.:Lunch Box Lane:.

Little Mermaid Cupcakes

2011-09-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

Like I said, girly heaven! Here are some Little Mermaid themed cupcakes I did for the sweet little daughter of a friend of mine. Little Mermaid figurines, chocolate shells and sugar pearls all atop buttercream frosting- yum!

Princess Cupcakes

2011-09-12T16:57:00.001-07:00

Since I only have boys, I jump on any chance I get to make girly treats. These past couple weeks I've had 2 cupcake orders for girls' birthday parties- I was in pink and purple heaven! Here's some princess themed cupcakes...

Since I only have boys, I jump on any chance I get to make girly treats. These past couple weeks I've had 2 cupcake orders for girls' birthday parties- I was in pink and purple heaven! Here's some princess themed cupcakes...

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T17:07:00.003-07:00

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE the 4th of July? Really, I love just about every holiday, but there's something about the 4th of July that's just so fun and festive. I made some rice krispie treats for the occasion, so I'll post those later, but until then, enjoy this picture of some yummy star-shaped french toast from our breakfast this morning (made to the tune of Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA and Martina McBride's "Independence Day").

Happy Independence Day!

Cupcake Tasting.

2011-03-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to be making a wedding cake for a friend from high school! Her wedding isn't until July, but I made a bunch of different flavored cupcakes for her to taste today. Top row were chocolate and Bourbon vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting, second row were strawberry buttercream and then some European buttercream on the bottom row. And a little test for a fondant magnolia in the bottom corner.f Can't wait to see what flavors she and her fiancee decide to go with! Thanks to The Calligraphy Girl for the beautiful cupcake signs!

Pretty Cupcakes.

2011-02-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

I'm not too sure why I never did a post about these cupcakes because I thought they turned out gorgeous! They were for the Baptism party for the daughter of a friend of mine from high school. I did chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese-buttercream frosting- yum!

Bowling Cake & Cupcakes

2011-01-19T14:47:00.001-08:00

So I haven't posted any new pictures because either a) I've been busy to bake anything, b) what I have managed to bake, I've already done and photographed before or c) what I baked wasn't worth posting. Welcome in the bowling birthday party! Here's a bowling pin cake along with bowling ball cupcakes I made for a birthday party a week ago for my friend's adorable son, Talan (in case you couldn't read the cake). The party was so much fun and my 4 1/2 year old had a blast bowling! Who knew that 5 year old's could bowl??

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cookies

2010-06-22T19:32:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite kinds of cookies to decorate are character cookies, especially from kids shows. I do a lot of the Yo Gabba Gabba cookies but I got an order for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-themed cookies so I thought it would be super cute to make "toodles" cookies. These were a lot of fun to decorate and I love it when kids recognize their favorite characters as a delicious cookie!

Summer is here!

2010-06-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

I know that it's officially summertime when I get an order for flip flop cookies. These cookies were for a sweet little girl's 4 year old birthday party and they were so fun to make. I especially loved using bright purple icing this time! Don't these just make you want to hit the beach?

Unique Cookie Request

2010-06-03T01:09:00.001-07:00

A week or two ago I got a really odd request from an etsy user that had a client in need of cookies. She'd seen my flip flop cookies and asked if I could make some that were feet instead of the flip flops. Yep, feet cookies. Feet cookies with MUD on them! This client of hers wanted to send them to her friend as a joke and I was happy to be the one with the business. So here are the muddy feet cookies. I just hope her friend liked them!

Yo Gabba Gabba cookies.

2010-05-13T19:46:00.000-07:00

Meet the newest addition to the Yo Gabba Gabba cookie line: Gooble!

5 Blue Horses

2010-04-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

My 4-year-old son is constantly telling us stories about his 5 blue horses (they can fly!) so I decided to feed his imagination (literally) and made him a blue horse cookie while I was working on some other projects. He was happily surprised, especially since he's always wanting to eat the cookies I'm working on for orders. And to say the least he loved and enjoyed it!

