The "Real" Cookies...

I made practice cookies the other day, and it's a good thing I did, because the real cookies turned out well! If I hadn't practiced, the princesses would have turned out like my practice princesses (which were too awful to photograph!), and instead they turned out like this:

There were SPARKLY wands, too!

And crowns! Don't forget the crowns!

I am convinced I could do better at decorating cookies, but that would take more practice and time and, well, I have other things to do. So I'll just be glad these turned out like they did and enjoy the fact that Eliana got to celebrate her 4th birthday with SPARKLY, GLITTERY cookies!!

Before and After... A Birthday Cake

Back in October, I got Eliana's birthday supplies, including a Wilton Crown cake pan. Now, I've never made a shaped cake before, and I haven't even really made cake since Ellie was born, since I'm a big fan of the cupcakes. This year, though, I gave it a try. Here's the before:

(I even cut a cardboard platter and covered it in foil to hold the cake! I was proud of myself for that one...)

And here's the after...

I'm pretty pleased with how the final cake turned out, but for a while there I was really concerned! I made my first try at quick pour fondant, and it was definitely a FAIL! It started to pour fine, but cooled and hardened much quicker than I expected, and ended up being a sticky, lumpy mess on the top of the cake! ACK! Fortunately, it was still malleable enough that I could kind of push it across the cake and cut around the edges and then make a batch of color flow frosting to fill over top and hide it. Whew! It was a close one. Now we'll see how bad it is when I actually cut into the cake tomorrow morning! Ha!

Practice...

We've got a 4 year old princess birthday party coming up at our house in a week, so the preparations are under way. Part of the prep work includes making sugar cookies, so I did that the other day. Not trusting my rusty color fill technique, I decided to make a few practice cookies with the rejects that were slightly dark. They didn't all turn out great, but I was really excited to see how well the crowns and stars did! The princesses didn't get photographed, because they needed a lot more practice! The good news is that these turned out not only pretty, but tasty, too!

Celebrate!

With 4th of July approaching, I took a few moments to make some celebratory cards. I used one of the Scenic Route strip papers that I love so much and one of my Cuttlebug dies, and whipped up a few cards in a matter of minutes! I love how having the right tools makes for quick cards!