Congrats to the Class of 2013

Can't believe it's graduation time again!   I just realized that I haven't updated my blog in over 3 weeks. I've been busy trying to get back on track after a wonderful trip to China.  I think I may finally be caught up.  

My trip felt somewhat extended because my brother in law booked my sister & nephew tickets home with me with less than 36 hours notice.  We surprised our mom for Mother's Day & her Birthday (same day as Mother's Day this year).  We spent the last 3 weeks visiting with family, shopping, playing in the back yard and just enjoying blue skies & sunshine.  

Until I find the pictures of my mom's birthday cupcakes, I'll kick the summer off with a set of graduation cupcakes for my alma mater, Carpinteria High School.    You can make your own diplomas by following my tutorial here:  diploma tutorial 

Congrats to the Class of 2013!!

Ice Cream Sandwiches

When I was visiting my sister, she whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies sans baking powder. Instead she used cornstarch.  The cookies were so soft.. I had trouble keeping myself from eating all of them myself.  

I made some myself to take to family dinner at my Gram's house.  The only difference was I made mine into Ice Cream Sandwiches.  We found this great little ice cream shop in Montecito called Rori's Artisanal Creamery and we're in love with their ice cream.  I was shopping one night at Gelson's and stumbled upon Rori's pints for sale in their cold case.    I bought the Salted Caramel & Creamy Vanilla Bean.     The ice cream sandwiches were so good.. I can't wait to make them again

You can try the cookie recipe out yourself by visiting Apple a Day's blog.

Next up I plan on trying cornstarch in my cut out cookie recipe to see if I can get a softer cookie.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! 

Hope all the Mother's out there have

a wonderdul Day! 

And I want to wish a very  HAPPY BIRTHDAY to

my Mom!

Nautical Cookies

The Z's are beach lovers & my sister loves the nautical theme.  Anchors, flip flops, beach buckets, bikinis & swim trunks seemed perfect to bring with me.   

They loved them and didn't even care that their mouths turned BLUE! 

We are enjoying our time together & it's been an eye opening experience to see the way people live over here..snakes for sale on the street corner eeewww.  Life here is not as I know it back in the US.  I miss home and have a new appreciation for all that we have and the easy life we have in the states.   I'm so proud of The Z's for learning to accept what is here and living in a different country.

Anchor & sand bucket by FoxRun

boo - one of the anchors broke in transit

Little bikini

Cinco De Mayo

Feliz Cinco De Mayo! 

Living in Santa Barbara we are surrounded by Spanish culture.. from our beautiful Mission Santa Barbara , our courthouse, Casa De La Guerra  to streets lined with beautiful Spanish style homes.

I am still in China so I'm spending Cinco De Mayo here. I did this cake last year and saved the post for today so I could wish you all a Happy Cinco De Mayo! 

5K Monday in China

 nǐ hǎo 你好 from Wuxi! 

In case you are wondering, that means HELLO in Mandarin.

I'm ready to go on my 1st "5k Monday" walk to Starbucks with my sister's expat group. Every Monday they walk to Starbucks, sit and relax with coffee and visit.  Now before you tell me it's Sunday, not Monday.. it is already Monday here. My sister has met so many great people over here & Sal has buddies to play with. They do lots of day trips, walks to the vegetable market, Ikea, etc. 

 Donna & Aiden on a visit to Starbucks Wuxi

Photo courtesy of Heather (Aiden's mama)

I made this set of cookies to take and share with her friends. Writing Mandarin isn't very easy but I did my best although it is not perfect (as pointed out on Facebook by a Chinese friend).    The coffee cup cutters are from PlasticsinPrint on Etsy.   I've had them for a while and was excited to finally get to use them.  The cherry blossoms are painted with Americolor food dye thinned with vodka and a paint brush to add color to the center of the cookies.  It's a little easier than dragging out the airbrush and dries rather quickly. 

Time to go get my Starbucks fix... I'll update with Starbucks pictures when I get back

 zài jiàn 再见  (Goodbye)

Vrroom Vrroom Harley Davidson

If you've been following me for a few years, you know that I love to ride on the back of my husband's Harley.  I think my husband was sad that this set of cookies were not for his eating pleasure. 

