Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Dr. Seuss Green Eggs (Royal Icing Cookies)

Caden's class is celebrating Dr. Seuss this week. He requested that the two of us make cookies! I went on a Google search and found a ton of ideas! We did the Red fish / Blue fish first which I showed on Monday (click here) and today I show the Green Eggs. No I did not attempt the Ham ... lol.


So I did this on the fly and did NOT have time to order a EGG cookie cutter. So I made use of what I had on hand. I used a bug cookie cutter that I must say turned out really cute!!!

What you Need:
1 Egg Cookie Cutter (or use what you have like I did)
Royal Icing - Uncolored (white) and Tinted Green (see recipe below)
Black Food Pen
I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). AFTER the cookies dry you add the details. I took a small amount of royal frosting and tinted it green. I used a ziplock bag since I only needed a small amount. I made circles on the cookies to be the yolk. After the green has dried make your markings with the food pen. I of course did this too soon and it looked a little sloppy around the green. I did the last of them after the green dried BUT totally spaced on taking a photo lol! Dr. Seuss books have a great drawn on look and that is how I made the eggs. I loved how they turned out!

Click HERE to see who I link with.
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS:
1.In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments

Royal Icing what you need:
2 lbs Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 
Flavor to Taste
Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)
For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water
For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Dr. Seuss Red Fish ... Blue Fish Royal Icing Cookies Made

Caden's class is celebrating Dr. Seuss this week. He requested that the two of us make cookies! I went on a Google search and found a ton of ideas! Caden liked the fish the best so we made those. He is such like his mama and loves to bake. He was there with me doing every step.

What you Need:
1 Fish Cookie Cutter
Royal Icing - Tinted Red, Blue, Yellow and Green (see recipe below)
Black Food Pen
I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). BEFORE dry you can add the eyeballs. Now I spaced on this and just added a little icing to hold them on later. When the fish were completely dry I took a food pen writer in black to add the details. Dr. Seuss had those drawn on lines so I figured it would look nicer then piping on. Detail the fish, if you haven't added the eyeball go ahead and attach that also.


Click HERE to see who I link with.
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS:
1.In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments

Royal Icing what you need:
2 lbs Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 
Flavor to Taste
Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)
For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water
For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Science Fair Time Again ... Prep time!

And we are on kid #2 entering into the science fair time! As most of you know I'm a little nutty and LOVE to do something that not ever kid has done for birthday's, parties, holidays and science fairs also.

Caden I went on a Google hunt to find the coolest science experiment we could find. For Cole we did the very cool Popcorn popping experiment. The lemon clock for Caden also has been done. We came across the soap expanding experiment! We're you take different soaps and see what expands the most. After he found an experiment he liked we then went on to find how to do the board. Caden loves to use my cricut for parties and is so excited to use it to make his board. We plan on cutting a bunch of circles in sizes and colors to look like bubbles. 

 I found these on Pinterest to start us out:

This is a different soap experiment but a cool idea with bubbles and how to show off the soap afterwards.

 Idea of how to lay out the board

 We saw this cool idea that we thought we would have out at the science fair so his friends can try the experiment also!


Happy Science Fair Adventures!

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

1st Birthday Giant Cupcake (Chocolate bottom)

Yesterday I showed you the 1 cookies made for a special 1 year old homeless boy in a shelter close to home. Many of you know I bake for a charity that brings birthday's to homeless kids in shelters around Washington. If you ever have extra party supplies or toys please think of Birthday Dreams, we can all make a child's special day be just that special! Since a First birthday NEEDS a smash cake or a special cake for the baby. I had to make a giant cupcake!


I had a large cupcake pan that my mother in law bought me a few years back and I put it to use. I started first with a chocolate base to fit my cupcake in! After I had chocolate poped out I filled my giant cupcake pan with the cupcake mix an baked up my cupcake.


What you Need:
Wilton Chocolate Melts
Giant Cupcake Pan
Frosted Cupcake
Sprinkles if you want
Melt your chocolate melts in the microwave (mine took around 30 sec). I sprayed my pan first with pam. I then put melted chocolate into the pan. I used a spoon to coat the pan. I put the pan in the freezer to harder fast. After that I resprayed the pan and baked up the giant cupcake. NOW ou can cut down the bottom to fit into the chocolate better but I just shoved it in. I frosted it to the MAX and added some special sprinkles!



