The Making of: Sugar Cookies

Hi Everyone!
So here is another episode of "The Making of" for the Valentine's Bake Sale. These are my Sugar Cookies. You can never be missing some decorated cookies for ANY occasion. First off, my Chocolate Sugar Cookies.

This is what they looked like in my sketchbook:

The little grey dot on the side? It resembles a big silver non pareill :).

I was intending for the color to come out as red, but it just kept becoming more and more deep pink. But they still came out good looking ;) I also heard they tasted very good. (See now, I am on a diet, as per my New Years Resolution, so I couldn't taste EVERYTHING. These I did not. At least I'm still on my diet ;) )

Then, I did these little beauties:

What you are looking at are my Sugar Cookies with ...guess whose recipe? I actually did Sugarbelle's Chocolate Royal Icing from her blog The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. I am a big fan of hers, so one day as I was browsing through her blog, I stumbled upon the recipe. I thought I'd give it a try, and it came out great!! You should try it!

I initially thought I'd do these Round, like my sketch.



But if you remember the Cat Cookies I made for Halloween, I don't own a large enough round cookie cutter. So I used what I had on hand.
The little heart is sugar paste. I thought I'd play a bit with texture and taste rather than do everything with royal icing.

I also made these cookies, but not for the Bake Sale. Well, when I said I was having a Valentine's Bake Sale, I was asked to do some extras for a conference. I thought it'd be special if the cookies were different from what I had to offer for the Bake Sale.

I improvised on these, so I don't have a sketch, either. But everyone was impressed upon delivery. Simple and nice.

I have one more Sugar Cookie I made, but that one is special, so it has to go on its own post ;)
So keep an eye out for it.

The Making of: Glittered Heart Cookies

Hi Everyone!! I'm back! Well I wasn't gone, I was here. I was just getting prepared for my Valentine's Bake Sale and I also have many orders coming through so I'm busy busy busy.

As I promised, I was going to do a series of "The Making of" posts for my Valentine's goodies. Let's start with the Glittered Heart Cookies. They went on here:

This is my Strawberry Cupcake with Strawberry Frosting. I use fresh strawberries, unless I cannot find them ANYWHERE. It just tastes better this way!!
I saw this picture and I LOVED it, so I wanted to make something like it for Valentine's Day.
The thing is, I couldn't find the iiiity bity plain nonpareills in only red or only pink. So I went online, searched for them, and found them in Los Angeles. (Ironic, right? I used to live there and never looked for anything like it while I was there). So I thought to myself "I can order them...if they get here on time, I can make the cookies. If not...then well I have to find something else to do with the cookies." And they came right on time ;)

I also made a sketch of what I wanted the Cupcakes to look like. I like to keep all my ideas in my sketchbook in case they need altering. Plus, they are all in one place, so I can look at them at any time, brainstorm, and add more.

After I baked some heart shaped Sugar Cookies, I outlined them with a baby pink Royal Icing. And then filled them with the Icing, too. I didn't fill them with the sprinkles until they were partly dry. I had pink and red sugar in there, too, and if I filled the cookies with the sparkly mixture I made, the sugar would've gotten wet.

I am deffinately getting better at this than my first or second time outlining and filling cookies with Royal Icing. First of all, I made sure my icing wasn't too stiff or too wet for the outlining.
And then I used the 10 second (.....right? At least that's how many seconds I waited) rule...you know, where you run your knife through the icing and wait 10 seconds until the line is gone? That one. I used it... last time I decorated cookies, I didn't even know this rule existed.

What do you think? These were my favorite, especially pared with the Strawberry Cupcake, from my Valentine's Bake Sale.
Oh, and did I tell you? I created a Facebook Page.

Valentine's Day Bake Sale Flyer

I know it's been a while since I last posted, but I've been really busy with orders and with some adjustments at work. Having orders everyday is also a fact around here and a blessing. Meanwhile, I was preparing for my bake sale AND I was thinking about my blog! I miss writing on here.
Next week I will have a "The Making of" series just like I had for the Halloween Bake Sale here, here and here.
For now, here is the Bake Sale Flyer I also posted on Facebook.

What do you think? I downloaded the free illustration and added my own details. Not shabby eih?