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Cookie & Cupcake Bouquet with a Traveling Theme

April 26, 2010 by kim 12 Comments

One of my good friends, Robin, wanted to surprise her mom for her birthday and asked for a little help. Robin’s currently living in Europe for school/work, so she asked me to do a cookie bouquet to deliver to her mom on her birthday. Isn’t that sweet? Her idea was to make a bouquet that represents all of the places her mom visited this past year– the rest was up for grabs.

While strolling around my local crafts store for the supplies, I stumbled across an airplane cookie cutter and knew it was perfect for the bouquet. Although, it did look like a fish without any decoration. It was hard trying to figure out how to decorate it so you could tell it was a plane.

That’s the one I was the most proud of. All done with a toothpick because my piping bag was NOT cooperating that night. I need to invest in a good quality one.

Then, once the cookies are dry, I wrapped them up individually.
Next, I assembled it all together. This particular bouquet had cupcake pops and decorated sugar cookies. I’m really sad that my American flag stripes were droopy. I decorated it while holding it perpendicular to the floor because it was easier to make stripes that way and gravity kinda took over. Ugh. I did this bouquet at 4:30AM in the morning, so I didn’t have time to make another batch of cookies and start again. 🙁


And there you go! There’s the completed product. I included a personalized note from Robin, too, and tied it all together with some ribbon. I liked the idea of leaving the bag opened for this one, kind of like a bouquet of roses. For the recipe, I used my no fail sugar cookie recipe with royal icing, as posted before here.

Robin’s dad was in on the surprise and waited for my arrival so I wouldn’t have to ring the doorbell. I walked in and the birthday girl was SO surprised! Best part ever was that it was the perfect timing— Robin was actually skyping (video chatting) with her mom, so Robin witnessed the whole delivery and surprise. I gotta say, there’s nothing better than seeing someone’s face light up!

Note to self: Do not take a 4 dozen cookie order and a bouquet order on the same night that a 2,000 word essay is due. You’ll become nocturnal. (totally worth it to see those smiles, though!)

As for the Martha Stewart status, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone that has donated! Keep an eye on the mail and the one marked from “kim” isn’t spam, so don’t throw it out! It’s a little thank you for your kindness. I’ve gotten $160 from donations, which is AMAZING! Not quite enough for a plane ticket, but with the cookie delivery fundraiser that I’m doing tomorrow night (ahhh i have to bake 24 DOZEN cookies tonight..), it’s enough to make my trip come true! Everything’s been booked and I cannot be any more excited. Actually, I lied, I can. My boyfriend is coming with me since I was able to bring a guest to the show! He’s never been to NY so his excuse for going is to celebrate our 2 year anniversary.

And WHOA MAMA, who knew there were so many haters? They even followed me over to my formspring to ask their nasty questions. All I gotta say is, please, for everyone’s sake, eat a cookie or two. There’s no reason why anyone should be so miserable.. especially on a food blog! Can’t we all just hold hands and sing Kumbaya?

Thanks to everyone else for the support! Seriously. I’ve never felt so much love from my fellow blog readers.

The Darling Foodie
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Filed Under: chocolate chip, cookies, craft, cupcake, dessert

Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies

May 6, 2009 by kim 20 Comments



Is it just me or has time been FLYING lately? We’re already in 6th week! Goodness! Where does the time go? I graduate in 37 days!!! I just bought my cap and gown last week and my senioritis has officially kicked in… who am I kidding, I’ve had a bad case of senioritis ever since freshman year. My schedule has been so busy lately with midterm after midterm, baking & mailing out cookies, making my grad invites (see below), and spring cleaning! I actually got my boyfriend to vacuum and clean the bathroom today, which is probably one of my biggest accomplishments of my life. Haha.

Speaking of my boyfriend, his birthday just passed two days ago and I had the hardest time figuring out what to get him. I couldn’t bake him anything because he’s dieting (ridiculous, I know.. it’s like I’m dating a girl. Shhhh don’t tell him I said that) and he already has everything that he wants! I was going to buy him a Gucci wallet but then he wouldn’t appreciate it nearly as much as I would since he doesn’t know anything about brand names and can care less for them. He actually thinks it’s ridiculous, but of course being the girl that I am, I tend to differ. I have this die hard love for Chanel and have made quite the collection in the past couple of years. I long for the Chanel Cerf Tote and the Chanel Medallion Tote, which I think I’ll be selling a purse to get soon. Basically… he’ll never understand why I pay so much for a purse when I can get a decent working purse for less than ten bucks. Honestly, I have no idea either… all I know is that it makes me so gosh darn happy.