Tulip Flower Cookies

2010-04-28T21:56:00.001-07:00

My family and I celebrated my grandmother's 95th birthday this last weekend. We wanted the party to have a fun, and spring-y feel so I made tulip flower cookies to use as favors and decoration. I loved that the colors turned out so bright and they looked great in their jellybean planters.

Tiara Cookies

2010-04-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

I made these tiara cookies for a princess party for a little girl named Ella (isn't that a perfect princess name?). They were so much fun to decorate! They were so sparkly and girlie and just so cute. Check out how absolutely adorable the party was at Ella's Wardrobe and while you're there, browse around Georgina's blog- she's so creative.

Cookies from February

2010-04-22T23:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of a couple cookies from back at Valentine's Day. I think most of them disappeared before I had a chance to take a picture. Luckily my 3-year-old got the bottom one for me!

Guinness Cupcakes.

2010-04-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

For St. Patrick's day I wanted to try a new recipe and make something at least semi-Irish. So what better than a few Guinness cupcakes! (Even though I don't even drink beer). They were pretty good, and although I could taste the Guinness in them they weren't totally overpowered with beer. It was more of a subtle flavor. Finished with a little green cream cheese frosting and coco powder.

Drum Birthday Cake

2010-02-24T12:53:00.000-08:00

My husband's cousin asked me to make a cake for her to surprise her drummer boyfriend for his 40th birthday and I was happy to take on the task! I modeled the cake after his drums, which are sparkly white with a black drum-head. And the best part was that my husband and I also got invited to the show that he and his band were playing, so we also got to enjoy the music and eat the cake too- yum! Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and fondant, sugar pearls and sanding sugar for decoration. Though I must say, the cake didn't look quite as nice once the knife got to it...

Ladybug Cookies

2010-02-24T12:32:00.000-08:00

I made some ladybug cookies for a little girl's pink and orange ladybug themed birthday party. These went by mail this time and they arrived at their destination super fast (thanks usps!). I think they turned out really cute, especially once the ladybugs were wrapped up in bags with a little flower. I hope she had a very sweet and special 2nd birthday! Sugar cookies with lemon royal icing.

Valentine's Day Cookies.

2010-02-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love Valentine's Day. Give me a day to celebrate with pink, hearts and glitter and I'm on board! I haven't started the cookies for this year yet, but I think they're going to be similar to the heart ones I did last year. I had so much fun just being creative and decorating all the different hearts that I can't wait for the ones this year. I also flavored them with a hint of rosewater to make them extra festive! Here's some that I made last year.

Preschool Snack Time.

2010-02-05T15:31:00.001-08:00

I was in charge of snack at my son's preschool a few weeks ago and since the theme of the week was Firemen and Firestations and such I decided to let the kids decorate their own dalmatian muffins. I took in muffins that already had the frosting on them and the kids used chocolate chips for eyes, pink jellybeans for a nose, mini chocolate chips for dalmatian spots and Trader Joe's chocolate cat cookies as the ears. Look how cute they turned out!

Carson's Birthday Cake

2009-12-10T23:51:00.000-08:00

In October I took a break from my wedding planning to make a surprise birthday cake for a sweet gal by the name of Carson. Her mom ordered up a girl cake with peace signs but since Carson hates chocolate, to we went with a vanilla cake with a raspberry buttercream frosting, covered in fondant. Ta-Da... she was excited and loved her cake- yay!

I'm baaaaack!

2009-12-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, so since I got married just under a month ago I've got this great cake plate (thanks Elaine!!) that I feel the need to keep stocked for my hubby. Here's a picture of what it looks like right now...

These are chocolate chip-oatmeal-raisin-cranberry cookies from a whole batch I made. Yesterday. I made them yesterday and there's 6 cookies left! I guess that's a good thing, but it also means I need to get baking tomorrow! Since we've gotten married I've also stocked it with a spice cake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate chip banana muffins. I'm off to look for a new recipe...

More Yo Gabba Gabba Cookies.

