Mediterranean Musings

Life has been crazy, hectic and wonderful all at the same time. I’m in the midst of planning a bridal shower for this summer (I’m sure there will be a future post of that) and just got back from an amazing trip through the mediterranean!

Instead of boring you with stories of all of the great places we ate, drank and visited I figured I would bore you with a bunch of photos I took instead

Here’s a little food porn courtesy of Comet Cookies

Marseille outdoor market:

Seriously the most scrumptious macarons I’ve ever had…ever.

Another market in Provence (can you see the common thread with these photos yet?)

I normally dislike pigeons A LOT but this one was cool. He got his own melon to snack on.

One of many photos of the numerous bread and meat sandwiches we ate. Also, you can’t forget the good beer and French champagne to go with it!

Gelato from Cinque Terre

So much espresso…

Gnocchi and caprese in Taormina. If you go anywhere in Italy, Taormina is a MUST.

Pasta and fish in Venice. We ate 50 feet away from the Rialto fish market. Best seafood I’ve had!

Venice is known for their bellini’s….so of course I had to have one or three…

On our second day in Venice we made it out early enough to see the Rialto market in full swing. It was amazing to see all of the fresh (still wriggling) seafood, fruits and vegetables. Yum!

Dr. Seuss One Fish Two Fish Cookies

I recently received a cookie order that I had been anxiously waiting upon for quite some time. They were for a Dr. Seuss themed baby shower and they wanted cookie favors for guests. When I first started decorating cookies, I remember finding an image of Dr. Seuss cookies on Pinterest and being in awe of how something like that could be created out of icing. My time now had come to create the magic, but I didn’t know how to execute it properly and couldn’t find a tutorial on how to do it. So below are my instructions and keep in mind that I’m sure these could be done differently, but this method worked great for me.

You’ll need:
Yellow, blue and red icing
Piping bags
#1, #2 and #3 piping tips
Toothpicks
Black Wilton food marker
KopyKake projector

To start you’ll want to have baked round cookies of at least 3″ in diameter. Using a #3 tip, outline and flood cookies with yellow icing. Let those dry for at least 4 hours, but overnight is preferred.

Next you’ll need to turn on the trusty KopyKake and start outlining the image. Using a #1 tip outline the image and then fill with a #2 tip.

Let those dry for a few hours. Next you are going to take the black Wilton food marker and begin outlining /sketching onto the cookie. I do not claim to be an artist and honestly even my stick figures look awful so for me this was the most challenging part. I would suggest practicing on paper first.

The eyes were the biggest challenge of this cookie. I first tried piping the whites of the eyes in first before sketching onto the cookie and that was an awful idea. The eyes bulged out from the cookie and when I tried adding in the eye lashes with the marker it looked terrible. Below is an image of that first failed attempt.

The trick is to sketch everything onto the fish first. Once that’s dried, go back with a toothpick and a bit of the white icing on the end of it and carefully fill in the eye area that you’ve already outlined in black. The end result looks MUCH better.

If anyone has better suggestions (or less tedious ones) for the eyes please feel free to leave a comment!

Honestly, these fish just take a steady hand, a bit of time and a lot of patience. Good luck with trying these out at home!

March Madness Marquette Cookies

We’ve made it to March here in Wisconsin. In order for us to keep from going stir crazy, we turn our attention to March Madness. I’m not even going to pretend that I’m a basketball fan, but I enjoy researching all of the teams, looking at stats and making an educated choice when filling out my bracket. Who am I kidding? It took me a total of 5 minutes to fill out the entire thing.

I figured that since I’m not a super fan, I should show my team pride in cookies. Here are a few of the Marquette Golden Eagle cookies I made.

As I was creating these cookies, the colors made me think of opening day which is right around the corner. I just had to create Bernie with the extra cookie I had laying around. Happy opening day and March Madness!

Easter Cookies

Even though we recently got 8 inches of snow, I can’t resist the urge to turn my thoughts to all things spring. Our newly landscaped backyard received a fall planting of multi-colored spring bulbs that I can’t wait to see this year! Until that happens (and since we live in Wisconsin, it may be another 2 months) Easter cookies will have to do the trick.

I assessed my ever expanding collection of cutters and realized the only Easter worthy cutter I had was a rabbit. Even though I feel that new spring cutters would be worth the investment, I don’t know that my husband would agree with the amount of closet real estate they would take up. So with that in mind, I got creative and all of the cookies I created were multi-purposes from ones I had laying around.

First up are these chicks. I found the pack of number cutters I had and realized the zero had a lot of uses. These cute little guys are the result.

