SprinkleBakes Giveaway & Blackberry Curd

I was so thrilled when my sweet friend, Heather, of the popular SprinkleBakes blog (and now the popular SprinkleBakes book!), asked me if I wanted to have one of her books for a giveaway! Of course, I said "Yes!" 

I already had a copy of my own, and knew it would be a very special treat for one of you. Perfect timing to coincide with the third anniversary of my blog, and hitting the 3,000 mark on facebook:) 

Thanks so much to each one of you for your friendship and kindness!  <3

SprinkleBakes is not your average cookbook.  Its subtitle, "Dessert Recipes to Inspire Your Inner Artist" is definitely a clue to what's in store. It's full of edible art, eye-candy, a wide variety of amazing recipes, and encouragement on developing your own artistic style for creating in the kitchen. It's a must-have!

No Bake Strawberry Milk Cheesecake from Heather's blog, SprinkleBakes.

Sprinkles in the crust?!?  How brilliant is that? :) I love it!

SprinkleBakes is one of the first sites I "discovered" way back when:)  What a precious gem in the treasure trove of blogs it is! The "icing on the cake" is that Heather is genuine, creative and sweet, just like everything  featured on her blog, and now in her book.

{I also can't forget to mention that Heather has two pug pups that show up now and then on her blog.  They're appropriately named Biscuit and Churro, and they're cute and comical.}

 

Yesterday I whipped up some blackberry curd (just berries, a bit of sugar, egg yolks and butter) using a recipe from the  SprinkleBakes book and it is SO good!  I just got over the stomach flu and it was wonderful to have my appetite back.  I hadn't eaten anything but a few crackers for the prior 36 hours, and I think I could have eaten this blackberry curd just like pudding:) Though I did have a spoonful, I'm saving it for some scones I am going to make.

I love the beautiful color of this blackberry curd.  I've made lemon curd a couple of times, but never ventured to any other variety.  I see all sorts of curds coming from my kitchen this year, and I'm anxious to try more of the recipes in this exceptional cookbook!

Did I mention that Heather signed the book for this giveaway? Yep, she did!  

*For your chance to win SprinkleBakes, 

just leave one comment  stating what your favorite dessert is...

*This giveaway will end on Sunday, May 20th, 5:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

*The lucky winner will be chosen via random.org. and will have 48 hours to respond before a second winner is chosen. 

Please leave your email address within your comment so that I may reach you.

This giveaway is open to everyone!

GOOD LUCK!

Mexican Blanket Cookies for Cinco de Mayo

Though I am 1/4 Mexican (paternal grandmother~Zacatecas, Mexico), I have never really celebrated Cinco de Mayo. Of course, since I've had a blog, I celebrate many holidays by way of sweets:)  In this case, I made cookies, Mexican blanket (or rug:)) cookies to be exact.

I love the vivid colors that are used in many art forms and crafts within the Mexican culture, and wanted to incorporate that cheerful element in these celebratory cookies.
Once again,  the cookie painting was done with Wilton food paste colors. I still haven't ventured from a safe, basic striped pattern in my cookie painting:) I  think I need to muster up some courage to step out of my comfort zone.  The worst that can happen is that we eat the rejects, right?

The base coat on the cookies is simply a flat layer of white royal icing, and the cookies themselves are sugar cookies. A #3 tip was used to outline the cookies, and to add the fringe detail. Aside from the trim, The entire cookies were painted with Wilton concentrated pastes.
I had a great time painting these Mexican blanket cookies and using all the bright colors!
If you haven't tried painting cookies yet, you should try it!

Have a Feliz Cinco de Mayo mis amigos!

Linked to:

Inspiration Friday
Sweet Treats Thursday 
I'm Lovin' it Fridays 
Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday Link Party 
Weekend Wrap up Party 
Sweets for a Saturday 

Painted Beehive Cookies

Ever since I was introduced to Liz's (Arty McGoo's) amazing painted cookies, I have wanted to try painting cookies myself. I'm so glad I finally got around to it because I thoroughly enjoyed myself! 

