Magic – The Ocelots' Den

Lucky 13: The Thrilling Quest for Magical Cookies

By Julia on 9 March, 2020

I have been having a blast designing and creating Thirteen Charms for my March special. Not only is this the month of St. Patrick’s Day, but it’s also the first Friday the 13th of the year! Every day, for the first 13 days of March, I’ll be showcasing each Charm; I turned into a set of cookie-cutters if it doesn’t have you skipping around singing, “Hearts, stars, clovers, horseshoes, and blue moons. Unicorns*, rainbows, and tasty red balloons” I don’t know what else could. 😊

Leprechaun Magic

Lucky the Leprechaun (arguably the most famous Leprechaun) was gifted four magical charms by his dad; the Heart, Star, Clover, and Moon. His job is to spread magic around the world. Lucky is a harmless yet mischievous leprechaun and knows our world could use more than magic.

I hope to help Lucky in his endeavors by spreading more magic by stirring the joy within our nostalgic hearts. Lucky Charms are my favorite cereal. I thought I knew the shapes. I could sing the song. (There have been a couple of iterations because of new charms and discontinued charms). Little did I know how much I would learn about the magical world where Lucky lives!

The Charms

I started out looking at the box of Lucky Charms and the assorted eight charms. I was excited to sketch them and print them in a few different sizes. Then I got to thinking, where is the Pot of Gold? Did the new Unicorn replace it? Then the more I dug, the more I realized I hadn’t eaten much cereal over the last decade. The Pots of Gold were retired in 2008. RIP.

While I miss the pots of Gold, I love the Unicorns. (The Unicorns replaced the Hourglass. If I hadn’t looked it up I wouldn’t have known what that charm was supposed to be 🤷🏼‍♀️). At this point, my brain started whirring. What other charms have I missed out on or forgotten? Then I got to digging.

I remember the release of the rainbows in the 90s. I recalled the crystal balls that melted to reveal Lucky’s hiding location or answer yes or no questions. I ventured deep down the rabbit hole. At this point, I knew I wanted to have a dozen cookies. I scoured some Wiki fan pages devoted to the “Magically Delicious” cereal to search for hidden gems that I may not have recalled. I also thought about including the cereal shapes, but I felt committed to the marshmallow charms.

Decision Time

By the end of all of my research, I decided on :

Hearts
Shooting Stars
Clovers
Leprechaun Hats
Horseshoes
Blue Moons
Pots of Gold
Hourglasses
Unicorns
Rainbows
Tasty Red Balloons
?

I hemmed and hawed over how to fill the 12th spot. The original 4 Charms were Pink Hearts, Orange 6-Sided Stars, Green Clovers, and Yellow Moons. So maybe I should include the original star? Then I thought about the Blue Diamond. It was the first new Charm! I was also ~~mildly~~ obsessed with the Whales from ’86, but were they too obscure?

I reached out to my R&D team, aka my two best gals at work, and took a survey. One agreed that the Whales would be trendy in general (whether they were in the Charms collection or not). My other gal was immediately hooked on the Blue Diamonds (because they are blue). Also, there were lots of questions surrounding the 6-sided stars. Were they Stars of David? (I’m not the creator of Lucky Charms. I have no answers to these kinds of questions. My only thought is they are perfectly symmetrical). Though I could use them in a Channukah Collection as well… (and I love cookie-cutters with more than one purpose).

With the resounding response (*cough* one strong vote) for the Blue Diamond, I was all set. Yet, my heart still longed for the Whale. I connected with the Whale. I was born in ’86, and I love how ~~random~~ quirky this Whale is. So I decided to have both. I would have 13.

An Ocelot’s Dozen: The Lucky 13

Thirteen has been my favorite number as long as I can remember. I like spooky movies, I don’t believe in superstitions, and I felt like the number 13 got a bad wrap (just like black cats). I enjoyed being playful on Friday the 13th, walking under ladders, playing with all cats that may cross my path, because Friday the 13th was just another day. It took the fear out of it and turned it into something wildly fun!

I frequently have an extra cookie or two that I add to orders (gratis). I always bake a few extra in case there is an icing mishap, oven mishap, and of course, I need some for tasting! So an Ocelot’s Dozen is anywhere from 13-15.

As fortune has it, this Friday is Friday the 13th! If you need to double your luck, add charms to ward off your superstitions, or just have some extra fun this month, you can always order some of the Lucky 13! You may never catch Lucky the Leprechaun, but I’ll be taking orders all month!

Hearts
Shooting Stars
Clovers
Leprechaun Hats
Horseshoes
Blue Moons
Pots of Gold
Hourglasses
Unicorns
Rainbows
Tasty Red Balloons
Diamonds
Swirled Whales

Charming Cookie-Cutters

I sketched, designed, and 3D printed five sizes of each Charm. The options are as follows: Tiny Bites, Extra Small (XS), Small, Medium, and Large. If you are trying to compute the math, it’s 65 Cookie-Cutters. The printing time for each cookie cutter ranged from 1 – 4 hour(s). (It took me a couple of weeks to print them all).

As I was making a set of balloons for a co-worker’s baby’s 1st birthday (because the baby loves balloons), I accidentally started making them in a Rainbow Brite-style rainbow. Then I HAD to make a full set in the same Rainbow (even though I ended up gifting a small set in the colors of the Parents’ Alma Mater).

Cookie Time

Once the cookie-cutters finished printing, it was time to start baking test cookies! Yum!

