Silly Old Bear

Winnie The Pooh Baby Shower

So, it's been a baby-filled year for me. First one of my best friends had an adorable baby girl, Delaney. Then my little sister had the cutest baby boy, Joseph. Don't you think they'd make a cute couple? In about 20 years? I think so.

Swimming Baby!

Happy Baby!

I've noticed my Facebook timeline (when I bother to look at it) has been filling up with pictures of babies. Luckily, they're cute, so I don't mind taking the time to look at them :) And I always say, as long as I can hand the baby back when they start crying/pooping/etc I'm a happy camper. Just call me Aunt Awesome. Oh wait, they already do...

ANYWAY, still more babies popping out here at work and of course that means baby showers and dessert tables. The latest and greatest being a Winnie the Pooh themed shower that I enlisted my parents help in...again. Even though they didn't even know my co-worker. Aren't they the greatest?

While I was painting flower points to look like Winnie the Pooh Honey Pots...

















...my dad was putting together this AWESOME Hundred Acre Wood sign. In case you're wondering (and I know you are), we even did our research on Vintage Winnie The Pooh spelling and went all Christopher Robin on this sign.







Next on the agenda was baking honey bee and hive sugar cookies. My mom and I stayed up late doing the baking and my sister Betsy (sugar cookie decorator extraordinaire) helped me out with the piping/flooding/making pretty-ness.

Note to self: Do NOT teach your mother how to play Words with Friends before starting a project. She will ignore said project until the entire game is completed and it's midnight. Also, make sure she limits the smack talk.




Because I like to share, the Sugar Cookie recipe & Royal Icing recipe is at the end of the blog. They were really yummy and although time-consuming, relatively easy to make.







Sugar cookies

















Lemon Cupcakes & Chocolate Cupcakes with Honey Bees
















Creamsicle Cake Pops
















Honey & Lemon Hive Cake. Borrowed this idea from Amy Atlas and her Sweet Designs book. So cute and edible! The best of both worlds really.

The Perfect Candy to make an appearance...Bit-O-Honey and Lemon Drops

And the last of the decorations....

I had so much fun making this Winnie the Pooh Dessert table and will most likely be using it again for some birthday parties in the future. Now I just need to convince the parents...

SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE

Preheat oven to 350 F at 1/2 hour before baking these cookies.

- 6 Cups flour (reserve 1 cup for rolling dough)

- 3 tsp. baking powder

- 2 Cups unsalted butter

- 2 Cups sugar

 - 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla (or desired flavoring)
- pinch of salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and flavoring. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to batter slowly until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill dough 1-2 hours.

Roll to 1/3" thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet for 8-10 minutes or just until the edges of cookies turn brown.

Makes approx. 5 dozen 3" cookies.

ROYAL ICING RECIPE

4 Cups sifted powder sugar
3 Tbs. Meringue Powder
6 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. (oil free) flavor or extract

Mix on medium speed for approx. 10 minutes, or until icing holds a stiff peak. (For piping...Add more water to create icing for flooding.)

Icing should be used within 2 hours. After this time, icing may need to be beaten again.

Be sure all tips and bowls with royal icing in them are covered with a damp cloth to prevent crusting. If icing crusts it should be thrown away.

A Vintage Affair

In case it wasn't obvious by my previous posts on this blog, I really love to throw parties.  I blame my mom, she threw the best birthday parties when we were little and I guess it rubbed off on me.

This party was Audrey Hepburn themed and so much fun.  I love vintage everything so it was really nice to incorporate it into a theme.  All the ladies came in cute dresses and the first thing we did was give everyone an Audrey moment with vintage jewelry, hats and the big sunglasses.

 After our fashion shoot, everyone grabbed some wine or water and brushed up on a little Audrey trivia.

Angela won...of course.  We still can't figure out how she's cheating, but she's good.

Breakfast at Tiffany's followed and a trip to Mama's on the Hill for some delicious Italian food.

And of course there were desserts :)

Audrey Cupcake Pushpops

Raspberry Sorbet

Chocolate Dipped Oreos and Cupcake Poppers

Chocolate Mousse

Champagne Truffles

Next party theme is yet to be decided...but here are some more fun pictures :)

It's Fall Baby!

As promised, I brought in the Fall weather with my seasonal baking.  You're welcome to all of you sweater weather lovers out there!

Pumpkin Pecan Cookies with Chocolate Chunks

This recipe is courtesy of Bakerella and you can find it on her website here.  I had wanted to bake these cookies about a month ago (I was a little too excited for fall).  Unfortunately we had a massive pumpkin shortage in the Midwest and I couldn't find canned pumpkin anywhere.  Luckily, it is now pumpkin season so we have an abundance.  Some cookie photos for your viewing pleasure...



Ok, so I am not a pumpkin fan, but these cookies are goooood.  My dad approves of them, he was especially happy that I hadn't allowed them to cool enough before packing them, making it impossible to have just one cookie because they were sticking together.  I skipped Bakerella's frosting for the cookies, I really didn't see the point since they were so good naked. 

Next week is all about apples.  I don't have a choice.  My mom and I did a little shopping this weekend and she surprised me with next week's star ingredient: Apples.  And a lot of them.  It may not seem a lot to some people, but a single person living by herself can only do so much with a bag of apples before they go bad.

I have this many apples...

(That makes me giggle)

Don't they look delicious though?  Apple Spice Drop Cookies are on my list of things to do this week, you'll see pictures next week when I post.  Also, champagne truffles and photos of my suhweet! Beauty and the Beast party.  Yes, you read that right.