I made a dozen cookies, Harley themed, to donate to an auction 

for Tony Gulley.  He is a Harley lover and had a fall, resulting in numerous broken bones and extensive therapy.  With medical bills climbing, his friends held a benefit on his behalf.    I love to help others so when his friend contacted me asking if I could donate something, I didn't hesitate in saying "yes".  

I sent 3 dozen cookies, all different themes.  I hope they helped raise a good amount of money for his recovery.  

Get Well Tony! 

I'm enroute to China

4:30 a.m. came way too early this morning... It was time to get up and get to the airport and start 

my trek to Shanghai. I'm going to visit my sister, brother in law & nephew (The Z's).   

This is not only my 1st time out of the country, I'm also flying solo which is way out of my comfort zone. Thankfully my sister will be at the airport with her driver to greet me.   

I'm sitting at San Francisco airport waiting for my 13 hour flight. Hopefully I can spend some time drafting blog posts & getting my blog caught up but no promises. There may be a few moments that I actually drift off in dreamland :) 

I would never in a million years plan a vacation in China but this is a great opportunity to go visit. 

The Z's will be there for 3 years. When they left in June 2012, I didn't even have a passport so I did that right after they left. My brother in law was a huge help booking my airline travel (and spoiling me with a 1st Class upgrade..whohoo!), giving me all the info on applying for a travel visa from the Chinese Embassy and having their driver pick me up at the airport.   I appreciate all the help he has given me.  

The Z's love my cookies.  Shipping to China can be tricky (lots of items blacklisted) but over the past year I have pretty much conquered USPS,  Customs & China Post. I have shipped cookies almost every month them and they say they still taste good even if they are in transit 14-21 days. I made three sets to take with me and hand deliver. China Dolls, Starbucks cups (for her Expat group's Monday meeting) and a nautical/beach set. 

The first set is a set of China dolls & lanterns.  I was inspired by Sugarbelle for this design.  She is such an amazing cookie decorator and so generous with her tutorials. I love when she uses cutters on hand for a different design.  It makes you really think about what you have and what would work vs. going to buy a new cutter.   I used a polar bear cutter from Cristin's Cookies for the doll cookie. The cutter was used for a challenge that I took part in back in January.  For the lanterns I used a snowman, pumpkin & another cutter from a Wilton Halloween Set (sorry, I have no clue what the cutter is supposed to be).   

Time to board my next flight...

talk to you when I reach the other side!

Polka Dots & Plaid... Oh My

Polka Dot & Plaid 

A few months ago my friend, Shannon of Artfully Delicious, sent me test cookies. If you aren't following her on Facebook, go on over and follow now.  She was looking for taste testers and I was one of the fortunate ones "picked" to taste test.   Her cookies were so soft and had a great buttery vanilla flavor.  Her royal icing was not rock hard to bite into and really complimented the cookie.   Her artwork was amazing.  My husband liked her cookies better than mine, so I have since changed my recipes and think I have found a better cookie & icing recipe.  

Here are the cookies she sent:

Photo courtesy of Artfully Delicious

She used the Wet on Wet technique and inspired me

to try it myself.  So EASY.  Flood your cookie, add your design then let it dry.

Once it's dry use a food marker and draw your outline

See.. it's EASY!

Photo courtesy of Artfully Delicious

She also sent these beautiful flower cookies!  Aren't the colors fantastic?

So bright & cheery!

While I wanted to do wet on wet flowers, I also wanted to do some hand painting.  I flooded 1.5" rounds with white royal icing & then let them dry.    After they were dry, I used Americolor Deep Pink dye diluted with vodka and painted plaid on the cookie.   This is a great way to add color with out mixing a ton of icing colors.   For this set I had 4 icing bottles:  turquoise, green, black and white. 

Polka dots can be tricky when doing the wet on wet technique.  If you don't drop enough icing for the dot it will not be a solid dot.  I lucked out on this set because all my dots ended up as nice round white dots. 

Have you tried wet on wet? 

I invite you to share your pictures on my Facebook page! 

Thanks Artfully Delicious for inspiring me and letting me be a taste tester! 

Daisies

Loving my new vinyl backgrounds by Swanky Prints

I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow, thought I'd share some flowers before I go.

I have some fun cookies to share with you over the next two weeks! 

See ya!