I know I said I’d be writing some different kinds of posts. And I will. Just bear with me until I do something BESIDES COOKIES that warrants a write up!!

Some days in the life of this Cookie entrepreneur are so crazy. I could start the day making Cars, then move to Country Music cookies, and end the day with Louboutin shoes.

Oh sure it’s “fun” (definitely NOT the Cars cookies, they totally stressed me out), but it’s an awful lot of color making, and stopping and starting.

These photos are not great, and these cookies stressed me out to the point that I don’t even want to photograph the extras that I saved…for photos. Bad memories, you know?

Dave, in all his infinite wisdom, thought it was best to make these cookies in the side/angle perspective. ugh. He also thought I’d be excited to make these.

Now he knows better.

I’ve never seen these movies, nor do I ever want to. I’m not a Disney fan, not at all. But I guess lots of people out there ARE.

This was the second Car in the order that I made, and it drove me to the brink of insanity. Or possibly the brink of becoming the female version of the Incredible Hulk, or maybe Mrs. Hyde.

It’s one of those cookies that requires tons of details and tons of time, yet in the end, I’m not so sure it looks like all the effort you put into it.

Tow Mater was the last design I made in this order, and he wasn’t as bad as the second one. I used the airbrush and mixed a combination of copper, blue and green. I don’t think enough of the blue came through, but he does look rusty.

By the end of this order, you’d have thought it was for like a hundred of each, but it wasn’t. It was for 15 each, and they took me 1 and a half days to complete. Nothing says frustrating like the job that never ends.

Dave did a nice job on those toppers though.

On the second day of this order, we had some other jobs that HAD to be finished before we could call it quits.

There were  A LOT of ideas for this collection, but, in order to keep it cohesive, we kept it to these cookies.

I wanted a pic without the logos. And I think we should invest in a banjo cookie cutter. I kinda like the banjo. The “Nashville Star” cookie is a copy of a belt buckle, which was a last minute addition by Dave. Now, THAT cookie, I didn’t mind as much as the cars. And I think it brings the whole set together quite nicely.

Not that I’m a lover of Country Music (I’m not, it’s right up there with Disney characters), but I do think this is one of the most fun sets of cookies.

You know how at the end of a good workout you need a cool down, to bring your heart rate and body temp down to normal temp?

The Louboutin shoe cookies were my cookie “cool down”.

After all that stuff that I don’t like so much, I HAD to end the day on a happier note.

Bright sky blue peep toe platform. Too bad there’s not too many places to wear these in VT. Not that I’d own a pair. We’d have to make a lot of cookies to pay for some Louboutins.

Lots and lots of cookies.

The real version of these is a gorgeous yellow patent leather. Shiny and beautiful.  But I can’t wear slingbacks, never could. I’ve got some funky heel bone thing and they never stay up, and they hurt.

Bright pink!! So pretty. I love a platform peep toe.

And that was one day of cookies. (really it was 2 days, those first Cars cookies took another entire shift!) We ended around 1 or 2 am.

Blech.

At least there’s Cinco de Mayo coming up, and I’m making a GIANT batch of those Fresh Margaritas from last week. I’m also making this spectacular recipe that my good friend Bea sent me, just for Cinco! Jicama and Chile salad. We’ve already tested it out last weekend.

Hah. You try finding Jicama in Vermont!! I had to get one that was the size of my head!!. It’s so good though, and full of vitamin A. If you can find Jicama, you should definitely make it.

Come back Friday for the recipe and pics.

As you may or may not know, I’ve been on a mission. A mission to lose weight and get healthy. Not that I was super unhealthy before, but the extra pounds made things difficult.  I only needed to lose about 55 or 60 pounds. Which seems like a lot, but then I read some other peoples blogs about their need for weight loss in the three digit range. That’s an amazing challenge.

I thought 55 or 60 was a challenge.

Well, for me 55 or 60 pounds off IS a major challenge. And I don’t really want to refer to my “mission” as a diet, because I don’t want it to be that. I want to figure out how to lose the weight, change my habits and keep those pesky pounds off.

