Snow Flurries!

 Yes!

Sweet Ivy is still alive and kickin'!

LOL!

It's been a while since I've posted anything on the blog, but I wanted to share these lovely snowflakes with you.

 These are done in one of my signature flavors, a butter vanilla almond cookie.

I offer both royal icing and/or glaze on my flooded cookies.

These are done in a glaze.

Many people like the glaze because although it hardens enough to stack or bag the cookies, it isn't "crunchy" or "hard" like royal icing.  It has more of a "chew" to it. 

 When doing detail work, I always use royal icing.  Even if I flood with glaze, I detail in royal because I can get sharper lines/details.

 These snowflakes were done for gift platters for Christmas.

I gave these to our pastor's family and my women's ministries director and her family.

 Sweet Ivy is still taking a limited amount of orders!

You can contact me via Facebook in my message box or e-mail me at:

mjames72@sbcglobal.net

May your 2016 be blessed!

Congrats ZEHS Boys Tennis!

It's been a while!

I took a brief cookie hiatus.

Not so much intentional...

But, due to some unplanned..."life events" (challenges)...

I needed the time to...recover...regroup...recuperate.

But I am back.

I am still taking very limited orders, simply due to work/school demands...

But I'm ready to get creative again!

When I accepted this order, it was like a breath of fresh air.

I forgot how much I missed cookie-ing.

This order was for the Zeeland East High School Boys Tennis team who qualified for state!

They definitely deserved a treat!

These were a vanilla/almond cookie with classic royal icing.

Hopefully this gave them a little sugar-buzz for their next match!

Congratulations boys!

And good luck!

Summer Lovin'!!!

 Oh how I miss "cookie-ing"!!!

Working a full time job and being a full time student doesn't leave me near the time I'd like to spend on cookies!

 But I still try to squeeze in a little any chance I can.

 My cousin from Illinois and her family were coming up to Michigan to visit.

And so I decided this was a good time to bake!

 I decided on a summer theme!

 These are buttery almond vanilla with royal icing.

They were a really fun set to make.

 And I think everyone enjoyed them.

Everyone's names!

 Summer Lovin'!

You are my sunshine!

 Flower power!

 In the good 'ol summertime! 

What have you been doing this summer?
Special trips?  Family reunions?  Activities?

I hope whatever it is brings you much joy!

Happy Summer!

Quick And Easy Hot Fudge (recipe)

Most days on the blog, I share the desserts and treats I've been working on for customers...but from time to time I like to share a yummy recipe when I come across one.

For the most part, when I come across a family favorite recipe, it's quite by chance that we've discovered it.  My husband is famous for discovering recipes in the newspaper.  I come across them usually on blogs or Pinterest.  But today, the recipe I'm going to share, we discovered out of desperation.

I went to Sam's Club last night and the hubs asked if I'd pick up some of those "GIANT" bottles of Hershey's Syrup.  You know Sam's Club, EVERYTHING is sold in GIANT quantities.  Well, of course...without a list...I forgot.

So when he got home from work last night and wanted some ice cream, it dawned on me that I forgot the chocolate syrup.  Not to worry!  Google to the rescue, haha!

I knew it couldn't be that hard to make hot fudge.  My friend makes it all the time.  The problem I was having was that every recipe I came across had either evaporated milk or heavy cream in it...and I had neither.  Then I came across this one on about.com.  

About.com never fails me.  Whether is be general information, recipes, you name it...I've had great success with that site.  So I whipped it up and it...is...delish!

I could eat it with a spoon!

I could sip it with a straw!

I could...

You get the picture.

Oh...and speaking of pictures...excuse the pathetic picture I snapped with my phone. Ha!

So without any further ado...here's the recipe!

Enjoy!

Hot Fudge
2 c. sugar
4 tblsp. four
2/3 c. cocoa powder
2 c. milk
4 tblsp. butter
2 tsp. vanilla
 In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Over medium heat, combine milk, butter and vanilla until the butter has melted. Add dry ingredients to the milk mixture, constantly whisking. Boil, stirring constantly until thick and smooth, about 5 minutes. Cool and refrigerate unused portion. 

You can find the recipe here on about.com if you'd like to explore their site.

I hope your family enjoys it as much as we did!

♪♪♪Take Me Out To The Ball Game♪♪♪

 I have probably shared on the blog before that before moving to Michigan, I grew up in Illinois...close to the St. Louis, MO border.  Being that close to St. Louis, all of our family are big Cardinal fans!

 My mom and dad recently went back to the St. Louis area to visit and for a family reunion so they took some cookies to my aunt that she had requested I make.

 Their beloved Cardinals!

 Having moved to Michigan, spending more of my adult life here, and marrying a HUGE Detroit Tiger fan...I have to be a Tiger fan with him. ;)

But...if the Tigers aren't playing...the Cardinals will always have a piece of my heart!

Happy Wedding Day!

 When I first began baking/decorating...I started out with cakes.

I took the Wilton Basics cake decorating class.

I had always wanted to learn cake decorating.

