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Anyone that knows me, knows that I adore Star Trek. Yes, me. A chic that loves Star Trek. We are not that rare. In fact there are a slew of us out there who love it! And not just for the Captains but for the other officers as well! Even those beloved Red Shirts. Hey, is there a girl out there that can resist the underdog. We know he is going to die but we still gasp in horror each time one does. Anywho, back on track..or Trek in this case. (Haha, I made a funny.) I love Star Trek, very much and with that comes loving a certain awesome actor and no I don't mea n Shatner. Heck I don't even mean Mr. Live Long And Prosper.  I mean the "Oh My!" man himself, Mr. George Takei! Seriously, this guy just rocks! On every level, in every way, in any format. It's George Freaking Takei! That man that defines Fabulous!  And speaking of Fabulous! (Yeah, bad segway.) Takei and I have something in common, other than thinking he is the bees knees. (What ever the hell that is.) We be...

Finally, just walked in the door. I was not expecting a cake drop off to turn into 3 hours at school but it did. Turns out the class was a bit short on the parental volunteers today. So instead of me just dropping off a cake and running, leaving Jason to carve pumpkins with the kidos, I ended up staying as well. Jack in tow. lol. Was a lot of fun in all honesty but I am beat. I do not know how teachers do this kind of thing day in and day out. I would go positively mad!Don't get me wrong, love the kids but being around that many kids that young all excited like that....Ugh, no thank you! Karin, my hat is off to you!  On the non pumpkin carving side of things, all the sweets went over swimmingly! The kids just adored all the cookies, especially the ones with their names on them.... Not to mention the cake! It was a smash hit!!!!! God I am so relieved! With all the royal icing transfers breaking and me having to fall back to a back up, back up plan I was not expecting it to turn out ...

First off - Happy Halloween! Now, I will post pictures of the cake later on today but these are just too adorable, in a gross way, not to post about. I had a few cookies left over from the last batch that I didn't want to go to waste but there wasn't enough to do the next series I have planned. So, I started scouring through all the wonderful blogs I read and saw something just perfect! Eyeball Cookies By Sweet Sugar Belle  <---Those! Perfect! (Sugar Belle is just wonderful and comes up with the most creative ways to make cookies!) So, a little bit of green, some extra cookies and a little bit later I have my very own. Granted hers are much better but hey! I love mine! Jack devoured one already, Rhi grabbed one and ran out the door to catch the bus. Happy Halloween everyone! Be back later with the cake pictures!

 Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! Okay, I feel better now. It has been one heck of a day and it doesn't look like it will get any better before the day it out. I woke up this morning, sick but ready to go. Time to take all those royal icing transfers that I did for Alex's 1st grade class cake off the wax paper....1st one crumbled.....Okay, deep breath, this is why I made so many. I knew this would happen! K, try again....2nd one crumbled.....No worries, it happens, keep going! No matter how many break we have plenty, that is why I made close to 3 dozen, because I only need like 6. Yeah well....All of them broke....well I am not sure all of them broke but I am sure they would have. I stopped about half way through them all because it was just too heart breaking. Thankfully 1 did survive! The one that is the cake topper, the most important one. So hey! Ahead 1. Back up still hasn't been touched and it will remain that way till I get the cake to the school in case the fi...

Well in the middle of doing all this decorating for Rhi's Birthday and Alex's 1st Grade Class I have found a new love.....Cookies! Okay. I have always adored cookies, who doesn't!?! They're cookies for crying out loud!! But this is a new love, a true love, and oddly enough a love that isn't putting inches on my hips. You see, I have found a love of cookie decorating! (And honestly when you are around that much sugar all day for days on end the last thing you want to do it eat one, no matter how good they are. Anyone that has worked in the food industry knows my pain.) It all started with those Royal Icing transfers I did for the Halloween Cake, pictures will be posted of that come Monday. Found tips and tricks on various cookie decorating sites, not cake ones. Funny how that works. One thing led to another and bam, I found myself doing an entire set for the 1st grade class even though I was already doing a cake.  No worries, get it out of my system and move on. Yeah...

