valentine's day

We completed a couple of orders for valentine's day. All of them topped with very tasty soft chocolate sugar cookies. The cookies were so much fun to decorate...especially since we discovered a new and easy technique that results in perfection every time!

We were also asked by a good friend to make a special valentine's delivery to her loved one!

This was such a fun delivery to make. On Valenine's Day I went to our friend's husband's workplace to surprise him and his classroom (he's a teacher) with these little cupcakes! One box of cupcakes had "Why do I love you so much?" written in fondant on the cookie topper and the second box had "Happy V-Day" written on them. 

It was so fun to walk into the school office knowing that our friend's husband had no idea these cutie cupcakes were coming his way! Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay until he came down to the office to see his reaction, but if the reaction of all the ladies in the office was any indication, they were a hit! 

stories from barely burnt cookies and more

During the week of Christmas we completed a rather large order. We split the order, each baking cookies and cupcakes. Julia dropped in for lunch and brought her part of the order around noon on the day of delivery which was to be in an hour or so. 

Interesting things tend to happen when we are together and any sort of baking occurs.

I had been baking all morning. The kitchen was a disaster, not a clear space on the counter. The dining room table was full of Christmas gifts that needed wrapping. There were now three small children in my home. I had just completed decorating two dozen mini chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate peppermint swiss meringue buttercream and needed a place to put them.

I couldn't use the floor or coffee table in case one of the children messed with the box. I couldn't use any kitchen or dining room table space. So the only other logical place to put the box with two dozen decorated cupcakes was the bed in our spare room. I placed them on the bed, ran into the kitchen to grab another box of cupcakes, and returned to discover a crushed box oozing with frosting.

The cat sat on it.

Not funny.

I gasped, Julia ran in, and we jumped into problem solving mode. We thought about salvaging some of the cupcakes but the frosting was drooping off the edges making a major mess of things. Thank goodness I had baked the entire chocolate cupcake recipe into mini's as my plan was to bring some to a family gathering. I screeched "how many cupcakes do we have left?" in a panic stricken voice to Julia who was busy counting. I could just imagine myself re-baking all two dozen cupcakes one hour before delivery. 

Julia breathed a sigh of relief. There were 24 mini cupcakes left and enough frosting to decorate.

Our next problem was the box which was full of oh-so-tasty white chocolate peppermint buttercream. That was our last box for mini cupcakes. So while I decorated another two dozen cupcakes, Julia painstakingly cleaned the box.  

In the end all the cupcakes and cookies looked lovely and were enjoyed by their recipients. Potential disaster averted!

We are fully aware that in all likelihood none of this would have happened if Julia had dropped off her baking and left immediately. Things just get crazy when we bake together...hence the name "barely burnt!" 

However, the craziness is fun and in the end we do get a good story!