Or did someone order 220 cookies on a Wednesday for Monday delivery?? (Not hand delivery, UPS delivery. Which takes one day to get to Boston From VT. Giving us exactly 2 days to bake, ice, dry, detail, dry, package and ship.)

Hmmmm, I think both.

The order was for 100 T signs and 120 trains, 30 of each of the four colored lines. Those of you not familiar with public transportation in Boston, the T is the underground (and above ground) network of subway/trolley cars that take you around Boston and the surrounding towns.

Making the train cookies is about as fun as waiting for a D train at Park St. Station. (once I was so late for a doctors appointment because of the T, the doctor had to reschedule my appointment once I arrived. I cried. And then I never took the T to the doctors again) True story.

The T signs aren’t as much of a pain, only two colors, but YOU try outlining a perfect circle and then a perfectly centered T. It ain’t all that easy.

So many colors, so many outlines!!!

Now for something more fun than public transportation. Easter!! Easter is coming, and someday, maybe, Spring will be here in Vermont!! Until the snow melts I’ll have to live vicariously through all the Spring pictures on everyone elses blogs.

I did make our Easter Brunch reservations, so that’s something exciting!

We made our first Easter cookies yesterday. Pink Peep bunnies.

Yellow Peep Chickies.

And purple Peep bunnies.

Peeps are one of my once a year guilty pleasures. They’re a bit cardboardy tasting, but I love them. I love super fresh ones. Some people like them aged, not me. Give me fresh Peeps, please. I even belong to the Peeps fan club. True story.

And some answers to your questions.

But first, some farm animals.

A client requested some Barnyard Animal cookies for a childs Birthday party, and originally I was just going to make the cookies from our Barnyard collection. After seeing the paper goods that were to be used at the party, we decided to make some new cutters and go with the whimsical animals from those.

The cow and the horse cutters are rather large, but still cute.

A big pig face. I think I could have done a better job on the snout, but this is only one of the 15 I made. It was late when I finished and I obviously didn’t choose one of the best ones for the photo!! I think it kind of looks like Piglet from Winnie the Pooh….

And finally, the Horse cookie. He’s as big as the cow face.

You can’t see the horse in this image, but the cow is a bit more “realistic” than the cow face.

Now someone asked about bubbles in the royal icing. Yes, it happens, but there are some things you can do to reduce the bubbles in your icing. First, don’t beat the daylights out of it in your KitchenAid. Beat it slowly for about 7 minutes.

When you mix your colors, don’t beat it like a maniac. Gentle. Once you have your desired color, scoop out what you need for stiff consistency and then add water to the rest and thin it to your desired consistency for flooding. Again, GENTLY. Cover the bowl of thin icing with a damp towel and let it sit for a few minutes. The bubbles will have risen to the top. GENTLY stir out the bubbles.

Now all this will NOT eliminate bubbles, just reduce the number of them. You need toothpicks, or a clean exacto knife. We keep several exactos at hand just for popping bubbles in our icing.

Finally, when your pastry bag is close to empty, you will find a lot of bubbles. Think about it, the end of the bag is the top of the icing and all the bubbles rise to the top. Get it??

I use pastry bags for everything, I’ve never used squeeze bottles and I failed at parchment triangle bag making, so the disposables are perfect for me. I use #’s 1, 2, 3 tips depending on what I’m working on, outlining, filling, detailing, writing. The size of the tip also depends on the size of the cookie. I do have #’s 00, 0, and 1S that I use for tiny details and also filling tiny spaces.

I use a basic royal icing recipe:

1# 10x
3oz hot water (hot helps reduce clumps in the meringue powder)
1/4c meringue powder

You can find this recipe almost anywhere.

You can also find bubbly icing remedies on Sweetopia, and Bake at 350.

And the last question that I’ll answer today is one that was sent via email. And I might go on a bit of a tangent here, but bear with me.

How do you package your cookies for shipping?

Well, let’s see, when I was starting out this was a problem. Many of my first customers received damaged cookies, so we had to do some research. I ordered cookies from other established cookie companies to study their packaging, shipping supplies, methods, etc.

