Happy Birthday Renee!!

These were ordered for a surprise 50th birthday party.  How lucky is this woman that her husband puts this much thought into planning her party?! 

I hope Renee loves these as much as I do! Thanks Rory!

Teacher Appreciation

Yesterday was the Halloween party at my son's school.  All the kids, teachers, and many parents, dressed up for the occasion.  The kids put on an adorable parade, and all the classes had parties.  It was too much fun!!  As a teacher myself (I taught high school chemistry and physics up until about 1 year ago) I understand how much work teaching is, and how unappreciated teachers can feel.  That said, I wanted to take the opportunity to show the teachers at his school that we appreciate what they do, and engage in a little shameless self promotion at the same time (embarrased grin). 

I packaged up fall Apple Tree cookies (just like the ones we brought to the apple orchard field trip) as well as Halloween cookies and delivered them to the office to be put into each teacher's mailbox.  I sure hope they enjoyed them!

  I like their glittery faces and the twisted vines!

I can't take credit for the silly names on the tombstones.  I googled "Halloween grave stone names" and found several huge lists of them. 

I don't love my black cats.  They need a little something more, but when I put noses and whiskers on them, they looked cute....which is not what I was going for!

 Love the bats, especially the "furry" bodies.  Black sanding sugar is very cool!

 I don't know if everyone thinks moons are approriate for Halloween, but I don't care.  I think they are and I love how these turned out!  You can't really tell from the pic, but they have gold lustre dust on them, so they shimmer.  So pretty!

My skeleton looks happy doesn't he?!  He has a big cheesy grin! 

Purple People Eaters!

I had a request for Halloween cookies.  But, they could not be just any old typical halloween design.  No pumpkins or witches here.....oh no, this little girl wanted purple people eaters!  You know what I'm talking about - One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eaters!  Of course, there is not an image in my head for this, so after some tinkering around on the web and then crafting my own cutter, here is what I created.

I must say, my photography skills did not do these justice.  I LOVE them!! I really like the sparkly wings and horn!

Baker's block anyone??

Have you ever been overwhelmed by a design?  I have an order sitting in front of me for a custom cookie that I am just not sure how I want to decorate.  Having scoured the web, I found some images that I like, but anything I have seen would need dramatic altering to get it on a cookie in royal icing.  Consequently, I have been pondering the design for days, weeks really.  Now that the cookies are baked and the order is due soon, the clock is ticking.  Must....decorate....cookies!  I guess the plan will be simply to pick up the piping bag, and see what appears on the cookie!

How do you deal when you aren't sure how to attack a project?  I would love to read your strategies.

Want a cookie? How about a dozen?

Announcing our Halloween Cookie giveaway!!!  Starting today and running through Saturday October 23rd, you have several chances to win one dozen awesome, decorated Halloween cookies!

How cute are those!!

There are several opportunities to win, the more you do, the better your chances of winning!

To enter to win, first simply become a follower of The Sweetest Thing blog and post the comment, "Boo Who? Boo me!" after this blog post. (This step is required to enter!)

For additional chances to win:

1 additional entry - "Like" The Sweetest Thing on facebook and post the comment "These cookies trick my treat!"  (If you already "like" it, just post the comment.)

2 additional entries - Post about this giveaway, with the link, in your facebook status.  Post a link to your facebook page in the comments on this blog.

2 additional entries - Post about this giveaway, with a link, on your own blog.  Post a link to your page in the comments on this blog.

2 additional entries - Tweet about this giveaway with a link, and become a follower of tstCookies on Twitter. (If you are already a follower, just Tweet about it with the link.)

There are up to 8 entries possible per person.  Please leave a separate comment for each entry. Please also leave some sort of contact information in case you win. Make sure that your google account links to your email address or put your email address in the comments. This is open to US residents only because of shipping. Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm on Saturday October 23rd. The winner will be chosen at random and notified on Sunday October 24th.

**Thanks to Crafty Workin Mommy for the giveaway idea! 

Fall Traditions

     Fall is officially here!  The trees in my neighborhood are all lovely shades of orange, yellow, and red.  There are still a few green things out there, but the color palette is fabulous!  Fall of course means back to school all over the country, but if you live in Michigan, this is also the time that pretty much every family makes a trek to a local apple orchard.  For little man, today was his first school field trip and it was of course.....to an apple orchard.  All three kindergarten classes loaded into a school bus with their teachers and met about 40 parent chaperones at Erwin's Orchard.  I have to assume that there were so many parents simply because it was the first field trip of our children's school career.  I know I wasn't going to miss it!

     Going to an apple orchard with seventy five 5 year olds meant only one thing, COOKIES!!  Cookies had to be made to share with all these kiddos.  Nevermind that they were each going to get a doughnut absolutely coated with cinnamon sugar, this was the perfect opportunity to make apple tree cookies!  I had a tree cutter that I picked up about 2 months ago and was just waiting for an excuse to use it! 

This is how I ended up decorating them. I used m&ms for the apples (if you can't tell!).  I tried a few different ways of icing them and I'm still not sure this is my favorite.  Next time I do them, I am thinking of making the apples in the trees using the flat polka-dot method a la Bake at 350.  Of course, this makes me wonder, how often do you change your mind about how you want to do something when you're half way done with it!?  I know I do it a lot with my cookies!  Please, share your stories....

In the beginning...

    It started with fall leaves and a special diet.  In 2008, I was on a gluten free diet, prescribed to help heal my body of Celiac Disease.  After about six years of NOT being able to have the yummy treats that everyone else was enjoying, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  Searching the internet, I was able to locate a pretty good recipe for GF (gluten free) sugar cookies.  I got myself some huge cookie cutters shaped like an oak leaf and a pumpkin, and soon there were cookies, yummy cookies, that I could enjoy!  (If you are on a gluten free diet or know anyone that is, you probably know how hard it is to come by baked goods that aren't baked bads!)  After they were all baked, of course I had to decorate them, and soon I had a kitchen full of gorgeous, delicious, brightly colored fall leaves.  After the fall leaves, I started baking cookies pretty often.
    At the end of 2008, I found my diagnosis was wrong - after six and half years on a GF diet, I do not have celiac disease!!  Yay!!!  Now, I can eat whatever I want, and trust me, I do!  So now my cookies are not gluten free (though I can still do them) and I have perfected my own sugar cookie recipe that I use for all my Very Vanilla Sugar Cookies.  With that, I have changed my profession and changed my life. 
    I am a former high school science teacher, turned full time baker, wife and mom.  I love this life and I hope you stop in often because I'd love to share it with you.

The first cookies made by The Sweetest Thing that weren't eaten by my husband and son! 
There were several different designs, but all were pink and white hearts for Mothers' Day.
They were a huge hit!