That Baking Girl kontaktieren!

Hallo Leute!

Ich wollte nur schnell schreiben, ich habe nicht mehr so viel Zeit für bloggen, aber ich wollte dass Ihr mich kontaktieren könnt...
Meine Website schickt mir eure Nachrichten nicht, also bitte schreibt mir auf icravedonuts@yahoo.ca . Dort kriegt ihr eine Antwort. Es tut mir so leid wenn Ihr geschrieben habt in den letzten Monaten und keine Antwort gekriegt habt, ich habe immer gedacht ich kriege Spam, dabei sind es richtige Nachrichten, ohne Inhalt gewesen.
Tut mir unheimlich leid, ich würde so gerne Sachen für Euch kreieren.
That Baking Girl

Some catching up...

Hello everyone!

Now I am not sure how many of you actually read this blog regularly, but I haven't been on top of things at all, and I am sorry...I guess I let my failiure at the market get the better of me and stopped writing...I don't know. But, after about a week, I started to bake and decorate again, so not all is lost! I will keep the writing part short because really, there are so many pictures. I hope you guys like them!

These 2 first sets above and below are designs from my favorite artist ever! Elisabeth Enos from tinyapron (on etsy.com---please don't ask me to link, it never works on my blog!!) I love these. The little girl, the cloud...they made me feel happy when I wasn't happy anymore...and under, painted cookies, these are my favorite up to now, they came out beautifully!

Here I wanted to make a nice personal gift for my cousin's wedding, my first cookie puzzle and using a stick figure look which I love and it is inspired by my favoite cookie artist Jill FCS. Her's are definitely better, but for my first try, I thought this wasn't so bad...I packed it badly though, didn't make the transport, so I sent him a picture of it over facebook, and he never answered. I don't know if he ever saw it, or cares.

These, I love, I don't know, I have had a mustache obsession for awhile now-but only on cute things like cookies or pillows, not on men, ugh. Anyway, a cookier friend of mine from Colorade Springs asked if some of us were willing to make cookies for the firefighters over there that have been working very hard saving everything basically, and I felt I needed to make manly cookies. So what is manlier than a mustache, with a mustache? And I have wanted to make talking bubbles for awhile too, and these worked out well, I cut an oval and a triangle and used the tip of it and stuck it to the oval! Quick and perfect!! I like these quite a bit...

Next came this batch of very easy cookies for a cookie decorating class I taught just about a week ago... I like the teeth the most-I think the idea of giving a face to something that isn't cute at all, thus rendering it cute, is the thing cookies does best!

Also for the course-Sweetopia's own cookies cookies inspired the look obviously, I only copied it with my own colours to show everything that can be done easily with cookies...

(And while I was at it, I decided that if I was about to teach a class, I needed to make sure I really knew what I was talking about and made another sweetopia design...they worked-only my 3rd try-ahem!)

More cookies for the cookie class, I really wanted to show a few possibilities!

This one I love, my first really difficult painted design, the first time I used the proper method, design was from an old embroidery book, and I found this picture on someone's blog...I love it. My cat loved it too, I found it all washed out one morning, he had licked it clean...(by the way, when I produce for real, the kitchen is sealed off, no cats in there to go destroy cookies!!!!!)

Julia Usher and My little Bakery inspired piping. I think I will leave this to the experts in the future. This is tedious work and not my type of cookie look, but if someone wants something like this for a wedding or whatever, I know I can do it. Still, what would you guys charge for cookies that take about a half hour to make-and this one was fairly simple...

I have wanted to try paisley for awhile now too so I looked for some designs on the internet, and took the best parts...no kopykake by the way, I am just getting better at piping on my own...

My favorite and no bleeding from black into yellow!!!

I made cupcakes yesterday to test some sprinkles from www.bakeria.ch who's owner Lynn was nice enough to send me samples of. They have beautiful shimmering colours and I can't wait to buy them!!

A few instagrams...this was actually my first piping try out insprired by Julia Usher and My Little Bakery designs...

Last but not least, my cookie class, wow, the cleaning at the end...but it was worth it! And in august, there will be a cakepop class!

So that's what I have been up to...next week I will be starting a party design, cookies, cakepops, cupcakes, and, yes, a cake, we'll see how that works out, for a lovely lady who is having a birthday party and everything will fit the invitations! I can't wait to see how everything turns out! Wish me luck, hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Our Stand in Gossau

It is wednesday, and the fair ended on sunday...so needless to say, if it would have been a success, I would have posted about it right away, right? Right. It was a total and utter failiure/disaster, loss of money, bruising of ego, madening, waste of time EVER!

