White Cookie Xmas Tree and First Snow

Time for snow and white cookie christmas trees ♥ ♥ The pups experienced their first snow ever and the kidlets the first snow this winter, so there was lots of happy screams and boisterous puppies enjoying the whiteness and I tell you as a mom it was just wonderful and magical to watch, instantly the scenery is beautiful when snow hits the ground : )

And the tree... well lets just say it was quite the project... but I am really happy with the end result and I have to say it looks really nice under the star in the window and candles flickering next to it, making the silver sugar pearls glisten : ) The tree idea came from Wilton so there are 20 star cookies covered in royal icing stacked upon each other and decorated with more royal icing using a small star tip and silver sugar pearls attached with edible glue.

Have a Lovely Evening : )

Happy 94th, Finland!! ♥ ♥

Today we are celebrating Finland's 94th Independence Day, so blue & white cookies are on the menu : ) And once again I fell in LOVE with i am baker's glaze icing, it is just so wonderfully shiny and lovely to work with!!

Happy 94th!! ♥ ♥

Cookies for School

Alrighty it is again time for the annual school bazaar and I wanted to participate with some cookies (huge surprise, no? ;D), so been drawing all morning, a very nice start to a wonderful wintery day, sun is up and glistening frost is on the ground, LOVES it ♥ ♥

Have a Sunny day y'all!!

♥ ♥  Christmas Cookies  ♥ ♥

Time for some Christmas cookies ♥ ♥ Christine's Corner is now focusing all it's attention on Christmas cookies: ornaments, trees, wreaths and snowflakes are on the menu!! I guess one has to believe Christmas has again snuck up on us and is around the Corner ; ) Here at 'cookie headquarters' it's all about baking, outlining, flooding, drawing and packing cookies!! Busy but wonderful times I tell you : )

Have a Wonderful day lovelies!!

Happy Father's Day ♥

Today is a very special day, Father's Day, and I miss my Dad to bits!! Wish you were here or I was there, but remember however far apart we are, we share a special bond not one single person can break, LOVE you to the moon and back!! ♥ ♥ ♥

Thankfully today was still made excellent thanks to my "Father-on-loan" : ) and a wonderful evening spent with my near and dear enjoying an excellent dinner!! 

And so you know, everything on the house is edible, it's covered in royal icing whitened with Wilton's White-White and since I am experimenting a bit with my edible ink printer, the roof pic is printed on wafer paper all edible as well, the rest of the decor is drawn with Rainbow Dust's Royal Blue. 

Hope you had a lovely Father's Day today : )

  

Cookie Spoons

I got a spoon shaped cookie cutter as a gift recently and since I just absolutely LOVE coffee, OK lets be honest, in a CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT way, I thought how nice wouldn't it be to have just a little something sweet to go with my coffee and that would look nice as well, and there you go; cookie spoons it is!!

I really like them, they make me smile and obviously pose endless possibilities of how to decorate them, and yes I already made one with a Xmas tree on it but I ate it immediately so as not to leave any proof that I start Xmas too early around here... ;D But can't you just imagine a hot cup of spicy glühwein and a Xmas tree decorated cookie spoon to go with it?? Well I can.... YUM!!

And I am really happy to say I decorated these this morning and lo and behold out of the blue I was asked to have them ready by the afternoon so in a box and off they went, I really hope the recipient likes them as much as I do : )

Have a Wonderful Autumn Evening ♥

Halloween Hilariousness

OK, I could try and explain these cookies to you, but I won't, because this just is one of those unexplainable things, I mean how can you explain why you felt it necessary to make Halloween ornaments and Halloween underwear... I mean really... ;D But I will say this much, the recipient of these cookies shares my utterly insane sense of humour and obviously also my love of Xmas, and since I just COULD not decorate Xmas cookies just yet, I opted for "Halloween trees and ornaments".... ; ) It's in the same category as calling my outdoor fairy lights "autumn lights" instead of Xmas lights... Anyway, I had lots of fun making them, because seriously who doesn't smile when they see bats and cats on lin♥gerie... ; )

Good night, sleep tight lovelies, 

Don't let the bed bugs bite.

... And if they do

Then take your shoe

And knock 'em 'til

They're black and blue!

