I would move the world for her

Getting Busy!

I have four Valentine cookie orders, and two birthday orders to fill by the end of February! I'm so excited! Money for research! Money for research! :)

I tried a new icing recipe last night, after much thought over the taste of my Royal Icing.

Royal Icing Cookies

To be honest, RI is not so easy for me to work with, and I think it takes less than stellar. Consistency is everything with decorating, and I had a really hard time keeping with the right consistency. So, the internet lead me on a search, and I found a great recipe (CookieCrazie).I LOVE IT!!!!

I think because I am so very new at this, switching between mediums didn't make much of a difference.

My chocolate blanks, right out of the oven (the littles are samples!)

Decorated, and ready to eat!

 My family taste testers (the boys, Ellie doesn't get very many cookies) and I agree that the new glaze is HANDS DOWN better than the RI. It tastes soooo good, and the cookies stay soft and om nom nomable!

I have lots of practice to do, yet, but I am starting to find my groove!

One Small Step 2014

I'm thrilled! We registered our walk on the One Small Step site.  http://onesmallstep.fpwr.org/dw/walking/location/927

It is so excIting getting started on a new year of fundraising.  If you click through to the link,  you'll maybe notice we already have $200 raised! All cookies,  baby!!

I can't tell you how much I like decorating these cookies.  It makes me so,  so happy.

I have orders for Valentine's, two birthdays and I just applied for three dates at the north delta winter market!

Even Pinterest likes my cookies,  my Valentine's samples have been repinned 170 times!

I just hope everyone who takes the time to click through from there, notices that they're all for raising funds and awareness :)

New Year!

I don't do resolutions. If I feel the need to change something,  I change it.  As Master Yoda said "do or do not.  There is no try".

2013 was a great year.  I felt so balanced,  and deeply happy. Our life is pretty great. The kids are doing so well, Dh is almost ready to go back to work,  and I have so many things to look forward to this year.

I will plan an awesome fundraising walk in the summer. I well continue to raise awareness of PWS,  and do everything I can to make sure Ellie is pushed to meet her potential.

I have so many cookie ideas,  I am going to bake up a storm!

I just ordered two raised garden beds for the yard,  which I've already planned out!
I got my hands on a copy of Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.  It is inspiring! In a relatively small space (4'x8') I can grow what normally would take five times the space!

Amazon had a killer deal on vinyl planters, which are definitely more expensive that diy with lumber,  but super low maintenance and easy to install. 

Phoenix destroyed our yard last summer.  He ate every single plant. This year,  I'm starting again from scratch,  and Jakob is going to help!

I hope gardening will help to drop my overall stress level. I'm looking forward to seeing if it does!

Sweet Ellie Belle Cookies!

I'm on a cookie making roll!

I've started a Facebook page for my cookies. Facebook.com/sweetelliebellecookies

New obsession!

I love cookies. I've loved cookies my whole life.  My parents will attest that cookie wad my first two syllable word. No joke!

I also love art. I draw everyday. I doodle when I talk on the phone, colour with Jakob very often, and always have a sketchbook in progress.

When I was making those snowflake cookies, I started wondering what else you could do to decorate cookies.

Holy moly! The internet has 846395827165 ideas!! I spent a couple hours, late into the night, researching royal icing, and cookie decorating.

Today, I bought a few supplies and cranked these out!!

I LOVE them!

Do you?

Merry Christmas

I've just finished my holiday baking. I intended to make a few more batches, but we really don't need them, and I made the perfect amount to thoroughly enjoy the entire process. 

This year, I relied completely on old recipes. I wanted to honour the recipes passed down from my grandmother,  and also found a couple old note cards of recipes I'd forgotten I had.

My mom joined me for a day of baking, and today I finished the rest.

We made:

- brown sugar shortbreads

- lemon cranberry bites

- amazing black currant window cookies (this year's favourite)

- Danish almond cookies

- dollar cookies

- the "best" sugar cookies.

Pretty, no?

I tracked my progress with the sugar cookies. They're a labour of love! Took me over three hours to frost 80 cookies.

The best sugar cookies recipe:  

2/3 cups butter , 3/4 c sugar, 1tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, one egg, 1tsp vanilla (or peppermint!), and 1tbsp milk. 2 cups flour.

Cream butter in mixer, add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Add egg, vanilla, and milk. Mix til combined.

Beat in flour. If you have a stand mixer, I set mine to stir. It takes a little longer, but it all gets incorporated and I don't have to knead by hand.

Roll, cut out and bake at 375f for 7 min a batch until very lightly browned.

Add caption

Royal icing recipe:

-1 cup icing sugar

-1 egg white

-1/4 tbsp lemon juice

(For the blue I used one drop food colouring)

Beat in a mixer on low til combined, then beat on high til stiff peaks form.

Start by outlining, let dry for an hour or so.

(I have a really handy tool for outlining. It's a bottle that is folded like a spring. Hard to describe... I bought it at the kitchen store in town. It's fitted with a cap and adaptor for all the icing tips)

My frosting set-up. I rest my spoon on the spatula, and keep a toothpick handy on the handle of my bowl.

Drop a teaspoon worth of frosting on each cookie.

Use the toothpick to drag the frosting around the cookie, within the lines.

Once the background is dry, add detailing in another colour.

Ready for gifting. Merry Christmas!!