Mothers Day Give away

Mothers day, the day that we celebrate that wonderful woman in our lives who brought us into the world and helped shape us to be the person we are today. (for some anyway!)

My mum still recounts the first attempt I had at making her breakfast in bed, I would have been all of 3? toast and tea in bed with a side of mayonnaise garnished with capsicum seeds (what was my father thinking? letting me serve that up!) the capsicum seeds were for added "flavour" riiiight....

My first Mothers day as a Mum myself, was a bit of a disaster. Lunch was being had at my Mums place, so Jman, Jboy and myself got in the car and went for the looong drive down to the parentals. I guessed Jman was holding out on me and would pull out some fantastic surprise some time during the day, sadly that wasn't to be...Jman stopped the car next to one of those "last minute" flower stalls that seem to pop up overnight on Mothers day.
He returned to the car with 3 bunches of chrysanthymums. I DETEST chrysanthymums, they stink, I dont even think they look very nice, he handed me one and said "happy mothers day baby" nice.
The other two bunches were for my Mum and grand mother. (who were pleased as punch to get "purple" Mums) My Aunty K was there too so I gleefully graciously handed her my bunch of mums with a kiss on the cheek.
Jman has since made up for the lack of Mums day creativity, last year I even got a card! with Jboys scribble in it! and a badge that I was made to wear all day (not that I was complaining!) emblazoned with the words "no 1 MUM!" Also Lindt balls are always appreciated :)

So to celebrate Mums Day in a biscuity way, I have a Mothers day gift pack to give away! $30 worth of hand made, hand decorated Biscuits, flowers, hearts and a message cookie.
To enter, be a follower of this blog, comment on this post with your ideal Mothers day experience, what would make Mothers day a fantastic day for you?
For another entry comment again to let me know you Like "Becca's Biscuits on FaceBook.
For a third and final entry comment once again  If you are a Twitter follower.
(so 3 comments for 3 entries, got it? good :)
Entries close Monday 2nd of May at 8pm (Adelaide time) open to Australian residents only.
Looking forward to reading all your responses! Good luck!

baby shower biscuits

I love baby showers, I love making biscuits for baby showers! One of the girls from my mothers group contacted me about making up some packs to attach to wine bottles for prizes at a baby shower, great idea!
She chose the large heart with a message on it and sets of pink and blue foot prints.
I think they look adorable.

after posting these on FB I received an order for much the same, unfortunately  forgot to take pictures due to the Easter madness that was happening at my place at the time!

Easter is hopping along..

Easter is just around the corner, already, how did that happen? Time flies when you're having fun? maybe.
I started making Easter cookies back in March but was side tracked by orders and life in general.

These were part of an order from over Easter, Eggs, bunnies, chicks etc.

The bunny faces were a hit, had quite a few of these going out around Australia!

These bunnies were probably my favourites out of all of the cookies I made. simple elegant bunnies :)

these too, but I thought they could have used some extra detail.

and lastly, a special request from the same customer, owls.

Hope you all had a safe and happy Easter!

30 years of love.

My Parents, 30 years together and married, still as much in love as always. (blerghhh, no, its sweet, its just...well, you know, they're my parents..)

They threw a bit of a celebration party, their closest and dearest friends (and all us kids) it was a great night.

I wanted to make them something special for the party, Mum had asked me to make something to give to everyone as a memento of sorts.

I had been hanging out to try the brush stroke embroidery technique on a cookie for quite a while, so this was my perfect opportunity!

I was so disappointed when I asked my partner what he thought, there I was, holding out my biscuit, lovingly decorated and (at least I thought so) looking so fantastic, he asks "what is it?" I stared blankly in disbelief, "it's flowers, can't you see that???"  Jman then was all like " oh yeah, I knew that..." whatever.

ok, so maybe the first few I did, weren't that great...maybe...but they got better, I couldn't decide on contrast colour or embellishment, so I did a few different ones.

as you can see from the photos!

To be honest, I don't think any of them made it home with the guests as mementos, I'm pretty sure they all got eaten before they even left the building, white chocolate biscuits don't seem to last very long!
I do know that mum stashed one on top of the fridge, she ate it the next day, I'm pretty sure Dad missed out!

Happy Anniversary Mum and Dad, 30 years is an achievement!

