Message in A Cookie Cutters

So I haven't posted in over a month, mostly because the day after my last post, I came down with pneumonia. Pretty much I was unable to get out of bed for a week and a half and then the entire month since then has been spent recovering and trying to relax, right in the middle of back to school. So I haven't had a chance to bake anything, until this weekend! I've made 3 new creations in the past week and I can't wait to post them all.

I'm going to start with the cookies I made on Thursday for my co-workers.

So, a few weeks ago (while I was still sick and should have been resting instead of going on a marathon shopping trip) I managed to take a day trip down to the States where I got to visit one of my favourite stores of all time - Williams Sonoma. It is where I got my Star Wars Cookie Cutters and my Apple and Star Pie Molds. On this trip I bought four items, each of which will have its own blog post soon.

The first are my Message In a Cookie Cutters...

What are Message in a Cookie Cutters you ask...

Well, you start with some letters for a message...

And a cookie cutter...

Then you put them together...

With some sugar cookie dough...

And start stamping away!

And Voila! Personalized cookie cutters for any occasion! I made these ones to thank my co-workers for the wonderful Get Well Card and Gift that they sent me while I was sick!
These cookie cutters are really great, the set also came with Star and Heart shapes, as well as a few pre-formed words and also 3 of every letter, plus a few extras! These cookie cutters are so customizable and sugar cookies are so fun to decorate. And of course you could use gingerbread, or shortbread or any similar cookie of course!

Have a slice of Watermelon - Cake!

I found this idea from a Livejournal community a year ago. I have a friend who loves watermelons, kind of like how my other friend loves cephalopods, and I knew as soon as I saw this cake that I had to make it for her. More than a year later, I finally got the chance to!

The inside looks like a watermelon as well! (Even though the chocolate chips sank to the bottom of each cake)
And it even tastes like watermelon!
The original recipe called for Watermelon Kool-Aid but considering I couldn't find any, so I threw together a different recipe from a modification of my Great-Granny's Lemon Cake recipe.

1 box yellow cake mix (I use the dry ingredients from this recipe instead)
1 pkg Watermelon Jell-O
1 cup water
4 eggs
3/4 cup oil
2 drops red food colouring
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour cake pans. Mix cake mix with Watermelon Jell-O. Mix well. Add water, eggs and oil and beat with electric mixer for several minutes. Stir in food colouring and mix a little more. Carefully, but quickly, stir in chocolate chips, then immediately pour into cake batter pans. Sprinkle a few more chocolate chips on the top and then pop in the oven (again, quickly, you're trying to make the chocolate chips not sink to the bottom) Bake 30-40 minutes.

Ice with Pink and Green icing and top with more Chocolate Chips to make it look like a watermelon!

Super Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

Exactly as the title says, super simple, no flour, peanut butter cookies. And yes, they do turn out just fine.

1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350. Mix ingredients together. Drop spoonfuls on cookie sheet. Bake 6-10 minutes depending on how done you want them.

Enjoy!

Cherry Nut Muffins

I made these last week for my early morning prayer group. Just the thing to get you awake in the mornings, Cherry Nut Muffins!

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 tbsp butter, softened
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups cherries (The original recipe calls for canned sweet cherries, but I used some that I froze last year, or you could use fresh ones, also I used close to 2 cups)
1 1/2 cups nuts (I used pecans, you could also use walnuts or something else if you liked)

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 24 muffin cups. Mix together eggs and sugar. Add in butter. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to egg mixture slowly, alternating with milk until all the ingredients are well combined. Stir in cherries and nuts. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

How NOT to make Cherry Tarts

Step 1: Make your favourite cherry pie filling using this recipe.

Step 2: Make your favourite pie crust dough using this recipe.

Step 3: Attempt to make star shaped cherry pies:
Step 4: Fail miserably

Step 5: Attempt to make apple shaped cherry pies:
Step 6: Fail miserably.

Step 7: Give up, decide to make Cherry Tarts the way your Grandmother used to make them...

With a coffee mug...
And a simple cookie cutter...
And a muffin tray...

Bake at 400 for 10 minutes and then at 350 for another 10 minutes or until pastry is brown-ish...

And now you have some tasty cherry tarts!
Step 8: Eat your tasty new creations and forget all about the fact that the day started with a much different pie-related project!

Almond Sandwich Cookies

I made these with a friend a few weeks ago. They were pretty tasty...

Almond Sandwich Cookies

Cookies
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup slivered almonds

Vanilla Cream
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325. Line cookie sheet with tin foil and then lightly grease (or spray with PAM) the tin foil. Mix together oats, sugar, flour, cardamom, baking powder and salt. In another bowl stir together egg, butter and vanilla. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture until well combined. Mix in the almonds. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets (mixture will be very runny so leave lots of room). Bake 10-12 minutes. While cookies are baking make the cream. Beat the butter with 1 cup icing sugar. Mix in vanilla and then the last 1/2 cup icing sugar. Mixture wil be very thick, I think I added a bit more vanilla to make it a little less thick. When cookies come out of the oven wait for them to cool completely and then peel them from the foil. Place cream filling between two cookies, squish together and enjoy!

We all live in a...

So last year for my brother's birthday you may remember that I made him a Homestarrunner Cake.

And this year I figured I had to some how top that. Now, my brother is probably the biggest Beatles fan this side of the 1960s and so I figured I could do something involving that...

I found a promo image for the Yellow Submarine movie and decided to recreate that.
Right down to Ringo's massive nose!

I also had some leftover cake which I used to make a replica of their album 'The Beatles' - more commonly known as 'The White Album'. It was a little difficult though, due to trying to put perfectly white icing on a chocolate cake.