Sprinkle Bakes: Blue Velvet Cupcakes and Finding the Perfect Hue

Sprinkle Bakes: Blue Velvet Cupcakes and Finding the Perfect Hue

Did I say how much I enjoy playing in my kitchen when not in the studio? Well, actually it IS like another studio for me. Only my palette is food and my canvas is whatever comes out of the oven.

One activity I am addicted to is cruising food blogs. Just looking at the gorgeous photos as I read the recipes already has my tummy growling and my pen scratching out the ingredients list. Now that winter has finally come to Tucson I am motivated to turn on my oven to unwind from the day. Summer it's just not happening - I mean seriously, who feels like baking when it't 90º outside? Obviously, not me...

I am sharing this beautiful recipe from a favorite food blogger Sprinklebakes because I LOVE the color and it's actually pretty easy. Like making Red Velvet cake, but in blue. Adding few teaspoons of water to the color paste makes for smoother mixing into the batter though.
Check out Heather's blog for more tasty treats!

Beautiful Leaves

Fall,  my favorite time of year. Cooler days and crisp nights perk me up after the summer heat.  It motivates me and for some reason, I need less sleep!  Instead there are more late nights in the studio.
This year I want to get out more instead of getting caught up in the usual hustle of pre-holiday designing and gearing up. It would be great to Enjoy my favorite season so I am resolved to get out of my studio, off the design computer and touch the lovely trees.
I do miss the gorgeous fall colors. When I visit my parents their streets are lined with a kaleidoscope of fiery reds, rich yellows, golden oranges. Makes me want to jump in the leaves and toss them in the air!

I have created a fall gift box to help scratch that itch and will also Try to get a couple of paintings in of fall leaves.  These sugar cookies are light and crisp in texture and taste, decorated with sparkling sugar crystals. They will look pretty on any table.
I wanted to create a porcelain botanical painting of leaves to go with this set, but might be running out of time :~( .   If only I didn't need sleep - I'd rather be in the studio!
A porcelain painting of a kit fox and a couple of others coming soon...

Fall Holiday Sugar Cookie Gift Set

Love Conquers All

Love really does conquer all. Love and respect for yourself first - who you are, what you do. Then you have love to give to others from a good, kind generous place. Piglet is so cute and I am going to write names and other sentiments like Siempre, Amore, U R ..., etc. Or the word love in different languages. Red little Kitty speaks for herself! I am enjoying baking these almost too much - they are addicting right now!

Purrrr! Happy Friday

Happy Friday - sending gratitude and love to all who have supported me!

Still baking and I realized this morning that the cookies are a way to de-stress. Another canvas that is a comfort.

Moonlight Delights

More cookie designs finished. Each sugar cookie is individually handmade making for a unique edible little work of art that I initial a signature at the bottom. Before packaging the some of cookies are backed with dark Girhidelli chocolate for an extra gourmet touch. The shelf life of these Artisan cookies is easily ten days. A perfect gift that I have given to family, friends and clients since 1988, many kept their cookies for weeks, claiming they were too pretty to eat and reported that they tasted "wonderful". Currently I am experimenting with sealing individual cookies in an air vacuum packages like the Seal-A-Meal concept. For now they are still individually sealed in zip lock bags as soon as the icing is dry. They give me great pleasure to make - obviously since I am still baking and the Christmas holidays are past!

Valentines and Easter will be my testing time to find out if people want to buy my tasty, edible art!

Moonlight Cookie Mania

Still making my lovely sugar cookies. It's a winter thing. I enjoy baking on a chilly evening while listening to a book or music. The cookies are another canvas that is relaxing and makes me happy. I have about 70 vintage molds and will eventually catalog all of them for a new site on Etsy so stay tuned! The key is to give my "photo models" to friends so I don't eat them!

I will be having a Valentines cyber studio sale and will be including these mini mosaics in the sale.

The mosaics are about 4" and the cookies range from 3" - 5". Both make very unique specialty gifts.

The cookies are made to order and come wrapped in a clear bag with a ribbon tie. Some are on my Facebook album.

Moonlight Cookies

2012 is of to a great start. I am finally making my specialty cookies to order. Since the late 80's I have been making gourmet art sugar cookies for family, friends and clients as holiday gifts. The sugar cookies are made from vintage molds I have collected since the 80's.

When asked to make more my response has been " I don't have time".

This year I just kept baking in the evenings to unwind and now am looking into making them to order.

Last week I asked an aquaintence at a cafe about selling cookies and showed her some of the cookies and she Loved them and said if I want to market my very unique cookies I would first have to get "certified". O.k., so I have to get someone from the county health to come inspect my kitchen and pay a 56.00 fee - yikes!

This week I will find out more about the inspection, possibly get a checklist of what they want etc. Meanwhile cookies are still being made and posted so I have a link with photos to show. So far the cookies are being posted on my Facebook album and this blog. Should I put them up on my website, or have a seperate site/blog ?

Let's see if this idea is worth taking further. Meanwhile the house smells like fresh cookies - Yummm!