2009-10-22T00:36:00.001-07:00

So I have baked lately, just not new stuff. Here's another batch of Yo Gabba Gabba cookies that I made for a birthday party a couple weeks ago. I think they look great tied up with the ribbon!

Disneyland Sweets Fun

2009-10-21T23:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I haven't baked in like... forever, but I did visit Disneyland this past summer and used up half a memory card on pictures of all their cute sweets, candies, cookies, etc. Here's a little collage of some of my favorites.

The pretzel in the bottom right corner doesn't look like much, but it was filled with cream cheese and was a-m-a-z-i-n-g! Seriously the best pretzel I've ever had. I think Gregory and I had like 4 of them over the 2 days we went. I would seriously go back just for the pretzels... and maybe a ride or two on Space Mountain.

Cranberry Orange Scones

2009-08-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by my friend over at Occasional Sugar because she bakes something new at least once a week! I cheated though and made these scones out of some scone mix from Oregon. Since I was taking them to the park for a playdate with some of my son's friends and their mommies, I shaped them into cute little stars and sprinkled some raw sugar on top. Pretty yummy!

Bright Flower Cookies

2009-08-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

I made a few of these cookies as "thank you" cookies and a few more as a snack for a friend who was having a photo shoot done. Another pink & green combination that I love! Apparently I haven't been baking nearly enough because once I started decorating these I couldn't stop and I ended up staying up pretty late just decorating cookies!

Sugar cookies with lemon royal icing and sugar sprinkles :)

Decorating tunes were mostly Kris Allen with a few Adam Lambert songs sneaking in and giving him a run for his money.

First person to comment and correctly tell me who I honestly thought was going to win American Idol this past season will get my 3 extra cookies!

Simple Wedding Cake

2009-07-31T15:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry not much business lately! Here's a wedding cake I did for the same Lake Tahoe wedding a couple weeks ago. The bride just wanted a small, simple cake for her and her husband. It looked great with her cake topper but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures with it. It was a vanilla cake with a raspberry and custard filling, vanilla buttercream frosting and pink fondant pearls and sugar decorating it.

Flippie-Floppies

2009-07-23T21:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some pastel flip flop cookies I did for a wedding up in Lake Tahoe earlier this month. They were for a casual wedding and the bride wanted to hand out cookies instead of cake to her guests because she said they tasted better than cake! She chose different pastel colors for the cookies to go along with all the colors in her wedding. They were sugar cookies with royal icing and sugar sprinkles.

Kuhn Rikon Mouse Measuring Cup Set

2009-07-17T00:24:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start highlighting all the cool new kitchen gadgets I'm slowly acquiring because I love them all! I love having fun stuff when I'm baking and I've found that the best way to do that is to get products that are made for kids. I especially love kids cookbooks because they're always so bright and colorful with TONS of pictures!

So one of my latest purchase came from Sur La Table at The Grove on our recent vacation to Los Angeles. I found this Kids Kinderkitchen Mouse Measuring Cup Set by some Swiss company and fell in love with the colors. One of my favorite kitchen tools are these measuring spoons that are just plastic, but they're all a different color, which for some reason makes it easier for me. I also got some Le Cruset pinch bowls (green and red ones) and a Le Cruset Turquoise spatual, but those aren't quite as exciting (but they are colorful!). Ok, ok, ok here're pictures...

4th of July Cupcakes

2009-07-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting I made for a 4th of July party. I like the ones with the little star sprinkles better than the glitter ones, but they all tasted yummy!

Yo Gabba Gabba

2009-06-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hello Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend, I know I was super busy this past weekend. Here are some Yo Gabba Gabba cookies I did for a birthday party last Friday. They were fairly big at 4" and looked great with all the characters together. I only made a dozen, but whew- they were time consuming! Worth it though, since they turned out way cuter that I'd imagined!

Here's a close up of Brobee and more pictures can be found on my flickr.

For those of you not following the tv woes of the preschool crowd, here's a picture of the characters.

