Baking Inspiration

About five years ago, I was in Chelsea Market in NYC and came across Eleni's, a bakery that makes the most beautifully decorated sugar cookies. 

These cookies are no joke - the details are amazing. 

From then on, I became a little obsessed with baking and decorating sugar cookies.  The three recipes that I started were the sugar cookie, orange & cream cookie, and royal icing recipes from Creative Cookies by Toba Garrett.  The recipes were easy to follow and in my opinion, the slight tang of the orange & cream recipe tastes better with the sweet royal icing.

You also need to find the cookie cutter shapes that you want.  I found a good number of them at Cincinnati Cake and Candy Supplies.  Crate and Barrel usually carries some decent holiday shapes and Fancy Flours also has a bunch and has inspiring photos and how-to tutorials.  I found that mini cookie cutters were great for practicing icing technique, because there is a smaller surface to decorate which makes it easier when it comes to working with the frosting and figuring out drying times.  Also, small cookies are also just really cute and you can just pop them in you mouth.

Spring cookie shapes

To add color to your royal icing, be sure to use gel food coloring rather than the watery kind that they sell at the supermarket.  The royal icing is very sensitive to water, so the gel adds intense color without watering down the icing too much.  A little gel color goes a long way.

Gel Food Color Kit

The results?

These were one of the first batches that I decorated.  The photos don't do them justice since my camera skills were not so hot 5 years ago.

More bad photos taken in a dark NYC apartment...I was going for girlie here.

 I liked how the herringbone design came out on these, but the colors were a little dull.

 

I've posted this photo before.  I baked this sparkly batch of mini scalloped edge cookies with royal icing and sugar sprinkles on top for my wedding favors two years ago.  I was really happy with how these turned out. 

I haven't decorated cookies in a long time.  I got a little burnt out after my sister, sister-in-law and I decorated about 300 mini cookies for my wedding.  Next time I bake a batch, I'll take photos as I go along so I can post a step-by-step.

Ninjabread Men Cookie Cutters!

I can't bake until we get a new oven and we can't get a new oven until we re-do our kitchen, but I saw these on Gasp! yesterday and they look awesome!

I also have way too many cookie cutters already and promised myself that enough was enough, but these may really be too hard to pass up.  It looks like they aren't in stock yet, but should be available sometime this month here.

Owl City

Owls are a trend that I can get behind.  Everyone knows that they are wise and I must say, they are suitably cute for both babies and adults alike.

I saw these silk-screened t-shirts and onesies at Market SF on Saturday.  I had the chance to snag one at a discount, but didn't and now I regret it.  Doh!

Snap one up at ViviKids.

This is a smart way to organize baby toys.

3 Sprouts Organic Storage Bin

These cookies look delicious and would be great for party favors.  

Owl sugar cookies by TSCookies.

Kerry Beary is so talented.  Below are just a few of her prints.

Kerry Beary made these Owl Prints on her Gocco!

And to add some hilarity to your day...MunaLuna had these cards at Market SF this past weekend.  Do you have some chores you need done?  Check out this deck of cards.  Mr. ChunkyPineapple and I got a good laugh.

Owl Bitch Cards from MunaLuna.

There are 25 cards in the deck, some of the phrases are:
"get in the kitchen, bitch!"
"answer the door, bitch!"
"bake me a pie, bitch!"
"where's my vodka, bitch?!"
"gimme your money, bitch!"
"iron my socks, bitch!"

Bake me a pie?  I mean...that's just really specific!  Cute, but sassy!

Oh, and I like Owl City (Fireflies) too.  =)