Bonvoyage to a good friend

A dear friend of mine is leaving, she has packed up her home, sold it and will sometime this week be embarking on a road trip, to start a new life in sunny old QLD. (Lucky, lucky, lucky...)

Now Donna is actually my Mum's best friend, I have known her since I was about 9 years old, I used to walk to school and hang out a bit with her eldest daughter.
Donna opened a cafe in 97, I started working there sometime during that year and to this day I have to say it was one of the best jobs I have ever had.

The atmosphere of a cafe in the morning, opening the front doors and smelling the fresh coffee beans grinding away, bacon and baguettes cooking away, the buzz and noise of a "busy" rush.
Feeling the heat on your face as you toasted another sandwich or doorstop, the smiles and "good mornings" of the regulars, or the feeling of accomplishment when someone complimented your "perfect" cup of coffee.
I can still recall the ambiance of the outdoor seating at night, lots of green, lit gently with small glowing tea lights, every where there was a surface, the eclectic pieces of glazed pottery "art" catching the light, the aroma of tasted garlic bread as an accompaniment to the Potato and Leek soup.
Dancing around the kitchen with a mop at closing, both of us singing our hearts out to Van morrison or tracy Chapman, the general comraderie of working there.

Oh believe me, Donna had her moments, but I always saw it as "Sirens Cafe" was her baby, therefore she wanted her baby, how SHE wanted it ;)
Sharney (Donna's Daughter) and I have always joked about swapping mums, Donna was like a surrogate mother to me for many years (as my mum was to her) My brave Mum, to Donna's shock and horror, once took both Sharney and myself to practice "driving" when we were 16! (Mum says she still has nightmares!)

So it was with a bit of a heavy heart that I made these biscuits, I may not see Donna as much these days I used to but, I will still miss her.
Mum asked me to make these for her, so she can not forget to keep in touch! (As if she wouldn't!)

Fare well Donna, I wish you all the love and joy in the world as you start your new adventure!

A purple dragon

Thats right, purple dragons!
My favourite colour and one of my favourite mythical (?) creatures all in one!
Thank you so much Janet for your order!
I did need to buy the cutter just for this order, but I figure the price is worth it (even the shipping from England!) Getting interest already with prospective new orders ;)  I searched online for hours, trying to find a decent looking dragon, that didnt just resemble a funny looking sea horse...I eventually came across the "Welsh or St George Dragon" he fit the bill quite nicely.

BUT! It is very fiddly, with legs, tail,wings etc, very fragile too, I had to make the cookies a bit thicker then usual, next time I think I will make them thicker again, I had a bugger of a time even just cutting them out and not having them fall to pieces on me, I did eventually work out that A LOT of flour to dust the cutter was a good thing, as was cutting them straight on the baking paper so I didnt have to move them. Even after I figured all that out, I still managed to lose half of their silly tongues (that hang out their heads!)

After all that drama, icing them was a dream! I think this was one time when the image I had in my head came to life in front of my eyes.

I could have really gotten quite carried away with detailing on these babies, I did how ever manage to restrain myself to disco dust, gold and silver paint and a little luster dust.
Looking forward to making many more!

Western Cookies, Pretty Kitties, more to come...

Orders are coming at me left, right and centre! This is a great thing..really!
As such it has been a busy week, one order of pretty Kitties for a 4th birthday, consisting of 16 kitty heads and one large flower with message.

Next up I had a 40th Birthday order with a Western theme, I know I said I never wanted to use that cactus cutter again, but it wasn't so bad..  :)
It was actually quite different doing the Western thing, different to what usually gets ordered anyway.
I especially liked the horse shoes and sheriffs badge.

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I also have a 13th Birthday bouquet to finish up tonight, so will put up pictures with my next post, another busy week coming up, a wedding congrats pack, birthday pack and sports themed 1st birthday!

Rango Family Fun Day!

I will start at the beginning, this has been a learning process and heaps of fun for me!
To my complete and utter surprise, I received an email from someone asking me to quote on 200 biscuits for a movie premiere!
At first I was a bit hesitant, the original email was asking for a Chameleon head, blank, as in not decorated, also decorating supplies ie: icing and maybe red raspberry lollies for eyes...
My head was racing! I have never seen a Chameleon cutter, I was thinking I was going to have to make a custom template and hand cut 200 biscuits!!
I was eventually contacted by the promotions manager at Paramount Pictures, who simplified things a bit, They wanted a quote on 200 biscuit blanks in cactus shape (Rango is a western themed movie)
Green icing and toasted coconut for the spines of the cactus.
Also 2 people to man a stand and help the Kiddies decorate the biscuits.