Decorating tunes this time came from the local country radio station.
-J

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

I let go of the reigns for Father's Day and let Christopher decorate some cookies for his Daddy. He picked out the rainbow sprinkles and said he wanted to decorate with blue frosting. The end result were some yummy cookies that spelled out "Daddy" along with a fish cookie, since he fishes. Yummmm:

Ok, do I didn't completely let go of the reigns. I figured Gregory already had enough cookies with the one's Christopher made him, but a friend asked me to make her a neck tie cookie for her dad. Here's what I came up with, all sugar cookies with royal icing and sugar (and sprinkles!):

Happy Father's Day honey!
-J

Karate Cookies

2009-06-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

The woman who reads the stories at a local story-time that I take Christopher to asked if I could do some special cookies for her daughter's 7th birthday party. Her daughter, Charlie, was having her birthday party at a Karate studio and wanted karate people made out of chocolate chip cookies with a yellow belt and yellow m&m's. I did the m&m's as belt accents and they turned out really cute! These were fun to decorate but were a little harder to keep together than sugar cookies.

Decorating tunes were a mix of 90's songs like The Wallflowers, Savage Garden and No Doubt.

-J

2009-06-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

So I'm more into making cupcakes and cookies, but ever since I started working with fondant (which was what, a good week ago?) I've been wanting to try covering a cake with fondant. This past weekend a good friend asked if I'd make a cake for her and her husband's 5th wedding anniversary so I took on the fondant challenge!

She just wanted a small cake that at least sort of resembled her wedding cake but she wasn't picky at all and would have gone for either fondant or icing. That was nice because I wasn't sure how the fondant was going to turn out since I'd never covered a cake in fondant before. I figured if I tried it and it didn't work, I'd just use white buttercream. Her original wedding cake was white fondant-covered tiers with pink ribbon, draped fondant and some piping. She provided the ribbon and the flowers and the rest was up to me.

The tiers didn't come out perfectly smooth but I was pleasantly surprised with how nice the draped fondant looked, especially since I hadn't originally planned on doing that. I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and try some more! So here is the cake...

This was a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream filling and vanilla fondant. No chocolate because her daughter does NOT like chocolate!

Decorating tunes were mostly nothing this time, but I turned on a few Hanson songs towards the end.

-J

Chocolate & Carrot Cake

2009-06-14T01:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some cupcakes I did for a baby shower this weekend. They were chocolate and carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Blue & yellow fondant flowers to celebrate the mom and her baby boy on the way!

I finally got around to listening to Hanson for my decorating tunes, so it was their album "The Walk" for these cupcakes.

-J

Flickr

2009-06-14T01:06:00.000-07:00

Lunch Box Lane is now on Flickr! For additional pictures of cupcakes, cakes, and cookies check it out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/LunchBoxLane/

Harlow's Hairbows

2009-06-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

I took a break from the baking craziness to make a few more bows for Harlow's Hairbows and they've just been picked up by the East Sac children's boutique, Koukla Kids! It's so exciting, I feel all professional and all now! So you can either buy my hairbows directly from me or stop in at Koukla and purchase them there. The store is SO stinkin' adorable! Here's a couple pictures of the store. That's Christopher and his friend Peter hanging out on the couch (and little Katie on the floor).

Polka Dot Baby Shower Cake

2009-06-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I made a polka dot cake for a baby shower! Chocolate cake with raspberry whipped cream filling, vanilla whipped cream frosting and pink, green, and yellow polka dots (I just love that color combination, especially for summer!). So yummy! I think it looked so adorable with the writing, but looking back at it, I think I wish I'd done the writing in a little bit brighter pink. I don't know, I do kind of liked the contrast though.

Decorating tunes were some random iPod selections, mostly Jonas Brother's album from last year, I think "A Little Bit Longer."

-J

Preschool Cupcakes

2009-06-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

My son's last day of preschool for the semester was last Thursday, so I took in cupcakes for all the kids (and parents!). I decorated them with sprinkles and little fondant elephants and giraffes, but I think they would look great for a baby shower too! They were vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. Oh, and hint of orange thrown in there too!

Here's the giraffe cupcakes. His name is Sprinkles, name by my son.

