Franklin has his annual dry ear issue and is wearing his E Collar this week.

Casper helped him clean his head last night.

She’s such a good little kitty.

We are very close to the end of painting in the living room. Here’s a peek at the color. Simple, clean and bright!

Just a little of this and a little of that, nothing solid enough to warrant an entire post.

Dave thought it was crazy that I bothered to write a big post about our trip to Ikea last week, without showing a picture of the main reason for our trip. So here’s a photo of the door/table.

I took the picture from upstairs so you could get the whole space. We’re working on more painting this weekend, the wall on the left is freshly painted but the one behind and to the right of the table are still the old dingy tan color. It’s a work in progress all around.

Our living room plans also include replacing the icky old fireplace and the mantle and surround.

The door is still due for a sanding and a clear finish and possibly a glass top. It’s not necessarily for eating, but more for playing games, puzzles, cocktails, morning coffee, etc.

I’ve been dipping my toes in the waters of Twitter, and I’m not sure how it’s working out, I do know that someone is using A Dozen Eggs so I have to be A12eggs, so if you see me go on ahead and follow. I can’t promise anything earth shattering yet, but I’ll figure it out sooner or later!!

We were suppose to work on two Paris cookie designs yesterday, but the Bake Shoppe was so busy all I did was make more cupcakes all day. I’m not complaining, it’s most definitely a good problem to have. Red Velvet was the clear winner yesterday, with Caramel Chocolate a close second. I wouldn’t know which one to choose if I had to choose just one!

The two potential designs for the Paris cookies are the classic Chanel Flap bag.

And a version of this poodle in black and white.

Hopefully, we can get these done in the next couple of days.

Dave made a new sign for our February special Red Velvet, which seems to be working well.

A new photo of the Eagles football cookies all together in a gift box.

And that’s all for now, except that I’ve recently discovered the existence of this product.

I’m thinking that it would be a great Valentine’s Day, Anniversary, or Easter gift.

Anyone? Anyone at all???

As you all know, the Superbowl is this weekend. With that in mind, we’ve had a bunch of special orders for football cookies.

While I enjoyed making these cookies I, for one, will NOT be watching the Superbowl. Why? Well, I’m a girl and I don’t really like football.

Unless the Patriots are playing, and even then I won’t watch it. B O R I N G. I’ll just hope that the Patriots win. (when they are playing, I’m well aware that they are not in the Superbowl!!)

I don’t really agree with the advertising decisions this year. And let’s just keep it at that. I don’t want to be political or preachy here.

We don’t have TV 8 months out of the year, and for the 4 months that I have it, I don’t want to get addicted to any ridiculous shows. ahem, Real Housewives of Wherever………. So I try to stay away from television, but it’s nice to know that it’s there while we have it.

Ok, all that out of the way, here are some of the groovy football cookies:

A whole bunch ordered by a Bake Shoppe client.

And more! Ordered by the same client.

Custom Thank You/Football collection. You can see I’m starting to branch out with the Disco Dust in the helmet.

Sparkly!!

More of the same. But I have to say, this was the most fun I had making football cookies. (You know I like the girly cookies the best)

Not football, nor high heels, but cute nonetheless. Custom onesie cookies in pink and yellow with the baby’s name inscribed on the front. Cute name!

This was a rather non-specific order. Tiffany blue High Heels. So I thought I would jazz them up.

Hand applied pearls on the toe.

Sparkly sanding sugar on the heel.

And white stitching along the edges. And yes you can see a lot of cookie. Imagine if the cookie itself were the exact shape of the design. How do you think that would survive shipping??

Yeah, it would arrive in a million pieces. So sometimes there has to be cookie showing, especially if you want delicate designs.

And finally, a special custom order that was for something very simple, but I really wanted to make it more fancy. A dash of disco dust, a fun font and pretty preppy colors. Pink, green and navy polka dots and tiny shell borders. I’m really happy with the end result.

I’m off to make more Love Bugs today and to play around with some recipes. Peanut butter and chocolate anyone??

So I won’t be as self centered as to say I’m any busier than the rest of the world. Especially since what I’m busy with could be construed as fun by some.

Last weekend Dave and I decided to FINALLY make our pilgrimage to Ikea in Stoughton, MA. You see we’ve had a very nice gift card since Christmas 2008, or sometime long, long ago.

