Christmas Cookies and Cakes

 I can't believe it has been a month since I posted anything(YIKES)!!!! Where did that time go..well like everyone else I have been busy, busy, busy. With everything going on around Christmas I honestly forgot to post some pictures of cakes and cookies that I made. So without further delay I am posting these pictures..



CRU Forum Cookie Exchange cookies sent



Christmas Wreath Cake











Cookies made for cookie swap with friends





CRU Forum cookie exchange cookies received







Pointsetta Chocolate Box



Candy Cane Cupcake Cake













Mason Jar Mini Cookies

Since Christmas will be upon us soon, it is time to start thinking about Christmas cookies!!! This year I am selling mini cookies in mason jars. I have decided that there will be four themes available....Christmas Joy, Childs's Dream, Outdoor Fun, A Child is Born. Whichever theme you choose the cookies will be decorated according to that theme. The jars are available in small(pint)and large(quart). If you want more information about these or have any other questions, please email me at: sugarfairysweettreats@gmail.com or go to my facebook page: www.facebook.com/SugarFairySweetTreats and leave me a message there. We can discuss the details of your order then. Just a thought if you are looking for a unique gift for someone who is hard to buy for or perhaps even for your boss! Who doesn't love homemade sugar cookies, especially at Christmas!!!  Until next time..Happy Baking!!!

Thanksgiving Cake

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! Desserts are always a big part of the holiday meal so in keeping with that I not only had pumpkin pie and pumpkin roll, I also made a Thanksgiving cake.  I got a new play toy, an airbrush; so I wanted to try it out. I only airbrushed lightly so it doesn't really show up all that great in this picture but it really did make the cake look nice. The buttercream icing was a very light gold and then I airbrushed it with orange just to highlight it. Anyway, hope you had a great day with your family yesterday and were able to "Give Thanks" for your many blessings bestowed upon you in your everyday life...Enjoy and until next time...Happy Baking!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hello Everyone...

Thanksgiving is almost upon us so to help get in the mood I thought I would post a few pictures of some turkey cookies I made and a turkey cupcake cake...two easy desserts to make for Thanksgiving dinner...of course for next week I am also making a Thanksgiving cake so that picture will come later...one thing I noticed AFTER doing the turkey cookies is that their wings are too fat and they don't look like wings at all!! Next time I will have to fix that!!!  Enjoy, thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment if you are inclined to do so and until next time.......Happy Baking!!!!

Day of the Dead Cookies

Hello Everyone:

How many of you have ever heard of "Dia De Los Muertos?"(I think I have that right)...it is a Mexican Holiday that is celebrated on Nov. 1st and 2nd to honor those who have passed on. It is a happy time-not sad..to celebrate people make sugar skulls. I have never made any of the sugar skull cookies so I thought I would give it a try...I think I did pretty well for the first time doing these. What do you think?

Witch Hat Cake

Hello Everyone:
I hope you all are surviving Hurricane Sandy. Being in the NE we have had mostly wind today, however; it is raining since early this afternoon but nothing like I am seeing on TV. I hope all of you are safe. With that being said, on to the reason I am posting.

Halloween is upon us so to celebrate I made a Witch Hat Cake. I actually think it turned out pretty cool. I am happy to be able to add this to my portfolio of cakes that I have learned to make!!!

If this is your first time visiting my blog, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.  Until next time.....Happy Baking!!!

Halloween Cookies

Hello Everyone:

Just a quick post today for Halloween. I went to a class and we made these spider web cookies....not bad for the first time doing them.  The spiders are made out of fondant...I think they turned out pretty cool. Enjoy!! Until next time..Happy Baking!!

Fall cookies

Hello Everyone:
I absolutely love the Fall with all it beautiful colors. Not only did I make a cake to celebrate Fall, as seen in the post below, a week later I decided it was time to make some Fall cookies. So I pulled out my Wilton Fall Leaves cookie cutter set and some new plaque cookie cutters that I got from www.KarensCookies.net and started to bake away. I ended up with some pretty nice looking cookies. Enjoy and until next time....Happy Baking!!!

