Fire Truck Birthday Party

A few weeks ago I was asked to do some treats for a 3 year old's birthday party. The theme was fire trucks and his mom is a terrific party planner who had thought of everything! The set-up was adorable and she even had red and yellow chairs to match the red & yellow bouncy house that was shaped like a fire truck!
This kiddos mom wanted to stay away from cake so I did chocolate sandwich cookies with vanilla cream filling, vanilla bean sandwich cookies with vanilla cream and of course some fire truck sugar cookies. To make the sandwich cookies even cuter, his mom  had gotten these adorable fire truck pics that I placed in each of the sandwich cookies. Everything looked great and she was so nice to send me pictures of her final set-up. Good thing because I totally didn't! So here are the pics that she sent me, isn't her lil guy adorable? I don't think I've ever seen a face that wanted a cookie so bad, great marketing, lol!

 

 

Happy baking, happier eating! 

Catching Up...

Seriously?!?! Seriously?!?! How the heck is it September 1st 2nd and I am pretty sure I haven't posted at all in the last month! So saddening! Not to worry, I have been doing a LOT of baking but just haven't been doing much sharing :( sometimes there just aren't enough hours in a day, well there pretty much are never enough hours in my world! 

Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ever want to make ice cream sandwiches but you know the ice cream part won't last but a second in the summer sun? Then try making a literal ice cream sandwich cookie! I had a 4th of July party to go to and you know...my 'thing' is sandwich cookies (hard to tell with all the sugar cookies I do!) So naturally I wanted to do something in the sandwich cookie family but I didn't have a lot of time so I got creative and made chocolate-filled-vanilla-ice-cream-sandwich-cookies. They were the perfect mini sweet treat for an afternoon of heat!

Happy Hearts!

Ok I hate doing short non-wordy posts...but being that I need to be unpacking and then I should probably think about sleeping at some point, here it goes. A picture-full post...I promise to get back in gear soon! Happy Baking, Happier Eating!

what's Valentine's Day without homemade oreos?!?!

and s'mores?!?!

and lots of sugar cookies...

 

New Sandwich Cookies {Part 2}

Let me warn you, read this post quickly, preheat your oven now, and get out your supplies PRONTO because these are the best cookies you may ever taste! I was asked to make some sandwich cookies for a birthday gift and whenever I do an order I always try to find out a little about the gift receiver. So for these I was told that the birthday girls favorite candy was plain ole Hershey's chocolate bars. Yum!

New Sandwich Cookies {Part 1}

So, you may not have noticed from my last few months of blogging about sugar cookies, but my "thing" is actually SANDWICH COOKIES. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE decorating sugar cookies and seeing how happy they make people, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE creating delectable sandwich cookies! The enjoyment created from a sandwich cookie is two-fold: they offer nostalgia as they bring adults back to their childhood when eating sandwich cookies was a daily event (Oreos anyone), and they combine the best components of the sweets world, cookies and frosting! Seriously what is better?

Keeping With The Theme Of Birthdays!

So as you all read it was my blog birthday yesterday and it was my birthday over the weekend. How old you ask...the big 3-0! Yay for getting older, I love it, I feel like every year it gets better and better! So what was a gal to do on her 30th birthday...have a party filled with lots of food, family, & friends! And that is exactly what I did! It was so much fun, I have not done much in terms of celebrating for my birthday in the last 8 or so years (I blame it on med-school and residency) and let me tell you, I had so much fun! My hunny planned the menu, my wonderful mom and sister executed the menu to a tee, let me tell you the food was amazing! I of course had to make a couple of sweets (big surprise)! I thought I would post a couple of pics, please forgive me as they are not the best of quality given that I was taking them at night with artificial light, 5 minutes before the party started ;)

Snickerdoodle Cake with Marshmallow Creme Frosting

decorated with silver disco dust

 The most delicious Chocolate Marble Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

decorated with gold disco dust

Red Velvet Cake Pops with White Chocolate Coating dipped in yellow sanding sugar. 

Can I just say these were gone in about an hour!

 Lemon Poppy Seed Sandwich Cookies... recipe post & credit to Callye to follow!

Yellow & White Sugar Cookies

 

Happy Baking, Happier Eating!

{Recipe Share} Vanilla Pizzelle Sandwich Cookies

Hi all! So it is nearing my one year anniversary for this little blog, hard to believe where time goes but it has been one week short of a year. Since I have been posting a lot of sugar cookies as of late, I figure I needed to get back to my blog intentions of recipe sharing & reviewing, it has been a while! So what have I got for you today you say...PIZZELLES! And what good are pizzelles by themselves(they actually are good plain as well)...BUT they are so much better sandwich'd around thick creamy frosting! Deciding what frosting is the best match may just be your biggest challenge with these gems!

In My Absence

I have been away all weekend in San Diego at a work conference and my creative juices have been on hold. They are bubbling out of me and I simply must get back in the kitchen! I have some cute cookies I worked on last week and some I am doing this week that I will be posting just as soon as I get caught up after my trip.
Our trip has been great, Barry and I have enjoyed a ton of really good food and I have spent time with my dear friend Sarah who lives down here as well! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home and therefore have not taken any pics of our lovely trip, bummer!
I just wanted to leave you all with a post that Jamie at Cake Mom posted about my pumpkin sandwich cookies...oh I love pumpkin! Check out my recipe and give it a shot, fall is here and what better way to experience fall than with pumpkin!