Nowadays you can read many a cookie blog or site that will share this information. I write this blog to share some information, but it’s also a vehicle for our business. You know, the way we make a living, pay the mortgage, feed our family, put clothes on our backs?? So I’m not giving away EVERYTHING that took me lots of research and trial and error to develop.

You can also just look on our website to see our packaging. Or you can do what I did and just order some.

I’m working on a Spring Swap idea, but it’s taking me some time to get it all together so stay tuned for more info this week.

Someone left a comment that had never heard of Fluff!! I know it’s an East coast or New England thing, but it’s so difficult for me to imagine someone growing up with out Fluffernutters. Since the company is based in my home state Massachusetts, I suppose it’s no wonder that I love it so much.

First off, Fluff is a not so healthy, guilty pleasure, food of the Gods type of food (it’s a formula of whipped corn syrup, sugar syrup, vanilla and egg white). Think of campfire marshmallows and S’mores. How good are S’mores? So good! Well fluff is marshmallow cream. It doesn’t have cream in it, but it’s like spreadable marshmallows, most commonly used in the classic sandwich, the Fluffernutter.

Photo from marshmallowfluff.com  

A Fluffernutter is the most amazing sandwich typically made of a soft white Wonder type bread, but you could glam it up by using home made white bread, or a nice crusty boule sliced up for sammys. Another way to fancify your Fluffernutter would be to use a fancy peanut butter, like natural PB, OR, some delicious Peanut Butter from Peanut Butter and Co. in NYC. Their PBs are available in most supermarkets, or online at IlovePeanutButter.com

On one slice of bread spread your favorite peanut butter, it really can be any kind, smooth or crunchy. On the other slice of bread spread some Marshmallow Fluff, then put the two slices together and you have nirvana. A delicious balance of sweet and salty, gooey and sticky. I might have one of these for lunch.

Now, some other things you can use Marshmallow Fluff for is Whoopie Pie filling, which is why I have an abundance of Fluff containers and why occasionally Dave will drink some milk out of a Fluff container. (we don’t keep glasses in the bakery)

Our Whoopie Pie filling is made with Marshmallow Fluff, butter, confectioners sugar, pure Madagascar bourbon vanilla, and a splash of whole milk. Super nutritious and healthy. NOT. (but so tasty)

People are  STILL  asking for our Whoopie Pies in the Bake Shoppe, but I’m done with the Whoopies for a while. Another use for the Fluff is the filling for a home made Hostess cupcake, and one of my all time favorite uses for Fluff is in hot cocoa. Oh, it’s so good that way, I would never think of having cocoa without Fluff.

I used to have the Fluff mug in the picture above, but Franklin knocked it over and busted the handle.

If you’ve never experienced the pleasures of Marshmallow Fluff, go over tho their website and get yourself a tub, or 3 for $17.99. I would stick with the original flavor, although I’ve never tried the other flavors, I feel there is no need really.

I’m going to go try out that recipe for a Fluffernutter Whoopie Pie. Now how good does that sound???

Let’s start with cake. I love cake. I crave cake. Sometimes without frosting and sometimes with mashed potatoes. Not on top of course, mashed potatoes with cake for dessert.

I made a special order cake a couple of weeks ago for a regular Bake Shoppe client. She came in with her husband to order her own Birthday cake. I’d do the same thing, if I wasn’t going to make my own cake.

A delicious coconut almond cake with almond cream cheese frosting and the very last of my fancy candied almonds from Paris. Bye bye almonds!!

So Dave made the cake and I made the frosting and assembled the whole thing. Nothing too fancy. I’m not so great at fancy cakes. Fancy cookies, most definitely, but not cakes.

Up close with my awesome cake decorating. (I AM kidding, it’s very basic cake decorating).

Here are some Maple Oat Pecan Thins that we’ve been selling in the shop. I’ve considered offering them online, but the shipping would be more than the actual packet of cookies, so I’m trying to develop a mixed gift box of unique baked goods, confections and sugar cookies to offer online. It’s going to be a while so don’t even ask me when it will be available. Rest assured that blog readers, Facebook group members, and Twitter followers will be the first to know!