Let me run you through it : my friend and I decided since we make cute things, I bake, she sews, we could take the opportunity to sell our things at our village fair. Let me point out, we do live in a village, but our village is 20 minutes away from the richest, biggest town in Switzerland. We don't live in some backward hole...or so I thought (but that could just be the bitterness talking). So we planned and planned and once it was time, I went out and bought my supplies. Then I baked and decorated, for a week. Yes, a week.

200 cakepops, all in the colours my friend's cute sewn elephants were, pink, blue and white, not all the same, some with sugars, others with sprinkles or plain, or shiny, etc...

Almost 40 decorated cookies (Cupcakes and Elephants being our theme), all of them decorated individually...

About 200 yummy chocolate chip/black and white cookies, which we stuffed our faces with...

About 120 Chocolate cupcakes, decorated with either chocolate cream cheese frosting or meringue buttercream. With quite a few differents looks.

Same thing for vanilla except I got 150 out of the 2 recipes...

The same pretty colours as the cakepops and the decorated cookies.

Our beautiful stand, or so we thought...

The cupcakes melted, so we just left the chocolate ones and hoped that people would still ask what we have...

A bit closer...
I sold almost all the decorated cookies, about 3 cakepops, 10 cupcakes and 10 yummy cookies. I am not joking. I would like to thank the few friends that came by and actually bought something, without you, well I don't really know...
Gossau, zh was not ready for our beautiful stand. Either they were insulted there was something so American looking at their local market, or it was too warm to grab a cupcake, or they have no sense of esthetics, we couldn't figure it out. Again, I am bitter while writing this...but one thing is for sure, I love creating these lovely dessert tables and it won't be the last time I do... but certainly the last time for a market!
The good thing : my friend and I got to talk about all the girl stuff we could possibly talk about, think about, get red about, and because of that, this total catastrophy is almost entirely forgotten. Now if I could just win the lottery to replace the money I lost, everything would be right with the world again... next post will be about what I love best, cookies!

That Baking Girl-Gossau zh 16-17.6!!!!!

CUPCAKES UND ELEFANTEN!!!

Kommt vorbei Leute, in Gossau zh, Nachmittag und Abend! Ihr könnt cupcakes, cake pops, yummy cookies und verzierte cookies kaufen und probieren! Und dieser Beispiel von Torten Figuren auch anschauen! Ich freue mich auf jeder, und hoffe dass ihr ganz grossen Interesse habt und mit vielen Fragen vorbeikommen!!!

Hey people, I will be selling some cupcakes, cakepops, yummy cookies and decorated cookies at the Gossau Chilbi next weekend (15-17th june). Please stop by, try out some things, check out this cake topper example and ask as many questions as possible! I really hope loads will pass by!!

Thank you!!

Impromptu family portrait on cookie

So by now, you may know, everything can be done on cookie. I am not saying I can do everything yet, but I have certainly seen loads of possibilities till now. And some cookies are not planned at all...

Take these, I wanted to recreate a little book that we got for Lily, with animals and lovely colours. But when I outlined this cookie, I felt, it looked too much like a frame, it had to become family portraits.

I wanted to keep fun vibrant colours though, as I didn't plan to create something life-like...I wanted what I like best... cartoony.

Then I remembered, about 8 years ago, my friend Nancy brought me to a ceramics café, you know, the one where you have premade shapes and designs to choose from, and then you try to be as creative as possible? Well, if I recall correctly, we were there at least 5 hours, talked like crazy and I made this :

I decided I liked that look best and redrew it on paper and then on cookie!

These I drew myself, with the same look as the cats, I didn't want 2 different types of drawings, and well, this is about as well as I can draw anyways, so my husband, my baby, and me, with very generous lips...!! (If I can't improve on reality, at least on cookie!)

Finally, I had some tiny frame holders (I don't remember the real word for those) and thought they would look really cute for pictures of these, I think I was right...!
My little happy Family:

Hope you like them!

Time for a few cupcakes...

I have been neglecting a good friend lately...actually two, but this is the better of both, the cupcake. The other, the cakepop, well, it's not always a GOOD friend, so I don't feel quite so bad. But, would I have believed you only a few short months ago when you would have said, Heidi, you will be flipping for cookies? I don't know, I don't think so...I mean they take so long, and most people don't actually eat them, but they are just soooo much more individual, you can put almost anything on a cookie...STOP! This post is about cupcakes!

