Rose Swirl Birthday Cake

My friend asked me to make a rose swirl cake for her. I was more than happy to do it. The rose swirl cake is one of my favorite cakes to make because it does not require smoothing and it's pretty and girly. I was even happier when I learned that she wanted the cake to be lime colored. I used AmeriColor electric green to color the icing and I just love how it came out.

If you would like to learn how to make a rose swirl cake then check out I am Baker's post here. Also she recently did a video on decorating a rose swirl cake which you can view here.

Rose swirl cakes are very popular and I didn't see a need to do a tutorial on one since there are already tutorials out there. One difference in my cake as opposed to others is that instead of using a 1M tip I use my favorite tip for making roses {whether on a cake or on cupcakes} and that is an Ateco 852 tip. I purchase these tips at my local cake shop. I also like to change things up a bit by adding fondant flowers and butterflies. Also, I add the words Happy Birthday to the cake board using Tappits funky alphabet cutters.

I can't believe that July is almost over and it's just about time for our August Inspiration Challenge. The theme is "Staying Cool". Get ready to show us any cookies that you've made that fall into this theme.

Have a great week and I'll see you soon!

Cookies For A Great Cause

I had the great pleasure of making cookies for a bake sale being hosted by Cookies for iPads - Giving Children with Autism a Voice. Cookies for iPads was started by Melissa, an Ohio mom who wanted to do everything she could to help her child who was recently diagnosed with Autism. As she began her journey to help her son she soon turned her thoughts to all the other children in her area who needed similar help. She invited friends to help her and soon the group grew. Armed with their great baking skills they hold bake sales to raise money. 100% of the proceeds go to buying iPads for children in the Ohio area who are Autistic and suffer from speech delay. iPads are proving to be great devices for helping these children find their voice. Can you imagine being a mom or dad and never hearing the words "momma", "daddy" or "I love you" from your child?

Many bakers from all over the country are sending cookies to Melissa for their bake sale taking place on July 28th at the Valley View golf course in Galion, Ohio. It was such an honor to be able to help this group with their mission. I hope the word spreads and that children all over the country can receive similar help.

I found this great video that I think sums up the message of what Cookies for iPads is all about.

My cookies are on their way to Ohio. I rarely ship cookies so I'm praying that they get there in one piece. 

I would like to give special thanks to my friend Kim from The Cookie Puzzle for telling me about this great cause. You have a special place in my heart friend.

A Surprise Virtual Grand-Baby Shower

I think I've said this before but when I started making cookies I never realized that it would lead me to have friendships with some of the most amazing women. I have become close with a small group of women and we chat almost on a daily basis about cookies, of course, but also about other things going on in our lives. We have formed a cookie sisterhood. We are scattered all over the country and one day we would love to get together and meet but until then the internet has given us a way to stay in touch.

One of these women is Cristin of Cristin's Cookies. I first became aware of Cristin when I wanted to buy a Kopykake. In my research I came across this video of Cristin demonstrating how to use a Kopykake. I immediately thought "what a bombshell"! I was captivated by her charm and her willingness to share her tips. I emailed Cristin to ask her where she got her Kopykake and she got back to me right away. I found out she had a daughter named Mellissa who also goes by Honeybee. Cristin was so nice and I immediately liked her. I began stalking her blog and keeping up with her on Facebook. I learned that not only does this woman decorate an insane amount of cookies but she is a wonderful mother and she can ride a bike like no one else I know. She can easily ride 100 + miles on her bike. A 30-40 mile bike ride a day is a cake walk for Cristin. Umm hello Cristin, Tour de France? We chatted through comments on Facebook, her blog and through email. Then one day Cristin introduced me to this lovely group of women that she was friends with and the rest is history. I found a place that I belong. I love these women.

For those of you that may not know, Cristin is going to be a grandmother for the first time in less than 7 weeks. So what do you do when you want to share in the joy that your friend is about to experience but you can't because you live so far away? Well that's where my friend Kim {The Cookie Puzzle} comes in. Kim contacted me and asked what I thought about doing a surprise virtual shower for Cristin. I thought the idea was brilliant. We threw ideas back & forth and decided on the theme children's books. Everyone would choose a favorite children's book and translate it into cookies. 

I do not have children and it's been a long time since I've read a children's book {I won't say how long}. I called upon one of my co-workers Lisa for help. She has a 3 year old daughter named Sydnie who loves books. We discussed various book options but the moment I saw Camilla the Cupcake Fairy I knew it was the book.

Camilla the Cupcake Fairy is about a fairy that gets a sparkly wand for her fifth birthday but she doesn't know what the wand does. She learns that the wand can only do one thing and that is frost a cupcake but she can't get the wand to work right. Her first attempt puts a mouse on the cupcake. Then she puts mashed potatoes on the cupcake. Her third attempt produces a snowman. Finally, she learns that she needs to get all her friends together to help her and she's able to frost a beautiful cupcake. It's a neat book and I had fun trying to capture the spirit of it on cookies.

Cristin, I hope that you enjoyed this little surprise. It wasn't always easy keeping it a secret but we did it. You raised two wonderful children {Mellissa and Nick} and Abigail is being blessed with a wonderful grandmother. I know you will be the best grandmother and teach her wonderful lessons and values. She's definitely not going to have a problem learning to ride a bike and I'm sure she may get some pink hair along the way. Congratulations my dear friend!

Now it's time to see what all the other wonderful women in our group put together. Thank you ladies for your work on this project. It was a pleasure working with you all. Your cookies are fabulous!

