Holiday – Page 3 – The Ocelots' Den

March of the Toy Soldiers

By Julia on 18 December, 2019

One of my coworkers has been looking for a giant Toy Soldier for several years to complement our drummer tree. In honor of that, I found a Toy Soldier cookie cutter as a surprise for her.

I also love making Gingerbread. I love it when it is soft, full of flavor, and has just a little bit of snap when you bite into it. I had to dive deep into my mind (and Pinterest) thinking of how I would decorate the Soldiers. I found myself a little stumped. Nothing seemed quite right.

Toy Soldier Standing Guard at The Jefferson Hotel
Richmond, VA

Then, by a stroke of luck, I attended our annual Holiday party at The Jefferson Hotel, where the perfect Soldier greeted me.

When I got home, I compared him to my adorable cutter, and I realized I had a small problem. My Soldier cutter has very short legs. I was going to have to choose boots or pants. I thought about drafting some renderings on my computer or sketching them, but I was eager to start icing the cookies.

I decided to try to make medium height boots and have a glimpse of the pants showing. First, I piped on some faces, and then I piped my hats and boots!

Before the hats had a chance to set, I added a flourish of holly berries. I prepped early in the season and made a couple hundred, so I could use them as often as I liked. (I LOVE feeling prepared).

I added the red jackets, blue pants, and some blue cuffs on the sleeves of the jackets. I thought there needed to be a touch more blue in the uniform (making up for the very short legs).

With the soldiers fully dressed, it was time to add details and embellishments. I tried a few different designs before finalizing. Gold cords around the cuffs, buttons, and shoulder tassels for the win! The other elements were a little too delicate for the amount of replication required.

I am also an Army veteran, so I got a kick out of lining up my soldiers in formation, boxing them in along with their squads, and deploying them. When they were dry the next day, I was able to draw on their faces (with a fine edible marker). A lot of Toy Soldiers have a mustache, but I’m not fond of it. So I kept a crisp, clean-shaven look.

Baked Goods | Christmas | Cookies | Holiday

North Pole Pizza Delivery

By Julia on 17 December, 2019

Earlier this Advent season, I made a few elves to welcome back my nephews’ scout elf, Truck. The cookies were a hit! The boys loved them. The youngest even exclaimed, “they looked like Truck!” I genuinely love bringing joy to their little faces. Seeing them full of joy, wonder, and excitement is one of my favorite things about being an auntie.

To keep going with the elves, I knew that sometimes the elves get into mischief, and sometimes they bring treats. I also know that sometimes parents are up so late doing the dishes that the elves don’t have enough time to make their trip back to the North Pole. I thought an Elf Pizza delivery would be a great way to help them out and a fun way for me to secretly contribute to the fun!

I’ve seen a lot of “pizza” cookies on Pinterest and Instagram made with royal icing. I prepared to do this but then really liked the idea of building the pizza with actual flavorful toppings.

The dough base is a gingerbread cookie, which I topped with deep red royal icing “sauce.” I shaved some white chocolate for the cheese and placed it on the wet icing so it would stick. Finally, it was time to make my crowning jewel, the pepperoni. To make the pepperoni, I used the backside of an icing tip and cut circles out of Fruit-by-the-Foot. When my cookies were dry, I used edible markers (black and brown) to put the spices on the pepperoni.

My final touch on the cookies was using my kitchen torch to melt the “cheese” and crisp a little of the pepperoni. I wasn’t sure how noticeable it would be, but it was fun!

To make the pizza’s official, I created a pizza box with my Christmas logo and cut small squares of checkerboard wax paper to line the tiny pizza boxes. (Love, love, love)!

Baked Goods | Birthdays | Cookies | Holiday

Squad Goals

By Julia on 9 December, 2019

It was recently my Mother-in-Law’s (MIL) birthday. It was a birthday divisible by 5, so my Sister-in-Law (SIL) wanted to do something unique so she planned a girls’ trip for all of the “daughters” and mom. Technically, my MIL has two children by birth, but then, of course, she has a Son-in-Law (SIL) and a Daughter-in-Law (DIL, aka me). Two of my SIL’s childhood friends are also considered daughters in our Hawthorne sister crew. (Love, Love, Love them). 3 of the 4 of us live in Virginia, and one lives out on the West Coast.

My SIL had another brilliant idea to make t-shirts for everyone to wear on our trip to Williamsburg. We passed a few ideas back and forth and settled on bold “MOM daughter #SQUAD” design. It’s been a while since I’ve made a heat transfer design. Aside from cutting the backing material instead of the vinyl on the first pass, all went smoothly. I especially love how brilliant the gold sparkles shine!