And here's the elephant! And is name is Sprinkles 2, also named by my son.

Decorating tunes... I think were a random mix of songs from the laptop. I don't have much music on here since we had to get it fixed last month, so I think it was a mix of oldies including "Teach Your Children" by Crosby Stills Nash & Young.

-J

M Corp

2009-06-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

Logo Cupcakes: $2.50 each
Flower cupcakes: $2.50 each

Company logo and springtime cupcakes for an open house. Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting, vanilla fondant flowers and the logo in royal icing.

Birthday Cake Cookie

2009-05-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

My birthday and my sister's are 6 days apart. So since we spent my birthday together in San Francisco this past weekend I made her a special birthday cake cookie as an early birthday present. Next I think I want to try making one with sanding sugar. Or little decorations to make it look like a real cake!

-J

St. Mary's College Cookies

2009-05-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

So my baby sister graduated from St. Mary's College this weekend. So for goody bags I made some cookies with the St. Mary's logo on them. The "G" stands for the Gaels, which is their mascot and are apparently knights... not birds like I thought, haha.

Decorating tunes included Justin Timberlake (first album!) and a couple random New Kids on the Block songs, like "Cover Girl" and "Tonight."

-J

Abby's Cookies

2009-05-22T00:04:00.000-07:00

I made some favor bags of cookies for a little girl named Abby who turned 1 a week ago. Her mom, Jen, picked the perfect color combination of light pink, light green and yellow and the cookies looked beautiful together! "A" and "1" sugar cookies with lemon icing and sprinkles. Check out Abby's birthday party on Jen's blog here - so sweet!

And since I wanted to try out some techniques I made her a special little birthday cake cookie as well. It turned out so cute that I made another one for my sister for her birthday!

Decorating tunes had to be Taylor Swift's song "Fifteen" (and the rest of the "Fearless" album) because it's about her best friend Abigail and these were for a little girl named Abby!

-J

Chocolate Cake

2009-05-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Sue cake! Chocolate cake with chocolate whipped cream filling and chocolate ganache frosting. Oh, and cream cheese frosting accents. A chocolate-lovers dream!

Chocolate Cake

2009-05-09T18:16:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot can beat chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Unless you add raspberry whipped cream filling! (Plus the sugar stars don't hurt). I made this for a friend's "Going Back to Work" party last year. Mmmmmm, now I'm craving it!

Spiderman Cupcakes

2009-05-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

Spiderman Themed Cupcakes for a 4-year-old boy's birthday party. The party was great too- nice and laid back and I relaxed the whole time! More pictures can be found here.

Simple Cupcakes

2009-04-29T01:02:00.000-07:00

Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Simple and yummy! I think I did these on the fly, so there were no decorating tunes :(

-J

Pretty Liners

2009-04-24T17:17:00.000-07:00

I recently bought these beautiful cupcake liners from Bake It Pretty. Hmmm... what should I bake in them? I'm leaning towards some fancy muffins with a huge dollop of cream cheese frosting up on top. What do you think?

Rainbow Cupcakes

2009-04-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

In the post about Christopher's Birthday Cupcakes I didn't even mention the best part! Since I like to complicate things and because I thought it would look plain cool, I did all of the birthday cupcakes rainbow on the inside. I thought it'd be a nice little surprise for the kids when they ate them but they didn't seem to think it was as cool as the adults did. I thought they looked neat and the inside of the cupcake wrappers looked pretty too!

Birthday Cookies 2009

2009-04-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

Besides doing cupcakes for Christopher's birthday I stuck to my speciality and did some cookies to give out in the goody bags. Since Christopher's starting to have his own little opinion I wanted to include him in the party planning so I let him pick out what colors he wanted the cookies to be. He first picked blue because that's his favorite color and then for the 2nd color he picked yellow "so it would look like Sprinkles." Sprinkles is his stuffed animal giraffe and his best friend. I thought that was too adorable!

