I have NEW cookie cutters!

I think this is becoming an obsession, I dare not count the number of cookie cutters I now posses.
On Monday I received my much awaited for "Hello Kitty" head shape cookie cutter with template for the face, was very excited to find that on Ebay, I adore all things Hello Kitty! I have cookie dough in the fridge right now just begging for me to make some kitty biscuits.
Last Thursday I met my parents at Ikea for breakfast (gross out powdered eggs, apart from that was ok for the price!) I then moseyed over to Harbour town for a nosey, I walked out of that place with a bag full of new cookie cutters. I bought a container full of ABC's and 123's (well, the whole alphabet and numbers etc.) some really cute retro tins full of plain round cutters going from 2cm up to 15 cm, and another of the same but with fluted edges. Also a dragon fly, a foot, some more stars in different sizes.
Today, Jman, Jbaby and I went for a trip to Gaganis Bros warehouse, where I picked up a big plastic tub of 50 assorted animal shapes for quite a good price, I'm so excited, I just want to make one of each and go crazy with decorating!! I'm sure many, many pic's will follow!

Looks like I have a job!

Jmans Dads Partner owns a hotel/motel, we were there for tea last night and the lady in question asked me to make her some cornflake cookies. (not that I was selfpromoting or anything! LOL!!)
Today I did that, have just come back from dropping off some samples for her, there would have been more but as always Jbaby REALLY seems to like my baking and took off with a few for himself...
They were a success, YAY, so now I need to work out my costings/price etc and start baking some more!

a 21st Gift with a difference!

The Saturday before the baby shower was my younger brothers, Girlfriends 21st Birthday.
Seeing as I was baking anyway, I decided to cut out a big round disc of cookie dough and ice a special cookie just for her.

thats the finished product,all wrapped and ready, I had to make a bit of an emergency patch job on it  as Jbaby thoght it looked rather good too and tried to swipe it off the table, it fell out of his mits and smashed the star off it...Don't think it looks too bad though...??

The Baby Shower Blitz

My brother and his fiance are expecting a baby in september, I was asked to help organise the baby shower. My food contribution was to make some decorated gingerbread babies.
Three days before the big day, I started to panic. SOOOO much to do!! I waited till Jbaby was in bed for the night and then renewed my relationship with my beloved Kitchen Aid, mixing up the gingerbread dough. I needed around 150 biscuits, so I made up 3 batches. During the mixing of batch no.2 I realised I had run out of ginger, oops! So one batch became honey spice instead. gotta love the improvisation!
All three batches were wrapped in plastic and chucked in the fridge, a rather bad idea I realised the next day when trying to soften the now rock hard lumps of cookie dough.
I managed eventually and in one night cut and baked 50 odd gingerbread babies, 50 odd next size up ginger bread men and 50 odd hearts. All now just waiting to be iced.

The next night I started my production line of icing, first outlining and then flooding the biscuits with white royal icing, I had spent most of that day trawling the net, looking for inspiration on design ideas and came across so many wonderful (mostly American) sites all about icing and decorating cookies. The best thing I found was a recipe for the royal icing using egg white powder or meringue powder (known here as "pavlova magic") I went out and bought some and gee, I was impressed!

I iced all of these using either baking paper cones or small freezer bags as my piping bags, I eventually enlisted the help of the Jman and my parents to have the biscuits all ready by the Sunday afternoon. My father got quite carried away with the decorating and even at one point made some "mardi gras" ones, with studded briefs and o's for mouths (hope no one was offended!!)
I spent a good half hour Sunday morning packaging up the bickys in little cello parcels with ribbon, forgot to take a pic of the finished products though (D'OH!!)

How it all started...

Quite a few years ago now, I thought I would give making Gingerbread a try, for Christmas, to give as gifts. (I could blab on about how I wanted to make a special effort for those I loved etc, etc, but truth be told I being cheap!)

The Gingerbread was a success, as were my goodie baskets, they quickly became a "tradition" of sorts, which sees me every week before the 25th December, sweating it out in the kitchen, mixing, baking, decorating and then packaging the goods. Jman would roll his eyes at me as he swiped yet another biscuit, pudding, or truffle from the piles of unwrapped treats. "why the hell do you do this to yourself?" he would ask,at around midnight, waiting for me to, once again to come to bed. Every year, I would answer, "I enjoy it!" and  I did, still do.

The thing is that come Dec 2008, I had a 6 week old baby to contend with. I tried, I really did, I managed to mix and bake...that was as far as I got. I took a basket of un iced gingerbread men and assorted shapes wrapped in a tea towel to my Mothers that Xmas. 

Dec 2009, I only made one large batch, I mixed, baked and iced, but I was showing off for my mums group, hehehe, the left overs made it to Mums place.
People have always commented on the time and effort that goes into making these treats, like I said, I really enjoy it, otherwise there is no way I would bother!
This coming Christmas I wont be doing any of it, due to a family reunion happening in Darwin, so I wont be at home. I'm actually disappointed about this.