Next up are the ever popular Easter eggs. Even though these look ornate, they are easy to make. Outline and flood your cookie with a #3 tip and let dry. Using a #2 tip with the same flood color draw slightly curved lines from the top to the bottom of the cookie. Finally with a #2 tip in a different color, add in the small dots between and you’re done!

The little rabbits are the next ones to tackle. First you will want to pipe the tail and add whatever decoration you want. For these, I used white nonpareils.

Next, outline and flood with a #3 tip.

While the icing is still wet, add in large and small dots with different colors. That’s it! Super easy!

Lastly, I had to make carrots for my rabbits. Only problem, I don’t have a carrot cutter. In comes the candy cutter for Christmas!

When you are cutting out your dough, take a knife and simply cut off the one end into a sharp point and voila! Carrots!

These cookies got boxed up as gifts to friends this weekend. Hopefully they added a little sunshine during an otherwise chilly/dreary March.

Valentine Heart Cookies

We’re just under one month to February 14th and I’ve been dreaming up some fun decorating ideas pretty much since my last batch of Christmas cookies were packed and gifted.

I recently made a trip to Sur La Table and came out with some amazing fluted cutters. I’m semi-obsessed with them, so I had to make a few of those in this batch of heart cookies too.

I went out and purchased food markers a while back, but had only used them as a guide for frosting and decorating cookies. I figured they needed their moment to shine, so I decided to use them to create an ultra mod herringbone pattern. Here's how you can create the look.

Start with a flooded cookie and draw straight vertical lines (you can make them however thick or narrow you would like). Next, draw angled lines down one column.

Draw a second set of angled lines in the opposite direction right next to it and continue this pattern down all of the columns. Mine is not perfect by any means, I chose to do this free handed. However, if you want a more precise look, use a KopyKake projector or a ruler if you’d like. I’m all for asking Wilton to come up with a finer point marker instead!

Next up I decided to finally use a fun little item I bought a while back. I remember finding this type of cookie on Pinterest and was amazed at how cool they ended up looking, so I had to try it myself (and its super easy to do!)

Once again, start with a flooded cookie in whatever colors you’d like.

The first one I made was a simple outline. I used a #2 piping tip in white and made an outline around the heart. After allowing it to dry briefly, I took the cookie and held it at a 45 degree angle and lightly misted it with the pearl color. Make sure you have something underneath otherwise you’ll be trying to clean up pearl mist everywhere!

Here’s the final product!

I ended up trying a few other ideas as well, but my favorite by far was this paisley one.

Go out and buy this inexpensive pearl mist and make some elegant and easy cookies for your Valentine!

Cookie Packaging & Presentation

As the famous saying goes ‘you eat with your eyes first’. So as a cookie decorator, you put a ton of time and effort into crafting beautifully intricate mini works of art, only for it to be presented in a lack luster disposable plastic container? No thank you. Presentation is a key component to any baker’s repertoire (whether you are a professional or not).

I was recently perusing the Target clearance aisles right after Christmas and ran into this beautiful box for a dollar. You can’t go wrong with that price … and I’m a sucker for anything on sale, especially if it has tons of glitter on it.

I also have a few great items that I can’t help but buy when I take a trip to Michaels. The Martha Stewart line of packaging products are totally gorgeous and create a truly special experience for the recipients of your treats.

Also, I think these boxes are adorable from Martha Stewart as well. Can you tell that I’m looking for any excuse to use my new camera?

I recently discovered this great company via Instagram (which reminds me…make sure to follow me @cometcookies). I recently ran into this adorable idea that is perfect for presenting just about any small cookie you can think of. Bake It Pretty is amazing so make sure to check out some of their other options too.

Buying boxes can get a little pricey at times, so when I find printables, and even better free printables, I have to share the discovery. Thanks to Pizzazzerie for these cuties!

Happy New Year’s Eve Cookies

I hope everyone had a fun and safe time ringing in 2013. I am thrilled to announce that my husband and I finally bit the bullet and bought a ‘fancy’ camera. I was getting tired of the limited capabilities with my previous one (aka my iPhone…so embarrassing) and so the day after Christmas our little gift arrived on our doorstep. As I am posting this blog, my husband is building me my light box since I’m tired of the white gift box I’ve been using over the last few months (also embarrassing).

As always, I look for any excuse to decorate cookies and NYE seemed like a pretty good one. I found these adorable free printables and it became my inspiration for one of my cookies.

Here are a few more I made as well. Enjoy!

Parisian Macarons

I’m getting super excited for the holidays. I have already baked all of my cutout cookies (which are chilling in the freezer) and I’m browsing the web for ideas for additional cookies. I love giving boxes of homemade goods to friends and family members for the holidays, however, I want them to stand out. How you may ask? French macarons of course!

