Mankato Ballet Company Alice in Wonderland

http://www.mankatoballet.org/

For those of you in the Mankato area and looking for something to do this weekend, go and check out the Mankato Ballet Companies performance of Alice in Wonderland.  I hear it is going to be magical!

I love making cookies for local businesses, even better is making fun Alice in Wonderland cookies for a local business. 

It was fun trying to incorporate the poster design in to a mini cookie.  All in all I am pleased with how these turned out. 

Let's be honest here the first thing that probably comes to your mind when you think of Ballet is pink and point shoes.  I thought it was appropriate to add both to a few of the Alice cookies. 

Hope you all enjoy the Ballet if you decide to go this weekend.  If you missed it above here is the link to the Mankato Ballet Companies site so you can get all the information you need if you plan to attend this weekend. 

Stay Sweet Everyone!

Lorax Baby Shower Cookies

It is so nice to see how timeless Dr. Seuss and his stories are.  I have had so many requests for Dr. Seuss as of late.

This set was made for a lovely local gal for a baby shower she was throwing for her friend.
I loved making this set, airbrushing the Lorax as well as the Truffula Trees really helped add to the whimsy of this set.

The book covers gave me a great chance to use my fun new americolor food coloring markers.  I love these guys, they are so vibrant!  I got mine from Global Sugar a few months ago and love them! I highly recommend adding a set to your cookie/cake decorating arsenal.

The all time best part of this set was the delivery, the lovely lady who ordered the cookies was an acquaintance form high school.  It was so much fun to sit down and catch up over a cup of coffee.

Hope you all enjoy this set as much as I did.

 Stay Sweet Everyone!

j

The Journals of Thaddeus Shock Pocket

I am so excited to share this next set of cookies with you!  Not only because they were a blast to make but because they depict the fabulous books from Local Mankato Author Henry L. Walton!
As you all already know I love reading and I love sharing the joy of reading with others.  Let me tell you Henry Walton does a wonderful job of sharing the joy of reading with young and old alike with his Thaddeus Shockpocket series.

If you haven't read the books yet I suggest you go out and do it straight away.  They are an absolute joy a fun and funny steampunk type adventure though a fabulously created world.  Oh and not to mention there is lots of fun art scattered thought the books.

This set was made in celebration of the second book release in The Journals of Thaddeus Shockpocket series.

I am still working my way though Albion 77 unfortunately I can't decorate cookies and read at the same time.  But I have been assured by the authors wife that the 2nd book in the series Victoria is even better than the first.  I can't wait to read it.

 If you aren't intrigued yet he is a brilliant review form Amazon that basically sums up how I feel about theses books

 "Okay! This book is the most fun I have had in months! The author uses matter of fact hilarity to tell his story. Eight year-olds would love the stories, though they would not be independent readers with it. Fourteen year-olds would love the scientific inventions (I would love to hear if they pick-up on the invention of the internet!) Anyone over sixteen or eighteen will love the word play. As a teacher, I would read it/teach with it from second grade onward. It is fantastic from cover to cover! There are so many ridiculous and incredible stories--so many are so subtle. I cannot wait for future journals to be published. I am curious to see if Thaddeaus follows up with his experiments watching paint dry....is there more story line with that????? Yours in Friendship and Distance...." 

I figure since the books are all about adventure why not make the cookie making process an adventure as well.  I learned a lot of new things making these cookies, like how to airbrush in a gradient.  How to use corn syrup to make parts of the cookies look like glass, and how to make holographic cookies using stencils and multiple layers of airbrush sheen.

The cookies above are the "holographic" cookies.  If you look closely you can see a few different layers of gears.  I used a warm brown, gold, copper and bronze color in different layers to get the effect.  

Check out this quick video to see a bit better how the whole effect turned out.  

These cookies truly were a labor of love, a good hour or two went into each of the book cover and back cookies.  The results in the end were totally worth it, but let me tell you my hand and wrist will not miss painting all those fine details any time soon.  

Just to give you a bit of an idea here is the comparison between the book covers and cookies. 

Well that's all for now.  I will have one more book inspired set coming your way later this week and then on to other exciting cookies. 

Stay sweet everyone!

A chance to do some good....and eat some cookies!

Sometimes at the end of an order I have a few extra cookies.  If they don’t get gobbled up by the hubby first I will take the time to decorate them….and then eat them.

I decided this time around why not let you eat them?

Here is how this is going to work, This set of Cat In The Hat cookies will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. 

The proceeds will go to Minnesota Literacy Council http://mnliteracy.org/ which helps people of all ages from 3 years olds mastering their ABCs to grandparents determined to get their GED.  They are able to reach nearly 90,000 children and adults each year!

What you need to do….

Go to my  Facebook Page and comment on The Cat In The Hat album with your bid.

Bidding will start at $10.00 (which is the minimum donation that can be made to Minnesota Literacy Council)

Comment below with your donation bid

The Auction will close Sunday (5/3) at 6:00pm CT

The highest bidder can pick up or have your cookies delivered (If you live in the Mankato area)

If you don’t live in Mankato I can ship your cookies to you but I ask that you pay for the packaging and shipping (approximately $15.00)

The winning bidder may choose a charitable organization that you would like your donation to go to as well, I only ask that it benefit children or literacy.

Thank you all for your support!  Let’s go out there and do some good!