Dave thought it would be fun to pose for pictures while I was driving. And might I mention that the last time I drove was quite possibly more than a year ago? Yikes. (and I only drove about a third of the way there)

We took Lily with us. Didn’t think it would be so kind to leave her in her crate for 9 hours or so. I’m not sure that she might have preferred 9 hours in the Pokey (crate) to shivering and quivering all day in the car. Oh well, next time we’ll pawn her off on the neighbors or something.

Anyway, we have 3 really beautiful old doors that are original to the train station (in case you are new here, we live in a converted train station). I’ve been reading this blog off and on for a while and was reminded of it by Jen, so I read and read and looked at all the gorgeous photos, and then Mrs. Limestone posts about a door that she has found. And legs from Ikea.

Hence, the trip to Ikea. Well that and the gift card burning a hole in my pocket.

The legs were super duper cheap, or economical, which sounds nicer. Dave got a chair for his desk in the bakery, we got some stools for the bakery. But they are too tall and we need to go back to exchange them.

Yes, I sit to ice cookies. After 19 years in retail, standing in high heels 10 hours a day, I sit to ice cookies. Sorry.

We also managed to get lunch there. It was a Sunday, so it was incredibly crowded and there were kids running around everywhere. A stressful shopping environment for both Dave and me. Oy.

With more left on our gift card, I decided it was high time to get all matching hangers for our closet. I read somewhere that if your hangers all match, your closet will look more organized. Plus, I’ve been watching the progress of Alexis Stewart’s closet in her NYC apartment. Most inspiring.

We assembled the legs and the door/table looks awesome in the living room. A new area rug and drapes are definitely in our future. I’ll show pics of the table when it’s done. Still needs sanding and a coat of sealer, an area rug, and some accessories.

But doesn’t our little closet look nice? (there are plans to replace the super cheap and crappy shelving in there, but that’s way down the list of “things to do”.

I have to agree that matching hangers make everything look prettier. I did keep some cool metal hangers for Dave’s shirts, and 6 matching padded hangers for lingerie and a couple of dresses. But, still I think it looks much more orderly.

My side of the closet. Of course, I also have half of Dave’s side AND all our Summer clothes are packed up in storage for the Winter.

Note: my side is not always this neat, as I’m prone to “clothes fits” any time I have to wear something that isn’t jeans, t-shirts and a fleece. I just thought with all the new hangers and such that the entire closet could use an overhaul.

So there you have it 8 hangers for $4.50 and .99 each for the pant hangers. Sweet.

I just want to sit and look at the closet all day………..

I really do. I crave cake. Sometimes just plain cake, no frosting, no filling, just good, simple, not too sweet, cake.

But then sometimes I crave mashed potatoes, so there’s no real common thread here.

I was doing so well last week, posting something new almost every day, and then…………..

I don’t know what happened. It seems all it takes is one super busy day and I’m too fried to blog.

We’ve been having a fantastic run in the shop. Two solid weeks of good business, a steady flow of customers, and only a couple of cupcakes gone to waste.

We had a special order cake last week with no particular color specification. “Just make sure it has balloons.”

There was no way I was going to make big, bulbous, icky looking balloons like those nasty ones I’ve seen on Cake Wrecks (and let’s be honest, every Birthday cake in the supermarket) You KNOW what they usually look like.

I had Dave make me a balloon cookie cutter and I made some fondant balloons. I’m not a huge fan of the fondant, and I didn’t want to use cookies, but I figured such a small element on the cake wouldn’t be so bad. It’s not like the entire cake is covered in the stuff.

The cake is one layer each of chocolate and vanilla with chocolate buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream frosting.

The February flavors are finalized and ready for opening today. Traditional Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting and a handmade chocolate heart. (callebaut bittersweet and milk chocolate).

Spicy Cinnamon Chocolate: cinnamon, chili cupcake with cinnamon/chocolate buttercream and a chocolate topper. (I’m alternating between chocolate discs with transfer designs and the hearts.

Passion Fruit x3: passion fruit cake, passion fruit curd filling and passion fruit buttercream. Passion fruity good.

So good we needed another picture.

And last, but not least, the Chocolate Caramel Cupcake.  Chocolate cake with caramel Swiss Meringue buttercream topped with a hand made caramel truffle.

Of course I nearly killed Dave making the caramel yesterday. Nothing says toxic smoke like burnt sugar. We had to open the garage door to clear the smoke. Now I think I’ve got the hang of it….

Oh, I have a post that I’m working on all about my new Vegan Indian cookbook, but it’s taking me forever to get through my entire experience. Luckily I have some pictures of some cupcakes that I can talk about.