(I couldn’t button the bottom button on this chef’s coat in June 2k11.)

How am I doing? Well, I’m 1 pound away from losing 35 pounds so far. It seems like a super slow process at this point. In the beginning, I was losing weight pretty quickly, or at least it seemed like it was going quickly. Now, it’s much more of a challenge.

The Holidays were quite difficult since our schedule is so crazy and there is no time to exercise and not much time to eat three healthy meals a day and not much time to monitor my eating and drinking. I did o.k. In that I didn’t gain any weight, but I didn’t lose any either. I was suppose to be where I am now at Christmas. It’s now May.

(I weigh more than Dave in this pic, and my cheeks are so chubby! These jeans are gone. I kept the shirt, but it’s really big on me)

So, I’ve upped my workouts. Every day I do 1 hour and 45 minutes of exercise, sometimes 2 hours. It’s a lot. I also try to keep my calorie intake as close to 1200 calories as possible. I don’t cut anything from my diet, but I do cut back on the quantities. Which is how I’ve been eating the whole time. I try to make sure that I’ve burned 1000 calories more than I’ve used every day.

Another big part of the mission is to eat clean foods, keeping it as local as possible, and staying away from processed food of any kind. We shop at the Farmer’s Market and when we eat meat, it’s from local farmers that we meet at the market.

(I actually have cheek bones now, AND I weigh less than Dave. Not a lot less, but still, my husband weighs more than me!!)

This Winter it’s been all about greens, kale, spinach, chard, and whatever salad greens that are available. (not too many salad greens in a VT Winter) We’ve really come to LOVE the greens. Even more than salad. Usually the kale, spinach and chard are prepared with a little bit of olive oil and garlic, and they go with everything.

I haven’t been photographing our dinners because by the time we get in the house to make dinner, it’s dark and not so great for pictures. Plus, we tend to eat the same things from week to week. Some of our favorite meals are seared salmon with greens and roasted sweet potatoes, poached eggs over sauteed spinach and English muffins and roasted potatoes, and Dave’s tofu vindaloo with brown rice. One of those three will be on the menu EVERY week!!

I know the calorie count of those foods, and it’s easy for me to track. Dave knows his part of the meal preparation and is in charge of cleaning the greens and getting the potatoes ready. I do the rest of the greens prep, garlic crushing, egg poaching and salmon searing.

Hopefully, with nice weather ahead (we HOPE) there will be room for fun activities that count as exercise, like morning hikes with Dave and the dogs. And that will make burning calories more than just a chore.

What’s the point?

Well, I just wanted to give you an update on where I am with the whole weight loss thing.

PLUS, Dave surprised me with a present yesterday. This dress.

He mistakenly bought a size 12P. I didn’t even want to try it on because I may be a size 12, but I am NOT petite.

Just for fun I tried it on. And it was way too big!! So he’s off to exchange the dress for a size 10 regular.

So, while I’m disappointed that I’ve only lost 34 pounds in 9 months, I’m super happy to be a size 10. It’s been a long time since I could fit in a size 10. Like 18 years to be exact.

Well, I’m off to do some biking, and hopefully when I get on the scale today, I’ll have lost that pound that will put me at 35 pounds!

And when the size 10 dress arrives, I’ll post a pic of me in it!

I think it’s time to redefine this blog and it’s purpose, or maybe return to the way I used to write and the things I used to write about…

I know some people may take this the wrong way, but here goes.

This is not a cookie tutorial blog, I do not offer cookie tutorials of any kind.  And I don’t think I ever will.

I initially wanted to write about how labor intensive our work is so that clients would understand and appreciate the cookies that we sell, and understand our pricing. I also wanted to educate customers on what really goes into making a custom designed, iced sugar cookie.

I wanted to showcase our work so that customers can find us easily, provide informational posts and articles to our clients so that they may see how things are done at A Dozen Eggs, and why certain policies are in place.