Ok, let's get on to the subject. My good friend asked me 2-3 days ago if it was too late to make cupcakes for today. And because I can't say no, and well, now I am officially allowed to bake and sell from my home, I said yes, of course. She thought about the concept, and asked me to basically make something cute, sent me a few links and decided on the chocolate ganache topping, and blue. Because I find at least 3 colours more fun, I decided to go for the yellow as well, and then I thought, well one has to have those colours in sprinkles, but the topping has to be white. That is how I ended up with 4 colours. By the way, for future reference, I would not be putting that much effort in the colour scheme for someone I don't know paying me the regular price! Mixing colours takes forever! And well, the yellow didn't quite come out as I wanted, but you know, I am a slight colour perfectionist.

Can anyone see that I also handpainted the butterflies in blue and yellow? I didn't take a good enoough picture of that...

Ok, well this was a nice little project, but now people, back to cookies!!!

A little experiment in between...

So really, I have enough to do right now...just finished the retirement cookies and the tasty cookies, making a 20 piece set for a nice lady in Schaffhausen, and 24 cupcakes for tomorrow, but I so desperately wanted to try this stained glass window effect cookie...

Well it started with the cupcakes actually, having to make them for a collegue who works for a russian company. Then I wanted to see what type of "russian cookie" I could try and found nothing that was easy enough to pipe, so I thought why not paint. And then I found this exact picture, as a stained glass window and thought, there you go!

First I tried to make glaze instead of royal icing, to make it look shinier. I don't like this medium, and it made lots of bubbles, but, you can't tell when you paint over it. I don't know how long it takes to dry, so I was a bit too quick, and tracing the lines I needed made me poke through sometimes...! But I covered it with paint... 

Anyway, much too much detail for anything really. In reality, this cookie is a bit on the messy side, I will only show it off on picture to make myself look really talented, HA!!!

So that's it for the in between cookie, back to reality now!! Hope you like!!!

Yummy cookies

You know I love cookies, everything about them makes me happy really...I like that it's a portionned dessert...you know what I mean? I sort of don't ever know what to do faced with a cake. I tend to think, ok, not too big a piece but will I look like I am on a diet if I say cut me a sliver? What if I don't like the topping, I will have to finish the entire piece! Well, cookies are not only usually really tasty or at least pretty, they are quite litterally bite-sized. You can have one and be polite or 10 and be an ogre. Whatever you choose, the person who made them will be happy. My favortite cookies are still, the chocolate chip, and most specifically, this particular recipe that I am too lazy to write, but if someone wants it, I am more than willing to share! It is so soft and chewy, melt in your mouth! I am sure, if you prefer a crispier version, just leave it in the oven for 4 minutes more and you would have a perfect crispy CCC. But, I like soft and chewy...anyway, let me move on...

A few months ago, I delivered some whoopie pies for a lovely lady in Ireland whose sister lives here in Switzerland. Well, she has ordered again (yay a returning customer!!!) and this time, had another special request! How to integrate our wonderful swiss chocolate, specifically Cailler Branches Chocolates, into a cookie? I felt there was no point in chopping it up and use as CC because you wouldn't recognize them as that particular chocolate. We both agreed stuffing a piece in the middle would be best.

I made exactly 4 extras, took a picture and gave one piece to Andy, took the other for myself...needless to say, without tooting my own horn...they are delicious! Maybe the chocolate looks puny sized in the picture, but it is just right, and the dough is heavenly! So I will be sending them off this morning and hope that they will arrive tomorrow morning...and just to see, I used one of the spares to breakfast on this morning, and we were right last night...really really YUMMY!!! 

                                      

Hope you like these!! What kind of cookies do you guys like best to eat? Have a great day!!

A little cuteness after the Motörhead cookie...

Hello everyone! Well, after being so excited about posting my extremelly time consumming Motörhead cookie, I felt a bit cheated... LOL! Wow I sound like a big baby! No, the thing is, in the last few weeks, I have been getting huge feedback for my cookies on facebook, from people I don't know, and especially, from cookie decorators. When I posted my most complicated, and by far my best, I thought oooh, everyone will love this and everyone will share it and I will be blushing with pleasure...well, no. It didn't happen. People commented, yes, but only one dared put it on their own page! People want cute cookies! Or, they just don't want to talk about me anymore. Either way, I felt I needed to prove that I wasn't over, I needed to come up with something cute PRONTO!!! So I came up with CowHead. Why you ask? Well, not knowing if the Motörhead would work out, I had made about 10 cookies, but only used one. So I have a bunch of unused baked cookies...and I felt I needed to do the exact same cookie, but cute, and it had to have the word head in it, and it had to have some pink, some flowers and a pair of horns. This is what I came up with...