These are buttery, crispy and delicious!! My Dad kept eating them right off the display when he was here in the Fall.

We made more of the Tiffany box inspired cookies last week.

A run of Paris cookies (which are already sold out and I have to make more next week)

I made these lemon swirl cookies that pretty much sold out in 4 days. The recipe is from a new blog on my sidebar there: Sprinkle Bakes.

Her cookies look better than mine. If you look at the pics on her blog, the dough looks a little tighter. Mine has quite a few holes. However, I used lemon zest and fresh lemon juice to flavor mine. Sprinkle Bakes used strawberry extract, which is nowhere to be found in Vermont. I found some natural strawberry and raspberry extracts on line that should be arriving this week, so I’ll try it out again then.

The cookies are delicious and not too difficult to make, but I’m going to make them again on a larger scale. Next time I’ll do a double batch of dough to get larger rounds that will be baked on a stick to look like those big spiral lollipops. I think they’ll be great for Easter baskets, especially tied with a big pink bow!!

I’m working on our Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcake and so far the cake is DELICIOUS!! The cookie toppers and the buttercream are my next projects, as well as some new drop cookies for the shop.

I’ll post pictures as soon as I make some progress.

And because we’ve been a little Franklin and Lily heavy here on the blog, here’s my Perfect Princess Casper in one of her favorite places.

Next to me, under the covers in bed.

Bye for now…………….

That’s right, the entire title of this post was shouted out, double exclamation points. TWICE.

Check out what Jen and Cakespy have to say about A Dozen Eggs HERE.  It’s all so exciting. Jen told me she wrote to Cakespy, but I never thought we’d get our own post.

Well, we did, and it’s great. And dopey me didn’t see it until tonight. I’ve only just started to read Cakespy on a regular basis (following her trip to Paris right now) and as I was scrolling along reading about Oscar themed desserts and Opera Cake, there were our cookies!! So go over, give it a read and say something nice.

I’ve finally figured out a cupcake cookie design that I’m happy with. I tried a couple of years ago, but ugh, were they awful.

I think it may have been the colors. This time I decided on chocolate brown, pale pink, green and blue.

A cherry on top, or a shiny red orb, is the finishing touch. The red could be a candy, or my most recent obsession, gumballs. I got gumballs for our Valentine’s Day get together and I’ve been chewing on them for days. Franklin likes to try to pop the bubbles and Lily just looks confused and tilts her head.

Then she’s afraid of them.

If you’re new here, Franklin is my incredibly naughty Gray Tabby cat (see below, and Lily is my equally naughty Yellow Lab/Basenji mix. (I have another pure white cat, Casper, who is a perfectly well behaved pet)

Speaking of Franklin, he’s been getting in some trouble lately. He ate half a pack of whole grain tortilla wraps. In like 30 seconds.  Poked through some plastic wrap and had a bowl of potato salad, tried to run off with a fluff container that Dave had just had some milk in (don’t ask why we drink out of fluff containers, please, just don’t) and stole some Hershey kisses out of a candy bowl. Oh, yeah I almost forgot the third of a baguette that fell out of the freezer. I found it under the bed several days later half eaten and all gummy. Incorrigible.

He’s so cute though. You can’t stay mad for long. I just hope he doesn’t kill himself with all the weird food he steals. I put his giant face on my laptop. It makes me smile every time I open it up.

And that is all for Sunday night.

Oh yeah, how ’bout those cupcake cookies?? Purdy huh??

We’ve survived the snow, although it keeps snowing, but the power has remained in tact.  We had a boatload of random cookies to finish up today, which made for a lot of color mixing and heavy sighs. At least I don’t have to ice any cookies tomorrow (Sunday, which is actually today) leaving me free to go through the boxes of books in the upstairs closet and get a few loads of laundry done. I’m searching for some wrought iron candle sconces that have gone missing for the past 3 years. I’m hoping they might be amongst the boxes of books and NOT in the boxes in the basement.

Anyway, enough with my boring drivel and on with the pigs and beer.

See, a pig and a pint of stout. Pig says “erin go bragh”.

Pigs and beer.

We’ve been working on St. Patrick’s day cookies forever. At least it feels like forever, but really I think it’s only been two weeks.

