Bettter late than never: GIVEAWAY!

Ok, so I know was supposed to do my birthday giveaway in like May, but things have been crazy busy around here. BUT we made it in the end and now you can enter for a little cookie decorating fun of your own!!!

The winner will receive -

1 x AmeriColor gel in electric pink, 1 x CK Products pink sugar crystals

2 x Wilton standard couplers, 2 x disposable piping bags, 1 x Wilton #1 tip, 1 x Wilton #2 tip

1 x Blossom Sugar Art dress cookie cutter

and last but not least, this awesomely (yes it's a word) cool mini rolling pin - just because it is so darn cute!!!

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post. The giveaway is also open to international entrants so everybody can join in the fun. The competition will be open until 8pm AEST Friday 29th June 2012. At this time I will use random.org to generate a winner.

To make it fair to everybody please only post one comment for your entry, anybody that has entered more than once will be excluded from the giveaway.

Now that the boring stuff is over, head on down and place your entry.

READY .. SET .. GO! 

CLOSED

Congratulations to Detirijose on winning the birthday giveaway! I hope you thoroughly enjoy your goodies and make sure you share your creations :)

Quick catch up!

Ok, so here I am quickly catching up on some of the big things that have been happening!

I told you in the last post that I would fill you in on how the Easter Cookie Swap came about. It was getting close to Easter and after feeling very left out watching all the American Cookie Swaps I put a call out on Precious Pie Cookies Facebook page asking if any Australian cookiers would be interested in an Easter Cookie Swap. I had immediate interest from Beck at Becca's Biscuits who reshared my post to her wall and had immediate interest from Traci at Cookie Queen Kitsch'n.

Between the three of us we decided the best course of action was to start a page where all Australian cookiers could gather, meet and share. So we started Australian Cookiers United and from this page we ran the Cookie Swap and were excited to have plenty of interest! If you want to see what everybody created head on over and take a look. Feel free to join in the fun while you are there :) There is currently a TV Cookie Challenge going on with some great prizes up for grabs, all the details are on the page and it is open to ANYBODY!

Here are my cookies sent out to my two swappers.

Next was ANZAC day. I collaborated with the lovely Maree of The Old Fashioned Baking Company to create this lovely package to commemorate ANZAC Day.

LEST WE FORGET!

I loved this pack and it was an honor to create it!


I also created two dessert tables with my bestest friend Lauren from Happy Little Cupcake. Check out her blogpost here to see all the deliciousness!
Anyway, I'll finish up the boringness (it's absolutely a word!) and hope to see you drop by our Australian Cookiers United page :)

I'M BACK!

Ok, so I know it has been a REALLY long time but I have been so caught up in cookies that the blog went straight out the window! I promise to try and be better though :) Honest!

Seeings as it's Easter and all I'm going to share this years Easter creations. Easter is very exciting for me this year as it marks 1 year since my first cookie decorating attempt and I am proud to say that I have come a long way!

Anyway enough of the blibber blabber .. we want to see cookies right?

This is my blue antique/vintage Easter cookie collection.

And if your going to make blue then it goes without saying that you have to do pink, right?

And then, of course, you need a little bright cookie love.

But what I am most excited about is the Easter cookie swap I was a part of this year. More on that in the next post but I will give you a little peek at what I created to send out to my swappers :)

and this

Well I hope you enjoyed my little Easter cookie feast. I'm off now, it's nap time at our house and after a VERY long week cookie-ing I could use one :)

Have a safe and happy Easter everybody!

Energize my cookie

This week I had the challenge of creating an "energy cookie" for a beach volleyball team to take to the Masters Games. They gave me a sample of their team shirt material and left me to my own devices.

Having never even considered making anything of it's kind I had to do some research and here was the end result.

Energy Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

2 1/2 Cups Rolled Oats
2/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 Cup Plain Flour
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Honey
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
100g Melted Butter
3/4 Tsp Vanilla Paste
1 Cup Dried Fruit & Nut Mix

Method

Preheat oven to 180.

Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.

On a cookie tray place the cookie cutter you wish to use. Scoop in mixture and pack tightly. Gently remove cookie cutter and repeat process until all mixture is used.

Bake until golden brown (about 20 minutes).

Ta Da! You have energy cookies. Eat as is or decorate with Royal Icing.

If you have any left, cookies can be stored in an airtight container.


Have you ever been given a custom order that has left you feeling a little overwhelmed?

From fail to fun!

So I spent this Sunday with Miss Lauren from Happy Little Cupcake and boredom took over after FAR too much rain watching so we got to cupcake baking. Orange cupcakes for that matter!

So now it's icing time, right? Well my cupcakey friend says "do you have a large icing tip?" Now I totally didn't look at her blankly (I know what a large icing tip is!), but apparently a number 4 tip does NOT constitute a large icing tip! Who knew? It's not my fault I tell you, I'm a cookier!

This was where I came up with my AMAZING idea that had Lauren looking at me like maybe I was a little bit defective and telling me that it wasn't going to work. But being the stubborn optimistic person that I am I wouldn't be persuaded.

So I pulled out the trusty cardstock and made myself a large icing tip.

Tell the truth, you know you are looking at it and thinking that it is totally awesome!!!!

Feeling creative we decided to go with a blue, green and yellow icing swirl. We coloured our buttercream and got our tip ready for it's grand introduction to the world of decorating.