Once I made the t-shirts, it was a natural choice for Cookie designs. I wanted to bring us a sweet treat. Something understated but sentimental and directly intended for mom.

I’m still really digging using this hexagon cutter. Maybe the novelty will wear off in a few weeks, but for the moment, I am obsessed with the shape. At first, I thought I would pipe directly on the cookies (like I usually do). My inner-perfectionist had a different idea. While my cursive is neat and it is undoubtedly legible, it didn’t quite “POP” the way I had envisioned.

So I got creative, and I engraved the cookies from a stencil before piping on them. It was MUCH more effective though I did have one cookie that I didn’t flood as fully as I should have. (So many lessons to learn along the way).

The last details were to add a couple of Holly Berry clusters and some red beads around the edge, and then I brushed them all over with some luster dust. (I LOVE when things sparkle, another trend for me right now).

We all had a fantastic time on our trip, our shirts all fit, and the cookies were delightfully demolished! (My favorite compliment).

Baked Goods | Christmas | Cookies | Holiday

Return of the Elves

By Julia on 30 November, 2019

I don’t personally have an Elf on the shelf. (Probably since I ~~think it’s creepy~~ don’t have children). I do enjoy all the fun things elves “do.” I also enjoy the magic and the fun in the season. Two of my nephews are local and love their elf named Truck. To welcome Truck back and kick-off Advent, I wanted to surprise the boys and make them some elf cookies.

*It’s a total secret. The boys don’t know that Auntie Julia is the one who made the treats.

Freshly Baked Elves Cooled and Ready to be Iced!

I lovingly whipped up my royal icing and methodically portioned it into four containers. And then as I mixed the red, then brown, and elf skin tones. I thought to myself, why do I have an extra container? What color is this supposed to be? And I promptly colored it yellow because I planned to pipe names on them and paint them with gold luster dust.

Immediate facepalm. I needed that white royal icing. I needed it to be white. I wanted a white collar and white accents on the hat. So, instead, I improvised. I piped the shape I was intending in red and covered them with silver sprinkles! Festive and fun. (If you are going to make a mistake, make it sparkle!)

It was also a new technique I hadn’t used. It was a HUGE sigh of relief that it worked. Once the elves had hats and collars, I added various “boy” and “girl” hairstyles.

It was time for the elves to get some skin and ears. I finally understood my best flooding consistency for my icing at this point. (Always learning lessons). The thicker red icing set too fast and left a texture.

While my ears were still wet, I added some coordinating gray “pearl” earrings to showcase the “girl” elves. I probably need to get some tweezers that are made for baking to place these with ease, but I threw caution to the wind and dropped them into place and hoped for the best. (Success!)

I added adorable button noses and some little accents to their pointy ears, but at this point, it was time to let my tiny masterpieces dry. I needed them to be smooth and hard so that I could draw the faces! Overnight usually works in my experience, but it is always best not to rush it.

These little elves fill my heart with so much joy! I used edible ink (fine tip) markers to sketch the faces, and I added a little luster dust to add the rosy chill from the North Pole.

Autumn | Baked Goods | Cupcakes | Holiday | Thanksgiving

Second Thanksgiving

By Julia on 24 November, 2019

Like most families, I enjoy Thanksgiving festivities over multiple days. For my Saturday gathering, I wanted to make something tasty and portable. I know pie is a staple on the Thanksgiving table, but I thought cupcakes would be fun.

I wanted to make something a little different. Pie flavors- baked into the cakes! So I decided on Pecan Pie Cupcakes with Sweet Potato Pecan Buttercream.

It was a new recipe creation (which I usually would taste first), but it made a dozen, so I didn’t want only to bring 11 to share. (Sharing is caring).

I also wanted to add a fun design element. The buttercream has a little bit of a texture form the pecans, so I decided to make a festive cupcake topper. I’m an avid watcher of Friends, and though I wasn’t sure the image would come across to everyone at the event, I thought they were funny.

I designed a turkey wearing oversized glasses and a fez using my Silhouette software. I printed out a couple of copies and mixed my Royal Icing to match my three colors.

Transfers all piped, once they were dry I added a little gold luster to the turkeys.

Once my transfers were dry (at least 8 hours, but I usually try to wait for about 24 hours), I put two together (like sandwich cookies) and added a thin layer of candy melts and a toothpick to ensure they would set quickly. If I were to make them again, I would pipe the tassel after this point or flip the image to pipe it in reverse since it isn’t symmetrical. (So many lessons learned in the kitchen).

