Happy 4th of July!

July 5th in Seattle usually marks the "official" day of summer...meaning, nice weather. It ALWAYS rans on the fourth and this year my fiance and I were down spending the holiday with his family in hood canal.
The morning on the 4th it was beautiful and sunny, but slowly that turned into a little rain spell in the late afternoon/ dinner time. Fortunately it cleared up in time for fireworks. As always, my "honey" is the head pyro in charge of the artillery. He definitely knows how to wheel and deal with the booths to get what he wants and puts on a pretty good show every year.

I like to watch the fireworks, but I like to keep a safe distance away from them. I would rather make fireworks in the kitchen...with my cookies ;)

We had A LOT of yummy desserts at the cabin, include no bake bars which I haven't had in YEARs as well as yummy peanut brittle bars, rice krispy treats, the list goes on and on!

4th of July Cookie Platter

My little brother and sister love to watch me make cookies and when I told them I was going to be making cookies for the 4th of July one of them - can't remember now - said I should make cookies in the shape of the #4...Not a bad idea kiddo! So I took their advice and I did!

All the cookie! Happy 4th of July!

Stars and 4's 

Red, white and blue star cookies with matching #4's to go with it to celebrate the fourth of July holiday. The 4s are nice and small, which makes it ok to eat more than 1...shhh....don't worry I won't tell!

Hood Canal 2014 

The fluted cookie cutter is what I am calling my "fireworks" and they kind of look like it if you use your imagination a little bit right?!? You can't see them but there were a few other phrases on them too like "happy 4th" "4th of July" "2014" and a big number 4 too.

Stars and Stripes! Gotta love the flag!

One of the most iconic american symbols...our beautiful flag. It's not Independence Day with out the flag representation on the platter! I actually had my mom help me out with these one! I was frosting the red stripes and she would follow behind me with the white piping bag and make the white stripes and then we would play leap frog back and fourth until they were all filled in...save me probably about half the time it would have normally taken me. *thanks mom*

Festive Cupcakes

I love the cupcake cookies because they have the most frosting on them....mmmm.....frosting!

Happy 4th of July!

Gotta have a checkered table cloth!

Here is what I was talking about above! A few more shots of the "firework" cookies I made with different phrases on them. Again a shout out to my mom for helping me on these ones too. She helped fill in the "polka dots" and again saving me lots of time. *thanks mom*

Happy 4th of July Cookies

Stars and Stripe Cookies

I took advantage of the cute table cloth that was very "all american" if I do say so my self to go with our holiday theme!

Old Glory

Thanks for stopping by! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday! 

Holiday Dessert Table

I am so proud of myself. I literally did 85% of my Christmas shopping not only in one day but online! Normally I am all about the adventure of going to the mall and hunting for those gifts. But if they are offering free shipping, then why not?! Basically the same thing.

This year though, I really just didn't have the time as Christmas is quickly sneaking up and I have been very busy with baking orders!

Christmas Cookies

This past week I did a dessert table for a property management company downtown Seattle. We had frosted sugar cookies in various christmas shapes, peppermint bark cake pops, brownies, and mini cupcakes in three flavors. Now for a bakery this would be down in a day, but for just one person, this took a lot of time and planning. I had to admit I was a little nervous about it since it was a pretty big order and it wasn't just my cookies. 

Christmas Wreath and Snowflake

I was all prepared for the delivery, got there earlier than they asked so I had enough time to carry everything in and set it up for them. I was thinking initially it was for a residential property management company which seemed odd to me to have a christmas party with carolers come in the middle of the day...silly me. Turns out SAFECO works in this building as well as a few other businesses - kind of a big deal. 

Santa and His Homeboy Rudolph

Luckily everything went smoothly and I got an email saying that the desserts were a hit and quickly devoured. YAY! Pat on the back for myself! I definitely felt very accomplished after this order. 

Angel and Wreath Sugar Cookies

HO HO HO

I only had friday evening to recover until I had to get started on 325 cake pops! I love cake pops. Especially how I make them and I will give you a BONUS TIP on how to make them - the secret? DON'T USE FROSTING!!! It is too sweet and you feel like you are high on sugar after, not to mention added calories. All you need to use is literally 1-2 TBLS of French Vanilla coffee creamer! YUP. Trust me. Maybe I will write a separate "how to post" on that. If you are dying to know, email me :) 

Peppermint Bark Cake Pops

I call these Peppermint Bark flavored cake pops. It is chocolate cake on the inside dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled all over with candy canes bits! YUMMY! I had some extras so I took 6 over to my parent's. My dad called me and he was like "those cake pops were so good, I ate them all! So...if you have to make anymore, feel free to bring some over." - Thanks dad!

UPDATE: 12/23/13
Adding on to the Cake Pop theme here. I just celebrated Christmas this past Saturday with my extended family. There is usually a group of about 30+ adults and I can't even count the kids anymore. Everyone brings a dish to share and I was in charge of a dessert. I thought I would mix it up and instead of brings cookies or brownies, I would bring cake pops. They are fun, easy to eat and kids LOVE them!

I typically do a swirl sprinkle design on my cake pops but I decided to come up with some other festive christmas designs that were simple to do and below is what I came up with.

Christmas Cake Pops

HO HO HO, Squiggly Christmas Tree and my Signature Swirl cake pops! - TAH DAH! OH and if you are wondering where I found that AWESOME cake pop stand - Safeway $18 - I know! I bought 3 of them. They are also dual cupcake stands as well and are clutch. 

I made about 6 dozen of them but I think I only came home with about 2 dozen. So I had some extras to take some close up photos. I am so bad about remembering to take the photos BEFORE hand. 

Ho Ho Ho Cake Pops

Vanilla Flavored Cake Pops

Merry Christmas Eve-Eve. Can't believe it is Christmas already!

Happy Holidays! More Christmas Cookies!

As I promised in my last blog post - more Christmas cookies! I threw a log on the fire, turned on the christmas music and baked the night away! And I made some NEW tacky sweaters as well. They are just too much fun to make! I hope you like them! Happy Holidays!

Frosty Snowmen

Sparkly Snowflakes

Jolly 'ol Saint Nick

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

New Tacky Sweaters!

Ugly Sweater

Snowman Tacky Sweater

JOY JOY JOY 

Merry Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by! If you would like to order cookies please email me!

'Tis the Season - Pull Out Your Tacky Sweaters!

I have to say I am proud of myself this year - I avoided holiday shopping this past weekend completely.   Instead I did some much needed work around the house and it was VERY productive weekend. My BF on the other hand needed some overdue R&R, which consists of beer, football and sleeping in until 10am.

Of course apart of that productivity was baking cookies, like the Starbuck's ones I posted the other day. I also started making some for the holidays too. I made a santa, elf and mitten/glove but I didn't take any pictures. Still perfecting them. The ones I REALLY liked were my "tacky sweaters" and angels. 

Tacky Sweater Cookie 1

Tacky Christmas Sweater Cookie 2

Love Them All! Which One is Your Fave?

Gotta Love Ugly Sweaters

Had to Throw in a Tacky Cardigan!

I think the Tree is Maybe My Favorite

Christmas Angels - Is It Me Or Are They Glowing?

I love the sparkly angels but I decided after the fact that I think I want to make them with faces. What do you think?

Fear not - there will be more Christmas cookies and treats through out the month. My calendar is filling up fast from cakes and cookies to cake pops for holiday parties! 

**If you want some holiday cookies for your party or for Santa's BIG night email me! If you are planning a cookie decorating party I also make cookies unfrosted for you and friends to decorate. Contact me at kaylas.career [AT] gmail [DOT] com! **

Happy Holidays!