Haunted House

Ok, I have to admit I all of a sudden, got hit by a "I just have to make a Halloween House stat" - lightning bolt, and there you have it ;D Had all kinds of fun making it, it's been a while since I "built" a house, so obviously burned fingers from the hot sugar were involved... But hey, Xmas is here soon so better get my house building up-to-date sooner than later!! Even if it's a "Haunted House" it sure does make me smile every time I look at it, my favourite detail (obviously...) is the chandelier in the back : )

Have a Wonderful Day lovelies!!

Halloween Cookies

Time for some Halloween cookies methinks, and not to seem too morbid but it felt strangely appropriate to decorate R.I.P. cookies today. Have I been thinking of Steve Jobs today? Indeed I have, and since it could not have escaped you how much I just adore Apple products because of their sleek and elegant design and obviously mostly for their superior functionality, it really saddens me that the world has lost one of its innovative geniuses. 

As you all know there are some brilliant quotes and speeches by Mr. Jobs out there, and I leave you with my favourite from his Stanford speech;  

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Christine's Corner Cake
  

Time for some cake methinks ;D I have to tell you I could not find my Wilton tips ANYWHERE, I mean I KNOW they are in my storage in one of the boxes... but thankfully I have dear friends from whom I can borrow some, otherwise this cake would have been "pretty" flat.... ; ) And thankfully my edible image printer works swimmingly and I am really pleased with the result especially on frosting sheets! I haven't made buttercream roses in a while so it took a couple efforts before mastering the rose petal tip but so far so good : )

Have a lovely evening y'all, see you again soon : )

 Birthday Boy ♥

OK, I have to admit images of the strawberry cake I made my youngest for his birthday were continuously haunting me, so today I just HAD to make him a new cake to make up for the one made in haste because of the moving frenzy... Thankfully I had packed my edible ink printer well and I took it out, printed one test pic on rice paper and it was as good as new : ) And I asked youngest what might his favourite image be, and there was no hesitation, the Angry Birds green pig ;D 

This was my first attempt at printing on a frosting sheet with backing, I have previously only printed on rice paper so this was a new experience but the end result was really good!!

I covered the strawberry cake with butter cream and sprayed the top with some water mist before applying the frosting sheet, and it was really easy (might be beginners luck ;D). The print finish is much smoother on the frosting sheet compared to rice paper so it will definetly be my preferred choice at least on cakes, rice paper might work best on cookies though... And then loads of whipped cream all around the cake and hey presto, a more befitting cake for a 7 year old emerged ; )

Off for another swim, see you again soon lovelies!

4th of July

Happy Independence Day y'all!! My brother threw a party for his friends and I made them some chocolate cupcakes as dessert, topped with chocolate buttercream and star sprinkles, they disappeared quickly I understand ; ) Wow, these are actually the first cupcakes I have baked in I don't know how long and OMG the mess in the kitchen was insane but such fun to be back to baking again : )

Hope you had a wonderful day!!

Cupcakes for School

I am sooo sorry my dear blog, I have soooo neglected you lately but I have just been sooooo busy!! But I did have time to make some cupcakes for my eldest' last baking day at school and he wanted some chocolate cupcakes, but he thought these were a bit plain though... ; ) And if you look closely you will see the cupcake wrappers are fit for schools ending for the summer, with their graduation theme : )

Have a Wonderful Evening Lovelies ♥

Happy 1st of May ♥

Here are some cookies I made for my eldest son's Disco at school, themed 1st of May : ) 

The idea for the above birds nest cookies was again from the lovely site of Mansikkamäki : )

Have a Wonderful and Sunny day!! ♥

Birthday Boy : )

Today is a very special day, my son's and my brother's birthday, and the day has been FULL of anticipation, happiness, laughter and LOTS of presents :D Today's theme has been, needless to say, SOCCER ; ) which is obviously why his birthday cake looks like this : ) 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you both!!!

Happy Easter ♥

Ok, time for another school baking day for eldest, and this time I chose an Easter inspired theme. He was happy as long as I didn't make any heart or girlie thingies ;D And I got the greatest idea from the wonderful site of Mansikkamäki and just HAD to make some of those eggs and chicks for my cupcakes :D These are chocolate cupcakes topped with green buttercream, I used "Baka baka liten kaka"'s recipe and it always turns out great!! I used my Wilton grass tip and think it looks pretty fun! The chicks and eggs are candies I decorated with coloured royal icing. A really fun project again!! :D

Have an Eggcellent Easter!! ♥

Chocolate Macarons

I have been wanting to make macarons FOREVER and finally today, encouraged by my dear friend, I gave it a shot and well lets face it, it wasn't a piece of cake I tell you ; ) My first batch was strawberry flavoured macarons but just didn't like how they looked so I made some chocolate ones as well with a chocolate ganache filling. Obviously this is not a skill one masters at the first try but I am pretty pleased with how they turned out and how they taste. So now I will not rest before I have made them in all kinds of different colours and flavours and perfected how they look ; ) But so far so good!!

