Moooooooo Cows

Cows, cows, cows, wow, so popular!
I made up a cow bouquet for an order and then suddenly everyone wanted cows!
I had a great time doing them, although one order (that sadly, I didn't take pictures of)  was for 50 or so cows, choc, vanilla, some brown, some black/white, for a fundraiser at a local hospital, left me with a VERY sore hand after wards. Think I was squeezing too hard!

This Bouquet was what started the whole thing..

Then I was emailed an order for this one...

Same thing but GREEN accents.

also the order from my Aunty that is in my last post but another pic anyway!

Birthday Biscuit Bouquets!

(Still playing catch up from last year!)

My mum actually ordered these for 2 of her friends and a workmates birthday (I still charged her! LOL)

Flowers and B's (bees and butterflies) hard to see here all the biscuits..

here are the Bees...

and the flowers..

and the butterflies!


This one was for my Mums work collegue, she is into kawaii type stuff and Hello kitty etc, so I did this one for her.

and before it was done up...

please disregard the lack of kitty whiskers! I took the photo and was looking at them for quite a bit before thinking "derrr...where are her whiskers???"

This last one I did for my friend, bit of a story here, We went out for dinner and a movie that night, consequently we were a bit tipsy by the time we got home, my dear friend left her biscuits on the floor in the loungeroom when she got home, only to awaken in the morning to find that her dog had made a meal of them during the night!! Gotta laugh....!

Orders! They just keep coming...!

It still amazes me that people are so lovely with their comments on my biscuits, it amazes me even more that so many want to buy them! Maybe I should stop being so hard on myself?
Heres some of my first orders

My Auntie actually ordered these for my cousins Birthday, a mix of white and dark choc biscuits with chocolate and coffee icing. I love doing those cows.

These were for a little boys first birthday, a mix of ginger bread and vanilla cookies, 20  bears and 20 hearts .

and I made the special birthday boy a Birthday crown on a stick, just for him!

Christmas 2010

I have been flat out doing Xmas orders! I knew that it could get busy this time of year but I was not expecting it to ramp up as much as it did!
One of my Random give away winners was waiting on this time to use her voucher, pictures below of a sample of what I did for her.

There were a few others too, but silly me forgot to take pictures!

A repeat customer Ordered 50x Snow flake cookies in 5x various colors, they were very cool to make but when I was done I looked at the finished product and thought they looked very plain, so I got out my luster dust and disco dust and had a little play...much better!

One Idea I had for my Xmas range was a gift box of mini biscuits, these proved to be quite popular with around 10 of these going out to customers. I was having a ball playing around with all the different little details I could get on a such a miniature cookie!

Now, I don't have a particular dislike for Fondant, I just think its a bit of a "cheat"! (no offense to those who use it, great things can be done with it!) I also personally just don't like the taste.
But I have these great impression texture mats that work really well on fondant so I thought I would offer it, This is one order I received for the snowflake set.

This customer also ordered some bauble/ornaments with "merry Xmas" on them.

The very last order for Xmas was picked up on Xmas eve morning, I was still bagging and tying ribbon when she arrived to pick them up! how embarrassing! But she was very appreciative and it was done on very short notice too.

I was mighty pleased to see the last order walk out the door, I spent many nights sitting/standing with a piping bag in hand and never got to bed before 2 am the week before Xmas.
I did enjoy the rush, but it was nice for it to be over!

My little boy turns 2! and Elmo....

Thats right, my chubby cheeked, mischeivous little boy has officially turned into a toddler! He is now 2! how did that happen? where did those 2 years go?

I decided to really challenge myself this year, I was going to make Elmo cookies , instead of goodie bags, an Elmo cake as well as Elmo cup cakes. It didn't quite happen the way I planned...

