Sophie's Birthday Cookies

My niece Sophie's 11th birthday is this week and she's having a bunch of her friends over for a sleepover...her first ever!   She asked me if I could make some cookies for the party and of course I said yes.  I came up with these two-layer birthday cake sugar cookies since Sophie gave me carte blanche to make whichever design I wanted.  Love that she's such an easygoing kid.

The paper topper I created in Excel and printed on heavy cardstock.  I had thought about ordering them from a paper designer on etsy, but since it's such an easy design why not try myself and save a few bucks  in the process.  I think they look quite cute and finish off the cookie nicely.

Happy Birthday Sophie!  Love, O Truc

Dinosaur Birthday Cake and Cookies

Micah turned 1 this month and his parents hosted a brunch recently to celebrate this milestone.  My present to the birthday boy was the cake and cookie favors for the party.  Ev says Micah's favorite book at the moment is about a dinosaur.  She found the cutest Meri Meri dinosaur party supplies on diapers.com so I made sure the treats complimented this theme.

Overall I'm happy with how the cake and favors turned out.  I think both capture the party theme quite nicely without being too over the top.  My only complaint is that the royal icing on the blue and green cookies was not very cooperative.  I cringe when I see the little divets...so annoying!  I'm my worst critic and hopefully the guests didn't notice.  But I  do take comfort in the fact that even an expert like Sweetopia has experienced this issue.

 

Everyone at the party seemed to enjoy the cake.  It was four layers of high ratio yellow butter cake filled with two kinds of swiss meringue buttercream (lemon curd and raspberry) and then covered in vanilla buttercream.  This cake recipe is a new favorite of mine and produces a cake that is not only delicious but has a really fine crumb that slices beautifully.  

Looks like the guest of honor enjoyed it!  Happy Birthday Micah Bear!  Love, Auntie Truc.

Cherry-Almond Shortbread Bars

A new year rolls around and most people use that as motivation to clean out their closets.  In my case it wasn't the closet that needed a thorough once over, it was my pantry.  As a baker I seem to collect (alright hoard!) baking ingredients.  I admit it's an addiction, but I can't help it!  

So what are some of my spoils?  Let's see: 15 pounds of Ghiradelli white chocolate candy making and dipping bars (for petits fours), 8 pounds of dutch-processed cocoa (too good of a deal at Costco to pass up) and bags and bags of dried fruit from Trader Joe's, just to name a few.

A jar of cherry preserves caught my eye as I was going through the pantry shelves and I knew I wanted to make something with it.  As luck would have it I happened upon a recipe for these shortbread bars online.  Good thing I had all the ingredients on hand which was additional  motivation to make them.   

The bars have a nice buttery cookie crust and the cherries provide a great tart contrast.  The only change I'd make is to use a 9x9 inch pan, rather than the 9x13 suggested in the original recipe.  I thought using the larger pan made the bars too thin.

MJ Giveaway Winner

The winner of the $35 gift certificate is comment #21, bonj67, who's favorite MJ song is "Man in the Mirror".

Thanks to everyone who participated...hope to see you again for the next one!