We had an order for these last weekend and they came out just swell, don’t you think? Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and Red Sox cookie toppers. I’m having some issues with my buttercream and the cold right now. It’s only a matter of time before I’m having issues with buttercream and the heat. Seems like Spring and Fall are the best times for frosting.

And cause I think they are so good lookin’, here’s another picture.

I had some pink velvet cupcakes left over from another project, so they were a flavor of the week last week. Sorry, sold the last one tonight!!

I had some Raspberry puree leftover from my Holiday Pate de Fruit debacle, so I made a raspberry buttercream and filled the cakes with some plain old red raspberry jam.

Really quite a delicious little cake. I must say.

I spent all day Wednesday testing some cake, buttercream and filling recipes for February and I have to say, the Passion Fruit cupcake is SPECTACULAR. Passion Fruit infused cake with Passion Fruit curd filling and a Passion Fruit buttercream. I’m telling you, I could sit with a spoon and eat all the PF curd in one sitting. It’s super tart and a little floral in flavor,  oh my. I’m hoping to have some puree left to make a Passion Fruit margarita when the weather is a bit more sunny. (I have 5 more kilograms of puree in the freezer!)

One other flavor that I finalized is a Spicy Chocolate Cinnamon. Another winner (IMO). A cinnamon cake with a touch of cayenne, topped with chocolate cinnamon buttercream. A delicious light cake with a hint of heat that doesn’t really come through until a couple of minutes AFTER you’ve taken your first bite.

Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting is a bit more tame after the first two and the new recipe I used is just so much more simple. And the cake is so much better.  A shocking red hue with a very soft, delicate crumb and tangy cream cheese frosting.  Too bad I don’t have a photo. Yet.

Our final flavor for February is a Chocolate Caramel Truffle. Chocolate cake with a caramel buttercream and a caramel chocolate truffle on top.  I’m still working  on this one. Hopefully I can figure it out by the end of the weekend.

The Bake Shoppe is still going strong. I have to be careful not to be too optimistic, it’s then that things tend to go south. It’s at a point where we are getting a nice flow of customers on a regular basis. (if you want to call a 12 days a regular basis) What really makes me happy about this is that I don’t have to give away or throw away any cupcakes. (and there are none for me to eat because I feel guilty throwing them away)

I’ll let you know about the new cookbook and give you my latest TV, Movie and DVD reviews.

We watched The Proposal tonight and were pleasantly surprised. Super cute, funny and most entertaining. Two thumbs up.

Well, I’ve been here and we’ve been busy, and I’ve been pretty un-inspired to write.

But NOW, I’m sort of inspired. I’ve been extremely frustrated lately, even though traffic in the Bake Shoppe has been super. We didn’t have to throw away one cupcake last week. Sold them all! Which is SO incredibly wonderful, until you have to make more cupcakes, more fillings, more buttercreams, more toppers.  Then you have to wash more dishes and get back to icing cookies.

Cookie business has been steady and we’ve been taking in a lot of smaller orders (which I prefer). Still, I’m frustrated. And since Dave is the only one around, he has to be the one that I take it all out on. Because sometimes I’m just bitchy like that.

So let’s see what we’ve been up to:

We’re thinking of adding a cookie or two to our Paris collection so we tried out some gold fleur de lis cookies. I don’t think it’s going to be a good match for the existing designs in that collection.  There are some promising ideas that we’ll be working out next week. Stay tuned for that.

This is the collection now.

We also produced some of our new collection for Valentine’s Day, it’s called “Love Stinks”, just like the song, which was my inspiration. (I loved that song back in the day…)

There have been a lot of orders for the Love Stinks skunks. I’m skunked out.

Then there was this order for over 200 panda bear cookies. It was a very black and white week.

So far this week we’ve made some lions. here they are outlined and ready for the thin icing. (most people call it “flood”, we call it “fill”).

The lion all filled and detailed. I added some sanding sugar to the mane to give it some texture and sparkle.

The Hippos are going to the same party.

And last, but not least, the champagne flute cookies. The client sent us one of the invitations so we could replicate the glasses. There’s tons of cookie showing because the cookie would be super fragile had we kept the cookie as thin and delicate as the glasses on the invite. The good part of that is: more cookie to eat!!

Well, I’m still cranky,  but at least you all can read something new here.

We did manage to get out to a movie last night and I’ve been watching some really great (and some not so great) tv shows on the lap top. I’ll share and review in another post. Let’s keep this one all about cookies and my moodiness!!