  

Happy Baking...Happier Eating!

Crumb Of The Month (September)...Homemade Oreos 2 Ways!

So somehow the months are-a-flyin'-by and I have not been keeping up on my Crumb Of The Month posts. So sorry. For September I am so happy to be posting a delicious, nostalgic treat that I have made in the past with a different recipe and I must say the recipe I used this time...mas delicioso! I must thank Ms. Bridget from Bake at 350, she is splendid, and she had posted the recipe for the scrumptious homemade Oreos a while back.

Sandwich Meets Sandwich...

A week or two ago, I got an email from a lovely lady, Keri, whom has a really neat blog all about sandwiches, called Sandwich 365! So naturally she wanted our sandwiches to meet and I just found out today that she posted the sweetest post about my blog! So check it out, and check out her site, it is such a fun blog with tons of witty humor and fun facts! Happy Baking, Happier Eating!

 

http://sandwich365.blogspot.com/2010/08/sandwich-cookies-and-cakes.html

Crumb of the Month (July)...Snickerdoodle Sandwich Cookies...

Ok ok, so I sorta missed one month, but I am back on board with Crumb of the Month and after trying out this recipe, you will forget all about the fact that I missed June! Lets start out by saying Oh my goodness, these are dang good! I had to go to a luncheon last weekend for work and I felt it needed a little pizazz in the form of sweet baked treats, so I came up with these oh so fabulous snickerdoodle sandwich cookies with toasted pecan-cinnamon buttercream. Can I hear mouths watering...

Sandwich Smores

Hope you all had a lovely 4th of July. I know we sure did, I got the weekend off and was able to do tons of baking, yay! You know that always makes me happy! My sister had a little BBQ on Saturday evening so of course you know I offered to bring something of the sweet variety, big surprise right! I wanted something that would go with the theme of hamburgers and hot dogs and what better than smores sandwich cookies?!? Just in case you are having a difficult time picturing, think moist & chewy graham cracker cookies sandwich'd around billowy marshmallow filling all drizzled with oh so yummy chocolate! What could be better for a summer BBQ!

Crumb Of The Month (April)...Carrot Cream Cheese Sandwich Cookies

Ok ladies and gents, I have decided to do a little something new around the blog to highlight my favorite or loved one's favorite sweet treat of the month. This will be the first posting, and I must say, this cookie won the competition pretty easily! My friend who ordered the banjo cookies, ordered some sandwich cookies as well, and so I got to get a little creative with my recipes and I made these to-die-for carrot sandwich cookies! I think you may possibly need to drop what you are doing and get in the kitchen to start making them-yum, yum, yum!
The thing about SANDWICH cookies is that they are the perfect combination of moist dough and creamy frosting, they are likely the best combination of the two. Cupcakes and cake cannot hold a candle to sandwich cookies in my opinion, so give these a try!

Here is the recipe: this recipe will make approximately 12-15 sandwich cookies

Cookies:
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup finely grated carrots
1/2 cup toasted pecans
Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With electric mixer, combine sugars and butter; beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until well combined.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger; stir to combine. Gradually add flour to butter mixture; mix on a low speed until just blended. Mix in carrots & pecans. Chill dough in refrigerator until firm, at least 1 hour.
3. Using a 1/2-ounce ice-cream scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Transfer to oven, and bake until browned and crisped, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 
4. For Frosting, cream together cream cheese and butter, mix in vanilla until combined. Add in powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.
5. Match up 2 cookies of equal size, slather on your desired amount of frosting and SANDWICH together!  

Well, as always...happy baking, happier eating!

Banjo Bonanza!

Have you every thought about how cute a banjo is? Well, it is! This cute little funky thing that plays music, which truthfully I have no idea what they sound like, but they are just cute! Especially when they are in cookie form, and although they may not play music in cookie form, they play music to my belly!

Happy Valentine's Day!

What better excuse to bake than Valentine's Day, combine that with me finally having the weekend off, let the baking bonanza begin! So given that I love Valentine's Day I had so many things I wanted to bake and decorate, but given my hunny can only eat so much, I limited myself to 3 varieties of heart-felt treats. 

• vanilla cupcakes with Swiss meringue buttercream and royal icing hearts
• 'conversation heart' sugar cookies
• chocolate sandwich cookies with vanilla cream filling

Tested Recipe: Ganache-Stuffed Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Difficulty: beginner-intermediate

Satisfaction: DELICIOUS!!! 
When I found this recipe a number of months ago I was intrigued by the mouth watering mini chocolate-chip cookies sandwiched around delectable ganache. After sinking my teeth into one, I must say, they lived up to my every expectation. The cookie recipe is very basic and takes just minutes to assemble and although there are a few cooling steps, there is little active time involved. If you are in the mood for taste bud overload, get out your apron.