That took a lot longer than I expected but oh well! Finally I am done with the cookies! Okay, let me rephrase that. I am done with the cookies for Alex's 1st grade class. All 60 are baked, decorated, cooled, bagged, tagged and tied.  Each student will receive 1 decorative cookie and one other cookie with their name on it, all tied up in a little bag with ribbon. They turned out rather good for only my 2nd real attempt at decorating sugar cookies, so happy with that. That being said I have a long way to go and will be starting another batch tomorrow in another theme. I need as much practice as I can get.  So, not gonna make this one long. Here is a shot of the completed cookies! (Coffins, tombstones, witch legs, Bride Of Frankenstein, Spider Webs, Candy Corn, Cauldrons, Jack-O-Lanterns, Witches, and last but not least, as Jack likes to call them, Fire Cats.) Night!

As many know I cook and I cook a LOT. All things but what usually gets peoples attention is the baked goods, cakes mostly for me. But I want to branch out. I have been reading one heck of a blog - Sweetopia ! (The hostess is just amazing! What she can do with a cookie will blog your mind!) So after reading her blog I used some of the techniques to make the royal icing transfers. So happy with the results! Granted I do have a long way to go but that comes with practice. Anywho...back to wanting to branch out. Since we now live on the other side of the country, no one can eat my sweets! Ugh! (For most not an issue but I love baking for people.) I read her article, Marian from Sweetopia , on how to ship cookies. Well hot damn! Perfect idea! Now I gotta learn to decorate cookies. I have before, last year, for Christmas...They sucked! Okay, they weren't that bad. In fact they were pretty good for someone that never had before but you know me, I never want to settle! More reading and tim...

Well, it's see I started these things nearly a week ago and just put the final one up. They are not all the way done but 99%! I have to give them a few days dry time before I go back and filly in a few holes here and there and then fix the outlines but for the most part they are done. Granted after that I have to let them finish drying till next Saturday and then comes the hard part.... Removing them from the paper and placing them on the cake. Thankfully I made a 2 of each design and honestly only need like 6 of them to survive. (This should allow me to break 75% of them and still have more than enough, LOL) Though I am planning for the worst! If they all break I have a back up fondant plan that I can get done the day before the cake is supposed to be taken up the school. ^^ Always have a back up for your back ups! Oh well, after a week of this I think it is about time to join the family in the pumpkin carving they have been doing all weekend! Only a little while of time left toda...

Well, here I am in the middle of the night...Kids are asleep and the hubby traded me in for a warm bed a couple of hours ago. Why am I still up? Sugar cookies! Been reading a wonderful blog lately and it just got me wanting to dive into some! (Not eating strangely enough, just decorating them. I know I am odd!) Lookies! I even planned ahead when doing this! (Yeah, that is actually an uncommon thing for me. I normally sketch a general theme and go free hand.)  I know my drawing skills are not all that. I work on a computer! (And sadly I don't have a printer. Anyone want to donate one to a poor baker? I can pay in food!) So, back on subject, main subject. Here I am in the middle of the night and I see why I should have bought the good butter instead of the cheap stuff. Water content.... Makes the sugar cookies spread. If you are going for soft ones no problem but I want precision! So, how do we fix this? Hold on to your seats girls ( and guys ) for how simple this is. Take ...

Well today was my first go at a new decorating technique...Royal Icing Transfers. Basically you take icing that when it dried is rock hard and draw with it on wax paper. When the outline drys, you filly it with colored icing and then dry again. Remove from wax paper, attach to what ever edible you are making. Seems simple enough.....Ugh huh, yeah right. I have a whole new found respect for cookie decorators, they use this technique all the time. It isn't near as simple as one would think. Okay, let me rephrase that....It is simple. Simple to start, no fancy stuff needed. Hard to get right! Yeah, anyone can draw a line, draw a perfectly straight one takes years of practice and talent...Even if you do trace it. I'm an inker! I give the scene depth! You're a tracer!...Okay, sorry, slipped into Kevin Smithland.... Anywho...Yeah, it is going to take me a lot of practice to get this fully right. Sad thing is I don't have a lot of time to practice this. I just kind of gotta ho...