Retro

Check out this totally retro cake decorating kit my bf pulled from his mom's storage unit...

Kick Ass Ninja-Bread Cookies

I have never made gingerbread cookies - ever. But, I am ambitious, so when I saw these on a blog I HAD to make them. I was taking my team of interns out to dinner on Friday night, and I HAD to have these made for them - as a thank you - and because they would like it. I bought the cookie cutters online and baked the cookies early in the week since the dough had to be refrigerated overnight before I could bake them.

My first attempt = FAIL

I didn't have the right tools, and thought that I would attempt to just do it and see what comes of it. Yeah, it was a fail. I was pretty bummed out because I had already baked like 3 dozen of these cookies. (they taste really good, by the way). So, I perused the internet and found this awesome site full of great tips on how to decorate cookies. It gave me a burst of energy, so the bf and I trekked out to Michael's to get all the supplies I needed.

On Thursday night, I spent 4 hours piping 10 cookies. I was so tired, but I was taking my interns out to dinner on Friday night, and REALLY wanted to give these to them. I stayed up past midnight piping and then cutting stars out of marshmallows. I was so tired, so I decided only 3 of them would get the stars with their ninjas. I thought that I would have a hard time with the black food coloring, but the black wasn't the problem, the red was. I used half a container of the gel food coloring, which is typically brighter than the liquid AND about 2 tablespoons of the red liquid food coloring. I decided to make my ninjas pink since it was a nice retro 80's-type color and gave my ninja's some flair. Here's my icing setup:

Ninjas for my team of interns:

Black Ninja for the only boy on my team who made it to dinner:

I let my bf eat the white one:

And I also let my bf eat this pair:

After this, I went to bed. I was TIRED! On Friday, I took the interns to a great dinner and gave each of them a ninja. They all liked it, so I was happy.

On Saturday morning, I decided I had it down, and I did. Practice really does make perfect, boys and girls. I decorated a total of 24 ginger bread cookies in 2 hours. Yep, I had it down. I gave a dozen to my coworker and sent the others to my family.

Here's my Saturday morning batch:

My cat, Angus, was so interested in what I was doing. He kept trying to get to the cookies. I blocked off the side with some fruit baskets, and he's still trying to get to it from behind. So cute...

Holiday Cookies

Work has started to get stressful for me and it's sure to get only worse. So, to keep sane and destress, I go into the kitchen after work and make stuff. This past week, I have baked LOTS of cookies. More cookies than I have ever baked in my life. I had fun because I knew I was going to share them with the people I love. I made 7.5 dozen snicker doodle cookies, 3 dozen rosemary pine nut cookies and another 4 dozen gingerbread cookies. I used ninja shaped cookie cutters, and so they were ninja-bread cookies. So awesome! I will give them their own post.

Here are some pictures of my snicker doodle and rosemary pine nut cookies. They were really tasty and hopefully are still tasty when they arrive to the homes of my loved ones.

Snicker Doodles:

Rosemary Pine Nut Cookies:

Packed and all ready to ship:

So much more fun

I got my panda pan! It's so cute and makes me happy when I am cooking up my eggs in the morning for breakfast!