I found a Red Velvet cake recipe on joy of baking , I have always been intrigued by the ruby red luscious look of this type of cake.
My first two cake layers looked great! but then to my horror when I tried to move one, it just fell apart! I scraped up all remnants and put in a bowl...I had an idea...(more on that later!)
I made another two layers, dis regarding the fact that it was 2am, the cupcakes could wait till the next day.
Awaking nice and early and running on very little sleep, I managed to get the cupcakes made (with a little help from Master J, who gave his seal of approval when my back was turned and nabbed as many as he could fit in his chubby little hands ) then whipped up the butter cream, I had already abandoned any hope of doing Elmo faces on the cupcakes, I decided to just go with the same colour scheme.
I made up a heap of number 2 5cm biscuits to go as cupcake toppers and iced them in red and black.
My elmo biscuits had turned out really well, I was ever so pleased with them! Had them done and packaged and put away, then I returned to the cake and cupcakes.

Twas the night before the party, pulled out my buttercream and started tinting it, I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do with the cake, ended up being 3 layers of red velvet (and boy, was it RED!) with vanilla buttercream between layers, iced allover with buttercream then I piped on elmos's face and all the rest.

and heres my finished cake! oh, I also used an edible image strip around the sides..
I was very impressed, seeing as it was my first go at doing something like that!
the cupcakes I was and am still rather "meh" about, but heres a pic anyway..

now for the awesomeness...! remember that cake that crumbled? I stuck it in the fridge out of the way while doing all the above, then after finishing all that I took a leaf out of Bakerella's blog, and made some red velvet cake pops!
Being in Australia, I don't think we have "cream cheese frosting in a can" so I improvised with a block of Philly and icing sugar, mixed it all in with the cake crumbs and fashioned balls, stuck them on a stick, then dipped in melted white chocolate...can I just say YUM!!

I think you can see from the pic, just how RED they were!
they didn't last long on the day, everyone wanted one (or two!)
so all up it was a success, I am sure Jbaby had a great day, even I did, no stressing out, all was prepared beforehand and didn't cost me a fortune!
and heres one of Jbaby enjoying his birthday cake!

mmmm, red deliciousness!

Hmmm..getting a bit slack with this!

Yes, it has been over a week since I last posted. oh well, I'm making the effort now, that has to count for something, right?
I am gleefully collecting orders, every time some one emails me, I am happily shocked that they want MY biscuits! I have quite a few lined up for October, some in November and even another 2 now in December.
Jman has been very helpful in downloading and installing zen cart for me to use as my shopping cart, but he then gave me the links and said "there you go, run with it!" Sooo, the last few weeks have seen me, struggling to understand how to navigate the thing, data input and the like, I have had a bit of a break for a few days, it was giving me too many headaches!
During all this set up, I came up with the idea of holding a promotional event to coincide with the opening of said shopping cart, seeing as it would hopefully  be finished sometime in October, I decided to link it in with fundraising for The National Breast Cancer Foundation. I had already signed up to host a "girls night in" so I shot off an email to the NBCF with my idea, they approved it. Next I had to speak to Father in laws partner about hosting it at her restaurant/cafe, She was up for it, so far, so good!
I did a shout out on FB to see if any of my friends would like to donate products/services from their businesses, I have had quite a good response!
Received today my pink ribbon cookie cutters, so have been busy mixing, baking and decorating. I have been having so much fun with pink things for decorating!

mmm pink sprinkles.

pink with silver cachous

I got a bread maker!

The Jman loves fresh bread. We had a second hand bread maker, which lasted a few years, then the bearing gave out and resulted in flat, lumpy, heavy bricks of bread. So we bought a new one.
A really cool new one! that has lots of different settings and options, unlike the old one which only had knead and bake.
The new one has jam setting, and different dough settings, options to add stuff like nuts and dried fruits with an automatic dispenser! it also came with a book FULL of recipes for bread, doughs (pizza, foccacias etc) also buns! I just LOOOOVE a good sticky bun.
My dad, when I was a child used to make the most heavenly, sticky, coffee and cinnamon scrolls, I have pestered him for years to make them again, all to no avail.
So I made my own.
Using my brand spanking new bread machine to knead the dough. I wasn't all that confident but they actually worked out quite well, and tasted delicious.

These ones are caramel and walnut scrolls, before I added icing.

and after...

mmm, so yummy, Dad was impressed, hehehe.

And Jman is happy as now we can once again have fresh bread, although I will be honest and say that I have not yet attempted making bread from scratch, I buy those single packet bread mixes for crusty white loaves, maybe next time I will try to do it myself.