Fall Harvest Cake

Well once again we are being FORCED into using things we do not like...example the new blogger interface....HATE IT>>>>Looks like I will eventually be going to wordpress. For the ones that like this new blogger interface....good for you....the rest of us HATE< HATE< HATE it!!! ENOUGH SAID>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That wasn't the reason I wanted to post. Fall is officially here so I thought a cake celebrating fall in some way was appropriate....actually, this cake is going to church with me in the morning for an after church get together...anyway just wanted to show everyone and celebrate the beautiful colors of the fall season!!! Until next time... Happy Baking!!!

Gift Box Cake

Hello Everyone!!!
Haven't posted in a while so I thought it was about time. My husband's birthday is tomorrow...September 7th...yep he will be 67 years old...how old does that make me??....I'm not telling anyone....anyway as I said before I go to cake classes with a wonderful group of ladies...lots of fun. This last class we made a gift box cake so I thought since it was so close to my hubby's birthday this cake would be especially for him. I made a Red Velvet Cake and this is buttercream icing...YUMMY!!!! The only thing I would do different next time would be to tint the icing where the bow is the same color as the bow so you could not really tell the icing is there. But I remedied that with pastel sprinkles(after I took this picture..of course)!!! 
 Anyway..here is how it turned out. Not too shabby for an amature!!! Until next time.....Happy Baking!!!

Rainbow Cupcake Cake

Hello Everyone:

This past weekend I had the pleasure of learning how to use an airbrush(an item which I will at some point in time be purchasing). I love how it makes your cupcakes or cakes look. We did a cupcake cake(a great idea for a kids party)and made it look like a rainbow. My rainbow isn't quite the shape that it should be but it was close. This is what mine looks like...until next time...thanks for stopping by and "Happy Baking".

Beach Themed Cookies

Hi Everyone!!

My daughter and her friends left today for a week at the beach. As a surprise for them I thought I would make them some cookies to eat on the way or when they get there. Since they were going to the beach, I chose to do a set of beach themed cookies. At the time I decided to do these I did not have the flip flop cutter so someone suggested to me that I use the foot cutter and that way I could paint the toes and make an outline of the flip flop...what a great idea!! and we all know how teenagers love to paint their toe nails and wear flip flops in the summer...so this is the set I created for them...Enjoy looking and until next time....Happy Baking!!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Hello Everyone and welcome...if this is your first time here I am glad you stopped by. If you have been here before, thank you for coming back to see what's new.  With the 4th of July just a few days away, here is something that I made today at my weekly class. This is a wonderful group of gals and we have a lot of fun together every Saturday morning...thanks Michele again for running these great classes. Michele is the owner of Sugar Artist Emporium and she teaches the classes. She found this really neat project for the holiday. It is really a cute idea to take to a party(you could probably add more to this than what we did). Now I do need to warn you though...the marshmallows are not store bought...they are homemade and let me tell you they are delicious!!!! If you make this you may never eat store bought marshmallows again!!! Now I'm not saying you couldn't use store bought marshmallows...but oh boy what a difference. Let's just say when I took this home..well, you know what happened..Enjoy!!!...and until next time..Happy Baking!!

Buttercream Piped Animals on Cupcakes

Hello Everyone:
Today I am going to post some pictures of buttercream piped animals done on cupcakes. These are really fun to do and easy to make for a child's birthday party.
With a few basic decorating tools and icing colors you can do just about anything. These animals were made using a coupler, decorating tips 12, 2 or 3, and a grass tip.
The best part, when you get started they don't take long at all to do...so here you go for today's creations.....Enjoy and until next time...Happy Baking!!!!

