Beach Themed Bridal Shower Cookies

Say this with me ten times before you read on:

She sells sea shells on the sea shore.
The shells she sells are sea shells, im sure.
And if she sells sea shells on the sea shore,
Then l’m sure she sells seashore shells.

Inspired yet?

My friend and I recently received an order for some “beach themed” treats for a bridal shower.  I would take care of the cookies, and my friend was in charge of the cupcakes and cake pops.

I’ve never made beach themed cookies before.  “What would be ‘beachy’?” I wondered.  “What is the meaning of beaches, what is the meaning of life?”

After a bit of playing around, I came up with these four sketches.   And some of these sketches would also become my cookie template.  High-tech, I know.

Making the round shapes were easy enough with my circle cutter.  The seashell and starfish were a bit tricky, but patience and a sharp small knife is key (not to mention a mat to protect your counter from nicks and scratches, unless you’re going for that distressed look which is all the rage.)

Shapes were cut them laminated to ensure no pencil bits would get through.

I would also use my fingers to pat any stray dough bits back into place to keep the shape smooth.

Shapes ready to go in the oven.

Started with the sand dollar.  Piped an outline of icing and the 5 holes inside, before filling it everywhere else in between.  Once it dried, I piped the flower design in the centre (shown in a later photo)

With the shell, I piped in phases, allowing time to dry in between that way you could get those different textures.

The starfish was outlined and flooded.  Once they dried I piped on little dots to mimic the texture of the starfish (shown in a later photo)

The beachscape was also done in phases first with the water, sand, and the waves.  PS: Skor Bits = delicious tasting stones on cookies.

I needed to wait until the icing firmed up before I did the ocean waves.

Use a clean dry brush to “drag” the white icing out.

Random trivia moment:  The song “California” by the Canadian group “Wave” was pretty much my anthem for all of 2001-2005.

Wanting to kick it up a notch, I decided to go in and add a bit of dimension using some food coloring and my brushes.  It’s pretty awesome how much a difference that can make, and has been a technique I’ve been picking up more since the Oilers cookies I did, which was decorated entirely with food coloring gels.

Finished iced cookies as they are:

And after some touches of food coloring and the brushes:

Close ups of the cookies:

The whole pan:

And packed up and ready to go:

I’d say these cookies could put anyone in a beachy mood; now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go make a pina colada and put on my SPF 30 despite the fact that it’s 9 pm and I’m in my PJs.

Don’t judge.

Blue Moon Cafe – A True Baltimore Gem!

I recently had the opportunity to accompany J on his work conference in Baltimore and had a fantastic time! After doing much researching (like urbanspooning/yelping/tripadvisoring) of different restaurants and food stops I could hit, I realized just how many of these places were  featured on shows off the Food Network.  One in particular was the Blue Moon Cafe.  The Blue Moon Cafe was featured in Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives, and I had to write about it just because it was such a great experience in all ways possible.

Constant trickle of people going in and out.

Located a short distance from our hotel, we thought going at 9:30 AM on a Sunday would be early enough for us to stroll right in and get a table. When we approached however, we already noticed a sizable crowd waiting outside the restaurant.

“How long for a table for 2?” I asked

“You’re looking at 1 hour and 20 minutes” said the host.

“…Okay,” I obliged, and we waited.

And waited. And waited.

I don’t know about you, but usually when you are given a waiting time for a table, 9 times out of 10 it usually ends up being shorter than they say. So not the case here.

People patiently waiting.

At almost 11 am, we were finally seated, but even then the menu cover warned us to be patient with our food since all things were made fresh.  I started worrying if this meal was going to be worth the time investment.  And at this point you might be wondering how could I possibly be raving about it.  Here’s why:

1)  Fab Service: Our server was awesome and super friendly.  He advised us of the specials in mouth watering detail.  He told us of their two signature dishes that weren’t featured in the menu.  Those dishes were the Captain Crunch French Toast, and the Sweet Baby Jesus (I actually laughed when he said the dish name), both of which were featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Drives.