Ooh La Laa!

These are hands down my new favorite cookies, LOVES them!! The only thought I had when I made them was, why on earth hadn't I thought of this before ;D Had SO much fun making them and decorating them!! An excellent way to get giggles out of everyone with some cheeky underwear cookies :D These were made for an excellent dinner party yesterday were we celebrated two birthdays, one of which was my brother's, who has his actual birthday today, so....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO!!!

xoxo, Sis

White Ruffle Cake

Ok, lets start by honestly saying this was supposed to be a flower cake, like this one or this one, but well, that didn't happen ; ) And I am not entirely sure this fills the requirement to be called a ruffle cake either..... But I have to say I LOVE this one, there is something wonderfully delicate about it, even if I can tell you I have NEVER used this much buttercream on a cake, EVER ;D But there is one HUGE problem, I refuse to cut into it, that is why there is no picture of the lemony insides yet because I just don't have the heart to do it after all that piping ; ) But I have promised my little kidlets that we will eat it today, so we will see I might have to cave in.........

Have a Lovely Afternoon ♥

UPDATE:

Ok, I have to admit, it actually hurt a bit to cut into this cake ; ) but I'm ok now, very yummy, but having all that buttercream, Ohhh My!! Need a nap, stat. and the kids obviously don't.... Sugar rush anyone... ;D

Letters In Paris

Here are some cookies I made for a dear dear friend of mine, and even if I LOVE making all kinds of crazy cookie designs, my true favorites are the ones that are done in a "less is more"- fashion : )

OK, gotta get back to painting, so catch y'all later!!

Cupcakes & Cookies for School

 

Time for school baking day again for eldest, this time he was NOT too pleased, because mommie dearest in her wall painting frenzy decided what she made ALL on her own... ;D he envisioned cupcakes with monsters etc.. etc.. and well, lets face it, the above hearts and shoes were obviously NOT it..... But his teacher made an excellent point, these cookies would get all the girls to his sales table, obviously at this point he wanted to die and hoped mommie, not so dearest at this point, had already left the building.... ;D  So I did, and lo and behold he sold them all anyway :D

Have an Excellent Day y'all!!

Birthday Princess ♥

Today my eldest goddaughter is celebrating her 10th birthday ♥ So a pink&green cupcake girly theme was in order : )

" Little girls are made of daisies and butterflies

and soft kitty cat purrs

And all the precious memories of times that once were.

Little girls are made of angel's wings and giggles

and a firefly's glow

And all the happy feelings, deep inside, that we all know.

Little girls are made of cinnamon and bubbles

and fancy white pearls

And snowflakes and rainbows and ballerina twirls.

Little girls are made of sunshine and cupcakes

and fresh morning dew,

And these are the reasons, little one, why everyone loves you."

- Karen Barnes -

Birthday Girl ♥

My youngest goddaughter celebrated her 3rd birthday this weekend, and I wanted to surprise her with a little birthday house and some cookies with herself on them, cuteness overload ♥

" There's magic in a little girl,

In shining eyes and tossing curl,

In winsome smile and dimpled cheeks

And music when she laughs or speaks

There's magic in a little girl, it's true

Best wishes to your little girl and you. "

Cookies for the Office

Here are some Angry Birds cookies I made for my brother to take to The Office today, if y'all use your imagination just a bit you can probably figure out which office that is... ;D Obviously they are Valentine's Day themed, due to the new Seasons update coming today...  Photo copyright belongs to Rovio Mobile.

Cookies for School

Alrighty, eldest came home one day and told me "Mom, I have informed my teacher that I will be making Angry Birds cookies to sell at school baking day!" (Read: "I will obviously not be making them Mom, you will....") Well, y'all probably already realised this family is a huge fan of said game and birds, so obviously this was a challenge I was up for ;D

I asked permission to use Angry Birds pictures on my cookies and happily my wish was granted, photo copyright belongs to Rovio Mobile, many thanks to my dear brother for making that happen. These images are obviously edible... ;D

Some cookies I drew by hand, and well.... at least they look angry methinks... and the fish, I have NO idea why they are there... and that's all I'm going to say about these cookies..... ;D

I  threw in a few wintery cookies as well, just in case not everybody wanted Angry Birds cookies, needless to say, next time I can definetly skip the wintery ones and concentrate on the birds instead ;D

Chocolate Birthday Cake

And here it is, the actual birthday cake. This recipe will remain a secret, but I will tell you I have never made a cake with this much 70% dark chocolate in it, EVER! It was pretty dense but that is the essence of a real sachertorte : ) I decorated a cookie to go on top of the cake, with an edible image of the little birthday boy, cute doesn't even begin to describe it ♥ 

Have a Wonderful Evening!!

