Category Archives: Events

Eat Your Heart Out Vera Wang!

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When asked to bake something for a bridal shower, our minds went to our experiences of choosing that perfect wedding gown, similarly, with our mini wedding gown replicas, the bride-to-be might have a hard time choosing just one special treat.

Here’s a little tutorial on how we do it!

1. Bake a great sugar cookie! Mix up some royal icing that is loose enough to pipe and flood! We are finding that I like using a loose piping because we like not seeing the piped edge. Royal icing is definitely an art….it is never the same…even though we think we are doing the same thing we always do.

2. Outline the cookie and let the icing set for a few minutes. We like to use a #2 tip.

2. Fill the cookie with the icing.  Then use a toothpick to fill in the all the holes and pop any air bubbles.

3. Let them dry for at least 5-8 hours. We usually let them dry overnight before I move on to decorating the details. We love a white cookie…so crisp and clean!

4. For the detailed piping, I use a stiffer royal icing in white.  We like to use the #1 tip for the details.  If you are using sanding sugar, be sure to do only those sections before you pipe other details. The sugar will stick to any wet icing! We couldn’t decide on one design, so all the dresses were different.  This our favorite part of making cookies:)

 

 

Purim is Coming…..

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Purim is Wednesday, March 7, 2012…..we know that you are supposed to eat Hamantashen, but we like sugar cookies better!

We made King Ahasuerus and Queen Ester cookies to get in the spirit! Our kids will be delivering these as miscloah minot gifts (A phrase taken from the Megillah that commands the Jewish community to give small packages of food or gifts to friends on the day of Purim). For our non-Jewish friends….Purim is a festive holiday where we dress up in costume and celebrate the triumph of good versus evil and Queen Ester’s bravery.  For more information check out this link about Purim. Get your groggers ready and hopefully we will see some friends at the Megillah reading on Wednesday night at Temple Solel!

 

A Girly 4 Year Old Monster Bash!

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It all started with the song….”Calling all the Monsters” by China.  My four year old has been in love with that song since Halloween, so when it came time for planning her birthday she said, “I want a Calling All the Monsters Birthday.”  I had been imagining rainbows, but how could I resist cute girly monsters. We had a blast and the girls had fun getting things ready for the party! Here’s a sampling of the Monster Fun. I must confess that I love all the fun perfect parties I see all over pinterest and the web, but I do love when the girls can help make things too! My little one made a monster decoration out of a tissue box and the guests entered through the front door and were welcomed by this sign painted by the birthday girl!

The house was set-up with crafts and activities….first were monster headbands so each child could make their own. We hot glued the googly eyes to the pom-poms and pipe cleaners prior to the party.  This was perfect for 4 year olds to wrap the pipe cleaner around the headbands! Even the adults thought it was fun.

It was photo booth fun after putting on your monster eyes! The mouths were painted on poster board, cut out and then hot glued to straws.The kids danced, played, and had a blast…..we made playdough monsters, colored and made some necklaces! Of course, we played “Pin the eye on the monster.”

I made the monster birthday cake! I thought it came out great! It was a two layer cake with chocolate covered mini cupcakes for the eyes.  The eyelashes were made with semi-sweet chocolate which I piped on parchment and then attached with icing! The teeth were made with piped white chocolate as well.

It wouldn’t be a yenta mamas party without cookies! As a party favor I made monster tote bags and monster cookies! The cookies were made with a 3 inch scallop cutter.  Then I piped the monster shape.  This was really fun becuase you can’t mess up a monster! I used the Wilton pre-made eyes and piped on some party hats.  The kids loved them.

As the kids were leaving they got to take home a monster tote bag. My aunt helped me sew these (maybe the instructions will be on a future blog post)! They had a space for crayons in the monsters mouth and each one was unique.  The kids were super excited to take them home and they made a cute decoration. They filled them with some bubbles and cookie:)

 

We opened presents…hence the sock monkey hat….and enjoyed the cookies!

Hope you enjoy all monster fun as much as we did! -Elaine

Yenta Mamas Go Global … Sort of …

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Admittedly best laid plans tend backfire and that’s exactly what happened with this idea I really wanted to do for Teacher Appreciation Week at my daughters’ school. The school is designated as an IB World school, part of the International Baccalaureate Programme and for a while now I wanted to do “thank you” message cookies in different languages. So I knew what I wanted to do, but when the blessed week arrived, my girls were sick! Thankfully they rebounded pretty quickly and I was able to bake the cookies, but … by that time, I was faced with another problem … my comrade in arms, Elaine, who does the icing (while I mix and play with colors) had two sick children on her hands!
Well, what do they say : “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!” (Or something like that). So braced with the idea of icing these bad boys myself while Elaine was holed up the Peds office, I dashed off to Wal-Mart and purchased everything I needed … I even found a hot, hot, hot pink food coloring we didn’t have (I can’t say how excited I get over icing colors, Elaine can attest to it, and let me say, this hot pink made me as giddy as a schoolgirl)!
So happy was I was with my purchases, I picked the girls up at school and promptly got to work while they did the balance of their homework. And so here I was, smiling from ear to ear – gushing over the perfection of the piping consistency I had achieved – my euphoric mood brightening even more with that hot, hot, hot pink … sigh …
And then it hit me … I was missing one very key piece of equipment! And though small, it was very important. A coupler, this tiny piece of plastic used to attach and keep the icing tip in place. So now, I think to myself … go back out to Wal-Mart (with two children shooting daggers at me) or try to make due. I telephoned Elaine and we chatted about what to do. In the end, I decided to push the icing tip through the corner of the Zip-Loc, then put the small little icing bag into said Zip-Loc and got to work with my shaky, rather unqualified hand.
The result is below and it isn’t all that pretty … certainly not our best work … but I guess what I have to remember is … it takes a lot of talents to make the world go around and though I’m not sure of mine just yet, I’m confident in one thing: we make a damn good cookie! So, crazy week and lack-luster icing job aside, I can rest comfortably tonight knowing that my daughters’ esteemed teachers  will at least have a tasty treat at the Staff Appreciation Luncheon tomorrow! –April

Ladies Who Lunch

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“Ladies Who Lunch” is women’s luncheon held at Temple Solel in Cardiff-by-the-Sea that benefits our kids’ preschool.  We have helped plan this event for the last four years (luckily someone else is in charge this year) and this year we decided to donate cookie favor for each attendee.  The colors we used were inspired by Elum Designs beautiful invitation they generously donated!  We hope everyone enjoys the event!

 

Thank You’s

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A simple way to say thanks for coming! Who doesn’t love a sweet ending?

Pizza?

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It’s not DiJorno, it’s a double chocolate cake…14 inches to be exact! You bet the kids were impressed with this deep dish Italian look-a-like, topped with hand-shaved white chocolate “cheese” and fruit roll-up “pepperoni” slices, served up in a classic pizza box. (Note: A Wilton round 14-inch pan was used for this big pizza!)