1)The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Kim of The Cookie Puzzle 


2)Ladybug Girl by Stephanie of Ellie’s Bites Decorated Cookies 


3)Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Shannon of The Sweet Shop Cookie Company


4)Rainbow Colors Peekaboo by Kristina of Kristina’s Kreations


5)Camilla the Cupcake Fairy by Melissa of Simply Sweets by Honeybee


6)Are You My Mother? by Stephanie of Sweets by Steph


7)Pinkalicious by Aymee of Wacky Cookies


8)Because I Love You by Jamie of Fresh Baked


9)Pat the Bunny by Margaret of Edible Canvas Creations


10)Peter Rabbit by Tiffany of Tiff’s Tasty Cookies


11)Birdie’s Big-Girl Shoes by Ansa of Sweet Treats by Ansa


12)If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Kate of Kooking in Kate’s Kitchen

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this little surprise. Please be sure to visit everyone's pages and show them some love. 

***UPDATE***
One of our guests was a little late to the party but I always say better late than never and the more the merrier.

13)Goodnight Moon by Laura of Laura's Cookies.

My Week In Photos {Instagram}

Are you on Instagram? It's something that I have become obsessed with. I love taking pictures. Since I don't have any cookies to share at the moment I thought I would try something new and share pictures of what's been going on with me this past week.

I'll get back to the cookies soon I promise. Keep an eye out for a special post at the end of the week.

I visited Williams-Sonoma where I picked up some of my favorite vanilla extract and stared at my dream mixer.

I visited one of my favorite cake shops in the Houston area called Amazing Cake Supplies.

I found some new cutters from Wilton at the cake shop. Later I discovered that you can get these at Walmart.

On the 4th of July I dealt with a very expensive emergency due to the fireworks. My little one was so freaked out that she crashed into the trash can and hurt herself. She's doing much better now. I'm not looking forward to New Years.

I received a package from SewLovelyCupcake on Etsy. Aren't these earrings just precious?

I got in touch with my crafty side and made this hair clip.

I made this key fob for my sister. I'm working on more designs to add to my Etsy shop SweetHoneyBeez. I'll have some new designs up soon.

I ate lunch at one of my favorite restaurants called Ripps Grille. This chicken sandwich is called The Foghorn Leghorn. All the dishes are named after movie references.

Sometimes we eat out a little more than we should so we ended the week off with this fabulous fish that my husband made on the grill and he paired it with some nice vegetables.

So that's my week in photos. My Instagram user name is simplysweetsbyhoneybee. Have a great week everyone!

Inspiration Challenge: July {Home Decor}

I can't believe how quickly a month goes by. It's time for July's Inspiration Challenge which is "Home Decor". As soon as I finished June's challenge I went to Home Goods and snapped lots of pictures of things I thought I would like to decorate. After reviewing the pictures I kept going back to one plaque and I quickly decided that this was going to be my home decor challenge. 

This design did pose some challenges for me. In the end I did not end up with the exact design I had envisioned but I sure do like the end results. 

I'm going to run through how I got to the finished design. 

First, I typed out the word beach in Gabriola font and printed it out. I also printed a picture of a bucket, a palm tree and a surf board and trimmed them (the surfboard is on card stock). I found a star cutter in a size that would work with the scale of this project. Then I taped the bucket and the palm tree where they needed to be for the design.

I trimmed around the image and then photocopied it onto card stock. The only reason I trimmed it before copying was because I was originally going to use this as my template but I decided card stock would be sturdier.

Once I had my trimmed image I put it on my dough and hand cut it with a knife. I don't have a lot of experience with hand cutting. I use Sugarbelle's sugar cookie recipe which doesn't require refrigeration but for the hand cutting I placed my rolled out dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to firm it up for peace of mind when cutting. You can see that the edges are not as crisp as when you use a cutter. I did not picture it but the surf boards were also hand cut.

After my cookies baked I did not decorate them until a day later so they could firm up a bit. I was worried about the palm tree section of the cookie breaking. In the meantime I made royal icing transfers. I found some shell images I liked online and printed them out. I then placed my printout on a baking sheet, covered it with parchment paper and used painters tape to hold it down.

I used icing that was thinner than piping but thicker than 20 second icing to make my transfers. Once they were dry I went back with the same consistency icing and piped details on them. I did not picture this step nor did I picture the step where I used luster dust and vodka to paint the transfers.

To decorate the cookies I printed out a fresh template on card stock and cut out each letter. I used these as guides to trace lines on my cookie with a blue food color writer. My inspiration to try this came from this post by Stephanie (Ellie's Bites Decorated Cookies).

Next, I outlined the cookies and allowed the outlines to dry before flooding.

The bucket was flooded in two steps for dimension. Once the cookie was dry I took my blue piping icing and glued my decorated star and surf board onto the cookie. 

I added a stick to the "e" connecting it to the bucket. Finally, I used leaf green and chocolate brown AmeriColor gels with vodka to paint the bucket for an aged look. I pretty much dabbed all the color off on a paper towel and lightly added color to bucket.

I wanted to show you this picture so that you could see that my design was originally going to be 3-D but I ran into all kinds of problems. First one of my cookies broke on the palm tree which left me with two cookies left. Then after gluing the cookies onto the base cookie those broke off. I got all the way to outlining, flooding and sanding the base and I thought they were dry and I was starting to remove the excess sanding sugar and pow it fell off. At that point I just gave up on the 3-D idea. Thankfully I had pictured my cookie before the 3-D attempt. What you see in the final pic with the sanding sugar and shells on the plate was supposed to be the base of the cookie.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my challenge cookies and how I made them. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with for this home decor challenge. Be sure to link your designs below. You can submit your designs through the end of July.

Please be sure to head over to Stephanie's page and see her challenge cookies.

Next month's challenge theme is "Staying Cool". How do you stay cool or what represents staying cool to you? A good theme considering we are setting some record temps across the country.

Past challenges:

• June {fabric patterns} : Simply Sweets by Honeybee, Ellie's Bites