Chocolate Cake Trial

I was asked by a dear friend of mine to bake a cake for her son's first birthday, and so the hunt for the perfect chocolate cake recipe began. I remembered I had seen a really nicely decorated cake on the wonderful blog of Tove's, Baka baka liten kaka, that I was just dying to try. The cake contains loads and loads of whipped cream and nougat and all kinds of yummy stuff, BUT, it just wasn't what I was after, I realised I am more fond of a dark chocolate sachertorte with apricot jam, even if all that nougat sounded fabulous. So above you see the nougat version with a sugar, cocoa & buttercream frosting, wasn't very fond of the consistency of the fillings, so I opted for another recipe for the actual birthday cake. I did stick with Tove's wonderful idea of using nougat wafer rolls as a border and a ribbon to tie it together, will post pics of the actual cake in a bit.

See you soon!! 

Birthday Boy ♥

Today is a special day, my godson's 1st birthday :D And I sooo felt the little prince needed a blue little birthday house of his own, and obviously some cookies to match ♥

" A year's gone by,

How time has flown,

We can't believe

How Noa's grown!

He's such a joy

And so much fun,

Oh my! Noa's 

Turning One! "

Red Damask Cupcakes

Long time no see! Well, obviously not... ;D I just had to decorate a few more... got a bit hooked on this new rose tip technique and practice is the only thing that makes perfect! This time I coloured the buttercream with Wilton's Christmas Red. I really love the wrappers, there just is that certain something about damask, don't you think!? And it doesn't all have to be black now does it... ;D

Have an Enjoyable Evening!!

Valentine's Cupcakes

Today was supposed to be all about cleaning but lo and behold that didn't happen... main focus was on baking, this time cupcakes, can you imagine? ;D Anyway,  I most oftenly use my trusted Staedter star tip for decorating cupcakes, but today I felt like learning something new, and stumbled upon the above technique, using a rose petal tip instead. I made some buttercream icing according to this recipe I found on the lovely "Baka baka liten kaka" blog. I then coloured half the icing with Wilton's Rose icing colour and used a bigger rose petal for the white and a smaller one for the pink icing. I really like the end result even if it took a while to master the use of the rose petal tip but it was sooo worth it : )

As you can imagine this project has not done wonders in the cleaning department, so off I go and do some chores, but got quite an energy boost having eaten all that buttercream frosting...

See you again soon. Xoxo Christine's Corner

(ok got to admit Gossip Girl is my guilty pleasure, and just couldn't resist the above ;D)

Doves and Roses

Time to give the blog a more Valentine's Day suitable look ♥ What do you think? I sure think it's nice with a new look for a change : ) Planning all kinds of fun things for Valentine's so be sure you will be seeing lots and lots of reds and pinks and hearts and doves etc. etc. etc. in the coming month :D

Have an Excellent Evening Everybody ♥

Chocolate Cupcakes

And here they are, my new favourite cupcakes, dark chocolate topped with dark chocolate ganache!! Love everything about them, made some that I drizzled the ganache onto, and some mini cupcakes with piped cooled ganache, but these with my gold sprinkle hearts are my favourite : )

Have an Enjoyable Evening!!!

Carrot Cupcakes

Time for some cupcake recipe experiments, first up carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, very nice indeed. Extremely happy with how they turned out, will definetly make these again : ) Next up chocolate cupcakes, be back in a sec....

Angry Birds

I am SOOOO thankful I have kids so that I can do stuff like this and get away with it ;D

Here's a little clip especially for you :D  Enjoy the Madness!!!

 New Year's Cupcakes

I got another wonderful blog update email from i am baker, and just had to try these out :D Loved the idea of sparkly fireworks on my cupcakes!! Some practice is obviously needed, but think they turned out really cute : ) And my sharpest critics, my 3 boys, gave them a thumbs up and that's all I need!!

Excellently Happy New Year 2011!!!