 As time went by, I got more into custom cookie decorating and cakes fell by the wayside.

I still had a yearning to learn more with cake decorating, but I never really had any requests.

So I didn't really have the opportunity to grow and learn.

 I also had some fears of cakes.

Then...

I got this request.

A wedding cake.

(aaaaggh!)

Major fear set in.  Could I do this?

Was I capable? 

I decided to go for it.

 After all, it was a fairly simple design and a fairly small cake.

I got this.  I can do this.

I read.  I studied. I watched videos. I asked questions.

I was ready.

 I set to work making the fondant flowers.  Amazingly enough, they were very easy!

It was like being a kid all over again and playing with playdough!

I honestly had a lot of fun with them.  I made homemade marshmallow fondant, tinted it lavender, and once finished...added a little luster dust for a pretty shimmer.

 The cake was a gluten-free vanilla with classic buttercream.

Fondant roses.

 The finished product in my frig.

I think it turned out pretty good for my first wedding cake!

After all, it was not only my first wedding cake...but my first gluten-free cake, my first stacked two-tier cake, and my first with fondant roses!

I'd say it was a success!

Not only did I do the small cake for the bride and groom...

I also did 400...yes FOUR HUNDRED...cake pops for dessert for the guests.

I did 200 chocolate and 200 vanilla.

It was a really nerve-wracking, but overall a great experience and one that I was truly happy with.

Congratulations to the bride and groom!

Wishing you a lifetime of health and happiness!

Congrats Graduates! Class of 2015!

 I've only been taking limited orders lately since I started going back to school.

So when I do have an order or decide to do a gift for someone, baking/decorating is super fun again because I don't do it as often as I had been!

 I did this bouquet as a gift.

It was a lot of fun.  I'm not a huge fan of "character" cookies, but "mascot" cookies can be a lot of fun.  These Zeeland West Dux were an enjoyable set to do!

 I must say, getting the right shade of gold was tricky (and I still don't think it was perfect)...but all in all I think they turned out pretty cute!

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo!

 This post is coming out a little bit late...but I had to get it in because I LOVED the way these cookies turned out!

So, my 8th grade son is in Honors Spanish at school and they were celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a fiesta of sorts.  He comes home and says, "I told my teacher that my mom makes awesome decorated cookies and has her own home bakery...so can you make 30 cookies for my class?"  Well, how do you turn down something like that when your kid builds you up like that!

 I really don't have any Cinco de Mayo themed cookie cutters so I had to make do with what I had.  I knew I wanted to do some kind of little plaque with the words "Cinco de Mayo" on them, so I used my little scalloped oval.  I love the font and colors on these...I think they turned out pretty festive.

 Who can resist tacos when we're thinking "Mexican food"?

Not having a taco cutter, I just used my oval cutter and cut it in half with a knife.

Decorating these was a pure treat...so much fun!

 And for a little added fun, I did some maracas in fun colors.

I didn't have a cutter for these either so I just pieced together circles and a rectangle.

 I think the end result was good.

Hope you all had a very happy Cinco de Mayo!

Springtime!

 I tend to be one of those people who gets stuck in a rut.

And it happened with my cookie decorating.

There are SO many techniques out there, and I haven't tried so many of them.

Like I said, I get stuck in a rut...and more than anything...

It's a little bit of fear...a little bit of laziness...a little bit not wanting to "rock the boat".

Call it what you will...I decided it was time to GET OUT of the rut and start learning new things and trying out some of these techniques that are new to me.

I've had an airbrush for quite some time, but it has always intimidated me a little to be honest.

Well, I got a whole bunch of new stencils at my cookie gathering in Livonia last week, so I decided I needed to give them a whirl.

I dug out my airbrush and got to work.

Once I started playing, it was actually pretty fun.

Granted, I still need some practice to perfect the skill...but hey...

I DID IT.

Now I'm afraid I'm going to become addicted to stenciling and I'm going to want ALL of the cool designs out there.

There are so many amazing stencils that are sold by some of the cookiers.

This is just a sample of a few I got in my swag bag last week.

Hopefully, I'll stay OUT of this rut and keep learning new things.

Happy Spring!

Practice makes perfect...

 I haven't had many ordered lately...which has been a blessing in disguise.

As busy as I've been with school (read killer science class), I probably would have been even more stressed out with more deadlines.  I did indeed finish my term, and was able to go to that amazing cookie gathering over the weekend.  Last night, I had some free time and decided to "play cookies".  I got out my airbrush and some of the new stencils I acquired and did a little practicing.  I am waiting on my new stencil genie to arrive, as I think things will improve vastly once I get that.

After I messed around with the stencils, I did some free-hand airbrushing.  These flowers are nothing special, but I just wanted to "get the feel" of the airbrush more.  It is definitely something that takes some practice.

I have a whole bunch more cookies I made to take to the gathering that I didn't end up using.  I will be doing some more playing/practicing in the next few days...and friends/family reap the rewards of my practice (read lots of cookie snacks)!