Super delicious birthday cookies

I think the biggest disaster is that I always spell it "diaster."



Nah, not really. I think a volcano being attacked by a shark, giant octopus, wolf, The Cold, and an encroaching ocean is pretty disastrous. Oh! Don't forget the meteor and wrecked helicopter.



See, this is a cake that I was planning for Hillary's 19th birthday, and now it's 2 months past her 20th birthday, so to say this is belated is quite an understatement. Anyway, we love watching cheesy corny disaster movies together ("The Day After Tomorrow," "Absolute Zero," "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus," "2012" for example) so this cake takes its inspiration from all of those movies and more.



The cake turned out a little more cartoonish--maybe it was the fondant octopus or the light blue icy lava-- than I was originally picturing in my head, but it turned out really great. The "lava" and ocean are made out of royal icing, which made cutting into the cake a little more difficult than originally planned, and the meteor, octopus, and shark fin are all made of out Wilton fondant (why Wilton? Because it's cheap and no one was going to eat the pieces anyway). The volcano is chocolate buttercream, and the cake is coffee flavored.







Shout out to Sarah! For telling me how to make coffee cake, and to pass it on, I'll tell you now! (Because have you ever tried to google "coffee flavored cake recipe?" It doesn't work, I tell you!) OK, so you take your cake recipe (or box mix) and instead of putting water or whatever liquid, use double-brewed coffee instead. And my dad says there's some secret "thing" about double brewed coffee, like it will break the coffee maker or something...so I just asked him to brew the coffee for me.



So there you have it! The Disaster Cake. While not as epic as the end of the world, this cake was pretty grand, and according to Chris, the best tasting cake I've ever made!

Before we begin today's post, I just wanted to say "Thanks!" to Kathia over at the Pink Little Cake Blog.  A couple of weeks ago she asked me if I would be willing to participate in her "28 Days of Sweet Halloween Ideas" series.  I was so flattered that she asked me to guest blog on her site. Please visit her site and take a look at my post.  I really went all out and even used some of the food styling tips I learned at the Food Blog Forum!!

OK, now where were we?  Oh yeah!  This weekend I did my first dog cake!  I spent way too much time on it and if I do it again, I will not make the same mistakes I made this time!

I will tell you one thing - I am now in love with Fondarific!!  I have used it in the past to cover small cakes, but nothing as complicated as a carved dog.  I found that I could roll it thinner than regular fondant, which is nice.  It was super stretchy, resisted tearing, tasted great, and didn't get the first wrinkle!  When I really got to checking, it's not even that much more than the fondant I normally use!  I sat down last night and ordered a boatload of the stuff!!

As far as how this bad boy is put together,  there's 80 eggs worth of eggs in the marble pound cake that makes up the body and neck on this guy (he's on a 36 inch board).  The support system was really just a PVC pipe running from the board up through the neck and then a cake board that held on the styrofoam head. Oh yeah, the tail, legs, and feet are all made of crispy rice treats.

I have already heard back from the wedding planner and some of the wedding party... old Smokey was a big hit at the wedding!!

When my friend, Teresa, from Blooming on Bainbridge mentioned that she loves Frosted Animal Cookies, a little light bulb went off in my head. 
{PS...if you've never visited Teresa's blog, go now...they say Disney World is the happiest place on earth; they're wrong.  It's Teresa's blog.}

Why not make my own *larger* version of them?

See, I love Mother's Frosted Animal Cookies.  When kiddo was a toddler, I lived on a diet of Mother's Frosted Animal Cookies and Vanilla Coke.  Then I weaned myself off of them and started my current diet of Starbucks Pumpkin Bread and Iced Decaf Vanilla Lattes.  Much healthier.

I didn't have all of the correct shapes for the cookies; I did have an elephant cutter, but the rest, well...I improvised.
We have frosted animal bunnies, ducks, giraffes....

....and the all-important frosted animal stegosaurus.

For the flavor, I wanted to be authentic. So, I checked a bag of Mother's Cookies to see what flavor they used to make them so delicious.  Vanilla? Almond? Lemon? Butter?  Turns out, what makes them so delicious is just plain ol' sugar. I couldn't find any flavoring in the ingredients whatsoever.