This may or may not have been the begining of the end of my masterplan! Lets just say that all in all it was an interesting experience. Out of this experience though also came some fun. I looked at the disaster and just saw failure but Miss Cupcake saw monsters and that's when things started to look up :)

Here was our end result

What kitchen disasters have you turned around?

Meet My Moustache!

So this year we had my husbands birthday party with the family a little early as it's school holidays and everybody will be away on his actual birthday. Despite the rain we had an amazing morning and for a little fun I made moustache cookies which were a BIG hit with the kidlets!

As you can see Miss 4 in the bottom right hand corner had to test the quality of her moustache :)

Give these a go at your next party, you could even make masks for a true disguise!

Phototastic!

I'm the first to admit that my photography skills are less than desirable, so when we had our family photo's taken by the beautiful Renee of Capture Me Photography I just had to share her talent with you.

Renee is amazing, not just her photo's but her personality and the way she immediately puts you at ease. I highly recommend her services, and she is even reasonable priced!

Enjoy a few of our 2011 family pics below, and then mosey on over to her website or facebook page to see the rest of her stunning artwork.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!!

Pie for Mikey

Now I know I'm really behind in posting this but I did actually make a peanut butter pie for Mikey.

For those of you who haven't heard (although I'm sure you all have), the gorgeous Jennie of In Jennie's Kitchen lost her husband last month and asked the blogging community to make her husbands favourite peanut butter pie (find the story and recipe here).

Now I just want to go on the record as saying that I have NEVER made a sweet pie before so this was quite interesting. It tasted amazing!

In celebration of Mikey I cuddled on the lounge with Miss 2, Master 6 months and Billy boy and we proceeded to destroy half the pie.

Thank you to Jennie for taking a moment in your unbearable heartache to share this recipe with us so that we may in turn share it with our loved ones!

If you haven't already, make a pie for Mikey. The timing may be out, but the sentiment stays the same!

Milk Chocolatey Goodness

Ok .. here is my first ever tutorial. Lets hope it makes sense! Now please excuse the photo's, it took me a while to realise that Miss 2 had had her grubby little fingers on my camera lens so most are a little fuzzy!

This is my milk chocolate cookie recipe. It has a smooth chocolate flavour that isn't too strong (for those odd people out there in the world that prefer a lighter flavour). It is a lovely dough to work with and is smooth and silky to eat. Yes I am boldy telling the world that I eat cookie dough and I LOVE it!!!!! Not only that but the dough barely spreads at all in baking so you won't lose the shape of your cookie.

Here we go. I hope you enjoy.

MILK CHOCOLATE COOKIES

Ingredients

Cookies

- 200g butter (room temp)

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 1 egg

- 1/3 tsp vanilla paste

- 100g milk chocolate

- 2 1/2 cups flour

- A little extra milk chocolate and white chocolate for decoration

Chocolate Filling

- 50g butter (room temp)

- 2 tbs milk

- 1 cup icing sugar

- 50g milk chocolate

Method

• Combine butter and brown sugar.
• Add egg and vanilla paste and combine until smooth.



• Melt chocolate and combine with butter mixture.

• Add flour and combine until mixture reaches a crumb-like consisetency.

• Work dough into a ball.
• Cover in plastic wrap and refridgerate for 20 - 30 minutes.



• Preheat oven to 180 C
• Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut shapes (I used a small fluted circle cutter for this tutorial but anything is fine). Remember to make double the amount of cookies that you want as you will be sanwiching them at the end.
• Put cut cookies in the freezer for approx 10 minutes.
• Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

• Once cookies have cooled melt the milk chocolate and white chocolate one at a time and drizzle on top of half your cookies.

• While you allow the chocolate to set mix up the icing mixture as follows.
• Combine butter, icing sugar, and milk until smooth.
• Melt chocolate and combine.
• Fill piping bag with icing mixture.
• Pipe mixture onto second half of baked cookies.

• Top your cookies with the set chocolate drizzled cookies and there you have it - milk chocolate cookie heaven!

The WAHM's balancing act

So, sitting on the lounge with my sick 5 month old sprawled across my chest and laptop balancing precariously on my right knee while I try to reply to customer emails, sort out what cookies I have left to bake for the rest of the weeks orders and when exactly I should decorate them which night this week would be best to pull an all nighter to get the bulk of my decorating done - all the while keeping an ear out for Miss 2 who should be napping but is probably right at this moment sneaking up the hallway to see if she can get away with staying up this time, got me to thinking about a note that I read on the Quirky Kids facebook page yesterday. She was giving an insight to her day as a pregnant WAHM and while I had a good giggle to myself reading it I found myself relating. As a newbie to the business world I am still very much trying to find my work and life balance. Before having children I went to work, came home and didn't think about work again until I arrived there again for the next working day. When I gave birth to my first baby 2 years ago I was lucky enough to be able to be a SAHM and "work" became a thing of the past. Then one day I got the brilliant idea of turning what had become my new love and hobby (cookie decorating of course) into an income. Now don't get me wrong, I love what I do and don't regret my decision for a minute. I just sometimes think that maybe I have gone completely mad without realising it.
My question to all you WAHM's and working business owners out there is this .. How do you find the balance where you get all your work done without burning the candle at both ends but still making time for your housework family?

One toe in the water

Ok .. so here I am, nervously entering the blog world! I'm dipping my toe jumping both feet first into a world that I don't know much about (besides reading others entertaining blogs of course). Hopefully I can manage to keep it all together without too much of a massive fail! If you're reading this, then thank you. Bare with me while I work out what I'm doing and hopefully I will get better from here :)