We knew we wanted the Sweet Baby Jesus, but I was torn with the french toast because they were offering a weekend special of a Cocoa Puff French Toast which sounded nothing short of epic.  Our patient server accommodated us and said that we could order the full order of the Sweet Baby Jesus, and he would make us a short stack of both the Captain Crunch French Toast, and the Cocoa Puff French Toast to share.   Done and done!

2)  It’s the Thought that Counts:  While we waited for our food, it was only then that I noticed that patrons outside waiting for a table would periodically come in, go to the back of the restaurant where the counters were, help themselves to coffee, then head back out.  We later on realized that this was a complimentary gesture offered by the Cafe to keep the waiters slightly warm as they waited outside.  Nice touch!

Inside the Blue Moon Cafe, bustling’ with action.

3)  OMG:  When our food finally came, it was nothing short of fantastic, picture perfect, and I whipped out my camera and took my 298,374,983 obligatory food shots.

The Captain Crunch French Toast, is exactly as it sounds like, bread dipped in Captain Crunch batter topped with fresh whipped cream, cinnamon, fresh berries, strawberries and apples.  It was seriously a party in my mouth, the bread was crispy on the outside and warm and chewy on the inside.

The Cocoa Puff French Toast was just the same in terms of awesomeness, but a richer flavor, with the bread dipped and rolled in Cocoa Puff Cereal, with layers of Nutella in between and on top, topped off with fresh whipped cream, and sliced apples and bananas.  I couldn’t pick a favorite, they both rocked.  I refuse to pick a favorite.  Refuse.

The missing corner can be found inside my belly.

The Sweet Baby Jesus was a badass concoction of layers of hash browns and jumbo lump crab meat, topped with fresh tomatoes, two over easy eggs, covered in hollandaise sauce and their Old Bay seasoning.  Yeah…

“Sweet Baby Jesus!!”

When we finally took our first bites, the first thing I said to J was “This was SO worth the wait.”

4)  Going that Extra Mile:  This was the kicker.  We finished every last morsel of our fantastic brunch.   We were ready to roll our bods out of there, already leaving with a great experience in our minds.  However, our server (who learned we were visiting from Canada during our meal), came back one last time with a grin on his face and a take out box in his hands as we were getting ready to leave:

“I know you guys are full, but I wanted to send you guys off with one of our home made cinnamon buns since you guys came so far to visit us.  Just pop it in the microwave when you’re ready to eat it, and it’s good to go.”

That my friends, is customer service.

Baby Shower? Baby Cupcakes.

I blogged about this particular carrot cake recipe before when I made it as a full out cake for Canada Day a few years ago. I had the opportunity to revisit this recipe, but in cupcake form, when I received an order for 48 mini carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing for a baby boy shower. I really love this recipe, and just how moist it is.

However, I made a few modifications of my own. I cut out the raisins entirely (I dislike raisins, so to me, they never exist in carrot cakes), and I also cut out the walnuts (in case of any nut allergies). To replace some of these “fillers”, I instead doubled up on the amount of coconut and pineapple that the recipe required (you really can’t have enough coconut and pineapple), and the recipe turned out great.

And don’t worry if the batter looks super runny, it’ll bake fine, and is what results in such a moist cake!

So here’s the baked baby cupcakes:

Of course I always need to taste test.

Then piped with a little bit of cream cheese frosting using a simple #2 Wilton icing Tip.

A dollop of cream cheese icing.

And to decorate, I put my Stampin’ Up Big Shot and stamps to use and made some appropriately themed cake toppers using some cardstock, glue, and toothpicks! And nothing wrong with adding some sprinkles for a final touch.

Super happy with how these turned out.

All packed up and ready to be delivered!

Sneak Peek: Baby Boy Baby Cupcakes

Ready for delivery, full post to follow!

