, her advice, her templates...I wish someday I could be half as good as Amalia. I have to thank my dear friend Amalia Standard for all that she has done for me the past year! She is an amazing woman all the way around. I also subscribe to lots of blogs that send me updates on their cookie ventures, advice, etc. Those have been my inspiration as well.

Now I have to take a minute to compare.....here is where I was last year with my first attempt. Okay, not all that bad you say.....

But looking below, I can at least tell the difference on how far I've come!!! Much more professional in my opinion, although I still have a long way to go and lots more practice before I would feel that I"m really good at this!
To quote one of my favorite Blogs - The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle

Being a good cookier is not about how perfectly you decorate a cookie, its about how well you can fix it when you screw up, and believe me, you WILL screw up!

Below I'm looking at my finished product from one year ago....Oh my. I can't say I'm all that great now but wow I have come a long way. I suppose practice does really make better, right? And at the time these were good for me and just starting out!

These below are a few of the St. Pat's Day cookies I've done this week. A few new cutters for the holiday....


I didn't really think making a horseshoe for goodluck with black or grey would be very festive. So I decided to try a rainbow. I had no idea how hard this would be until I started. Doing a single line of each color took a very steady hand - and that I don't have yet! Far away they look okay, but you can definitely see the imperfections up close.

And for the rainbow we always need a pot of gold, right? Just a few shamrocks for the occasion. These aren't my favorite cookies I've ever done but they can't all be, right?

I have a few more St. Pat's cookies up my sleeve that I will post later. I found some really neat things on some blogs and they were fun to make! I will share those with you soon.