Also to help keep him involved and because I needed someone to try them, Christopher stepped in as my cookie taster and they seemed to be good enough for him! They were sugar cookies with orange royal icing them time. Decorating music was Taylor Swift's "Fearless" album again :)

-J

Birthday Cards

2009-04-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

If you'd believe it, baking isn't my only creative outlet. Before I ever started baking my main creative outlet was through scrapbooking and making cards. I don't get as much time as I'd like anymore, but once in a while I can get a couple things done. Here are some birthday cards I did last year for a 1 and 3 year old's. My style is definitely not to keep things simple (when I have the time) and I like lots of small details. I especially like that glitter on the 2nd card!

-J

Christopher's Birthday Cupcakes

2009-04-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

first photo credit goes to my dad of Rudy Calpo Photography.

Christopher had his first real birthday party this past weekend and it was a blast! Despite my planning every last detail I was finally able to relax once the party was set up and the kids were running around. Now he doesn't watch it all that often, but we did a Sesame Street themed party, basically centered around these cupcakes. Gregory's sister, Elaine, saw a picture of them and told me I had to do a Sesame Street themed party for Christopher. So starting with the cupcakes, we centered things around bright, bold colors, the letter C and the number 3, and all the Sesame Street characters.

The invitations said "Christopher's birthday party is brought to you by the letter C and the number 3." we had his cake done by Freeport Bakery with Big Bird and Elmo racing across it, these Sesame Street cupcakes, the kids played a stick-the-nose-on-Elmo game, and the favors were those little beach buckets with Sesame Street stickers on them, Sesame Street pencils, bubbles, Elmo lollypops, C & 3 cookies and those fun little crazy straws.

I know Christopher had a lot of fun and that was the most important thing :)

Butterfly Cake

2009-04-15T21:40:00.000-07:00

Butterfly cake I made for Stephanie's birthday last year. I tried to make one the year before but it didn't turn out quite right. This one was WAY better. So pretty, but I should have used more colors. The biggest challenge was keeping the sanding sugar from going all over.

I don't remember if it was white or chocolate cake, but I think it was a chocolate cake and I used store bought frosting. The big dots were gobstoppers and the small ones were just round rainbow sprinkles. Also, it was way easier to decorate when I let it sit in the freezer for a little bit to keep it from crumbling.

-J

Easter Cookies

2009-04-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a family emergency that sent G & I out of town the day before Easter, but luckily I already had the cookies baked and Elaine took the time to decorate them. Aren't they so cute? Bunnies, eggs, and tulips. I was able to add the tiny details of the bunnies eyes, noses, and tails. Thanks Elaine! Sugar cookies with royal icing.

Hope everyone had a great Easter!
-J

Easter Cookie Inspiration

2009-04-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

So this Easter marks the 1 year anniversary of my first attempt at making all these yummy sugar cookies! Unfortunately I can't find the pictures of the cookies I made last year (darn!), otherwise I'd post them. But don't worry, you aren't missing out on much, they just kind of looked like pastel blobs.

But now I'm hunting around online for a little inspiration for this year. Definitely bright colors, maybe some butterflies, Easter eggs, and bunnies? Or some tulip flowers? Oh, I like the tulip idea. Maybe a bunch of really bright tulips in pink, purple, blue, yellow and orange? With a little green detail? Yeah! Can you tell I'm just now thinking about all this? I do love these mini iced cookies by Williams Sonoma. Maybe I'll try a little something like that... with vanilla icing! Yummy! I guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out what I finally decide on.

Also, how great do these look! Chocolate Eggs. But a lot of work.

And, looking for cookie inspiration is the worst thing to do when you're hungry...

Hope you're having a good week.
-J

Birthday Cookies

2009-04-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year again. Christopher's birthday is quickly approaching and it's time for more cookies! Last year Christopher and his cousin Austin, who also turned 2, had a joint birthday party and I did little A, C & 2 cookies and put them together as favors. Here are some of the cookies from last year. Since they were so small, only about 2 inches high, there were a TON! I was sick of cookies for a while after that party!