I sort of felt like a kid trying out watercolors for the first time, but instead of paints I used paste food coloring, and cookies instead of paper:)  I'm no artist, but I sure had a lot of fun! 

As you can see things got a bit messy in the process, but it was a colorful mess:)
The cookies were prepared as usual, but outlined and filled in with white royal icing only, which was the perfect cookie canvas.
I allowed the icing to dry overnight to make sure they were good and dry before I attempted to paint them. I also viewed Liz's fun video tutorial again about painting cookies, which helped tremendously!

 

I have a collection of honey pots and one of my favorites (you can see part of it in the photo above) provided the inspiration for my beehive cookies. I did use a couple of  edible markers for adding some of the details.

If was fun to experiment and try something different in the cookie decorating department!  I will definitely be painting cookies from time to time, as well as sticking with the colored royal icing decorating.

If  you like to decorate cookies, and you haven't tried the painting technique yet,  I highly recommend it!

Thanks for the inspiration Arty McGoo!!!

Linked to:
Tidy Mom 
Inspiration Friday 
Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday
The Bearfoot Baker Link Party  
Wednesday's Wowzers

Mega Brownie Pop {Birthday "Cake"}

My husband is a huge fan of my brownie pops!

Tomorrow is his birthday, so I thought I would make him a GIANT brownie pop instead of a cake:)  I know it will bring a corresponding giant smile to his face.  It definitely has a certain WOW factor to it.

It was made just like a regular size brownie pop, except that I used the whole batch of brownies to form it instead of dividing the batter up into individual pops. It's even covered in chocolate candy melts.

It will be divided up when it's eaten though:)   This giant pop would probably make 20-24 small pops. We'll see how it works out tomorrow. I suppose I will slice it up.

I will need to use some candy melts to adhere some birthday candles to the brownie pop to make it a proper birthday "cake".

All packaged up and ready to present to the Birthday Boy!

Mega Brownie Pop
Ingredients: 
Brownies
Icing

Candy Melts (one 14 oz. bag)

sprinkles

12-inch plastic dowel (1/2-inch in diameter)

Instructions:
*Bake a batch of brownies~homemade or boxed (I used our favorite: Ghiradelli Triple Chocolate), enough for a 9x13 pan.
*Let cool completely.
*Put the whole batch (I omitted the crunchy crust and saved them in the freezer) in a large mixing bowl.
* Add just enough icing to form a giant brownie ball. I only needed about a 1/2 cup.
*Refrigerate it for about a half hour just to firm up, if needed.
* Insert the dowel
*Melt the candy melts according to the package directions and spread with a spatula.
*Apply sprinkles
*When the candy melts harden, lift up the pop and spread some candy melt on the bottom of the pop to cover.
*Let dry

Voila!  A MEGA BROWNIE POP!  Enjoy, and have fun!

Linked to:
Sweet Treats Thursday
Get Your Brag On 
I'm Lovin' it Fridays
Inspiration Friday
Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday

Gingham Picnic Cookies

 

Gingham is my absolute favorite pattern!  It is such a classic.  When I saw Glory's (Glorious Treats) perfectly beautiful gingham cookies, right away I thought of trying a red gingham cookie.  Red gingham makes me think of picnics, and I thought I would add cute, little ants to liven up the "tablecloths". 

 By the way, have you seen Lisa's (The Bearfoot Baker) amazing ant/picnic cookies?!?  If you haven't, you MUST!

 

My gingham cookies did not turn out nearly as pristine as Glory's, but think of them as a thrift store find~well worn, vintage tablecloths that have been to many picnics over the years! Even so, I kinda like how they turned out:) I think the ants are rather cute too, except for the one at the bottom that looks squished. 

Hmmm, and come to think of it, I suppose the ant "tracks" should technically only be on one side of the ant~oops!  Oh well, just pretend they walked back and forth:)

Gingham Picnic Cookies

*The cookies are my favorite sugar cookie/royal icing combo, and the cookie cutter used was a 5-inch by 3-inch rectangle.

*I outlined the baked cookies with white royal icing, then filled the cookies with thinner white royal icing and let them dry overnight.