These things look easy, but let me preface the rest of this post by saying that these take time, attention and patience. The results are great though so take a few of my tips and try these yourself!

1. Recipe

I found mine via Martha Stewart (she is my domestic idol after all)

2. Ingredients

All of the ingredients looked normal (aka they were already sitting in my cupboard) except for the almond flour. I went to the grocery store and was shocked to find it was available, but even more shocked that it was nearly $10 for a small little bag! Off to Google I went and found a way to make my own almond flour.

Seriously so easy. Take blanched almonds and grind them up super fine in a food processor. Done!

3. Prep

In order to make sure each cookie is the same size, you’ll need a guide. I took parchment paper, a small round cookie cutter and an edible food marker. I outlined onto the paper, flipped it over and put it on the baking sheet.

*Now might be a good time to preheat your oven to 375 degrees*

4. Whip It

Follow the recipe and whip up the egg whites with fine sugar and a pinch of cream of tarter.

Gently fold the egg whites into the almond mixture and pipe them onto the parchment paper. My recommendation would be to watch a video on how to pipe these guys. My first tray was a little lackluster to say the least.

Temperature of your oven is super important. My first tray of cookies didn’t rise much, my second tray of cookies cracked and then finally the third tray was perfect!

So I have to say my first macaron experience was a bit trying on my patience and I am happy to say it was only a practice round. I’ve learned a lot and hopefully I’ll have perfect macarons to gift this holiday!

Enjoy some macaron inspiration (fingers crossed mine turn out as nicely as these do).

Elmo

I can hardly believe it, but my little niece is turning the big 2 this Sunday. Over the last year she has flourished into this amazing, spunky and all around adorable little girl. I was thrilled when I received her party invitation in the mail. My niece is obsessed with Elmo….so much so, she was Elmo for Halloween.

How adorable right?!

I volunteered to make cookies and ran online and got the cookie cutter I needed. I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be using this cutter a lot in the future.

The key to a good Elmo cookie is the black outline. I started by using a #1 tip and outlined all of the fur.

I let that dry overnight. There’s nothing worse than rushing the process and having the black bleed into the rest of the cookie! If you can’t wait that long, I highly suggest using a small oscillating fan. It shortens drying time and oddly enough adds a nice shimmer too (bonus!)

Next, use a #3 tip and flood in the face with red.

Follow with the yellow nose and white eyes. Once again after flooding everything I let it dry overnight. The next morning I added in the black to the eyes and put them by the fan to dry quickly.

Here are the final products!

‘Lil Peanut Baby Shower

I am honestly one of the most blessed people to have such kind, wonderful and all around fabulous friends in my life. The minute I found out one of my girlfriends was blessed to announce the arrival of her first baby, I immediately placed ‘dibs’ on hosting a baby shower for her. Mind you, I’ve never had the opportunity to do so, but I had been seeing so many beautiful ideas on Pinterest and other party blogs, I wanted to give it a try!

First up was the theme. I got together with a few close friends and we started to brainstorm. We ended up deciding on ‘lil peanut because the minute she found out she was pregnant that’s what she kept calling ‘it’. I went immediately over to etsy and found this amazing customizable invite template by Little Wishes here.

Next, I needed to find printables to go with the party theme, but I didn’t want to have to pay for the file. I wouldn’t call myself a cheap person, I prefer thrifty I started searching the Internet for free pink elephant party printables (sounds easier than you think). I’m not joking, this search took a solid week. Just when I was about to throw in the towel, I came across the site Peonies and Poppyseeds. I still can’t figure how I ended up finding them, but all I remember doing is a little happy dance by myself when I found it!

Here are just a few of them that I made. Warning: get ready to do a lot of cutting and gluing!

Instead of table tents as labels for food, I ended up printing out these labels, glued them to toothpicks and inserted them into marshmallows. It ended up looking really cute!

We had a fabulous menu with lots of finger sandwiches, salads, fancy drinks and of course dessert! Please forgive me for the not-the-greatest photo quality. I’m asking for a nice camera for Xmas (fingers crossed!)

Also, my fabulous friends came up with some adorable ideas. They got a silver memory box engraved with the baby’s name. Then, as guests arrived, the could write a birthday wish on the banner, wrap it around a candle and place it in the box for mom and baby to read on each birthday for years to come! They also came up with the favors which were elephant cookies cutters and pink and white frosted animal cookies.

Thanks again to all of the wonderful friends who helped with food and ideas and for making it a truly special day for our friend and mommy-to-be!