Happy Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras!

I had white, yellow and green leftover icing from my Super Bowl Cookie Cake so I decided to make some purple to celebrate Mardi Gras and some pink for Valentine’s.  I think the two events go together perfect… I know that there is a lot of LOVE going on down in the Big Easy with more than just Mardi Gras to celebrate.  With the Saints Super Bowl win so close to Mardi Gras, no doubt the past week and the coming weeks will be some of the craziest ever in New Orleans!
These are nothing fancy… Slice and Bake cookies, Wilton Butter Cream.  But oh so good!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday

We are having a few friends over to watch the game.  A sporting event is always a reason for me to bake and practice my cake decorating skills.   This is my standard sugar cookie cake with Wilton buttercream icing.  I’m pretty darn proud of myself!

The fleur-de-lis was the most intimidating part.  But I think I did okay!

I’ve drawn a million horseshoes in my life, thanks to 4 years of being a Murrah Mustang Cheerleader! These didn’t scare me at all!

Of course, I’m rooting for the Saints!  Growing up in Mississippi, the Saints were our team too.  And they always were terrible but we’d watch them on Sunday’s anyway.  Between Archie Manning and Deuce McAllister, the love for the Saints has only grown in Mississippi over the years.  It’s amazing to finally see them have good seasons in a row and to finally be on the big stage at the BIG GAME!  Go Saints!

Baking for Sports... Will this be the year?

Will this be the year that the Rockets finally make it past the first round of the playoffs? I know they have done it before -- they've won the whole thing -- but not since I have been a fan. It's time... I'm ready.

Last year, I made a NBA Playoffs Cookie Cake to support two of my teams... the Rockets and the Hornets. They both won the night I made the cake so I am hoping it works this year too. The Rockets are one game away from the Second Round. They have to win this game or it's back to Portland and I fear what that will mean.

My cookies are nothing new for me... Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix with Wilton Buttercream Icing (medium consistency). I didn't work too hard on my decorations... you can see the white icing is pretty messy but I thought my Rockets logo was pretty good for a quick, late night project.
Of course, the most important characteristic is that they taste DIVINE! I know my co-workers will be very pleased with me!

Go Rockets!

Easter Cake Pops Take 2

I gave the cake pops a second try on Saturday. I had more patience as we had no plans and Ryan wanted to do nothing but lay on the couch so I had a little more success. Ryan's family really enjoyed these on Easter Sunday so I am sure I'll make other variations sometime soon. I'm thinking basketball cake pops for the playoffs? (Go Rockets!)

Easter Egg Cake Pops

As promised, I attempted the Easter Egg Cake Pops from Bakerella. (Scroll down in her blog for the recipe/directions). In general, it was a success, except for the decorating part. See more below.

Here are the cake pops pre-dipping

Close up after dipping in white candy melts.

And, my attempt at decorating...

See, the problem was the decorating--the sprinkles. I couldn't make them stick. I let the pops dry and then tried using the light corn syrup as Bakerella suggested. Well, that just didn't work. The syrup on the candy coating was like mixing oil and water. It was like a Rainex-ed winshield and rain -- the corn syrup just beaded up and was useless. So then I tried brushing on the candy melt as the adhesive but it dried so fast I had to do it bits at a time. After 5 pops, I was DONE decorating. So, my coworkers got plain white egg pops today! I have a few in the freezer that are un-dipped, and some colored candy melts that I am going to try my luck with again this weekend.

Christmas Baking Part 1 - The Lazy Method

Before I start my baking story, I thought I'd share another piece of the holiday decor.  This is the table behind one of our couches.  I realized I had an extra lighted garland this year so I found it a home!  I bought some $.50 red berry picks from Hobby Lobby (love their big half off sales) to spruce it up a bit.  It turned out nice!  

Now, to the baking.  I really wanted to make some iced sugar cookies.  That always gets me in the holiday spirit.  But, I didn't have the time or patience tonight to make dough, roll it out cut cookies, bake and ice.  So, in the spirit of Sandra Lee, its "Semi-Homemade".  Pillsbury has these nice new baking sheets of their sugar cookie dough, perfect for cut out cookies.  I had Pillsbury coupons this week so I picked these up instead of the pre-shaped sugar cookies.  This made me feel like I was doing a little more of it myself.  

I cut out Candy Canes, Trees and Stockings.  The only downside of this sheet dough is that it doesnt re-roll very well.  I guess if I sprinkled some extra flour, it would but that was too much work for tonight.  I used the package suggestion and rolled the dough into balls, then pressed them out into circles using the bottom of my wine glass.  I turned these into ornaments so that they fit the Christmas theme.

16 minutes later (2 batches of 8 minutes) I had a nice rack of sugar cookies. 

While the cookies baked, I made a batch of the Wilton Butter Cream Icing that I have written about before.  I made this instead of Grammy's Creamy French Icing for two reasons: (1) I didn't want to do the boiled sugar/water thing--one less thing to clean--and (2) I wanted white-white icing.  I have not done sugar cookies with this icing so I was a little nervous.

I used a variation between medium and stiff using 1/2 stick of butter and 3/4 cups shortening. Then, I colored the icing red and green, leaving a little white for my stripes and stocking tops.  And the results turned out great.  Ryan gave them the seal of approval.  Half are going to work with me tomorrow and the other half staying here!


I am sure I will make some "real" sugar cookies this year, but I do really love a Pillsbury "Slice-n-Bake" cookie!