12 Turkeys getting packed to go to dinner

I thoroughly enjoyed designing, baking, and assembling these treats! Bonus, I was able to eat one, and I will be keeping the recipe in future rotations.

Autumn | Baked Goods | Cookies | Holiday | Thanksgiving

It’s High Time for Pie Time

By Julia on 20 November, 2019

Gobble Gobble! I am amazed that Turkey-Time is upon us. This year, I tried to practice daily thankfulness moments. I have an adorable Turkey-on-the-Table (which benefits Feed More) where I add a feather and something I’m thankful for daily. It may seem a little silly, but in my extremely formal office, I really enjoy adding a little decoration for the season.

Naked Turkey before his thankful feathers were added

In my opinion, the most iconic Thanksgiving dessert is clearly Pumpkin Pie. It’s autumnal and comforting. I was asked to make an order of decorated cookies for our office Thanksgiving luncheon and decided to turn the iconic dessert into a sugar cookie!

I love perusing Pinterest for ideas and inspiration, but I ended up taking my own spin on the Mini Cookie Pies. I love the simplicity of the sugar cookie with one later of frosting and the crimpled crust versus piping on a faux crust. I happened to have a hand pie cutter with a plunger that was the perfect tool for the job!

I’m a little bit of a perfectionist, so I searched and searched for something to help me evenly divide my pie into 6 slices with minimal effort. As luck has it, my strainers are PERFECT!!!!

Once the crust was marked, I could easily slice through it with my rotary cutter, aka a pizza cutter). My slices aren’t all 100% perfect, but as long as I keep each pie together, the pies fit and look 100% adorable.

It’s crucial to chill the dough if it has been stamped. It helps the cookies retain their impressions. I tried to take a shortcut as the evening progressed, and it didn’t turn out favorably. (As a bonus, it meant I had some cookies for tasting!)

I added a quick layer of frosting and let the crimpled crust show through. Before the frosting set, I added a quick sprinkle of Nutmeg. You could just as easily use a pumpkin pie spice mix (Ginger, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves, and Allspice) or any of the other spices individually. I personally favor Nutmeg, and I like the thicker grain of it (I grate whole Nutmeg at home).

I spent some time thinking of cute simple sayings to add to my pies (and a bonus cookie) as I stumbled through my designs in my Silhouette Library; I found the most adorable Owl dressed as a Pilgrim.

*Side Story, my Great Gram LOVED birds. All Birds. She always kept a collection of bird feeders filled outside our kitchen windows so she could watch the birds ~~and yell at the squirrels~~. On one occasion, she was given an owl, and of course, loved and appreciated it, but it started a trend of people gifting her things with owls. (Pro Tip: Unless you want to be gifted with ALL the animal things… pick an obscure animal, like an Ocelot). I grew up with owls (and elephants) all over the house, so it warms my heart to see owls.

I wanted simple phrases that could also be added to the pie slices letter-by-letter. (6 slices, 6 letter words) “Gather” and “Gobble”. I’m also a lady who likes her options, so I’m still noodling on additional ideas.

I was glad this order was so successful on my first attempt on making these adorable little treats. It was my first attempt at layering royal icing transfers, and I confirmed my thought that I needed to chill my dough. My shortcut of pressing and baking resulted in plain triangle cookies. (Or as I like to call them, delicious mistakes).

I couldn’t wait to try out my hexagon cutter ahead of a December order! I think it turned out precious!

All the ~~cookies~~ pies are boxed and ready for delivery. I can’t wait to share!

Baked Goods | Cupcakes | Holiday

My First Sale!

By Julia on 4 November, 2019

I’ve been toying around with offering my baking skills for hire for several years but hadn’t quite figured out the logistics. (Spoiler, I still haven’t figured everything out, but I have started nonetheless).

My neighbor, Jennifer, posted a request for recommendations for Halloween Cupcakes. I am usually pretty busy around Halloween between birthdays and creating spooks, tricks, and treats, so I wanted to ensure I wasn’t overextending myself before I offered my services. As luck had it, the order wasn’t due until the Saturday AFTER Halloween! It was the perfect opportunity.

We had some dialogue about flavors and designs. For the kids’ cupcakes, we decided on Chocolate/ Chocolate. So I made my favorite chocolate cupcakes and topped them with Black Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. I used the fir/grass frosting tip (233) to style some Monster Fir and then sculpted Monster Claws from brightly colored Modeling Chocolate. It ended up being the perfect mixture of cute and creepy!

I loved the ease of making these cupcakes. Each step was quick, and the order was only for a half dozen. It was manageable. Often, I find that I get overly excited and design very complicated and time-consuming treats. Simple and sweet was a nice change of pace.