Going forward, I’ve decided that I’m going to write about certain cookie issues that seem to come up A LOT, and some other topics that interest me. Which sounds kind of selfish when I look at it in writing, but I think they’ll interest others, and they’re things that I’m passionate about and really want to share.

Of course I LOVE designing and making cookies and I LOVE the business that my husband Dave and I have built. So that stuff will always be here.

You wanna know what else I love?

Well, aside from cookies, cakes, pastries and cupcakes, (and Dave) I love these things:

Our pets: 2 dogs and 2 cats
Shopping at the Farmer’s Market
Whole, natural, unprocessed, healthy eating
Cooking and trying new recipes
Music
Going out to eat
Living in Vermont
Visiting New York City
ANYTHING French
Sweets, all kinds, even processed ones…(in moderation!)
Entertaining
Great cocktails

That’s a lot of ground to cover, and I think it will be better inspiration for me to write more regularly.

Please feel free to read about the new topics and most certainly feel free to come and see our new cookies. This will always serve as a platform to show the newest collections and cookie designs. I don’t want anyone to leave, just have a different expectation of what I have to offer.

I still love all you cookie people and I love all your kind comments, so I hope you’ll stick around. I promise the posts to come will be much more interesting and personal than “here is this cookie, I made so many of them and the design inspiration came from here….blah blah blah”

I’m looking forward to my new direction and I sincerely hope you’ll come back.

You know today is the last day of FREE SHIPPING for Mother’s day, right??

We created some new collections for Mother’s Day this year, starting with Super Mom. I just love all those onomatopoeia images and thought they’d be bright and fun for a Mother’s Day cookie collection.

This collection, My Favorite Lady, includes Mom and baby lady bugs, along with daisies and a fun message cookie for your favorite lady!

No need to go to drastic measures for a fun “Mom” tattoo when you can just get a box of cookies. That way you don’t have to choose just one design. I Heart Mom!

And if you just want to add a little something to the super amazing gift you already have for Mom, we have a 4 pack of shoe available. You’ll get a pair of yellow slingbacks and either pink or blue peep toe platforms.

So don’t wait! Free Shipping ends today!!

We’ve been lovin’ the topper here at the Bake Shoppe. It’s a clean and sophisticated way to finish off a party favor. It also alleviates a big issues here at the Shoppe: too much writing on the cookie.

We don’t recommend writing on cookie favors. Unless it’s something that has writing built into the design, like a baseball jersey or a monogram on a cake, writing almost always takes away from the design and gravitas (that’s right, I used gravitas) of the cookie favor. Most of the time the wording doesn’t fit or if it does fit it’s very awkward.

That’s where the card stock topper comes in. It’s a cleaner look than the Hang Tag, which we’ll be covering in an upcoming post, and more cost effective too.

Here’s a topper design we just finished for a Car’s Theme Birthday party. We design and print all the toppers in-house. I was able to use the logo and add the special birthday text.

Here’s another birthday topper that we matched the design of the invitation for both the cookie and the topper. We matched the font and carried the border and bleed on both sides of the topper.

The topper doesn’t always need writing. We can use the elements of the cookie to strengthen the overall design of the favor. A design like this is also great for corporate logos.

One of the great thing about the topper is its ability to be customized with each guest’s name. This keeps the cost of the cookie design down, while giving the favor a unique personalized touch. These teacup favors were personalized for each guest. These are also great for weddings or rehearsal dinners.

So if you’re thinking about cookie favors and want a unique way to package and personalize each favor, the card stock topper is a great idea. It’s clean and sophisticated. It displays easily and allows for great customization.

You can see more packaging samples in the Packaging section of our website.

Cinco de Mayo could possibly be one of my favorite “holidays”.

I know it’s not widely celebrated in Mexico, and that it’s just an excuse for us gringos to drink margaritas and eat guacamole, but it’s fun.  And the cookie possibilities are endless.