Click HERE to see who I link with.

Monday, February 20, 2017

1st Birthday Cookies Made (Royal Icing)

A few weeks back I was signed up for a cake delivery for a special 1 year old homeless boy in a shelter close to home. Many of you know I bake for a charity that brings birthday's to homeless kids in shelters around Washington. If you ever have extra party supplies or toys please think of Birthday Dreams, we can all make a child's special day be just that special! They didn't have a theme just that it was a FIRST birthday so I thought I'd make some fun 1's to go on top of cupcakes.



I did some googling on fun birthday cookies and stumbled across and idea of a one with dots. I picked blue and green since those are boyish colors.


I'm a bit obsessed with royal icing cookies right now. I've been using the cookies as the toppers for my cupcakes I make. It's like the best of all words a cupcake with tons of frosting and a cookie to eat also!! My youngest is obsessed with this technique, yup he's so my child all about the sugar (I have no clue where he would get this from ... as she whistles and looks away .... lol). Below are the cookies used and the cupcakes assembled.

Lesson learned on these cookies! I let the cookie dough sit out a little too long before I baked it which sadly made my dough expand. To say I panicked is a little understatement! Thankfully I quickly thought of a solution while the cookies where still warm. I took my cookie cutter and stamped them out and go rid of the extra (well Caden ate a few scraps before I could throw away).


What you Need:
1 Cookie Cutters
Frosted Cupcakes
Royal Icing - Tinted Blue and Green (see recipe below)
Americolor Blue Food Gel 
Americolor Green Food Gel 
Piping Bag (or in my case a ziplock bag)

 
I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). BEFORE dry you can add your details. I added royal icing to a ziplock bag (since it was a small amount I didn't want to waste a pipping bag). I added the dots to the one's. Tap them down to make the dots blend into the white.
Click HERE to see who I link with.
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS:
1.In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments

Royal Icing what you need:
2 lbs Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 
Flavor to Taste
Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)
For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water
For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Shopkins Donut Cookies Made (Royal Icing) toppers for cupcakes

Last week  I was signed up for a cake delivery for a special 5 year old homeless girl in a shelter close to home. Many of you know I bake for a charity that brings birthday's to homeless kids in shelters around Washington. If you ever have extra party supplies or toys please think of Birthday Dreams, we can all make a child's special day be just that special!


I did some googling since I have boys and never heard of this theme. I found they had several fun food characters with little faces. I picked the donuts that had cute little eyes and a smile! 

I'm a bit obsessed with royal icing cookies right now. I've been using the cookies as the toppers for my cupcakes I make. It's like the best of all words a cupcake with tons of frosting and a cookie to eat also!! My youngest is obsessed with this technique, yup he's so my child all about the sugar (I have no clue where he would get this from ... as she whistles and looks away .... lol). Below are the cookies used and the cupcakes assembled (I also made eye's, you'll see that post tomorrow).


What you Need:
Circle Cookie Cutters (one medium, one small)
Frosted Cupcakes
Royal Icing - Tinted Pink (see recipe below)
Americolor Pink Food Gel 
Americolor Black Food Gel
Wilton Candy Eyes
Candy Sprinkles (I bought mine at Hobby Lobby, here's a link to Amazon's)

Piping Bag of  black Royal Icing (for Mouth)

 
Since I didn't have a donut cookie cutter I made my own. I used a medium circle cutter to cut out my first shapes. I then took a small cookie cutter to cut out the centers, to make them look like donuts. I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). BEFORE dry you can add your details. I used the sprinkles first, you have to add when the pink is wet so they will stick. I also added on the eyeballs at this time so they stuck. I then waited until dry to pipe on the mouth. I added a little black royal icing to a ziplock bag (since it was a small amount I didn't want to waste a pipping bag).



Click HERE to see who I link with.
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS:
1.In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments

Royal Icing what you need:
2 lbs Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 
Flavor to Taste
Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)
For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water
For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.