Mother's Day 2013

We hosted Mother's Day this year for about two dozen people!! That is a huge amount when you consider that we live in a dollhouse. Luckily, the weather was amazing so we were able to use the patio. This year we decided to go with a bee theme. My sister came over the night before to help prepare the desserts. We prepared the Pioneer Woman's French toast casserole (a perennial crowd favorite). We used challah bread instead of sourdough. You pop it into the oven for about an hour before your guests arrive. Your house will smell like a cinnamon roll factory. Absolute perfection. My siblings all contributed something: breakfast burritos, roasted potatoes with green peppers and onions, pasta salad, biscuits, fruit, and mimosas!!

But really, we only care about the desserts! We made the Amy Atlas' beehive cake (you can buy the Nordic beehive pan here), bee sugar cookie pops, honeycomb 3D sugar cookies (check out Haniela's tutorial), Amy Atlas' marzipan bees, and SprinkleBake's honey cupcakes (with a simple vanilla buttercream). We wanted to make SprinkBake's divine poured fondant, but I let the syrup cool too much before processing in the food processor. It turned out really stiff...but super tasty. I will make these cool cupcakes with the chocolate bee stamps another day!!

We finished the table with bit o' honey, tiny flower candies, and sticks of lemon honey.

Star and Butterfly Sugar Cookies

Halle, Stella's neighborhood friend, recently turned 10! Stella and I decided to give her a box of homemade sugar cookies. We kept it a total surprise, but I did manage to ask her about her favorite colors, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that she loves baby blue and lime green. I was totally prepared to make purple and pink cookies!

We decided to make star and butterfly cookies. Halle's name adorns her bedroom door on a super cute star sign. We thought it would be cool to mimic that design element. Stella insisted on adding butterflies. I think she's got great instincts!

Pink Bake Sale

We held an office bake sale this week for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

*steps onto soap box*

I was bitterly mad at SGK earlier this year when they chose to politicize women's health. They've since restored grants to Planned Parenthood, the founder stepped down, and they let go of a few of the extreme right conservatives who were offering nothing but negative guidance. I know that other organizations are keeping their eyes on SGK, so I reserve the right to change my find if they return to their evil ways. It's just not cool to mess with women's health.

*jumps off soap box*

Let's talk cookies. Our bake sale organizer decided that all baked goods should be pink. At first I'll admit that I was a little bummed since we are within 2 weeks of Halloween. I wanted to bake with the colors of Fall. Oranges and yellows and rich reds. But then  I was totally inspired by Glorious Treats' riff on traditional pumpkins. A chevron orange and white pumpkin! Yes. More, please.

I decided to make pumpkins, bats, "pink" cats and ghosts. I made the pumpkins and ghosts with regular sugar cookie dough. I decided to mix it up by making the "pink" cats and bats with chocolate cookie dough. I thought it would make the pink icing POP, and it really did. I added a teaspoon of King Arthur Flour's Espresso Powder. Don't worry. It does not add coffee flavor, but it really enhances the cocoa by giving new depth to the flavor of the cocoa. I used Trader Joe's natural cocoa...trust me, it wasn't fancy!

I love packaging sugar cookies as favors. They're lovely little treats. I used these adorable tags by hey love designs. Everyone went bonkers for the "fight like a girl" tag.

Yellow Ribbon Sugar Cookies (aka Cancer Sux!)

I made over 180 cookies for my sister's party to celebrate her 10-year battle with brain cancer. She requested cookies to give as favors. How could I resist? I used a ribbon cookie cutter that I bought at Pryde's Old Westport many years ago. If you are ever in the Kansas City area, then you must visit Pryde's. Be sure to plan a few hours to explore. I placed 2 cookies back-to-back in clear cello bags from Michael's. I attached these lovely tags from Vintage Indie which tied into my sister's theme of LIVE LOVE LAUGH!

This is the piping order I used to create the ribbon's tie. It was hard for my brain to get a grip on this to make it look more like a ribbon. I think the end result is kind of fantastic.

This is the biggest batch of cookies I've ever baked and decorated. Cookies took over my freezer, kitchen, house, and life...but it was definitely worth it! Now that's a lot of cookies.

Flower Power

I'm on a sugar cookie kick. Everywhere I look I see inspiration for cute sugar cookies. I've been thinking about the '70's lately so of course this obsession lead into my sugar cookie obsession. Robin Gibb, Donna Summers, gone all too soon. This is my small little tribute to all things '70's.

I use Bake at 350's royal icing recipe. It never fails me. As you can see, I really dig a rather wide outline. I made these for a Memorial Day party. I know, mushroom cookies for Memorial Day? How random?

Happy Mother's Day, Moms

Paul and I hosted a Mother's Day brunch for my family which included about 20 guests. Stella and I made this kind of artsy sign. It originally said Mom, but Paul commented that there would be more than one Mom present! So true. And even if you're not technically a mother, we all mother somebody. We used letter stencils from Amy Atlas' Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It (buy this book, trust me, you will LOVE it). We taped the letters to a mirror which isn't the best design choice but it looked kind of cute in person!

My Mom loves lemon so we decided to give her a lemon dessert table including a Vanilla Sixlet Cake with Lemon Custard Buttercream and Vanilla Buttercream, Vanilla Sugar Cookies, Lemon Shooters, and Tangy Lemon Bars. We added lemon drop candies plus a jar of sixlets. Guests were encouraged to take home sixlets, lemon jelly belly beans, lemons, and limes.

The Vanilla Sixlet Cake with Lemon Custard Buttercream and Vanilla Buttercream was dreamy. I used Amy Atlas' Vanilla Butter Cake recipe (p. 11) and vanilla buttercream recipe. I added Trader Joe's Lemon Custard to about one cup of buttercream. I used this for the filling. This cake cuts like wedding cake...perfect slices every time. The texture is sturdy, but delicate and so good. Stella helped by separating the sixlets by color since we were only able to find bags of yellow/green/white. The top looks a little lonely. Mental note: decorate the top next time!

Stella helped me stack the Vanilla Sugar Cookies. I decided to decorate with yellow and green polka dots to mimic the sixlets. Stella really enjoyed placing the cookies on a bed of lemon jelly belly beans.

The Lemon Shooters were the star of the party. Everyone loved the refreshing sweet and tangy flavor. I made the vanilla pastry cream from the recipe for Boston Cream Pie Cake found in BAKED Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented (p. 135-137). I used a pastry bag to add the pastry cream, then a layer of Trader Joe's Lemon Custard, then I topped it with fresh homemade whipped cream. I served them in shooters with adorable little spoons. I wanted to sprinkle with crushed gingersnaps, but decided to pass since I associate gingersnaps with the Fall.

I didn't take pictures of the food (apologies, but I'm a dessert girl!), but we also served bacon/sausage, Roasted Potatoes with Green Peppers, Shutterbean's Baked Artichoke Squares, Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Baked French Toast with Blackberry Butter, fresh fruit, Biscuits and Gravy, and mimosas.