Katie's Birthday

For my sister Katie's 17th birthday, my mom threw her a surprise party. It was a fun party and I enjoyed helping out (meaning: I enjoyed taking Katie shopping to distract her while the party was set up) and making the birthday cupcakes as well.

Originally, I wanted to make a Dr. Who themed cake, but that will just have to wait until next year. The reason I didn't make it for the surprise party was because I had just gotten home for Spring Break the day before, and I only had one night to make it.

So obviously, I decided on cupcakes! They bake faster, cool faster, and I really think they can be decorated faster, although I did make all these little fondant decorations that took some time.

And it was definitely a little more challenging to make buttercream without my stand mixer. I haven't had to do that in forever!

But it was definitely worth it. Katie and her friends enjoyed the coffee-flavored cupcakes and the fondant flowers and butterflies matching perfectly with the party's garden/patio/coffee shop theme.

Valentine Cookies, 2011 Edition

So let's ignore the fact that it's no longer Valentine's Day, and no longer even February, and in fact, it's no longer even wintertime, and talk about how cute these cookies are instead.

I made these cookies to give away to my friends and family, so there are at least a hundred.

My goal was to make the cutest cookies possible, and I'm not gonna lie, guys, these definitely fit that definition.

These cookies were especially awesome. You just put a bunch of dots on the wet (royal) icing and then draw a line through them with a toothpick. And then they look like little hearts!

But I really think the swirly cookies are my favorites. Some of them have luster dust on them, but that was really time consuming, so some the cookies are just swirly, not sparkly.

I made the cookies the day before Valentine's day, so Michael's was already starting to put the Valentine's items on clearance. I got those really cute heart sprinkles for a really great price.

And the heart shaped cookie cutter was only 50 cents! I did have a couple of cookie cutters on hand, but I left all my heart shaped ones at home! At first, I was just going to go with the circle and star shaped cookies, but thankfully, Michael's was right down the street!

I'm running out of interesting anecdote to tell you about these cookies, and I took a lot of pictures, so I'll just let the pics speak for themselves!

Ta-da! Happy belated Valentine's Day! :)