Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

Yes, I know it's almost December. It's past Thanksgiving and everybody is getting into the Christmas spirit! But I'm not ready to let go of fall... At least not yet! To keep me in the autumny mood for at least another week, I made some pumpkins. They are the cutest cookies ever, and one of the easiest to make, too.

This was my first time to attempt 20-second icing. And, well, I fell in love. 20-second icing is an incredible discovery that I will now use all the time. If you haven't heard about it, you should REALLY click on this link (here) and head on over to Sugarbelle's. She has the most fabulous tutorial on making (and decorating with) 20-second icing.

Anyway! Pumpkins. This was a batch I made to take to a party as a hostess gift. I finished them just barely in time to snap a few quick shots and run out the door.

I had just made a new batch of gingerbread, so I decided to make yet another batch the next day with a (hopefully) better photo shoot. Here are the results:

The deep, dark color of the gingerbread really added to the impact of the cookie. And, my goodness, were they delicious. My family's traditional gingerbread cookie paired with a maple royal icing captured the flavors of fall beautifully. This particular batch of cookies was probably my favorite (flavor-wise) that I have ever made. I hope you can try out these gorgeous, simple cookies before the season is completely over!

~Kaitiebug

Watercolor Cookies

 A few days ago, I woke up and realized that I was supposed to make a dozen cookies for a bake sale the next day. I panicked calmly laid out a plan. I needed a quick and easy set of cookies that would appeal to children ages 5-10. Thankfully, I attended Arty McGoo's wonderful cookie painting session at CookieCon. (check out her work here) 

Using Wilton gel colors as edible watercolor paints, I made a rainbow! 

These cookies only took about a minute per cookie to paint. The entire process from start to finish (baking, flooding with white royal icing, letting the icing dry, and painting) took only a few hours to complete. I even had time to paint a few extra cookies to thank the ladies in charge.

The rest of the cookies I painted for fun. Here are my two favorites, a daisy and a black-eyed susan.

Overall, painting on cookies is extremely relaxing, quick, and easy, especially if you have any sort of experience with watercolors. If you're interested in learning more about painting on cookies, check out Arty McGoo's fabulous tutorial here. Good luck!

~Kaitiebug

CookieCon!

Tomorrow (or should I say today) is November 1st, the day I have been looking forward to for months! It's... COOKIECON! CookieCon is a cookie decorating convention being held in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is CookieCon's first year and I am so happy and excited to be included! I am going to learn so, so much. All of my cookie idols will be there, including Glory Albin of Glorious Treats, Callye Alvarado of The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle, and Elizabeth Adams (AKA Arty McGoo).

I live about eleven hours away, so I'm leaving early this morning (around 2 am) and driving to Salt Lake. This is going to be an incredible experience. I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as I get back!

~Kaitiebug

Campaign Cookies

I'm in high school. Actually, I'm a junior this year. This being said, most of my friends are in high school too. One of these friends, Heather, was recently running for class representative, and asked me to help in her campaign! Of course, I was happy to render any assistance necessary, and tiredly plodded through enthusiastically pulled an all-nighter making a cookie for every person in her freshman class. Luckily, the school isn't too big, and I ended up making 31 3-inch cookies in her school colors, maroon and navy blue. 

Unfortunately, I was doing these at her house and forgot my camera, so I had to use my phone... Yet again. They really were maroon, not orange, trust me! :) All the lettering was done completely freehand at about 3 am, so considering the circumstances, I was pretty happy with the final product!

~Kaitiebug

A Bit About Me...

I lived in a world of food that was solely meant for eating. I never even imagined the possibilities that could arise when taste and artistic presentation were combined. The cakes I made were from a box, baked in a sheet pan, and covered with a thick coat of canned icing and sprinkles. My mom was (and still is) a fantastic cook and also has a mind for art, so she really sparked my love for baking. Once, she even made a cake that looked like a gumball machine for my little sister's birthday party. However, I had no idea I could accomplish anything even remotely close to my mom's incredible creations.

My life was changed forever when I received Karen Tack and Alan Richardson's books Hello, Cupcake! and What's New, Cupcake? for Christmas. I made pandas, bouquets of roses, lobsters and fake spaghetti! After a while, I had people asking me to make cakes and cupcakes for birthdays and special occasions. Here are two of my proudest creations.

Tinkerbell and her fairy friends in their magical meadow...

A bouquet of roses made from candied fruit slices.

But when I was 13, I went to a cookie decorating birthday party. The other girls were content painting their sugar cookies with food paint and liberally applying jimmies. I, however, spent nearly the entire birthday party sorting through sprinkles and finding just the right ones to make a miniature reproduction of a piece of Van Gogh's "Starry Night".

Van Gogh's Starry Night: Cookie Version

This, however, was terribly time consuming, and it didn't look nearly as pretty after it was baked. (Unfortunately, I have a perfectionist streak that makes me feel that if I can't make it perfect, it isn't worth making at all.) So, cookie decorating was put out of my mind for the time being. After a while, I stumbled upon Glory Albin's blog, Glorious Treats, and Callye Alvarado's blog, The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle. Their incredibly decorated sugar cookies introduced me to a new medium, royal icing! I immediately rushed out, bought some meringue powder and about five bags of confectioner's sugar, and got to work. These cookies were my very first attempts at mastering the art of royal icing. (and also half-decent pictures...)

My best friend's birthday was coming up, and I decided to try again. I made a huge assorted batch of cookies with all of his favorite things and our inside jokes.

Two very Angry Birds...

Moustache!

My attempt at the Hunger Games Mockingjay pin.

Mr. Unicorn

And my personal favorite, Hugh the Manatee. (Get it? "Hugh-Manatee"? Yeah? No...)

I still have a lot more projects I need to upload, and I'm going to try out some tutorials too. Sorry for the long post! Stay tuned for more!


~Kaitiebug