My Winter Gastronomy Swap partner finally got my package, so I can show you the contents of all the blue boxes.

Everything all wrapped up. I thought since it was a Winter Swap that icy blue wrapping was in order.

2 giant bowls for soup, pasta or huge servings of hot chocolate with home made marshmallows.

One box of penguin cookies.

6 penguin and 6 snowflakes.

I made a little recipe binder, using a linen binder that we had on hand (we send them out to Event Planners with photos of our cookies)

I included recipes for Creamy Tomato Soup, Macaroni and Cheese, Hot Toddies, and more. All things you would enjoy cozying up with on a cold winter night. Dave printed them in chocolate brown copy with a little snowflake graphic.

A bottle of Maple Syrup from our local sugar house, home made coconut/almond marshmallows and Sweet Spiced Pecans.

A snowflake embroidered towel and 6 snowman sponges to clean up after cooking all those Winter dishes.

There is also a jar of Lentils du Puy so Sarah can make the lentil soup recipe in her new book.

I truly hope she tries some of the recipes, they are all favorites in our house.

What do we all think of a Sweet Spring Swap in April???? It’s a little early but if we have enough takers, I’ll get my act together now!

I was pleasantly surprised a couple of weeks ago when a fellow blogger placed an order for these adorable red wagons for her son’s First Birthday.

She sent the invitation so we could make sure that they coordinated with the printed wagon.

I think I did a pretty good job, although the front wheels gave me a little difficulty.  I’m hoping that the client likes them!

A much easier custom baby carriage.

Custom football cookies.

I finally think we’re finished with a very cute NEW Valentine’s Day collection, but you’ll have to go over to our Facebook page to see that!

We’ve been working on tons and tons of hearts and lips and all manner of Valentine’s Day cookies this week, may of which you’ve already seen, so I won’t bore you.

Here’s a favor that we made a while ago. The Event Planner emailed me the photo of the cookies with all the other collateral from the wedding.  I love to see all of it together. So cohesive and very pretty!!  I love the Navy. I think if I was going to have a wedding I’d incorporate navy. (Dave and I eloped in Vegas, so none of this stuff for us!)

But that’s a story for another day.

Or not.

Tomorrow I’ll have some new cookies, but until then, here’s an awesome pasta recipe.

Gather all the ingredients. (no assistant tonight)

Mise en Place, right next to the cooktop.

Saute the shallots until soft, add garlic.

Add mushrooms (I used a combination of Cremini, Portobello and plain white button)

Add thyme, cook until browned.

Here’s where I deviated from the recipe. I added the broth and cream right to the mushrooms and simmered until it got thick and creamy. You should follow the recipe.

Add the pasta to the pot and stir over heat until pasta absorbs some of the sauce.

Creamy and delicious.

Top with grated cheese and chopped parsley. And don’t decorate the PL ATE with the parsley! No one likes parsley sprinkled on the plate, you’re garnishing the FOOD for Pete’s sake!!

NOW the Assistant shows up and swipes some salad.

Bad Assistant!

Now here’s the real recipe:

Mushroom Pasta

Salt
1# Campanelle or Farfalle pasta
2T unsalted butter
2 T olive oil
3-4 large shallots, chopped fine (about 1c)
3 med garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1T)
10 oz shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded, caps wiped clean and sliced 1/4 inch thick
10 oz cremini mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1T plus 1t minced fresh thyme leaves
1 1/4c chicken or vegetable broth
1/2c heavy cream
1T juice from 1 lemon
Ground black pepper
2 oz grated Parmesan (1c)
2 T minced fresh parsley

Bring 4 qts water to rolling boil, covered, in stockpot’ add 1 T salt and past, stir to separate, and cook until just shy of al dente.
Drain and return pasta to stockpot.
Meanwhile, heat butter and oil over medium heat in a skillet until foaming; add shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Increase heat to medium-high; add shiitakes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add cremini mushrooms and 1/2t salt; cook, stirring occasionally until golden brown, about 8 minutes.  Stir in thyme and cook 30 seconds. Transfer mushrooms to bowl. Add broth to skillet and bring to boil, scraping up browned bits; off heat, stir in cream, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.
Add mushrooms, broth mixture, cheese and parsley to pasta in a stockpot. Toss over medium-low heat until pasta absorbs most of the liquid, about 2 minutes; serve immediately.

Good luck!!  And let me know if you make it!!