Spiderman Comic Book Cover Cookies

So…you know how I thought the Oilers cookies I made took me a long time to make? Well…compared to these, it was child’s play:

I bought these cookie cutters at Williams Sonoma the same time I bought the Marvel and Star Wars cookie cutters. I thought that it was a perfect time to make these cookies for my new hubby’s bday, considering how big of a fan he is of superheroes. I like this kit because you can mix and match the different poses and phrases in the cover and as such get some customization out of it (which I’m all about). 10 points, Williams-Sonoma, you guys did it again!

Btw, would it be super inappropriate me if I made a plea right now for Williams-Sonoma to come up with Harry Potter cookie cutters?

Moving on.

1) Roll it and bake it: I used my tried and true sugar cookie recipe, and made the cookies using the various elements that came in the cookie kit. May I also add that I love this rolling pin:

Rolling pin of epic-ness

I bought it at Michaels when I took a fondant class there and I love how it’s just one giant smooth roller with no handles, and how wide it is, perfect for rolling out larger sheets. The other great thing I love about this roller is that it comes out with these rubber markers of different thicknesses, which allows you to roll out your fondant / dough evenly. It’s the only roller I use now.

The freshly baked cookies. You can notice the few Spiderman faces I made with some of the smaller scraps of dough.

2) Ice it: After letting the cookies cool overnight, I went and spread a thin layer of royal icing over the entire cookie, that way I had a smooth base layer for me to paint on with the food coloring gels. Using a thinner icing also helped because then I wouldn’t lose the detailed indentations in the cookie which would serve useful later on when painting on the images. Don’t worry, the indentations disappear once you ice it and people will think you did it freehand.

“barely there” icing.

It’s not cheating, it’s assisting.

3) Age it: I decided I wanted to take advantage of the golden brown cookie peeking through the white icing, and so decided to make these look more like “vintage” comic covers. Once the thin white icing dried, I ramped it up a little bit by mixing in some yellow and brown food coloring gels, diluting it with water, and lightly brushing the entire cookie surface with it. The more uneven the better; distressed and vintage looks are never even, (just watch Antiques Roadshow.)

my beginning sketch of Spiderman (with the yellow/brown food coloring wash behind it).

4) Sketch it: Once that dried, I went in with a thin small brush and some diluted food coloring and lightly sketched the outline of the character, again using the indentations as a drawing guide. For those details that might’ve been lost in the baking process, I would sometimes refer to the actual cookie cutter press for those details.

I was in for a long night.

5) Paint it!!: Once that was outlined, I started to fill in the respective colors.

the basic red and blue.

I also added the little details at the top.

Then I did some outlining. There is no particular order that you need to do this in. I tend to do left to right, top to bottom with the rest of the details to prevent smudging. However I found I liked doing the characters first, as my hand will get more tired as I progress with the cookie and I’d rather tackle the hard part first.

I then added the title of the cover (I always found this tricky).

A tip to do this without smudging the images: gently place a dry paper towel over top the rest of the cookie, and let the hand rest on top. That way the moisture and warmth from the hand wouldn’t risk smudging the image. The last thing we need after spending a half hour drawing those guys is for it to wind up as a temporary tattoo on the side of our palms (though that would be pretty bad-ass.)

Then the action bubble.

I personally found the cookie a bit bare left like that, so I thought it’d be fun to add a cityscape background.

Then finished it off by drawing a quick black border around.

And thanks to all the different elements that the kit came with, it allowed me to make different styled covers:

Although the Williams Sonoma box that the cutters came in had the cookies decorated with piped icing, I personally chose the painting because I wanted to do a lot more details; there’s no way I would’ve been able to do that with piped icing. Maybe one day.

My approach with the Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus was no different. A quick glimpse:

J totally loved them and brought them to work to share and said they were a big hit, which I was stoked to hear. Hopefully they don’t go too stale, as he mentioned that many of them didn’t want to eat them.

I guess if they decide not to, they always can incorporate it as decor for a Spiderman themed bathroom, like we do in our basement.

Can you tell J “decorated” this? I’ll need to do something about that.

“…And a Cupcake in a White Tree…”

My kinda ornament.

March of the Penguins

Ready for work tomorrow…