But this year I'm going to be doing number & letter cookies again because Christopher is having a Sesame Street themed birthday party- yay! Luckily, each child only gets 2 bigger cookies, so I'm not going to have to do quite as many this year. It'll be fun though!

Have a great weekend.
-J

Flip Flop Sugar Cookies

2009-04-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some yummy flip flop cookies I did for a bridal shower a couple months ago. With sugar cookies I love using bright colors that really pop and draw your attention. I also love adding extra detail to cookies like the dirt on the dump truck cookies and the sand on these.

I hope everyone enjoys eating them as much as I love making them! Sugar cookies with yummy Italian-lemon royal icing.

-J

Harlow's Hairbows

2009-04-01T15:22:00.001-07:00

Pretty exciting, I've got more of the popular red hairbows in stock! I've also got a couple new colors. One is a beautiful bright pink grosgrain with white stitching, another is bright pink with yellow polka dots, and the last is a light green with brown polka dots. All of the new ones have 15" long headbands, except for the blue one pictured, which is from the original batch and is 14" long.

Check out the pictures! I think these are going to go up in the etsy store, but if you see any you'd like shoot me an e-mail.

-J

2009-03-31T16:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some cookies I did last April for Christopher around his birthday. I was just playing around with some extra cookies I had, apparently with a lot of sugar! Chocolate cookies this time with a little royal icing.

2009-03-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Sometimes when I buy scones they can be a little too dry for me. But, lucky for me, I found a recipe from The New Baking Book that comes out nice and moist every time! The first time I made these was with Christopher and we put currants in them and called them Peter Rabbit Buns because Peter Rabbit ate currant buns. He loved them! This last time that I made them was for a play date snack. I served them with lemon curd that I found through Stephmodo via Design Mom, and some fresh whipped cream. Yummy! I think maybe I'll make some scones with fresh Lemon Curd to give out as Easter presents!

-J

Got the Blues

2009-03-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, this isn't really baking related, but I wanted to share this cool project that Christopher and I did. Inspired by the cool Idee Color thing, I took pictures of all things blue (C's choice) during a little walk we took to Compton's Market the other day. Put them all together and voila! A beautiful blue picture collage. At Gregory's suggestion I also took pictures of all things S, so here's our letter collage...

Christopher loved pointing out blue things, especially the bright blue soda at the market! And who knew there were so many blue cereal boxes? Maybe we'll make it into a continuous project and do a different color each week. This is a great little fun (and free!) project to play with your kids, especially if they're just starting to learn colors or letters!

If you haven't checked out the Idee Multicolor Search Lab you're missing out- it's so awesome! This links to my favorite color search: pink & purple. But you can do whatever color combination you want, up to 10 colors!

I will get back to the baking posts soon, I promise! Have a great weekend!
-J

Valentine's Day Cookies

2009-03-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some cookies I did for this past Valentine's Day. I got my inspiration from some cookies I saw in the Sur La Table catalog. I love how frilly Valentine's day can be and all the pink, white, and reds came together so well. With these cookies I got to incorporate so many things I love: pink, lace, sparkles, tiny hearts, and cookies! I especially love that deep pink color- you know the one that hits on the spectrum right before pink turns into red?

Decorating music was a mix of Country Love Songs - perfectly fitting for Valentine's Day!

Bows in Stock.

2009-03-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon! I am working away filling orders for my headband line, Harlow's Hairbows. I just wanted to let everyone know that the headbands I currently have in stock are Robbins Egg Blue, Baby Pink, and Baby Pink with the white center. I'm working hard on getting some of the other colors done including adorable one that's pink with yellow polka dots! Red is currently sold out, but there should be more soon. As soon as the headbands are done I'll put 'em up for sale. All headbands are $6 each and if you'd like a particular color just send me a message!

Ciao!
-J

Girls 'n Bows

2009-03-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

I was originally going to keep this blog for my baking endeavors, but since I don't bake every day I've decided to expand it to all things creative. My latest diy project has been making bow headbands for little girls. I recently bought one on etsy (for my non-existent daughter, of course) because don't you just love a huge bow on a little baby? Well after examining it I decided that I could make them myself! So after trips to Joann's Fabrics and Michael's craft store, here's the finished project: a cute little pink bow headband, perfect for Easter! And if you see something you'd like to buy or have customized on here, just shoot me a message! Here's my friend's little daughter, Katie, modeling the gorgeous blue grosgrain bow for us. That one's my favorite!