Here is the collection of Shooting Stars! The Tiny bites are the perfect 1-2 bite cookie! (Tiny Bites, Extra Small (XS), Small, Medium, and Large)

Tiny Bites

I was pleased as punch when a full collection of 13 fit in my skinny cookie sleeve!

Extra Small (XS)

Eight XS cookies fit in the same sleeve! Which also felt like serendipity! (As for many years there have been eight charms packed in our cereal).

Small

The small cookies also come in packs of eight!

Medium

The medium cookies come in packs of 2! (You can choose!) Some of my suggested pairings are:

Shooting Star & Moon
Rainbow & Pot of Gold
Unicorn & Horseshoe
Clover & Leprechaun Hat
Unicorn & Rainbow

Large

Large cookies are available in single packs!

St.-Paddys-Menu

Finding the Leprechaun!

I stared at my cookie-cutters for days and days as they were printing and while I was baking. I kept getting the Unicorns turned around, so where I couldn’t tell what shape they were! One day, as this happened, I noticed my Pot of Gold had a funny resemblance to a curly beard! So I was inspired to make a Leprechaun! (Remember that love of turning Cookie-Cutters into multiple designs!)

Lucky Charms Treats!

Back by popular demand are Lucky Charms Treats! (Like Rice Cereal Treats, but made with Lucky Charms). I made them last year for St. Patrick’s Day, and they were such a hit that people started asking me about them in early February! This year, I’ll be offering a chocolate drizzled option as well as the plain (which is anything other than plain)!

These gooey treats are filled with homemade vanilla marshmallows!

Also, Gluten-Free Friends, did you know that Lucky Charms are GF? They are made from oats (and triple sifted to ensure they leave no traces of any gluten). I’ve never really thought about what they are made of, just that they are “magically delicious!”

Baked Goods | Birthdays | Cake | Cookies | Holiday

A Magical Birthday

By Julia on 20 January, 2020

One of my sweet nephews turned seven recently. He has just started reading “Harry Potter” and was able to watch “The Chamber of Secrets” this week! I have been waiting on pins and needles for one of my nieces and/ or nephews to get hooked so that I can share the magic with them.

I asked him before Christmas what kind of cake he would like. I had planned on making fun sorting hat cupcakes. He was precise with his request, and it quickly changed my course. ‘I’d like a vanilla cake, I guess, with strawberries. So it tastes fresh. Sometimes (I think) cake is just so sweet.’

While I had my heart initially set on the sorting hat cupcakes, it was much better to prepare something exactly as he wanted it. I would find something else to create a magical element. (Besides, he’s only seven, he isn’t old enough to be sorted yet. #hufflepuffforlife). I even practiced by attempting to mold a tootsie roll into a sorting hat at lunch one day. Some of my friends and family immediately knew it was the sorting hat. Not everyone was convinced. They may or may not have thought it looked like Poo. So I made a poop Emoji out of another tootsie roll.

When I recovered from the fixation on the cupcakes, I realized I needed to make this as a whole cake instead. I wanted to bake my nephew some custom cookies in a wizard-like font to top his extraordinary cake.

I designed five cookie-cutters to spell out his name and capture his new age! There were some trials and errors in the designs. I cursed myself several times because I kept forgetting that you have to mirror numbers and letters to have them cut properly. It doesn’t matter for symmetrical letters, but in strange fonts, even a capital “A” is noticeable when printed backward. (Oops!)

Next came the cake itself. When I think of Vanilla cake and strawberries, I immediately imagine strawberry shortcakes. Especially the shortcakes in the grocery store that look like little fruit cups. (I have a basket weave shortcake pan, but I wasn’t sure that was the right call for a seventh birthday party). Instead, I baked a cake that would taste similar, and I planned to layer in the strawberries like a giant shortcake.

I baked the cake in two layers. (I should have baked it in three-layers instead of cutting the cake, it would have baked faster, but I only have two pans 10-inch pans). Due to the birthday boy’s aversion to overly sweet cake, I opted to use a thick whipped cream in lieu of a traditional frosting. I sliced and macerated the strawberries with some fresh lemon juice and a light dusting of sugar. I let the berries hang out while I sliced the cake and whipped the cream. Waiting allowed the juices to come out of the fruit and make a lovely light syrup for the cake.

With a cool cake, sliced and ready, I piped a dam of whipped cream around the edge of the cake. Next, I used a silicone basting brush and spread some of the excess strawberry syrup on the cake, followed by filling in the whipped cream and topping it with the sliced strawberries. I repeated this X3.

At the top of the cake, I used a large star tip to pipe the thick cream over the whole surface. I reserved 7 of the most beautiful strawberries to adorn the top of the cake. I hulled them and filled the void with some more whipped cream.

Earlier in the morning, I baked the sugar cookies for the cake. When they were cool, I sprayed them with edible gold paint and inserted some toothpicks in their base.

The birthday boy was coming over for a seafood feast (at his request), so I made a few other treats to compliment the cake and bring more magic into the day. I used a frog mold to make some fruit gummies and some chocolate frogs. The gummy frogs turned out great. (They felt like frogs). The chocolate frogs had very delicate front legs. Only one survived, but they were still tasty, and everyone enjoyed them.

We also had some divination butterbeer. (Add a drop of food color in the bottom of a glass under some ice and pour over your beverage for a colorful surprise).

I also sent them home with a dozen cookies I stamped with some cookies presses I got for Christmas. The impressions weren’t as crisp as I had anticipated (because of the fine details). It was a completely magical afternoon!

Hogwarts
Gryffindor
Ravenclaw
Slytherin
Hufflepuff