Exciting, Crazy Times

Wow. I've been away a lot longer than I thought I would be. My life has totally turned upside down since the last post. I left my job at Sears (finally!!) and started working with my husband. We are working together at Carmen's Ice Cream and Gelato in Farmington, NY. Currently we are managing, but hope to buy the business in a few years. Things are going well, our staff is absolutely phenomenal. Business has started to pick up a bit, at least on the weekends, but the weekdays are still mad slow. Will hopefully have more to share once the bakery is finished and I can get back to making cookies and cakes. Yay!!!

New Year, New Plans

Boy, Am I glad that 2008 is finally behind us!! What a tough and sometimes rotten year it was. On the plus side, my husband and I made it through our first anniversary, moved into a lovely apartment, and decided once and for all that I want to start a business. On the rotten side, we've had to deal with car troubles, a lack of clients on his side, and in general a very nasty decline in our finances.

But on to bigger and better with 2009!!! We have so much to celebrate this year and so much to look forward to and plan for. My sister is getting married, my cousin is getting married, my parents are celebrating 40 wonderful years together, not to mention the launch of my business sometime in the near future. And, at least so far this year, I still have a job and a roof over our heads. Definitely something to be thankful for.

As for my plans for the new year- they're pretty simple. To make enough money to pay my bills and have a little fun, to start my business, and to spend time with the ones I love. Don't know exactly how to get it all done, but all I can do is try. Wish me luck!!!

House Painter Cookies

As I promised, these are the house painter cookies that I made for my cousin. Since I didn't have a chance to order specific cutters, I repurposed some of my Halloween cutters. I turned the tombstone cutter into some paint cans, the witch's broom into paintbrushes, and the haunted house into a basic house. I loved the house, but I think the other two could use a little tweaking the next time around, especially with the colors of the paintbrushes. Not bad though for my first custom order :)

Snowmen Cookies

What a crazy couple of months it has been. Not long after my last post, my husband and I decided to take the plunge and move. I quit my job at the bank and we started looking for new jobs and a new apartment. The day before our 1st anniversary we packed up the cats, ourselves and our assorted junk and headed East. Well, East of Batavia that is. And we landed right where we wanted, in the lovely little town of Victor. Now we're just a hop, skip and a jump from our families, Wegman's, and everything else we love about the Greater Rochester area. Finally.



It was not completely smooth sailing, as it took me almost a month to get a job, though I did manage to get a really rocking sinus infection in the meantime. I eventually started full time at Sears in our local mall. Suddenly all of my great plans for starting my business and baking for fun were thrown out of the window. Luckily with Christmas fast approaching, I at least had cause to bake, if not for fun than to be able to provide presents for my family.



And along came my cousin with a request for some cookies for some family members and friends. Decorated cookies no less, in the shapes of snowmen and house painter themes. Yay!!! A chance to sit down and have some fun designing new cookies. The snowmen were pretty easy, a ton of ideas came all at once and had to be funneled into the above designs. The house painter theme is coming a little more slowly. I have some sketches completed, but the desgins won't be finalized until I put decorating tip to cookie. Check back to see the finished cookies- I hope I won't disappoint.


Now for a closer look at my snowmen army:



Really more of a snowwoman this design features a purple hat, done with a small star tip, and embellished with purple buttons centered with silver dragees.












This gentelman is wearing a green hat, adorned with more silver dragees. His wooly red scarf was made using the small star tip.












Last but not least, this young man is wearing a cotton-blend hat and scarf in a green and red stripe. Doesn't he look happy, all bundled up against the lake effect snow?










I hope my cousin likes these as much as I do- I almost want to make a little army just for me.
Check back soon for the house painter cookies!

Doug's Birthday

My husband Doug recently had a birthday and asked me to make a chocolate chip cookie cake. It's a pretty simple process, just make the dough and press into the pan, bake, cool and then decorate. I've only made one other cake like this, for a former coworker, and even though that once came out pretty well, I must say my latest one is truly adorable.







This first picture is the cake, cooled and ready to go. Yummy looking at this stage, but there is more to come!








Now the cake is decorated with chocolate swirls and vanilla dots. Yum!!!








And here the cake is complete with a sweet message. All that's left is to dig and enjoy this bad boy. And let me tell you- it was the best cookie cake I've ever had. I filled the pan a little more than I realized so the cake was pretty thick, almost an inch thick. Kinda like eating five cookies at once- so tasty and chocolatey and delicious!!

New Menu and my foray into Etsy.com

After repeatedly being told that my prices are too low, I have decided to re-work my menu, updating my prices and selection. I think the new prices are still reasonable, but only time (and orders) will tell. I'm happy so far with the new cookies I've tried and plan to do a rotating selection, to keep my customers (and myself) from getting bored. I also plan to work on some new decorated sugar cookies and I'll try to post some pics when done.

Also new is my venture into the world of Etsy.com. Etsy is a marketplace for handmade goods and features some really awesome products. After much contemplation I decided to try listing some of my cookies on etsy. I haven't sold any yet, but I'm still new to the process and still figuring out how it all works. Things are looking promising though- I've had a ton of views so far and was even approached by a fellow blogger about doing a give away of my peanut butter cup shortbread. Peggy from luckygirltrading, who also has a great blog all about peanut butter, ran a contest for two lucky winners of my peanut butter cup shortbread. The contest was a great success and the suggestions from her readers were awesome. I can't wait to try to make some of their suggestions.

If anyone is interested you can view my etsy store at http://cookiesbykristin.etsy.com/.

Carrot Cake Shortbread

This is another shortbread variation that I found and couldn't wait to try. After all, who doesn't love carrot cake? All in all they were pretty easy to make, just a little time consuming. Basically the dough for the cookies is similar to real carrot cake- grated carrots, flour, spices, etc. The cream cheese filling is sweet and contains carrot as well, which I thought was the coolest part. Once the dough is made, it is rolled into little balls, flattened with a glass and baked. Once cooled, the halves are sandwiched with filling and then eaten.

The only change I think I would make is to leave out the pecan that you see on the top of the cookie. Most people that I shared these with seemed to pick them off and it was difficult to me to bite through the cookie and the pecan at the same time. Some also commented that the pecan flavor was too strong, almost overpowering. I think instead I will incorporate the chopped nuts into the filling or maybe just leave them out.

All in all they were good, and with a little fine tuning I think they might make it to the next menu.