-J

A, B, C... don't you want to eat me!

2009-03-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

Got the snack cookies done! I did letters for first names of all the kids for my son's preschool class and some extra stars for the parents. I lost my list of their names but I somehow managed to remembered them all and everyone got the right letter (whew!) except for 1 little boy who was new, but luckily he was happy with one of the extra A's. And because one of the little gir's named Cate was absent today, a new little girl named Cassie got her C!

Unfortunately, little peanut woke up sick on Wednesday so he couldn't go to preschool today. He missed all the kids enjoying the cookies as well as getting the chance to eat his own! But no worries, I set his aside and he'll get to enjoy his blue C cookie when he's feeling better. Sugar cookies with royal icing and colorful sprinkles- I just love how the sprinkles look!

decorating tunes: Taylor Swift's Taylor Swift album.

Snack time!

2009-03-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

This is my first live post! Live meaning it's about something I'm doing now rather then something I've already done. Thursday is my son's day to bring snack for his preschool so I'm taking the opportunity to make some fun cookies! Here's the start of the process, basic sugar, eggs, flower, vanilla, etc. It was extra exciting because I got to try out my new sifter. It went well considering it's a sifter and pretty basic. I just stuck the dough in the 'fridge to chill for a hour. I'll let you know how it goes on Thursday!

Watermelon Cookies.

2009-03-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday!

Some watermelon cookies I did for the 4th of July last year. I loved all the bright colors together! At first I wanted to do a variety of fruits including oranges, lemons, and kiwi along with the watermelons, but it was a little too much work for my first cookie project. The hardest part was getting the icing the perfect shade of pink. But the best part was that my family were all impressed with my sudden baking and decorating skills! Sugar cookies with royal icing.

Cupcakes!

2009-03-14T01:21:00.000-07:00

Time to mix it up and post something besides cookies. Here are some cupcakes I did last summer for my fiancee's sister's birthday party. They're little flowers with some colorful sugar. I used a chocolate cupcake to look like dirt with different colors of frosting. I used gobstoppers for the middle and marshmallows for the flowers. They were perfect for the summer garden party!

Birthday Cookies.

2009-03-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some cookies I did for a joint birthday party. My friend's son was celebrating his 3rd birthday and her daughter was celebrating her 1st! There wasn't a specific theme so I made blue stars for Peter and pink hearts for Katie. I did A LOT of cookies but I was so happy and honored to be a part of such a special occasion! They were sugar cookies with royal icing and TONS of sparkly sugar! I have to admit here that my fiancee, Gregory, and his sister, Elaine, helped out with the decorating. I couldn't have done it without them!

They looked yummy before we decorated them,
but even better after!

Construction Truck Cookies

2009-03-14T00:03:00.001-07:00

These cookies were from the first cookie order I ever did! They were for a friend's son's 3rd birthday party with a construction theme. I love the dirt in the dump truck and the bulldozer (or is that an excavator? I'll have to ask my 3-year-old son!). They turned out really cute and all the little boys at the party loved them. My friend's daughter even said they were the best cookies she'd ever had! I think that was the best compliment I could have gotten from the 11 year old crowd! These were simple sugar cookies with lemon royal icing.

This is only the Beginning.

2009-03-13T23:15:00.000-07:00

Per Lara over at The Calligraphy Girl and her helpful business skills, I am getting this baking business off the ground! Tiny blurb about myself, I am a stay at home mom with a beautiful almost-3 year old son. I love baking, scrapbooking, and photography (among other things). I have also recently started browsing some baking and design blogs online and I'm addicted! There are so many creative people out there and after reading some amazing blogs I figured I'd take a shot at it and share the work I've done... and hopefully inspire someone along the way.