Friday, July 30, 2010

Lighthouse Cookies



Here's some pictures of the lighthouse sugar cookies that I did for my brother Matt and Lisa's wedding.  They were big cookies!  The beautiful copper cookie cutters were hand made to match the Michigan Lighthouses by Franken Cutters.  I wasn't able to get the best pictures because I finished them late in the evening and the next day we headed straight to Mackinac Island.  I also learned another lesson in royal icing bleeding.  I must be more patient and let the icing completely dry before using the next color.  :) 


Light Sable Lighthouse


Big Sable Lighthouse



Ludington Lighthouse

Red White and Blue Stars



These I made purely for fun.  I haven't been doing enough of that lately.  It was nice to make some cookies with no pressure.  I got this idea from Bake 350, one of my favorite blogs.  Its my basic sugar cookie recipe divided into three portions and tinted with food coloring.  Since there is only a bit of royal icing detailing the top, I am able to keep some in the freezer to pull out whenever I need a little sugar snack. 






Cowboy Wedding Cookies


I created some fun cowboy cookies for a wedding this weekend.  These were different from any sugar cookies I've previously done and I had a lot of creative fun with them.  It's nice to do something other than the wedding cake and dress sugar cookies.  :)  I was really happy with how all the details came out on these. 


I was able to use some green disco dust on the cactus! 





Thursday, July 8, 2010

Matt and Lisa's Briday Shower Cookies

A Michigan Wedding needs some Michigan Cookies!  Matt and Lisa are getting married on Mackinac Island so it was only appropriate to do some Michigan Mitt and Mackinac Bridge Cookies.  I was really happy with how the Michigan Mitt cookies turned out.  I even had great success with using disco dust!!  I love a little cookie glitter! 


The bridges turned out "ok".  Not my best, but everyone really liked them.  A little more time and effort and I could have done much better. The little red heart really added a touch of love! 

All bagged up and ready for a home!

Now I have 60 lighthouse sugar cookies to prepare for their wedding next week!  3 Michigan lighthouses!  I baked them up yesterday in the 95 degree heat wave.  My small kitchen warmed up quick!  But they are all baked up and ready for decorating.  I'm going to work on the decoration plan today and maybe start them tomorrow.  I also have a 4 dozen wedding cake/dress sugar cookie order for next weekend that I need to start moving on!  After this I think I need a break from baking for at least a week.  :)

Cupcakes with Gum Paste Flowers

I made some chocolate cupcakes to practice making some gumpaste flowers on.  Gum paste is so simple to work with, but my hands were all red from mixing in the red food coloring in.  The flower punch out set has 4 different size flowers that you can create.  After rolling out the gumpaste you cut out the flowers like you would with a cookie cutter and push the plunger and they poop right out!  They dry fairly quick.  I think I'll be using these flower plungers a lot in the future. 

4th of July Cupcakes

I made some chocolate cupcakes to bring up north with us to share.  I found cute little flags and "fireworks" to decorate them with at Michaels.  Complete with vanilla buttercream and red,white and blue star sprinkles.  The perfect 4th of July treat!