some pre christmas practice cookies

Well as christmas is getting closer I have been doing my best to get some cookies done. Feels like it snuck right up on me but I managed to make a few goodies. I got the mitt idea from one of my favourite blogs bakeat350 she does some amazing stuff and it is all fairly easy to follow. This is the post with the instructions and this is the recipe I used for the cookies. I used the royal icing recipe from sweetopia I love this site as well for inspiration here is the royal icing recipe follow it exactly as it says. If you dont have a mixer you can use a hand mixer just make sure you still mix for ten mins. I'm still working on the right constancy and such that's my biggest challenge sounds silly but it's hard.As you can see on my snowflakes the blue icing was a bit runny so it didn't hold it's shape well. I also made up some gingerbread i got the recipes off allrecipes I don't have the link because i use my app sorry but it was highest rated. I did some shortbread the recipe was also allrecipes app it was literally 2 cups butter 1 cup sugar 2 tsp of vanilla and 4 cups flour worked out great. I probably wont be posting until after Christmas so hope everyone has a merry Christmas and happy new year! I promise there will be more cookies to come in the new year.

I used disco dust to make the snowflakes sparkle

Melted snowmen cookies and a special gift

well when my hubby told me he needed cookies for his Christmas party I immediately thought melted snowman cookies which I had seen here. I think they turned out really good but I wasn't really feeling the cookie recipe itself that they linked. they were more like a cake cookies than a sugar cookie for me anyways but you could use any recipe you want. As the link states I followed it almost exactly except I found the marshmallows heated up faster in my microwave so that would vary for each one. When the marshmallow was placed and the icing was dry I painted the "snow" with luster dust mixed with lemon extract which I have to mention is not fda approved for food but for makeup but it is non toxic. So it wont kill you and we use non fda approved stuff all the time so this is no biggie in my books.

The extract evaporates fast as its about 99% alcohal so work quickly. When it has all dried you can poor the dried parts back into your container as it turns back to dust. I made my black icing too runny so it was a little less strong looking than I would have liked but hey i'm still learning. I waited for the luster dust to dry which gave the snow a bit of an opaque sheen looking like snow. Than I added the details and they were done. It sounds and looked more complicated than it was. The cookies did spread quite a bit making them huge which Trevor obviously couldnt take 24 of them to work. So I whipped up some shortbread in minutes with my new kitchen aid mixer aint she a bute

Came this morning via UPS shipped from amazon.ca so no nasty charges this time. I am so in love with this thing I got this one as much as I wanted a pink one I couldn't see spending an extra 100 bucks for the colour alone and a weaker motor. Free shipping and showed up in about a week in two boxes so I had one to ship my son back in

hahaha jk jk. Well I am going to be working on some more christmas cookies so I will post when there all done hope your all having a wicked day.

just a little p.s the marshmallows get super sticky make sure you grease the plate up good and your fingers

my package came!...... with an extra cost

Well I haven't blogged in a while because I have been waiting on my order from country kitchen to come in with all my cookie cutters for Christmas and otherwise as well as my disco dust and food colouring gels etc. I was so excited to get the package today I had been tracking it through UPS from the beginning and knew it was coming in today. Needless to say when it got it I jumped up to answer the door only to find an in a rush UPS man asking me for 63 dollars and some odd change.

63 dollars for what duties and taxes on a package certainly wouldn't cost almost as much as the package which was about 100 dollars. I come to find out that it is brokerage charges to export it through customs. I was more than willing to pay for duties and taxes as that's how it goes when shipping across borders. Being a previous employer of a courier company who ships internationally I know quite a bit about these fees but was not aware that UPS was among the highest charging me 43 dollars in brokerage. I had ordered several packages from the states before and used UPS with no brokerage or duties and taxes for that matter. So right away I email the company which has nothing on there site nor in the several emails me exchanged about brokerage fees.

It simply says you may incur custom charges which they cannot estimate which the man replying was eager to remind me of. Now I know brokerage is technically a customs charge but it is something they are agreeing to on my behalf without my consent as the package states in small writing. It is also something I believe should be told to customers seeing as the company would be able to somewhat estimate brokerage cost on package cost and tell the customer before shipping. I'm sure this isn't there first time shipping across borders to Canada or elsewhere but I am assuming telling customers you may pay half the cost of your package in brokerage may deter buyers.

I did some digging and also remembered I could have cleared this myself through customs or chose a different broker had I been given the option to saving me the 43 bucks. So I await my reply from the company which I am sure will be some nonsense about how they wont refund me and that its somehow my problem. So bakers beware as great as there products and prices are such as disco dust being 7-8 bucks at my local store to there cost of 4 dollars or less it will end up costing more in the customs fees. Should have gone with USPS hate to say it and had an undetermined delivery date with no brokerage charges :(. Hope this rant informs those ordering across borders at the extra costs you may end up paying while trying to save a buck...... now onto the goods!!!