We also finished a brand new Piggy collection. I think it’s super duper cute (it goes beyond just plain old “super cute”).

Here’s what it started out as.

Inspired by a card sent to us by a gentleman in Japan (to include with a collection of cookies for his GF in the states), also inspired by Hello Kitty (my all time fave since 6th grade!)

I wanted them to be done in subtle shades of pink and peach with big eyes.

But they just didn’t pop.

So I added some plain and sugared hearts in a darker shade of dusty rose. I think they are almost there, still not enough POP!!

I think this could be it.

I brightened up all the colors, just a little. I think they look great all together.

We’re calling it Hogs and Kisses. Just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Ooops, not so much. But you can send Hogs and Kisses any time. Right?

All together, and in CHOCOLATE sugar cookie dough. Yumm. Heeerrre pig pig pig.

More beer. This time with 4 leaf clovers and Irish flags. (I even painted the harp on the pint glass in gold).

So there you have it pigs and beer.

No pigs were harmed in the making of these cookies.

Certified Cruelty Free Cookies.

Some beers may have been harmed though.

Hey! I finally came up with a CUPCAKE cookie that I’m happy with. I’ll be posting soon……..

Well, we certainly got a ton of snow yesterday and there’s more to come today. Naturally, we forgot to get batteries on our most recent trip to BJ’s, so I’m using my camera sparingly.

Here’s what it looked like yesterday.

It was quite lovely in the morning. This is the view out the big window in the living room, while sitting at the door/table.

This was around noon. The plow had been through at 6am and the snow is already almost up to my knees!

Lily loves the snow. Maybe today (if I can get some batteries) I’ll take a video of her hopping through the snow. It’s truly a sight to see. I’ve never seen a dog do what she does. But I’ve never heard of a dog escaping from a metal crate either and she can do that.

The snow is a little wet and makes perfect snowballs, which I’ve discovered that Lily LOVES to chase. Maybe more than sticks or tennis balls. This made it super easy for me. No need to try to wrestle anything away from her, just grab more snow!

Mini practically buried.

Our UPS driver stopped by to tell us that the road had been closed, which never happens. We live on a major route that leads to two ski resorts. All the traffic backed up beyond our house. It got even worse than this. Eventually they all cleared out. Dave and I had visions of stranded drivers hanging out in the bakery for the night, and thankfully, that didn’t happen.

We lost power at the end of the day at around 5pm, then it came back at around 6pm. So if you tried to email or were looking for some kind of online communication and we didn’t reply, that’s why. The power actually sputtered a couple of times throughout the day and I had to ice some cookies in the dark.

Dave got some use out of the roof rake, but you should have seen/heard the snow coming off the roof this morning. Like a freight train driving over you. We’ve got a huge wall of snow around the house. I’m actually going to try to clear off the deck this morning. I don’t want anything happening to our new deck.

We’re suppose to get even more snow today with high winds and some freezing rain. I’m so glad we cut down that rotting pine tree last year!! Although, one of our tall pines in the back yard lost a lot of giant branches from the heavy snow yesterday. I’m guessing that with all the heavy snow from yesterday and the storm coming today that we will lose power again, so if I go offline, that’s what happened.

We didn’t open the shop yesterday and I’m guessing that we won’t open today. If you’re looking for cupcakes, call first and if we don’t answer it’s because the power is out and I’m sure we won’t have any cupcakes!!

It’s snowing today. A lot. Our plow has already made a pass through the driveway. At 6am. I’m sure he’ll be back later.

The snow is beautiful and I’d love nothing more than to go out and play with Lily then come in the house for hot cocoa and a movie. But, there’s a lot of work to be done and I have to get out and get the Bake Shoppe ready, so no cocoa, blankies, or snuggling with Dave and the pets while watching a movie. A girl can dream, can’t she?

We’re working on a whole bunch of small jobs and I’m hoping to wrap up a few today. I don’t have pictures of the current cookies, but I have more from my laptop.

So, on with the old cookies!!

I really loved this job and I wish more people would order dessert buffets. I love the miniature cupcakes, the mini pumpkin whoopies and the seven layer bar petit fours. Plus, this customer has an amazing house as a beautiful backdrop to our sweets.