So after much calculation (LOL) I sent in a quote and it was accepted almost straight away, ok, so now is where I freak out, the big day being only 8 days away!
I purchased a cactus cutter (which has now more than paid for itself!) and started making dough, lots of dough, enough for 200 plus cookies, I made about 20 extra just in case.
I decided on butter cream icing, as it holds it shape on the cookie and wouldnt be as messy as say a glaze or royal.
I also ordered my VERY FIRST business cards! That was excitement in itself! something I had been meaning to get around to for ages, and this was the kick in the bum I needed to make it happen. While I was at it I also ordered 2 T shirts with "Becca's Biscuits   Custom Cookie Creations" on them for myself and a friend to wear on the day. I recruited said friend who was more than happy to help out (many thanks Brett!)

here he is in the custom T shirt!

I spent a day baking, baking, then baking some more, I toasted about a kilo of shredded coconut, then made up vast quantities of green butter cream icing, which I then packed in individual sand which bags, I figured the kids would make less mess that way, rather than having a bowl and knives for them to spread it on, also a bit more hygenic too!

Cactus cookies, naked!

On the day, I arrived at Marion event cinema nice and early, met up with Brett and we set up our table, I  was amazed at all the things that were being set up! There was a jumping castle and green snow cones, Lizards, snakes to handle and hold, face painting, and of course biscuit decorating! Imanaged to get a couple of photos of the first two kids decorating their biscuits

 but after that, there just wasn't the time! It was beautiful chaos! 2 hours just flew by and before I knew it, we were packing up and saying good bye.

All 220 biscuits gone, I only had 4 breakages, I gave out heaps of business cards and even chatted to a few people about what I do.

Even better is that I have been told To expect to be doing it again!! YAY!! I had so much fun!!


About Rango:

Cast Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Bill Nighy, Abigail Breslin 


Synopsis 


Rango is the story of a lonely chameleon who can play any role, yet doesn't know who he is. His journey takes him from the solitude of a terrarium to the vastness of the Mojave desert where he adopts the persona of vigilante lawman Rango, convincing the occupants of the town of Dirt that he is the solution to their looming hydration problem. Rango is forced to confront his identity issues as the townsfolk, including love interest Ms. Beans, begin to actually believe in him and the role he has concocted thrusts him into an uncertain reality. Rango must learn the meaning of friendship, complete his quest and uncover the conspiracy behind the town's missing water.
It looks like a great film! I hope to see it soon! :)

A card that is a cookie, that is a card, is a cookie...

I wanted to try something different, have a product that was a little bit unique in the cookie world, (very hard to do, I think EVERYTHING has been done that can be!)
I came up with the idea of a cookie card, basically a rough A5 size sheet of cookie, topped with one large cookie cut out shape and up to 5 minis.

My first one I was pretty happy with.. For my friends 21st Birthday. looking back now, its quite rough, but it was also a bit of a rush job, my bad!

the second one was actually a Christmas card for a little girl, ordered through one of the girls from my Mums group (extended family) The little girl is right into horses, I was sure I had a horse cutter, turned out I didnt!
LOL, oh well, I got there eventually with a bit of creative icing!

I heard that this little girl loved it so much, she didnt want to eat it!

I also did two for valentines day, but alas, again for some strange reason I didnt take any photos! I can't believe I did that!!

This birthday card I had major dramas with! The original one I made, I had all finished right around Christmas, I was leaving to go on holiday in Darwin and had planned to pack this up and post off to the lucky girl that day, but when I picked it up I somehow managed to drop it and break it into a million pieces! Disaster!!! I had no time to make another!!! I messaged my friend who had ordered it and explained the situation, I wouldn't be back until the new year, luckily, she was fine with me doing it when I came back.
So after I came back, I made this one up and posted off, this happened the day before the devastating flooding in Brisbane which of course made all postage deliveries grind to a halt.  2 WEEKS  (!!) and many phone calls to Aus Post later, the Birthday girl FINALLY got her card.