The next design took a few conversations to decide the final design and flavor. There was also a misunderstanding about skeletons in hats. I struggled to think of spooky skeletons in hats aside from a skeleton in a top hat… Auto-correct struck again and replaced “bats” with “hats.” Jennifer knew her husband likes flavors that pack a punch, so we decided on a Spiced Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting, and I created little Bat icing transfers.

It was my first experience making icing transfers, and when I started to make them the night before, I realized too late I had run out of meringue powder. I made the mistake of trying to replicate with buttercream and ultimately just wasted time because they were too soft, even when I tried freezing them overnight. Though it was frustrating, it was a wonderful lesson to learn.

To make my adorable bats, I found a cute bat image in clip art and copied as many on a page as I could fit (once I scaled the size to the width of the cupcakes). I taped them to the counter and put a layer of wax paper over so I can pipe over the image as a template. Simple and relatively quick. The downside is it takes HOURS for royal icing to dry. The upside is once the transfers are dry, you can store them for a long time. (Make your own googly eyes, hearts or sprinkles… the sky is the limit)!

Once the bats were mostly dry, I popped them onto my freshly frosted cupcakes. I added a gray belly and used a toothpick to dot on some tiny lime green eyes.

I made cute little liners for the Monster Claws that look like spider webs, and for the Bats, I made skeleton liners (but neglected to get a good photo. Shame on me!)

I searched and searched for affordable cupcake boxes or a secure transportation method. I am always ~~a little~~ incredibly terrified of the travesties that can occur when transporting my goodies. I also thought boxes would be an excellent presentation. Unfortunately, the more affordable boxes (~$1 per box) were a little too deep, and I couldn’t remove the cupcakes from the box without touching the frosting*. The risk was too high, so I loaned out a couple of my Halloween trays.

*Update: one of my coworkers had the brilliant idea to add crinkled kraft paper (like you use in Easter baskets) under the cupcakes, so the top edge was high enough to grab. GENIUS!

As a test, I baked complete batches of my cupcakes so I could get an accurate batch count. The ~~downside~~ upside is I had three-dozen extra Chocolate Cupcakes and three extra Carrot Cupcakes. But, it made a lovely gift to share with my neighbors, and I brought the remaining Chocolate Cupcakes to share with my coworkers.

I couldn’t let the “extra” gray Royal Icing go to waste, so I piped some nails onto the Monster Claws! I wish I thought of it before I delivered the other cupcakes, but lessons for another order.

All in all, I feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment. I baked tasty treats that were a little spooky and whimsical and delivered them on time.

Baked Goods | Cake | Holiday | Wedding | Weddings

An Unconventional Wedding Cake

By Julia on 21 August, 2018

My oldest brother got married this month! My wedding present to him and his bride was to help plan the wedding and to make the wedding cake. I know how stressful weddings can be, and I thought it was an excellent opportunity for me to get to know my SIL. I live 700 miles from where we grew up, and I have limited vacation days, so I try to maximize whatever time I have at home.

I knew the wedding would be a significant commitment, but it’s my big brother, and he asked me to be his “best man.” There is no way I could imagine refusing such a kind gesture and the loving inclusion on their special day.

The cake flavors were a simple choice. The couple quickly agreed on Red Velvet Cake with Buttercream Frosting. All that remained was to come up with the design. They both had their hearts set on having a Deadpool cake. I was a bit confused at first, but then they explained their love story and the significance of Deadpool.

My initial thought when I heard “Deadpool cake” was a Deadpool cartoon face round cake, with loads of red and black frosting. I try to be pretty open with design ideas, but I wanted to steer them towards something a little more traditional, with the fun and significant element of Deadpool. They had already chosen flowers and wedding colors. Gerbera daisies, and Orange, Purple, and Green.

I made the bouquets and boutonnieres. The mini bouquets were for my nieces. With flowers that represent their names and a few were mimicked in the bridal bouquet.

I couldn’t wrap my brain around how to fit this comic-book character into this romantic theme. Also, I know my brother, I hadn’t seen him with my SIL yet, but I could see him lovingly smashing the cake in her face. Red and black frosting stain my hands when I bake with them. I can’t imagine the damage they would inflict on a wedding dress.

So, as I like to do, I did more research. I watched the movies because I hadn’t seen them yet. I hoped that something in them would inspire me so their wedding cake would succinctly represent them as a couple AND look beautiful amidst the flowers and other decorations for the wedding.