If we EVER get another dessert buffet order again, I think I’ll make a *sweets* banner to hang behind it. Something like this. That would have looked really nice here. If only I had thought of it then!!

I did make some tutus for a Birthday party yesterday. Not this one, but one just like it.  Even better than this one….

I made these a while ago, but I really like them. The brushes are really cool.

The same client. Maybe I’ll make tools for Father’s Day. I know that’s not a very original idea, I’ve seen lots of other cookie businesses offer tools for Father’s Day. I think mine are cuter though. I really dig the silver.

These really aren’t anything spectacular, but I LOVE making these cookies. Cute and simple. Maybe next time I’ll try to ice them with my eyes closed. Or not. I don’t think that would work out so well.

I loved making these too. Super simple (HATE that term) nautical cookies for a shower with the theme “ship’s ahoy, it’s a boy”. So cute. I love the boat, love the whales. They look happy.

And this was a REALLY fun job. Dave, me and 3 days to make over 3000 cookies. Sleep much? Not that weekend.

That’s all for today, Casper has had her breakfast and is now sitting next to me.  He body heat is making me not want to get up, but, someone’s gotta make the cupcakes and cookies.

I’ll have some new cookies for tomorrow, promise!! I made more Mouse faces yesterday and some other cookies that I wish I had the projector for, but that’s not arriving until next week. Can’t wait to try it out, and it BETTER be worth it.

Enjoy your day!!

While Dave and I were in Paris for my big 4-0, we took some pictures and up until now there are some things going on in the background that I hadn’t noticed before.

Here I am making a funny face…………………..and look, right behind me is a guys boxer shorts. I have to say, I didn’t see too many poorly dressed people in Paris, until I took a closer look at our pictures. Dude, I can see that you have a belt.  Why isn’t it working?? And your butt looks, hmm, how shall I say this? Non-existent. Maybe it’s the “pants on the ground thing”.

Here’s the original of this photo. A nice one of me from far away with Sacre Coeur and the fancy carousel in the background. But wait, what’s this I see???

If we crop and blow up the photo (just like CSI), you’ll notice that guy to my right.  He’s totally picking right? Maybe he’s just scratching? I don’t know, it really looks like picking to me. And I have to say the tourists in this part of town weren’t the most well put together group. (Don’t wear sneakers in Paris, you might as well put on the fanny pack and black socks)

There’s nothing really funny about this, except that the price tag says 28 euros, which translates to $38.12. See how it’s 7 raspberries square? (there’s a second tart behind the one in the front). I think that’s a lot of money for a 7 berry square tart. But the funny thing is that I would NEVER tell the proprietors that I thought they were charging a lot for a 7 berry square tart, but some of the people that come into our shop seem to have NO PROBLEM telling me that they think my $2.50 cupcakes are expensive. I don’t know where they shop for cupcakes that are scratch baked, filled with home made fillings and all crowned by some kind of hand made topper. And cost LESS than $2.50. (and some of our cupcakes are only $2.00)

And don’t EVEN get me started on the people that request quotes for super complex cookies and then say they price “seems a little high”

You know, just be polite and say “that was more than I was expecting”, “that’s out of my budget”…. chances are you’ve requested something crazy complex and we can give you more economic, less complex, but still cute, options.

Now what would I do in a fancy pastry shop that sold $38, 7 berry square tarts? I’d not engage the proprietor in any conversation and leave. Once outside and away from earshot, I might say to Dave (or whoever) “wow did you see the price on that tart?” Or, if it was a shop that I REALLY wanted to sample (which most of them are), I’d find something in my budget that I found appealing and buy it, and keep my mouth shut about the $38, 7 berry wide tart.

Yep, that’s what I’d do.

Wasn’t that funny? Funny how I managed to get a little rant into a “funny” post? Funny, right? Well I could go on with the funny, but I’ll save that for another day. Like how a customer hung up on Dave last week, and another one demanded her money back for shipping that was delayed by UPS due to the big storm during Valentine’s Day, and someone else pulled into the driveway to walk their dog in our yard. And the dog actually had a poop. In our yard.  And they didn’t even come into the shop, never mind buy something. Just pulled in, had a poop, then drove off, yeah funny….

