Christmas Cookie Bouquet

Cookie bouquets are all the rage around here... especially with the holidays approaching. I recently did some research as I wanted to send one and couldn't believe the price- $60 for a bucket with THREE cookies. I decided it was time to learn how to make them myself.

As coincidence would have it, my Wilton teacher posted that she was doing a "Christmas Cookie Bouquet" mini class. I signed up and what you see here is my final product from that class. I had so much fun making it and can't wait to make more!

We learned several techniques to decorate the cookies, which in this case were gingerbread flavored. The Christmas tree was decorated using royal icing and hard candies.

Thankfully my royal icing application has improved since my last batch of cookies that I posted about here. I think a lot has to do with the fact that my teacher told me it's not necessary to use two different consistencies of royal icing, it can all be done with one. I think because of that the outline was able to blend in a bit more.

This cookie was also covered in royal icing. Once that was dried we did the extra lines on top. When those were dry we applied some gold dust over them.

I love this way this cookie looks... simple, yet elegant at the same time. And this would work for any winter or holiday bouquet. It's not necessarily attached to Christmas.

Lastly frosty who was covered with fondant and candy. This technique was super fun because there is little sculpting involved. In order to get the perfect shape you just use the same cookie cutter used for the cookie for the fondant. Depending on the fondant you use it might be necessary to add some piping gel to adhere to the cookie. The buttons are candy and the rest (hat, eyes, nose and scarf) are fondant.

My favorite part of frosty is the scarf, even though my son ate half of it before I took this picture. I especially love the fringe!

This cookie, while not for the bouquet, was decorated using a special glaze that dries shinier than royal icing and stays softer when it dries. This method is called tie dye and is SO EASY!

Here is another example of the tie dye cookie decorating method. These were a hit with the kids and I'm thinking I might make some in team colors for the next football game. They are easy and fast to decorate.

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Soccer Cupcakes

My son started soccer this past weekend which means I am officially a soccer mom- yikes. I decided to celebrate by making cupcakes. I was inspired by Dukes' and Duchesses who blogged about these, she was inspired by Parents Magazine. I didn't read the directions posted there and instead did my own thing with mistakes included :).



I started with mini Devil's Food cupcakes baked in green liners to represent the grass on the field.



White vanilla frosting, no need to worry about it getting it perfectly smooth.



Place a thin Oreo crisp (found in the 100-calorie packages) in the middle.



Use black gel to draw the lines. Didn't like the look.



Then just the gel without the cookie. Didn't like this either.



Put the gel in a pastry bag with a #2 tip and was much happier with these lines, used the cookie as well.

As you can see I only used one cookie per cupcake since these were mini-cupcakes and not the regular ones used in Parenting magazine.

I was really happy with how these looked and the combination of the Devil's Food cake + Vanilla frosting + Oreo cookies was great!

The kids loved them and the coach was very impressed :)

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Turkey Applique T-Shirts

One of my favorite blogs of all times is Balancing Everything. The author, Jessica, and I were pregnant with our girls at the same time. I have been reading her blog since then... over 5 years ago. She has a little blurb on her sidebar that includes three links to other blogs that have inspired her. I have found some amazing ideas from those links, this being one of them. Lindsay, from The Cottage Home, came up with this awesome turkey applique. I had to make some for my kids who are having a hard time letting go of Halloween and getting into Thanksgiving mode.



It was a last minute decision, so I had to do with what I had at home. I used t-shirts that the kids already had and were somehow ruined with stains or tears. The fabric for the appliques was from my scrap pile.

My daughter loves her "turkey shirt" and quickly found a skirt that matched to wear to school tomorrow.



Here is my son modeling his:

Love the combo of this green shirt with the scraps I had for the turkey... it screams fall!



A close-up of the turkey, I was really happy with how they turned out!

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