Unfortunately, Cinco comes right on the heels of Easter and Spring, so we never have time to go all out for it. (AND it’s right before Mother’s Day)

This year I made some changes to our sombrero, added a guitar,  added some maracas, and decided to go with a cinnamon dusted chocolate cookie dough.  YUM!

Plus, we’ve added favors!

We’ve got Margaritas with fun toppers in sets of 4.

Colorful pinatas.

Once May 5th has past, I still love a great margarita and guacamole. Who doesn’t? It’s the ultimate Summer beverage.  So, I will continue to eat guacamole and drink margaritas until it’s time for Hot mulled cider and pumpkin fondue.

Starting Tuesday, April 24th we’re offering FREE SHIPPING through Thursday, April 26th!!

So hurry up and place your orders before FREE SHIPPING disappears.

I have a really wonderful Margarita recipe for you. It comes from Cook’s Illustrated and it’s a lot of work, but the results are well worth it:

Fresh Margaritas

Combine in a large liquid measuring cup, or glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until flavors meld, 4 to 24 hours.

       4 t grated lime zest
        1/2 c lime juice from 2 to 3 medium limes
        4 t grated lemon zest
        1/2 c lemon juice from 2 to 3 medium lemons
        1/4 c superfine sugar
        pinch table salt

Divide 1c crushed ice between 4 or 6 margarita glasses. Strain juice mixture into a pitcher or cocktail shaker.
Add:
    1 c 100 percent agave tequila , preferably Reposado
    1 c Triple Sec
    1 c crushed ice

Stir or shake until thoroughly combined and chilled. Strain into ice filled glasses and serve immediately.

Trust me these are SO much better than that crappy, green glowing mixer that you can buy ready made. blech.

Of course, if you’re in a hurry for your Fresh Margaritas you can skip the zest and just mix fresh lemon and lime juice with the sugar. Just PLEASE, squeeze your own lemons and limes. If you skimp on that, well, they won’t be FRESH and they certainly won’t be as good.

Spring is finally here!

At least that’s what everyone on the internet is saying, but here in Vermont, the temperatures have dropped and we’ve got nothing but rain for the rest of the week.

And it’s only Monday.

I shouldn’t complain because we’ve had some really amazing weather and Dave and I have been able to eat a few meals out on the deck, and the dogs have really enjoyed swimming in the pond a few times already.

I’m nervous for all our flowers and trees that have started to bloom and bud from all the glorious sun and heat, only to be frozen again. Let’s all cross our fingers and hope they survive this roller coaster weather.

While there were more ideas for Spring collections, we just didn’t have time to make all of them. So we’ll be working on them for next year.

Since I work in mostly potted plants (and not very well…) I really wanted to make some potted flowers.

The actual little flowers are adapted from  Tracy Ann Digital Art.  I just loved the shapes and the simplicity of the design.

These cookies are also in a new flavor, Orange Vanilla Bean! Made with fresh orange zest and juice plus vanilla bean paste. They’re super delicious. I’m addicted!

This collection is called Spring Flowers.

I’ve never made, nor even attempted to make daffodils and I think these are pretty good, although I have some ideas for next year’s daffodils.

My inspiration for the Spring Flowers came from The Ink Nest. Marina does beautiful work and her Spring Flowers are just gorgeous.

All of our flower cookies are in Orange Vanilla Bean, and would make a great gift for Mom, or if you just want to eat some yourself!!

I have to admit that I’ve been extremely distracted from blogging. I sit with the “add new post” tab open and then find so many other articles to read, then I’m gone. Gone from the blog, gone from writing. There’s so much going on in the world today!

Well, since I don’t really have anything all that relevant to say, I’ll just show you some new cookies that we made recently.

These were originally designed as a custom order. I had wanted to do a different “new home” or “moving” collection than the typical moving boxes, moving truck, and all that. The direction I wanted it to go in was more in the actual furnishing and decorating of a new home.

SO, I went with a classic sofa, pedestal table, lamps, dining chairs, front door, silver keys and a “Home Sweet Home” framed sign.