Some gel colouring to add to my collection

Comfort grip cookie cutters from wilton amazing and among my fave.

mirengue powder and lemon extract a must have for royal icing and cookies

Disco dust have never used it before but cannot wait to make my cookies sparkle!

sugar pearls

before the unboxing

random Christmas and otherwise cutters

Princess cutters cannot wait to use these

Canon Contest!

This is my entry in the Just Ask Bucket List Getaway Giveaway. Just Ask offers a breast and ovarian cancer screening and is encouraging people to share 15 things that I want to enjoy in my lifetime as a reminder to be aware of my health. Want to enter? Head over to TodaysMama.com to get the details. 


My bucket list is as follows......

1. Take my family to Disney Land
2. spend a week in Hawaii checking out volcanoes and other cool things
3. Lose all my baby weight haha
4. Finally get my full license 
5. have another baby (maybe)
6. eat healthier than i already do
7. start a cookie company
8. do more fun things with my son
9. take some web design courses and brush up on my skills
10. get a doggy!!
11. workout more :(
12. have date nights with my hubby
13. buy a house
14. learn another language like spanish
15. visit new york

These are in no particular order and some are silly but whateves!

Is it christmas yet??

As i have said before i won't be doing much baking until after we move end of this month. That being said doesn't mean I'm not looking up great ideas for holiday cookies. I came across this totally adorable tutorial on melted snowman cookies i just had to post it. The site is called trulycustomcakery and this is the link to the tutorial. I personally prefer the recipe i found on Sweetopia.net for the royal icing which is here i use this one and some others depends on my needs for the specific cookie. Hope you guys like these as much as i do cant wait to make them!!

Another Halloween gone

Well last night was full of trick or treating and fireworks. My son had so much fun this being the first Halloween he could actually walk he loved every minute of it. He dressed up as buzz lightyear with wings and all and once he got the hang of what was going on he was on his way. I had already done Halloween cookies so I figured no point in that again you probably won't see much from me until December. Here are some pics of Halloween and you have to check out cakewrecks it's hilarious. Hope everyone had a great Halloween.

Party time!

Hey guys and gals well Carter's party went great. He loved seeing all the family and playing with his cousin they have so much fun. His cake turned out pretty good besides the modeling chocolate headboard. It was my first time using it and apparently white chocolate has more fat content than white I used white to get the brown colour I wanted but not to brown. Lesson learned it was so greesy and literally oozing oil. In the end it was moldable but flimsy. I used a 12x2 circle pan for the base and cut a rectangle for the bed all covered in buttercream. The fondant for the blocks went a little crumbly and cracked but I just molded it around the rice krispies blocks and it worked out. I watered down the gel food colouring with Bacardi because it's all I had. Recommended is vodka it works better than water for consistency. All in all it worked pretty well my feet were killing me after being on them all day but it was worth it I finished it off with characters from toy story carter loved it. Now onto Halloween!

Happy 2nd birthday baby!

Well as the title says my son Carter turned 2 today it was great but sad at the same time I feel like he's growing up so fast. In addition to his cookies I made him some marbled cupcakes. I halved a regular yellow cake recipe and did half in raspberry with purple colouring (buzz lightyear) and the other half vanilla with no colour. I think they turned out good and I topped them off with green buttercream icing. He was more than thrilled after a day at the pumpkin patch and his fave dinner of mac and cheese it was a nice dessert. Here are some pics let me know what ya think . The big cake is coming on Saturday woo!

Cowboys and spaceships

Hey everyone this is yet another go at sugar cookies. This time worked out a bit better I'm still experimenting with icing consistency and texture but im getting there. Keep in mind I have no icing tips because apparently I have lost mine so I have been piping straight from the bag which doesn't make for the best lines. These are for my sons second birthday which is this Wednesday than his birthday party is on Saturday. That's when the big guns come out or should I say big cake!
Without further ado the finished product cowboy hats and spaceships for toy story theme. The ships are purple but look blue for whatever reason my camera wouldn't pic it up.

sugar cookie fail!!

Well i was off my game today cookie wise but thought I would make some Sugar cookies anyways. I set out on a search for a new recipe just to switch it up a bit from the norm. That's when I stumbled across bakeat350 this site is awesome full of tips and recipes. I ended up going with this recipe which turned out amazing great flavor and a softer cookie which I prefer. For those who don't you can roll it out thinner and bake a bit longer i did mine about 8-10 mins just watched really closely. I did my usual royal icing recipe but didn't thin out my flood icing enough ugh by that time it was in the piping bag and there was no going back. I have done these cookies a million times ok well maybe like 10 and have never done this so off my game. I am almost ashamed to show these pics but live and learn having a toddler shaking the table while outlining is never a good idea and always remember to water down your flood icing. There is more amazing recipes on sweetopia tons of recipes as well as tips etc.