Baking Monday - Chocolate Cookie Pops

Today's post inspired by Starbucks ... I spotted their snowman chocolate dipped cookie pops over the weekend and thought, I could make those ...



First up, the snowmen. I had a bit of a "duh" moment with these. When pulling out cookie cutters today, I also got out my number 8 because I have an order for birthday cookies this week. Then I went through the winter jar and realized that I didn't have a snowman. I thought, rats! I'll have to go to the store and get one ... and then looked over at the cutters on the counter ... and, um, guess what? A number 8 looks a lot like a snowman. DUH.



Also some snowy white trees. Would also be awfully cute in green.



... and a few sparkly snowflakes. What's inside?



Yeah, that would be a chocolate cookie.



I didn't have enough chocolate to dip all the cookies, so some got the drizzle treatment instead.



Super yummy. I think I'm going to have to dip more things in chocolate!

Sweet Tweets

(Please forgive the lame pun, it was hard to resist.)



I've never really been a big fan of birds until recently. Partly from admiring Geninne's beautiful artwork, and partly from feeling like I've been seeing birds everywhere lately! I had my first bird cookie order this week and am thrilled with how they turned out. There are also some birdhouses and leaves thrown in, too.



I think this is one of my favorite sets yet!

Baking Monday - Turtle Bark

This recipe for Turtle Bark involved something I've never made before - caramel from scratch!



It was much easier than I thought it would be, and I was quite proud! I served the leftover sauce to the kids with apple slices, it was goooood.



For the recipe: the chocolate was a little thick for my taste, and overwhelmed the caramel. I would use less next time - maybe 12 oz instead of 16 - and use much more of the caramel sauce than the recommended amount - probably almost all of it, because that was the really delicious part! However, no leftovers came home, so I guess it was still pretty good.

Clark's Puppy Birthday

It's birthday time again! Clark celebrated his fifth birthday this month, with an appropriate number of parties ... five!



He's got puppies on the brain lately, so the theme this year was puppies, puppies, puppies! (I haven't posted much design work lately, but I have been busy. Updates can be found at Spotgirl Gallery.)



First up - puppy cookies for school snack. I made a multigrain cutout recipe, which are a favorite for me and Clark.



The birthday child gets to pass the snack at preschool. So cute!



I made these beanbag toss games as favors for our family and friends. I went to buy fabric to make Clark's birthday shirt and the patterns were soooo cute, I had do something more with it. The beanbags went into plastic dog dishes. When I bought the dishes at the store, the cashier asked if I had nine dogs. Um, no .... not even one!



There were presents ...



... and bowling, at the birthday boy's request.



... and more puppy cookies (chocolate cutouts, another favorite!)



... and one happy birthday boy!

Turkey!

I had an order for turkey cookies this week, I think they turned out quite cute. Here they are with some other fall friends.



Happy Thanksgiving!

Baking Monday - Mocha Crackle Cookies

I've never made crackle cookies before - I generally believe that rolling cookies in an extra something is more work than it's worth (like Snickerdoodles, which my sis and I renamed "Sucker-doodles" after rolling a gazillion of them in sugar for a Christmas double-batch years ago) - but a chocolate / coffee cookie combo just sounded right to me today.



This is another recipe from the Taste of Home cookie book, and it's a good one. Mine didn't turn out nearly as pretty as their picture, but cookies are yummy - very soft and cakey. Neither Jeff or I are coffee drinkers, but I do keep instant coffee on hand just for baking.The batter comes out super-thin - I was worried that I had done something wrong - but after the recommended two hours in the fridge, it was much easier to work with. I baked these on parchment instead of a greased baking sheet. Jeff suggested adding mini chocolate chips next time. This recipe makes about four dozen cookies, good for a crowd!

Lego Party - The Sequel

My favorite souvenirs from our recent trip to California were silicone molds that allowed me to make these:



Chocolate. Legos. I wanted to include a tag to identify them as edible, because they also look like they could be plastic, or crayon, or soap. I tried to think of something clever without resorting to "eat me."



These were for Theo's very, very belated birthday party today. September was crazy and we were on vacation in October. The day before Halloween, Theo said, "Am I ever going to have a birthday party?" Whoops.



And yes, it was a Lego party again. We most often have parties at home, but the weather is now getting too iffy for an outside party, and this location was too perfect to pass up. It's a new business for our area that hosts Lego parties and programs. They did an awesome job - the room looked so fun - and it was exciting to try something different. They have a giant parts table the length of the wall and a track to race cars and run vehicles down a tiny zip line.



Everyone was very happy to play, play, play! The kids each got to build a mini figure to take home and made motorized dragsters to race during the party.

Dora's creation - I love that the driver is working on a tiny keyboard.



Theo requested his usual chocolate chip cookie dessert. One dozen 8-year-old boys are LOUD - I could barely get them to quiet down long enough to sing.



Theo did not stop moving for 90 minutes, he could hardly stand still for this picture ... you can see that he's clearly anxious to go!