And I leave you with this:

Something funny, or at least mildly amusing. Lily in repose. Wearing my pink pashmina, ears akimbo, looking off into space……..

PS Lily’s limp is pretty much gone!! Yay! No expensive trip to the vet tomorrow. Still, no fetch for a week. And I tell you, she’s going out of her mind!

I’ve never looked to see how many posts I’ve written, but I think 433 is pretty impressive. Especially for a Creative Writing Dropout.

We had planned to go over to W. Lebanon, NH today to pick up some 10x, and a few other supplies at the BJ’s there, but it’s snowing, and we have no idea what the weather is like outside of the “snow belt”. So we’re not going to venture out in the Mini until the snow clears here. Or, we could just check the weather, but checking the weather is for wimps.

Yet another snafu, either my camera has finally crapped out, or I need new batteries, cause I can’t get the sucker to turn on. And I’m not getting out of bed to go get fresh batteries. Which is too bad because I made a nice coconut almond Birthday cake for a customer yesterday. It looked pretty and festive, if I do say so myself. She got the last of the Parisian candied almonds.

So here’s the deal, I have some photos that are already on the laptop in iphoto that I’d like to discuss. I’ll be writing a series of posts featuring photos from the past.

Let’s talk about this new piece of equipment that we’re about to purchase. The KopyKake projector. (photos from the past to follow, don’t worry)

Here I am looking at some of the most amazing and uniform cookie designs on the internet, thinking Holy Crap, I’m a hack. When all along people are projecting images onto cookies and tracing them. Hell, I can do that too!! So, I’m getting one. Thanks for the tips Bea. Dave did something with your email, and I don’t have it to reply, so I’m replying here. Getting the extension tube, and extra bulbs along with the projector. We’re ordering it next week. So if anyone has any complex cookie ideas, bring it on!!

Just think, how great my cookies will be!! Let’s look at some of the complex cookies I’ve done free hand, WITHOUT the aid of a projector, shall we:

Meno and friends. Did you all THINK I used some type of tracing technique for these? Well, then you’d be wrong. All I used was a picture, my hands and my eyes. And yep they were a big pain in the butt and very time consuming, but how cute?

I made these for April B and didn’t use any type of tracing, projecting or pin prick technique (btw, does anyone know what the pin prick technique is, because I don’t and a cookie artist that I love said she used it, but I didn’t want to ask)

See, all I had was a picture.

Another highly detailed, make one wrong move and the whole cookie is ruined, design. All done by hand, all by myself…..

The Tiffany gift box with the Tiffany font. You have no idea how many of these I tossed because I screwed up the letters. And that goes for all of the above cookies. It may look easy, but when I ice the first 10, sometimes 20 of these kinds of cookies, there are a lot of heavy sighs, swears, and cookies thrown in the trash.

Oh, I know you think that’s wasteful, and it is, but I can’t bear to look at the F-ups. It makes me even more frustrated and pissed off.  So in the garbage they go.

We can’t have a cranky cookie designer now can we?

Ok, ready for some more??

Hello Dr. Fox! I only had to copy this from my sketch. It helps to draw the image before you actually ice it. It gives you an idea of where the curves, angles and lines should be.

No tracing here. I’m starting to feel really good about my skills right about now.

I did this one almost 3 years ago! Omer is the Odyssey of the Mind mascot. Our friend M has some UBER smart nieces who did really well in the OOTM competition the year they had Omer cookies. I don’t even know what the competition is, but we need more brainy kids in this world, so I’m all for the Odyssey of the Mind.

Finally, the Sponge who apparently says “stupid” too much. Since when did stupid become the “S” word? Here I am thinking Sponge Bob is yelling out shit and it turns out he says stupid.

Whatever.

Ok, so I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane that served as a vehicle to make me feel damned great about my cookie icing abilities.

Now, just wait ’til I get that projector thingy……….

I’m thinking my days of heavy sighs, swears, and tossing cookies are over.

(get it tossing cookies??)