Harry Potter, Twilight, and Dr. Who Cookies

I'm going to a birthday party tonight for a friend of a friend. My friend wanted some cookies so I made her some. She wanted two dozen cookies and pretty much let me have free rein over what to make. The friend she wanted these cookies for is a big fan of a lot of the super popular teen series books and very popular and trending TV shows (Dr. Who, Supernatural, etc). I decided to do three different themed cookies with four different designs for each with eight cookies altogether. I am also a fan of many of these series of shows and/or books....so making these cookies wasn't too hard. I did a lot of research on Pinterest and the internet to get some ideas. I found some good ideas (which I provided links for), but of course the original sources are better than mine. I am proud of these cookies though. I even tried some new techniques. For the Harry Potter logo, howling wolf, and lightning bolt, I printed images off the computer onto card stock, then cut the images out and traced it (with edible food coloring marker) on the completely dried cookie then traced that with royal icing.

Harry Potter Cookies. I got the ideas from here.

Twilight themed cookies. I got a the apple idea from here. I also got the Breaking Dawn chess piece idea from here.

Dr. Who cookies. I don't watch the show, but the person I made the cookies for is a fan along with a few of her friends. I guess I should probably give it a try and start watching it....

Display of all the cookies. I did wrap half of the cookies and left the other half unwrapped so people can either grab one to eat or grab one to take home.

Sock Monkey Cookies

For Mother's Day, I decided to make my mom Sock Monkey cookies. She loves sock monkeys. When my mom was little and sock monkeys were really popular, she really wanted one but her mom wouldn't get her one or make her one because she thought they were ugly. My mom never had her own sock monkey until I got her one a few years back....and since then she just absolutely loves them which is great because there is a TON of sock monkey memorabilia out there. I get her stuff that is sock monkey related for her stocking for Christmas, I got her a full sized sock monkey, and I made her these cookies. Needless to say she LOVED them. I'm so happy that she did. I had fun making them....though because I'm a perfectionist, I think I could've done better. I'm sure this is not the last time I'll make these cookies and I know what I'll do differently next time to make them look better. This is actually just a monkey head cookie cutter that I got and I added a little circle to the top for the hat fluff ball. I was up in the air about what colors I was going to use. I picture sock monkeys as grey and white, but as Googled them, a lot of them are brown and white....therefore I did a chocolate royal frosting with white swirled in it. I used cream colored royal icing for the hat and face part. These are also my favorite sugar cookie recipe that I have memorized!

Baking with Instagram

I've made a few other delicious treats here and there that I don't blog about (well...until now, I suppose). I haven't taken the time to take nice pictures of these treats, but I have taken Instagram pictures of them. I guess the reason I didn't take nice pictures of these yummy baked goods with my nice camera is that we'll usually eat these desserts at night....therefore I don't have good lighting to take decent pictures and I don't feel like, nor have the time to fuss with my camera. I do love Instagram though. It makes pictures look better than using the regular camera on my iPhone. Anyway....I do hope you enjoy!

Banana pound cake with hot fudge sauce and vanilla ice cream. I had some leftover ripe bananas that needed to be used, so instead of the banana nut bread that I usually make, I made this. I got this recipe from Bon Appetit Desserts book. I thought this tasted ok....not my favorite pound cake. To me, it tasted like banana nut bread but with no nuts. The book has a homemade hot fudge sauce that I was going to make, but I never got around to it, so this is store bought hot fudge sauce. My husband really liked this dessert.

Blueberry pancakes. My good friend has a relative that has a blueberry farm and she brought me some frozen blueberries. They were big and juicy and very yummy in these pancakes. I will be making blueberry muffins very soon!

Strawberry Shortcake. This is homemade angel food cake with fresh strawberries that I got from Costco (they looked way too good to pass up....I don't usually buy produce from Costco because just two people have a hard time finishing all of it). I also made this fresh whipped cream using heavy whipping cream. I used an angel food cake recipe that came on the packaging of the pan I bought just to make this....but it is very similar if not identical to this recipe.

Tres Leches Cake. I made this yesterday for Cinco de Mayo. I'm glad this turned out well because I made homemade enchiladas (homemade sauce and the white Mexican cheese) and they tasted horrible so we ordered pizza instead. I don't know what happened but the cheese tasted not like Mexican restaurant cheese and the sauce was not good. I've never had Tres leches cake before and I really enjoyed it. I didn't think it was soggy like a lot of people complain about. I got this recipe here. I added some toasted coconut that I had leftover.

7th Heaven Cake. I did not make this. I got this at Boll Weevil, a local restaurant. This was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, a cheesecake center, and mini chocolate chips on the side. Very yummy, though this was not my favorite cake from this place. They have a tropical cake that is really good and so far, my favorite.

Spring Cookies

I made butterfly and tulip cookies. I made these mainly because I love making/decorating cookies. I did take them to my pediatrician's office and gave them to the staff....which they seemed to appreciate.

Blackberry Cupcakes

Today I made blackberry cupcakes. I had a container of blackberries that I bought because they looked very scrumptious. I wanted to do something with them, so I figured blackberry cupcakes would be delicious. These cupcakes were very yummy. I did a vanilla cupcake base with blackberry puree added to the batter. The frosting is a vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. These cupcakes also smelled very yummy while baking!

Blackberry Cupcakes:
Makes 12 full sized cupcakes plus 8 minis.

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 cup blackberry puree

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a standard cupcake tin with 12 liners.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the egg, egg yolk, and sugar until thickened and lightened to a cream color, about 2 mins. Stop the mixer and scrap the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla until blended. Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain. Mix in the flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter is smooth. Fold in the blackberry puree until completely incorporated. (To make the puree I took a package of blackberries....about 3/4 of a 12oz package is all I had. I used a blender food processor to puree the blackberries. I then used a fine mesh strainer to separate the seeds from the pulp.) Fill cupcake liners 2/3rds full and bake for 20-25 mins (just keep an eye on the cupcakes....everyone's ovens are different. I don't use a timer....but it didn't really feel like I baked them this long). They are done once a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes plenty for all these cupcakes

1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
4 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter and cream cheese until completely incorporated. Add powdered sugar 1 or 2 cups at a time. Then add vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.

Tropical Birthday Cookies

I made these cookies for my best friend whose birthday is on Monday. I know he loves tropical places and yummy beverages....therefore I made him a cookie platter that consists of a palm tree, pineapples, margaritas, limes, and cocktails. These are sugar cookies with royal icing.

Mason Jar Cookies

Yesterday I made some cookies and decorated them just for the fun of it/practice. I have a lot of cookie cutters that I haven't even used yet so I had a lot of options to chose from. I chose my Mason jar cookie cutter and some flowers. I really want to get better and better at this cookie art. Some blogs that I see, have amazing cookies! I want to get really good at it and I can only do that with practice, practice, practice! Luckily things are getting easier. I've memorized the sugar cookie recipe and the royal icing recipe so I don't have to search for the recipe anymore. Also I've got it down to where I don't have to make two different consistencies of icing anymore which cuts down on time. Though when there is writing or details involved, sometimes it is nice to have a firmer icing to work with....as I found out with these cookies. I had to add powdered sugar to the blue so I could write on the Mason jar cookies. Anyway....these aren't my best work. I think they're okay, but I could use some practice to make them better. I think the flowers look terrible....eventually I'll get better!

I made these a teal color just like the old Mason Jars. I also added some silver shimmer dust to the lids to make them look metallic. I tried to give these jars a glass look with the accents....eh they could look better.