*I made a template (as shown on Glory's post) using cardstock and cutting alternate 1/2-inch strips with an exacto knife (which wasn't sharp enough), leaving 2 extra inches on either end.

*Laying the template over the white cookie* I sprayed red Wilton Color Mist (food color spray)

 over the cookie/template, lifted it carefully and let it dry for about 10 minutes.

*I then laid the template over the cookie in the opposite direction and sprayed again.  

*I waited about an hour, then used black tinted royal icing and with a #2 tip made some ants on the cookie. I made the ant tracks/ant legs with a black edible marker.

*Let dry completely.

*On Glory's cookie, she first did a light spray over the entire cookie before using the template, but I didn't realize that until I had finished the cookies.

Enjoy your picnic and don't forget the cookies!

Linked to:

Crazy Sweet Tuesday

Wednesdays Wowzers 

Sweet Treats Thursday 

Get Your Brag On 

Spring has Sprung

I'm Lovin' it Fridays  

Inspiration Friday

Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday  

Weekend Wrap Up Party 

Sweets for a Saturday

Strawberry Sugar Cookies

 

So... I had some plain, mini, egg-shaped sugar cookies left over from Easter. What to do, what to do?  

Hmmmm...

I thought for awhile and then the idea of strawberries popped into my head! Here in Santa Barbara county, strawberries are the top crop, and coined "red gold" for that reason:)  Local strawberry stands dot the area at this time of year, with strawberry festivals to boot! :)  

A simple, little strawberry cookie would be perfect!

Strawberries look like hearts to me, so I fashioned some imperfectly shaped hearts, freehand, onto the mini egg shapes with red royal icing. When I was done with all the outlining,  I immediately began to fill in the strawberries with the red icing (working with a few at a time)  then added little dots of thinner, white royal icing right away, while the red was still wet.

Once that dried for about an hour, the green, leafy details were added, and then the small, red berries were left to dry overnight.

 No two are alike, just like the real deal. 

If you're not lucky enough to have strawberries year-round, just make some strawberry sugar cookies!

Have fun and enjoy!

Linked to:

I'm Lovin' it Fridays

Inspiration Friday

Sweets for a Saturday

Sweet Treats Thursday

Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday  

Weekend Wrap Up Party 

Saturday Seven Party

Spring has Sprung 

Spring Chick Cookies

As I was going through my dashboard yesterday and visiting the blogs that I follow, I came upon C2 Cookie Construction. I was instantly charmed by the Easter chick cookies that Amalia had made:) So sweet! 

I remembered that I had a few large (3.5-inch by 4-inch), plain, egg-shaped sugar cookies in the freezer and now knew just what to do with them! Woo hoo! For once, my procrastination paid off.

I hadn't really had any experience with the royal icing wet-on-wet decorating (the polka dots on these cookies), but was pretty pleased with how they turned out. It helped a lot that I reviewed the technique from Bridget (Bake at 350) and Callye (The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle)...two of my favorites! :)

To make these little chickies I used a #3 tip.  I first outlined the white half and let it dry for about 15-20 minutes before I filled it in with the remaining white, thinned a bit.  I added the blue polka dots just a few minutes after the white was applied. I left this to dry for about an hour before I outlined the golden, top half. After about 15-20 minutes I filled the top half in with the golden royal icing.  After about an hour I added the hair and beak detail.  I left the cookies overnight (about 6 hours) to dry and added the eye details with a black edible marker.

I'm so glad I made these chick cookies~just in time for Easter:)

Thanks for the inspiration, Amalia!  If you haven't visited Amalia's blog, you are really missing out!  Her cookies always turn out so perfect and uniform.

Have a blessed Easter everyone!

Linked to:
Weekend Wrap up Party
Cookie Link Party 
Sweets for a Saturday 
I'm Lovin' it Fridays 
Inspiration Friday 
At the Picket Fence Bunny Blog Hop 
Saturday Seven Party
Linking up with Lil Luna  
Wednesday's WOWzers
What's New Wednesday
Crazy Sweet Tuesday