I wanted her to be chewing on some straw, and it had to have some dimension...

I am really happy about her mouth and teeth...

So that's it, this is my bid to save my cookie decorating reputation, produce some cuteness again, and I am very happy to say I used my own imagination, didn't use an internet image...but one thing is for sure, I will be going back to icing cookies for awhile, fondant is massively time consumming!!! Hope you guys like my cow! Have a nice weekend!

Motörhead Cookies...yes, you read correctly...

A few days ago, I was sort of wondering what my next project would be...pretty certain it would be something for me...I mean right now I am lucky to even be making so many things for others considering my site still isn't up...but mostly I try to improve my skills by making things I find pretty and trying new things. That same evening, after having decided what I was going to do (can't actually remember now!), I got an email from my brother-in-law with a picture asking if I could make a cookie. Just one. Of the Motörhead logo. I looked at it and sighed. Then I looked at it again and thought, my god, what an ugly logo. And by the 3rd time I looked, I saw a challenge. Once I printed the logo, I had figured out what my best option was.

Ok, so, first, I thought, I will be making a few and whichever, if any, turn out correctly, he will get. I thought, my best best, entirely out of fondant would look the best, but I have only ever made one cookie with fondant (canadian cancer society cookies) and it wasn't all too challenging... so I figured I would try with royal icing as well, and then if nothing worked, I would try to take an easier logo of motörhead than the sent picture. So I made about 10 cookies, but only ended up decorating one. Why?

Well, first of all, it took me 6 hours to make. Second, it turned out pretty much perfect, I wouldn't know how to get it better and I doubt I would be able to make it again! So here you have it people, 6 hours of work, hand cut, modeled, painted, repainted, repainted and repainted to produce probably my very best made cookie, but certainly one of the ugliest cookies ever made as well!!! 

3d effect...

Here next to the picture I got...the eyes aren't coming out much on this picture, but you can see from the others that they are indeed red.

I put it up on facebook last night, and to be honest, I think most people either think it's something else than a cookie or it's too creepy for them! Either way, it's not a favorite of most I think!! But, to counter such darkness, I have come up with a plan. An equally long task, but I am sure if it works out, most will melt under its cuteness factor. In the meantime, Rock On!!!

I love decorating cookies...

Hello everyone! You may have noticed something of a theme starting in the last few weeks...cookies. I do enjoy making cupcakes, and I really would like to try my hand more at fondant figures and such, and god knows I still need to work on the cakepops, but cookies are really starting to be an all consumming passion. I can't believe it's only been 9 months since my first cookie. I keep thinking about the fact that I didn't even know cookies like this existed! I knew you could get gingerbread men and all, but I really didn't think you could even decorate a cookie! Well, without my little Lily, I wouldn't have found this special world and I wouldn't have known about all my new cookie friends on facebook who are so talented I can actually sit in front of the computer for an hour in awe of their creations. I am just honored to even call myself a cookie decorator! I love cookies!

Ok, now you know how I feel, I can tell you about my latest ones. I have been playing around alot lately with cute designs I have found on the internet : on etsy, on facebook, on google...and always I get the permission for use to decorate cookies and post on the internet.  I get my trusty Kopykake and try to get my hand to not overshadow all the lines I am supposed to be pipping and I love it because it allows me to be way better at my passion than if I was doing free hand. Well, for these next cookies, I felt it was time to actually try a few designs I could do free hand. Turns out, when you have a concept and it is not too crazy, it can work out for people like me that are not particularly talented when it comes to drawing! So I am particularly proud of these birthday cookies I made upon request from my father-in-law for 2 friends. (Ok, I used the kopykake for the writing, I didn't want my squiggly writing on an otherwise pretty cookie!!)

The middle and right cakes are made using a Sweetambs technique...and although my royal icing wasn't of perfect consistency, they turned out quite well I find! The pink one, well the lines are a bit shaky, but I still like the effect...

These I really loved making. Sparkles, sugar, sprinkles, and, they look like cupcakes! Perfect! And I just love how the Happy 15th birthday came out. This was my best pipped writing yet! I am really happy about this!

Smiling...

And the best part...they loved the cookies! And I loved making them. Really, there is nothing quite as satisfying as cookie making. Can't wait to come up with the next designs!