Mother's Day Love...

I did this set of cookies for Mother's Day for my momsie.

Again, I decided to work with glaze.

This was only my second attempt at glaze icing.

I really love the taste of glaze, but I'm still getting used to actually "working" with it.

Flooding is not too difficult.

But piping intricate details does take a lot of practice.

I had a lot of fun with these cookies because I love this color combo.

Hot pink and orange!

I think gift baskets and bouquets are such a fun gift.

You can use such a wide variety of things to hold your goodies.

I have seen so many things I want to pick up to store for future gifts.

You can use sand pails, wire baskets, wicker baskets, plastic baskets, giant bowls, vases, mugs...

Virtually anything for your goodies!

The possibilities are endless.

Some of my favorite places to shop for "containers" for my gift baskets and bouquets are:
Dollar General, Party City, Target, and many others.

Happy Mother's Day all you mommies out there!

I hope you enjoyed your special day!

Spring Has Sprung! (Entering The World Of Glaze Icing!)

This past weekend Sweet Ivy entered a whole new realm of icing.

I have always used Royal Icing on my cookies for decorating in the past...

But was never quite happy with the taste and the dryness of it.

I learned that more and more cookie decorating artists are moving into glaze for their cookies.

So...

I gave it a whirl this past weekend!

I love the shine/sheen that you get with glaze icing!

When using royal icing, it tends to dry to a dull "matte" finish.

With the glaze, it tends to keep that nice shine!

And not only does the glaze "look" better on the cookies...

I have found a recipe that is DIVINE!

It is so much better tasting than royal (to me).

Glaze is a softer icing.

It will firm up enough so that cookies can be stacked or packaged, but it isn't near as hard as royal icing.

I will not be discontinuing royal icing!

Many customers LOVE the taste and texture of royal.

It will be totally up to each individual customer.

I will be doing more "flooding" in glaze...and probably doing much of my "detail" work with royal.  The royal icing IS better for fine details and piping lettering as well.

So now there are two options for your cookies!

Why not try out both!

Fresh Homemade Donuts!

Sweet Ivy has entered the world of fresh homemade donuts!

I made these for my boys for breakfast one weekend and decided I would add them to Sweet Ivy's offerings!

This particular donut you see is a Rainbow Sprinkle Cake Donut with glaze and topped with rainbow sprinkles.

These are some of the Chocolate Chip donuts I made.

And these are some of the Rainbow Sprinkle Cake Donuts.

I am going to be offering what I call "Party Packs" of donuts!

This would be a perfect way to set up a donut "buffet" of sorts for your child's birthday party, a baby shower, or any get-together!

The party pack includes your choice of flavor of donuts, glaze for dipping, and choice of topping!

Our donut flavors are:  Traditional Cake, Chocolate Chip, Rainbow Sprinkle, Chocolate, Banana, Apple Spice, and more coming soon!

Toppings will include:  Chocolate Chips, Rainbow Sprinkles, Cinnamon-Sugar, Powdered Sugar, and more coming soon!

Each party pack comes with glaze for dipping too!

We are excited about this new offering from Sweet Ivy!

Triple Salted Caramel Cupcakes...Take 3...They just keep getting better!

This is the third time I've made this recipe.

I absolutely LOVE a sweet/salty combiation.

If you too enjoy this combo, salted caramel is the way to go.

Sea salt gives these cupcakes that salty "bite" amongst the rich buttercream.

They are filled with lucious homemade caramel.

If you have never had homemade caramel...you owe it to yourself to try it at least once!

It is amazing!

Springtime Patchwork Cookies

Ever since I saw the lace cookies that Nadia at "My Little Bakery" does, I have been in awe.

I have tried a lot of different variations and techniques using her tutorials.

This time I had some leftover pastel icings and thought it might be fun to try out some color.

When done in color (instead of white), I think they look more like "patchwork" or "needlepoint" cookies!  A very fun and festive look, none the less!