Working with modeling chocolate and also sculpting

Hello Everyone:
If this is your first time here, thanks for stopping by and if it isn't, thanks for coming back and reading my blog. I love when people stop, read and leave comments. As most of you know, I go to my local cake decorating supply store for weekly classes. I love to do it because I learn new things and it helps me to tone the skills I already have...and besides that, I get to chat with a great group of ladies...it's a fun time. Today we had a special instructor, Silvina Barboza from NJ. She is a Sugar Artist Instructor and Cake Designer ... Check her out at: www.facebook.com/SilvinaBarbozaSugarArtist and www.silvinasugarcreations.com.
Today she showed us how to do a rose using modeling chocolate. Now modeling chocolate is a lot different to work with then fondant and gumpaste. The more you play with it, the softer it becomes and then it starts to basically melt as you handle it.  So I recommend if you work very slow, don't use modeling chocolate. Of course you can put it in the refrigerator to get it to set back up. I amazed myself that I was able to work as fast as I did to make my chocolate rose. She also showed us how to do sculpting using fondant and gumpaste(tylose is also used). We made a pig, a girl, and a mermaid. I can definitely understand why cakes cost so much when the decorator goes the route of sculpting figures to add to the cake. It is definitely a very time consuming process, but in the end I feel it is worth it because it adds character to the cake. The pictures below are from todays class. The first one is the modeling chocolate rose. For a beginner, I think mine turned out pretty good. This is something that I would definitely use again. The other two pictures are what was sculpted out of the fondant. Now the picture on the right is Silvina's(notice how perfect it is)..the one with the blonde hair, however; is mine(definitely by no means perfect). I laughed when I looked at it..she looked like ET at first, then a giraffe with the long neck(thanks to long hair you can hide those flaws). I also had trouble making the lips the way they are suppose to be made so I did it my own way(too funny). In the end, for a beginner, everything turned out okay. The point is I learned a new technique, which hopefully I can master soon. It is truly a fun way to create. So here you go..enjoy and until next time....Happy Baking!!!                                              

Happy Father's Day

Hello Everyone..
Father's Day is fast approaching so in honor of dad's everywhere...this is for you. I hope you like it....no, it is not for wearing...it is for eating!!! Until next time..

Gumpaste Stargazer Lily/Stained Glass Window Cookies

Hello Everyone!!

Thanks for stopping by. It's been a little while since I have posted anything so today I thought I would share two new things that I learned. I have never worked to much with gumpaste but it is something that I would definitely work with again. On the cookies this was my first time using a glaze icing. I like the icing but it does not dry as hard as the royal icing. I am sure that I will use the glaze icing again also. The cookie on the right is done with white icing running through the blue to give it the effect of the sun shining through. The one on the left is done without the white. I actually like them done both ways. Well thanks for stopping by and if you feel like leaving a comment, please do.. Until next time, Happy Baking!!

How about an ice cream cone cake??

Hello again everyone:
You know, it never ceases to amaze me how creative you can get with cakes and cupcakes. I went to a class today at my local cake decorating supply store and we made an ice cream cone cake. This was really simple and quick; and when I say quick I mean like half hour quick!! How's that for fast?? Moms, this is a great idea for a child's birthday party and not to much fuss and yet simple and fun..just put your ice cream cones on the board with some icing to hold them. Bake your cupcakes and away you go with putting them all together and this is what you have when you are done!!! Isn't this just the cutest thing?  Until next time....happy baking and thanks for stopping by!!!

Wedding Cookies

Hello Everyone:

Last week was a busy week for me. I had 120 wedding cookies to bake and decorate. The colors were black and white so not to much mixing there. While it took me just a little bit longer than I expected to do them I was pleased with the way they turned out. I said I would post pictures when they were done so here they are...let me know what you think...I love to read everyone's comments!!!  The last photo were two cookies that I made special just for the bride and groom!!

New sketches

As I told you all in a previous post, I am doing wedding cookies for a client for May. The color scheme is black and white. I posted sketches of how I thought I would like to do the cookies. Well on the weekend I came up with another idea of how I wanted to do them...not sure yet but this is the way I think I am going to do them. The basecoat, of course; will be white with black accents(including the flowers). I think I like this design better than the first one I posted previously.  So here you go...what do you think??

Anyone for a "slice of cake"?

Hello:

Today was a fun day. I made this cake in the class I go to on Saturday morning. We have a lot of fun as a group and the lady that teaches us, who by the way; owns the business where we go..is absolutely wonderful and has a lot of patience...she has to with our group!!! Anyway, this cake was so much fun to do that I just wanted to share it with you..I think it would make a great top tier to any birthday or anniversary cake...what do you think???