So here is my not-so-authentic version:


Lemon Cut-Out Cookies
3 c. unbleached flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. sugar
2 sticks salted butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
3/4 tsp. grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.  Set aside.

With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and cold butter until fluffy.  Add in the egg, vanilla, lemon juice and zest.  Beat until combined.

On low speed, add in the flour mixture in 3 additions.  Scrape the bottom of the bowl as necessary.  Knead together the dough as needed by hand as it will be very stiff.

Roll out on a floured surface and cut into shapes about 3/8 to 1/4" thick.  Place on parchment lined sheets.  Freeze 5-10 minutes on the sheets before placing in the oven (this will help prevent cookies from spreading).

Bake 9-12 minutes, depending on cookie cutter size.  Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Lemon Royal Icing

4 TBSP meringue powder
scant 1/2 c. water
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp light corn syrup
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy.

Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine.

Add in the corn syrup and lemon juice

Increase speed to med-high and beat for about 5-10 minutes, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form. (You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) Do not overbeat.
 
Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing or divide and color using gel paste food colorings. (I used AmeriColor Gel Paste Food Color in Bright White and Deep Pink.)

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Oh yeah, I also bottle fed a 750-pound lion.

If you have a bloggy friend, I highly recommend making the effort to get together in REAL LIFE!

A variety of cookies this week........

My kids look forward to vacation bible school every summer.  So do I.  It's fun, lots of activities to keep them occupied, breaks the monotony of the summer boredom that has set in at this time, and most importantly, it has a way of teaching them, on their level, about God's word.  My oldest was excited because he got to be one of the staff helpers this summer.  I volunteer to help out as well, and the organizers so graciously place me in the arts and crafts department!  I wonder why??  That's right up my alley, and I totally LOVE it!! 
Anyway, this year's theme was High Seas Expedition.  The decor, lessons, and crafts were all related to ships, the sea, and adventure at sea.  Of course, I volunteer to make cookies for the culmination on Friday.  We usually have about  30-40 kids.  This year, our numbers grew, a lot!  I think the total I made was 101 cookies.  Doesn't sound too bad, unless unforeseen THINGS prevent you from staying on schedule and you end up decorating 101 cookies in one afternoon/evening (Thursday - when they're needed on FRIDAY), and then have to bag each one early the next morning because your schedule is off and they need time to dry!  Thank goodness for fans and heat lamps for speeding up drying time.

Regardless, the kids loved them, and I did have fun making them even though it was a rush job.

I decided to spell out the family name of the baby with the blocks:  Baby LEFORT.  I think it came out kind of cute.

One of my son's classmates celebrated his birthday Saturday.  Not only was he celebrating turning the age of 12, but he was also celebrating  reaching the milestone of being cancer free for 5 years!   Nick was diagnosed with a tumor on his kidney at the age of 7.  He courageously went through surgery to remove that kidney and the chemotherapy that followed.  He was going to second grade at the time.  Even though he had to go through all of this, he still managed to keep up with his school work and successfully complete second grade.  He is an inspiration to all who know him, and is such a sweet, loveable child.  I made this bouquet for him.

I'm not sure what got into me.  I saw this cartoon on a card at Target:
...and thought, "that needs to be a cookie!"

Maybe it's the videos at University of Cookie.....or the vlog post for TLC.....maybe it's just 13 years of being married to Mr. E, Pun Master. 

I hope you'll forgive me!

Here they are on You Tube learning about cookie decorating....

...and making new friends...

...and now ready for their close up on Ewe Tube.


I'm sorry. Truly.

Now I must have seen Steel Magnolias at least a dozen times, but I have never been asked to do an armadillo cake... until now!

I carved the cake and covered it with fondant, and used my clay tools to make the lines and the armadillo plates.  Then I used oval cutters to make the scales.  I dry brushed the whole thing with dove gray petal dust to give it a more natural look.

When we delivered this to the Grand View Hotel, we ran into the bride and groom and they were both super psyched about their cute little armadillo cake.

Thanks for stopping by and everyone have an excellent week!!