I am so glad I watched the movies because the thing about Deadpool is, he can’t die. (I’m sure that’s obvious to any hardcore comic fans. He wasn’t a character I was exposed to until this month). So, I had the idea to have the cake drop on top of him and squish him! Then I was off to the races!

The bloody version was just for a dramatic effect. I didn’t intend on making a bloody wedding cake. *(But I would if they wanted it)*

I drew some mock-ups and sent them to my SIL for approval and got to baking. I wanted to do a test run of the cake and see how long it would take me to bake, frost, and decorate because I would be flying to Michigan from Virginia. I made a test cake for my BIL’s birthday because he also loves comic book characters.

I molded Deadpool, an “L” and some Gerbera Daisies out of modeling chocolate. For the real cake we were thinking about a cake topper that was M <3 S. (I typically put the woman’s initial first, but I didn’t want it to read S&M and give any mixed messages) I dusted some of the elements with luster dust for dimension and sheen. I piped all of the details, and I was incredibly proud of my effort.

My least favorite part of baking is cake delivery. It is terrifying. It makes me anxious. There are so many things that can go wrong after putting so much effort into the delicious artwork. More often than not, I have someone drive with me, and I hold the cakes. Or I drive and have someone hold the cakes.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t an option on this day. So I packed my car up to drive 8 miles. I made it the whole way there. I am sure I annoyed all of those around me because I was driving so slowly, taking corners like a little old lady and accelerating at a painstakingly slow pace. Then, because I lost my mind, I decided to pull into the driveway. HUGE mistake. I heard the cake topple right on over, and I cried.

For the wedding, I knew I wouldn’t be traveling with the cake. I would bake and decorate it at my sister’s house where the reception was held, but still, I felt defeated and embarrassed.

Fortunately, because Deadpool is the anti-hero, he survived the debacle. Also, my in-laws are the greatest and still devoured the cake.

I did some research and decided with my tight timeline flying in the night before the wedding; it was best if I brought the cake, frosting, and modeling chocolate to assemble on site. I looked at the TSA regulations and packed it up in my cooler as my carry on. It was the perfect solution, especially since after delays we didn’t get into town until well after midnight.

The cake traveled really well in it’s cooler along with the buttercream and candy clay. There were a lot of tasks to accomplish to prepare for the festivities as soon as the day began. I took a trip to the store for some last-minute charcuterie items. (I was obsessed with finding fresh figs). I tried my hardest to coordinate the fruits and veggies with the wedding colors. We sliced, chopped, and prepared everything while other helpers set up the flowers and other decorations and drink stations outside.

My sister spent a lot of time before my arrival, setting up lights and arranging her gardens to have space for a dance floor and the DJ. Everything was happening in whirlwind succession.

I crumb-coated the cake and gave it it’s polished finish before adding the other details. At this point, my brother liked the cake simple. So I stopped. Why spend more time on it if the groom is happy. We still had a lot of other tasks to accomplish, and the ceremony was 30 minutes from the reception.

I wish I would have gotten better photos of the cake. The ceremony was at sunset, and the reception was in the evening, so it was too dark, plus, at that point I had shifted my mindset into my Best Man role, and I was focused on my speech and spending time with my nieces and nephew (and the bride and groom).

My best man’s speech was a hit! Look at the applause!

Baked Goods | Birthdays | Cake

How to bake a Cake for a Lover of Macabre

By Julia on 14 April, 2018

Nevermore

It’s my Sister-in-Law’s birthday this month! She loves Crows and Ravens (and birds in general). I wanted to make her a special petite cake to honor her.

I rolled out some black fondant and went to town cutting out feathers. I embossed and shaped each one by hand. After I applied them to the cake I gave them a simple paint job using black shimmery luster dust.

I also dusted the white buttercream once it had crusted. I liked that it gave the appearance of birch bark.

Everyone Enjoyed the Tasty Surprise! Also, the Birthday Girl LOVES Frosting.

Baked Goods | Cake | Easter | Holiday | Spring

Sweet Bunnies and an Even Sweeter Cake

By Julia on 29 March, 2018

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Everything around me is starting the gain new life. Flowers, trees, baby animals! It’s also when we get to celebrate Resurrection Day.

I typically shy away from the adorable bunnies in my baking for Easter. I generally try to focus on the Lamb (and sheep) instead. Last year I baked a precious Carrot Cake with and decorated it like it was a little Lamb.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream

This year, I was enamored with bunny ears and flowers. I wanted to practice my buttercream flower piping skills, so I used cookies as a nice base, and then I also added some bunny ears piped in white chocolate on a non-floral version. I love taking treats into the office to test them out!