Happy 1st Birthday Emmy!

 

 

  

Happy 1st Birthday Emmy!!  I got the honor and pleasure of making dessert for Emmy's 1st birthday party!!!  I made a 3 tier cake where the bottom two tiers are fake.  The top tier is a "sugar-free" apple cake with raisins (the recipe called for chopped walnuts but I omitted them for baby allergy reasons) with a "sugar-free" cream cheese frosting!  I also made red velvet and french vanilla cupcakes, french vanilla cake pops, and individually wrapped party favor sugar cookies with a personalized tag!  I wish you Emmy a wonderful new year in your life, you are so special, sweet and greatly loved by everyone you meet!!  You are so cute and your personality is so precious!  You're a joy to be around and we all love your beautiful smile and awesome dance moves!!  I'm so happy I got to help make your birthday a little more sweet.  Here's to many many more birthdays to come!!  Photo credits goes to Nelly Chung at Modern Element Photography!!! Thank you for beautifully capturing this lovely celebration!!  Check out more photos from Emmy's party at Modern Element's Photography here!

Bob the Builder Cookies!

Happy Birthday Markus!! These are Bob the Builder sugar cookies with royal icing piping for the decorations. I hope you had a very special birthday Markus with all your friends and family!

Humor Time!
A truckload of penguins breaks down on the freeway on a hot summer day.The truckdriver sees a blonde construction manager driving up in a company Suburban, so he asks the CM, "Is this car air conditioned?" The construction manager says, "Sure is". So the truckdriver says "I'll give you $100 to take these penguins to the zoo." Off goes the CM and the penguins. About three hours later, the CM comes back with the car-load of penguins all wearing 3-D glasses. The truckdriver looks at the penguins in disbelief and yells, "I gave you $100 to take those penguins to the zoo!!!" The CM replies, "I did. But we had money left over so we went to a movie, too."

Congrats Jewish Confirmation Candidates!

Congratulations to all the Confirmation kids at the Congregation Shir Ha-Ma'alot community! My coworker, Eric, ask me to make these cookies for 23 young adults who will be celebrating their confirmation at the Family Shabbat Service with a Young Choir and Band tonight in Irvine. Afterwards they will get to dive into these potted sugar cookies in the shape of a hexagram, the Star of David. Due to lack of structural support in the cookie, I could not stick the stick into the bottom point of the cookie without breaking the cookie, so I had to stick it in the inner vertex point of the star, and have the star be tilted. These sugar cookies have royal icing on top to paint in the star and to spell out each of the candidate's names. Although less widespread, Confirmation is the coming of age ritual when a child is 16 or 18. They often replace the bar and bat mitzvah with this ceremony, and takes these young adults further in their Jewish education. So congratulations kids, I know all your parents and family are very proud!

Fun facts on the Star of David:
- In alchemy, the upright triangle represents fire, and the upside-down triangle is the symbol for water. Together they symbolize the unity of opposites.
- It's also a represents the 6-pointed star on the shield that David carried to battle Goliath.
- The number 6 represents balance and beauty.

Once again, congratulations to the newly confirmed! Here are their names:
Sam, Rachel B., David, Rachel C., Rex, Joseph, Jacob, Diane, Mai, Mackenzie, Rachel H., Sarah, Kyle, Sydney, Corey, Richard, Jessy, Mallory, Allison, Brooke, Cori, Michael, and Hannah!

Will You Go to Prom With Me?

Will you go to prom with me? Oh how sweet! She said YES of course! =P My coworker, Eric, came to me with a request to conjure something up for his son Aaron to ask his little lady friend to prom! He already informally asked her to make sure she will go with him, so now he wants to do something grand to formally ask her! So after racking my brain for a bit, I came up with this cookie bouquet! It's cute and simple and sends a clear message! These are sugar cookies with royal icing planted inside a real ceramic pot! I added a nice red bow for the final touch too! I sure hope these sweet treats bloom their way into her heart and seal the deal for Aaron's prom date! Ah young love! Have fun you two!! =)

Feel free to share how you asked your prom date to prom! Funny, silly, and romantic stories are encouraged! =)

Nikol's Baby Shower!

Happy Baby Shower Nikol and congratulations in advance on your baby girl Ashley!! Lori asked me to make her sister some sugar cookies party favors for her sister's baby shower, so this is what I came up with! Thanks Chi Hai for the dough from scratch, it was a big time saver!! I made royal icing flow and first outlined my designs onto the cookies, and then watered down the icing a little more to fill in the design. I designed little tags for the favors and printed them on cardstock paper. I then put them in these treat bags, tied them up with a pretty sheer pink ribbon, and then you have cookie favors! This was a very fun and interesting experience with color flow and I feel the key is to have a steady hand! Other than that, it's quite simple!

Here's some cute little baby jokes for you:
What did the baby banana say to it's mother? "I don't peel good."
Why did the mother skunk take her baby to the doctors? Because it was out of odor!
What did the baby corn say to the mama corn? "Where's my popcorn?"
Why shouldn't you tell an Easter egg a joke? It might crack up!

Now for a a little story:
Two babies were sitting in their cribs, when one baby shouted to the other, "Are you a little girl or a little boy?"
"I don't know," replied the other baby giggling.
"What do you mean, you don't know?" said the first baby.
"I mean I don't know how to tell the difference," was the reply.
"Well, I do," said the first baby chuckling, "I'll climb into your crib and find out."
He carefully maneuvered himself into the other baby's crib, then quickly disappeared beneath the blankets.
After a couple of minutes, he resurfaced with a big grin on his face.
"You're a little girl, and I'm a little boy," he said proudly.
"You're ever so clever." cooed the baby girl, "but how can you tell?"
"It's quite easy really," replied the baby boy, "You've got pink socks and I've got blue ones!"

Babies are great little bundles of joy, congratulations to Nikol and her husband on their little baby girl, Ashley! Happy baby shower Nikol!!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies!

At work this year we had a cookie exchange party, so I decided to make one of my favorite type of cookies from scratch for the 1st time ever! So here's how my experience went. With my first batch, right away I knew it wasn't that great because instead of smelling like cookies out of the oven, it smelled like flour. Also, when my hubby Khoa tasted them, his expression wasn't so enthusiastic, so I knew I had to try again. Second time around, I sough help and advice from Chi Hai, and boy was she a great help! This time around, I used her recipe for her chocolate chip and swapped it out for white chocolate chip and macadamia nuts instead. I chilled the drop dough before baking them this time too, and man, what a big difference!! My trusty cookie tasters (Khoa and Jennifer) confirmed this =P. Chi Hai also showed me some Martha Stewart cookie package designs, so I made the packages myself as well. It's always fun to turn little projects like a cookie exchange into a crafty one! These were so much fun to make, I learn a lot for my first cookie experience, and I'm so glad it turned out to be a success! Yay! Props to my sis Jennifer for properly showing me how the cookies should be spaced out (spared me from making 1 giant but still yummy cookie) and for Khoa's transparent expressions =P.

Alright, so those who read my blogs know what time it is! Time for some more awesome corny but wittily awesome jokes! =P Why did the cookie go to the doctors? Because it felt crummy! Why did the cookie cry? Because his mother was a wafer so long! How is a cookie like a computer? They both have chips! What kind of cookie makes you rich? A fortune cookie! hehe. So for any cookie personality, these will surely put a smile on your face! Enjoy!