The lamps, chairs and sofa are based on designs and images from Ikea. (I Love Ikea! and I wouldn’t mind having that little sofa!). The pedestal table is based on a Pottery Barn table.

I actually wouldn’t mind having all of the real furnishings my cookies are based on, even the front door.

Some people think that using a KopyKake is like cheating, and I guess in some cases it is. However, the reason I like it, and use it, is that it means less waste, and less frustration for me. I don’t really see it as cheating. It still requires skill to pipe onto a cookie, to master the use of Royal Icing, or whatever medium you use on your cookies. I could give a KK and a piping bag to anyone and they probably won’t be able to replicate the image on the cookie perfectly. THAT takes experience and skill.

I use the KK for cookies that are made to coordinate with invitations, for ensuring that my inscriptions on cookies are a perfect match to specific fonts, and that the inscriptions are placed and spaced on the cookie perfectly.

Sure I went years without the KK, and I was able to match invitations and write on cookies and replicate certain fonts, but it’s SO much easier with the KK. When I didn’t have a KK, I would go through many cookies that weren’t perfect enough and went into the garbage. Which was beyond frustrating.

So if you think the KK is cheating, do you also think that RI transfers, using printed images to trace are cheating too? I don’t. Transfers also take skill to accomplish.

I find that sometimes the KK can make certain designs go faster, as in, I don’t make as many mistakes, and therefore, don’t have to bake as many extra cookies, and don’t have to “re-do” as many cookies.

Using the KK can also take longer because every cookie has to be removed from the tray, placed under the projection, and depending on how many different colors you are using for your outline (more can take much longer and one color is pretty quick) *But still the action of putting cookies on the sheet pan, removing them to pipe your outline, placing them back on the sheet pan to be filled, THEN removing them from the sheet pan, again, to be detailed…can be pretty time consuming. And the more TIME used to make a cookie, the more you have to charge for it. Time is money, after all.

Another benefit of the KK is that it opens up a whole lot of cookie possibilities for me. Normally, clients would suggest some crazy design and I’d cringe (this still happens sometimes) but with the KK, I definitely cringe a lot less and I can think of more “outside the box” designs with confidence.

Here’s a link to some cookies and  post that I wrote when we first got our KK
http://adozeneggs.com/wordpress/?p=3556

Do you have a KK? Which one? And what do you find you use it for most often?

*In our cookie production, this is how we work:

Dave makes the dough, chills it, then rolls cuts and bakes the cookies. We have specific sheet pans and a rack for baking the cookies.
Once they are baked and cooled, we “pan them up”, (a very technical term that we use) or remove them from the baking pans and place them on the icing pans. We use FULL sheet pans, the big ones, and depending on the size of the cookie, each pan can hold anywhere from 12 to 100 cookies. Favors and cake toppers being the largest, and serving and mini cookies being the smallest. On average though, we fit about 54 cookies on a full sheet.

The cookies, ready to be iced go on a different rack, next to our icing stations, and then we get started on the decorating.

It’s funny how different cookie designs come in at the same time. Like one week a while ago and we had 4 different orders for Red Wagon Cookies. Or another week, we made 4 different onesies, and then 4 different whales.

Recently, it was flowers. Not as many as 4 different orders, but 2. Two is more than one, so it counts as multiple orders. They were both made to match invitations and one of the designs, we have made multiple times.

I’ve made these in past.

This was my first time making the orchids back in 2009.

Then again later in 2009.

I think I like them better in 2012. This time the client wanted hot pink and purple. I used the airbrush to go over the whole cookie with pink pearl sheen, then did the centers with purple pearl sheen. (I LOVE the sheen colors for the airbrush…WAY more than the other colors)

The same week we had an order for cobalt blue poppies to match the invitation. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get that watercolor look from the invite.

In the end I iced the shape, then went over it with gel color diluted with vodka, airbrushed yellow pearl sheen in the center, and finally I added the yellow details with royal icing in the center.

I’m no great painter, my specialty is royal icing, but I think these came out ok.

What kind of flowers would you like to see made into cookies?