I ended up buying him some RVCA t shirts and shorts, and a button up t shirt. He needs to update his wardrobe and he hates shopping… so it all worked out nicely. I then took him to a restaurant called Buenos Aires Grill for dinner and it was delicious! One of the best salmon and sauteed vegetables plates that I’ve had (he had the rib eye steak with creamed spinach.. we’re big on our meat, can you tell?). I’m getting hungry just talking about it. Moving on…

This is actually one of the cookies I made to mail out this month, along with two others. This is my favorite cookie– it’s hard to eat just one! The cookie is not too sweet or too chocolatey; they’re soft and crumbly with the perfect amont of sweetness. I’m an avid fan of mint chocolate, so you should definitely give this recipe a try if you are, too! I’ve made this recipe before on my blog, found HERE. However, they were posted a million years ago and I didn’t post recipes back then. So here it is!

  • 3/4 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (2 cups)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups AP flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • Andes mints candies, broken in half
  1. Heat oven to 350°F.
  2. Over low heat, combine butter, sugar and water. Heat until melted and add chocolate chips until partly melted. Remove from heat and stir. Pour into large mixing bowl. Let stand 10 minutes to cool slightly.
  3. Beat in eggs one at a time on high speed. Reduce mixer to low speed and add flour, salt and baking soda. Beat until well-blended.
  4. Chill one hour.
  5. Roll into balls, place two inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes.
  6. Place an Andes Mint half on top after taking them out from the oven. Allow to melt slightly and spread with a spoon.

I took a lot of time making/decorating my graduation invitations because I’m a grandma like that and love scrapbooking & stationary. It’s also way cheaper than buying announcements from the school.. I mean, $40 for 25 cards?! I would’ve needed 50, spending $80 total just on cards… and they’re not even pretty! They’re actually pretty bland… so no, thank you. I’d much rather make my own since they’re more personalized and unique that way. I just had to share with you how they turned out!

This is how it looked all put together, how it would look when taking it out of the envelope:

take off the band and it slowly opens up…

there’s the invitation placed inside!

and voi-la! my invite. 🙂 (don’t mind the blur, I took out my personal info)

It’s so close I can feel it!

Filed Under: candy, chocolate chip, cookies, craft, dessert, scrapbooking

Chocolate Chip Toffee Walnut Cookies

February 19, 2009 by kim 8 Comments

I baked a bunch for my boyfriend’s niece’s birthday party on Sunday, and these were one of the treats that I brought. They were delightful and turned out perfect! The adults loved them more than the kids, though (probably because of the walnuts). I think the combination of toffee and anything always turn out good, so you can’t go wrong with this recipe. These cookies are thick, chewy, and sturdy. I imagine that they’d be perfect for shipping across the states to someone, for they stack up well upon one another and can handle a lot of moving without breaking.

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup toffee bits
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips, toffee bits and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
————————————————————
Now, my boyfriend’s niece had a princess birthday party and absolutely LOVES all the Disney princesses. She was turning 3 this year, and I decided to do something fun and creative for her. I made her her own mini princess purse! At first, I bought a plain mini canvas tote and sketched some of the princesses on it. Hah, whoever knew that a baker was capable of other things than just baking, right?

This is how one side looked like after sketching, all free hand!
And a little bit of paint later…(Yes, I used an eyeliner brush. I find that they make the best paintbrushes and I don’t wear make up, so why not?)

Voila! Finished product of both sides. She loved it! I also got her a huge Disney princess puzzle kit thing.

For the paint, I used a bit of acrylic paint mixed with textile medium, which is really the greatest thing ever invented. That is also the only brand that I use, Ceramcoat. I’ve experimented with a lot of acrylic paints and always come back to that one. Anyways, medium textile turns any acrylic paint into fabric paint. It also saves you money because fabric paint is a lot more expensive to buy than acrylic paint.

If you want to buy a canvas tote bag, you can find one HERE.

Filed Under: candy, chocolate chip, cookies, craft, dessert, nuts

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hi! i'm kim-- a girl mom, baker, blogger, and ex-flight attendant. welcome!

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