I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day. The boy, the pup, and I picked up my parents from LAX Saturday around midnight. It was a great way to start Mother’s Day. The Naughty One completely freaked out when she saw them. We are happy to have them back here after their hundred day world vacation, and hope to keep them around for awhile.

I’ve been away from the blog for a few weeks, but still have tried to carve out small chunks of time to bake. The boy’s baseball schedule and my job have been all-consuming this past month. We both can’t wait until summer vacation!

This week, the boy’s school is holding their annual silent auction. I was asked to make cookies for the beach themed basket and the “rain or shine” basket. The umbrellas are my favorites from this batch. The flip-flop cookies were a must for the beach basket. I think in the history of cookie baking, I’ve made more flip-flops than any other cookie. Last year I somehow found time to make The Hungry Caterpillar cookies for the auction. These are probably my favorite of all-time… that caterpillar turned out so darn cute!

Have you ever visited The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle baking blog? Callye is one of the most talented cookie decorators I’ve ever come across, and her blog is one of my favorites. Cookies are her canvas and royal icing is her medium. I made these rainbow cookies using my mini flower cookie cutter and large circle cutter and followed her rainbow photo tutorial as a guide.

Wishing you a great week ahead… Rain OR Shine!

Hope everyone had a great Easter! We hosted our annual Easter brunch and had a great time celebrating with our friends. My parents were definitely missed this year. Really, what’s Easter without Grandma Bunny? They are still traveling the world and having the time of their lives… one more month left of their adventure before they get back home. We are in the midst of Spring Break this week and are both SO happy to enjoy a few days off.

Guess who decided to be part of our annual egg hunt? I’m pretty sure she also had the most fun. Regardless of the number of kids we have over on Easter, we still hide hundreds and hundreds of eggs. My girlfriend, Deb’s husband asked me if we really HAD to hide ALL of the eggs. Seriously, I thought he knew me better than that. The Easter egg hunt apparently has not officially ended, as the pup is still obsessed with finding eggs and bringing me a  few each day.

I was able to find a little time to squeeze in some Easter cookies. I decided to keep it simple and made bunnies  with carrots and chickadees with mini Easter eggs. Now that Easter is over, we are onto planning the next party. I can’t believe my boy will be eleven in a few weeks. He has decided to go big again this year. His original guest list had over fifty people on it (and I wonder where he gets that).  I can’t complain; I’m just happy after all of these years that I finally have a child who likes to party! I knew the party gene was dominant!

]]> http://grinandbakeit.com/easter-wrap-up/feed 9 http://grinandbakeit.com/st-patricks-day-mint-bark-it-doesnt-get-more-simple-than-this http://grinandbakeit.com/st-patricks-day-mint-bark-it-doesnt-get-more-simple-than-this#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:04:30 +0000 Kate http://grinandbakeit.com/?p=16591

Hope you had a great weekend! The boy and I decided if we were going to make a St. Patrick’s treat this year, we needed to do it before our crazy week began. We came up with a few sweet ideas, and this is what he picked. I knew better than to argue with the boy. He loves to eat this (what’s not to love?) and it’s kind of become a tradition. I love it because it’s festive, takes little time, and requires very little brain power.

Here’s another thing to love… you don’t even need to measure. But if you must, the basic recipe is here. I just fill my large measuring bowl with chocolate chips (about 2  1/2 cups) and melt in the microwave. Be sure to stir every 30 seconds until fully melted, otherwise the chocolate will seize on you and make you wanna cry. I spread the melted chocolate with a spatula on a cookie sheet that has been covered in parchment paper, and then add whatever we want on top before it sets. For these, we added green M&Ms, mint flavored Oreos, and shamrock sprinkles. You can put the pan in the fridge or just leave it out for awhile it set. Once set break it up and you’re done. It’s that simple!

If you want a little more mint-spiration, and have some extra time this week, these mint cupcakes and whoopies pies are fabulous! If you decide to make the mint chip cupcakes, use my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and this mint frosting recipe. And if you’re looking for a St. Patrick’s Day cocktail, this thin mint martini is perfect!

Happy Valentine’s Day! This is one of my favorite days of the year. But this Valentine’s Eve I was given some bad news that I didn’t see coming. Don’t you hate that? If you know me well, you know I don’t do well with surprises. It’s one thing if you’re kind of prepared for not so good news, it’s another when it hits you completely out of the blue. So this year, there’s a little black cloud hanging over my Valentine’s Day.  I’m posting tonight with my KJ in hand and a bag of chocolate-covered valentine pretzels that the boy and I made together, and already life seems a little better. (The power of wine and chocolate is amazing!).

In spite of the little black cloud, I’m trying to think good thoughts of sugar cookies, funny little wiener dogs, a boy that still considers his mom his valentine, and my friends and family who I love so much. I know that some things we don’t see coming are really blessings in disguise and I’m hoping this will be one of them.

Wishing you all a day filled with LOVE!

There’s never a dull moment around here. The boy has been sick again for the past two days, still not keeping food down. Hoping we get to the bottom of what’s causing this. In addition to being struck with more illness, it also happens to be what I refer to as “testing season”, my busiest time of year at work. Thank goodness for friends and family. They keep me sane. It’s probably for the best that I’m taking a break from my Kitchen-Aid. I have some catching up to do on posting cookie orders that I did right before Christmas.

This was an order for Sabrina, who was having a Willy Wonka themed party for her son’s birthday. Sabrina ordered Alice and Wonderland cookies from me last year for a baby shower. Sabrina comes up with great party themes… so many fun cookie options.

 Below are photos of the cookies individually and a few helpful hints and links about how to make them.

The wonka bars were cut out with a cardstock template I made. The dark chocolate brown icing color was made using Americolor’s brown combined with a little of the Super Black to get it a deep brown, chocolatey color.

In a previous post, I shared two different ways to make these peppermint candies. I prefer the sparkly sanding sugar option!

I love making cookie lollipops! For a step by step tutorial on how to make them, you can read this post.

The golden tickets were also made using a cardstock template. In order to get the gold icing to sparkle, I used Duff’s gold graffiti spray. You spray it onto the cookie once the royal icing had dried completely. I love this product! It covered evenly, dried quickly. and made these cookies super sparkly! Wilton makes a similar product, which I haven’t tried yet. Both brands are sold at Michael’s and are reasonably priced.