This one has to be my favourite so far, it all just worked!

This is the photo Her Mum posted on my FB page, she chomped straight into it!

Absolutely gorgeous!!!

Cookie cards are $14.95, your choice of theme and colour, A5 size cookie sheet topped with a large cookie cutter shape and up to 5 minis!

Valentines day 2011

Finally it is the day after! LOL, it wasn't that bad, had a few orders for Valentines things with a baby shower thrown in there too.
Here are some pics of orders...

I had an absolute blast making these, I pretty much had creative license! I also received the sweetest email from the customer and his wife after Valentines day thanking me for them.

This was another customers order that also had some mini conversation hearts and  glitter heart teddy, for some reason I didnt save the Pictures to my computer and I have been having a bugger of a time trying to get te images off Facebook! no idea whats going on there, so there will have to be a catch up post at some later date! Sorry!

Valentines themes and ideas

My whole idea with going into this biscuit thing was to be able to make and create exactly what YOU want, custom cookie creations per se, BUT this seems to be kinda difficult.
It usually involves endless amounts of to and fro in email form which i'm sure is tiresome and just ANNOYING to me everyone involved.
I have been doing my usual trawling of all the US cookie blogs, they have some great ideas with packs made up ready to order as standard. I am thinking this may be the way to go? I have been playing around with an email order form site, trying to see if I can customise it, in a way that would work for me and the customer, just to simplify things a it.... ahhh, it all takes time.

Anyway, here are some more Valentines things I have been playing with.

lingerie hearts...cute huh?

Hugs and Kisses...

and there is more too...still to come...

Don't forget to enter the Vday comp, here, to win $25 worth of Valentines biscuits.

Back to my original musings...What do YOU think? do you think the idea of offering a set pack of biscuits at a set price is a good one? like 6 or 12 (up to 24) biscuits in pack, one theme and 2-3 designs per pack?
please let me know..
Thanks!

More Biscuit Bouquets!

OK. Very last catch up post! promise :)
These are pics of the bouquets I havent previously posted that were ordered from me throughout the year.

This was to celebrate the birth of my new Nephew. My SIL (sister in love) is a vegan, so no eggs and no butter, what a head ache! LOL, I only ended up with 4 reasonable looking cookies, I used egg replacer and Nuttlex spread, I think I didn't chill the dough enough, so therefore all my biscuits spread terribly.
This was back in September, I also used egg replacer in the icing mix (instead of meringue powder) not realising I could have used a glaze (Duh!) I wasn't too impressed with the end result but SIL loved it just for the fact that she could ACTUALLY eat it! :)

This beautiful Red and black flowers bouquet is one I was quite pleased with. I made this one up for a friend of mine, anyone who knows her would agree that this is just her all over! so simple but effective! Was also my first go at chocolate sugar cookie dough, using real chocolate in the mix, not cocoa. Worked out really well.

Another Friends birthday, using my new princess cutters, Tiara, high heel shoes and dress! also a single birthday cake, covered in fondant and using a texture matt for the flower impressions, which I then coloured with my foodcolour pens.

yep, sorry, its not a bouquet, but I forgot to post this last time! 3 tiara/crowns for beautiful little girls 2nd birthday party.

My brother ordered this one and the one below for his bosses and a friend who got him the job. simple stars with a thank you message and "you're a star"

and another "flowers and B's" bouquet.

For Father in Law's Birthday, six stars with different messages all in blue and white, I also made a few "pecan fancies" (as I call them!) with my left over cookie dough, just shaped small bite size chunks then pressed in a pecan and baked, when cool I drizzled with royal icing, I heard they taste pretty good!

I had so much fun making this one! yes, purple is one of my fave colours, so working with it was a bonus, but I got to try out differet techniques for making hearts and trying out different ways to put messages on the cookies.

Ooops!this one isnt a bouquet either :)  I made these up for a dear friend who had a new baby girl.

This one I love! I had recently purchased some disco dust and had so much fun playing with it! Also the chosen colour scheme was great to work with, LOL.

These two were a bit of fun too, the baby shower one was a gift for a friend, with coloured onesies and ducks, the other for a birthday gift, 5 colourful flowers.

These went into a bouquet for my Brothers Birthday, forgot to take a decent pic of it assembled.