Sketches

Hello Everyone..
I know I haven't posted anyting in a few weeks but I have been busy(as is everyone else). I thought I would show you the sketches of my ideas for decorating wedding cookies that I am doing for a customer in May. I am so excited to be doing these!!! I really hope she likes them(I'm sure she will). The color theme is the very elegant black and white...so of course, the cookies are going to be basecoated in white icing with all the details being done in black. I was thinking of using a black edible food marker instead of the black icing(we all know how black icing looks on the teeth)!! I am not sure though. I am going to do an experiment this coming week using both the black icing and the edible food marker..then I will decide. Here are the sketches...

Easter Cake!!

Hello Everyone!!!

Since Easter is only a few days away I thought I would share with you the cake I made at a recent class. I have taken the Wilton Courses(about a year ago)so it has been a while since I have done the basketweave technique for decorating. Where I take my classes now is at a cake supply store and it is really fun and the lady(Michele)who teaches the classes is terrific..anyway she teaches a new class every month and I have met so many nice people. The cake was actually made in two class sessions. The first session was making the figures out of gumpaste and fondant. So the lamb, bunny and chick you see on the cake are these figures. The following week we had to make a cake and bring it to class. So we decorated the cake with the basketweave technique and the flowers then we added our little figures to it and added a handle(which is not edible..made out of chenille)and here you have it...a cake made to look like an Easter basket....I think it turned out rather cute..don't you??  Till next time....Happy Easter and thanks for stopping by!!!

Bunny Cake Pops!!!

I missed posting this last week so I will do it now.  There is a cake supply store not to far from me and the lady holds classes...well last Saturday we did cake pops for Easter...and here is what they look like...I had so much fun doing these...I have made cake pops but haven't ventured into making them these fancy so it was a learning experience for me....as always, I had fun making them and I want to share them with you...Until next time.....

Spring/Easter Cookies

I know it's been a few weeks since I posted any cookie pictures so I guess today is as good a day as any to post some....I had an opportunity to do some Spring/Easter cookies this past weekend just for practice. I'm really trying to get it to the point of perfection. I still need to practice a little more on filling in my cookies. I got the outlining almost down pat...just need a little more practice with that. I know they are not perfect, but they really got me in the mood for Spring and Easter...how about you???  Oh, I know I still need to post Valentine cookies, but that will be another day...

Newest Cookies

Hi Everyone!!!
I know I haven't posted any cookies in a while. I have a friend who was seriously hurt in a car accident last week and is in a rehabilitation center for a few weeks. I went to see her today. Instead of taking the regular flowers or candy or stuffed animals, I decided I would bring her some homemade cookies. She was really happy with them!!

Now I don't have a lot of cookie cutters in my collection(not yet, anyway)so I decided to use what I have. I used an ice cream cutter(cause ice cream makes anyone feel better anytime)!!!, a rainbow(just brings happiness no matter what) and a square cookie cutter(valentine envelope)on which I wrote sayings....and here is what she got!!!  Thanks to Adrienne from Have a cookie for the recipe used!!!!

Virtual Baby Shower

In case some of you didn't already know this, we have some pretty talented cookie decorators in this world. If you want to see what I am talking about just go to: flourboxbakery.com and click on the tidbits tab and you will see exactly what I mean. These ladies drew names for fairy tale characters and made cookies for a "baby shower" surrounding their particular character. I was so impressed by all of them that I can't stop talking about it!!  I have even pinned all of them to my boards which you can see here: www.pinterest.com/SugarFairy1 under Fairy Tale cookies. It is an inspiration to be among them and to listen to what they have to say about doing their cookies. They are a fine group of ladies and I am happy to "know" them through networking.  

Won't be long....

and Valentine's Day will be here...can you believe it?? We just finished celebrating Christmas!!! Oh well, that's the way it goes....to celebrate Valentine's Day, I went and bought some new cutters and here they are, can't wait to bake some cookies with them!!! I will post them when they are done...