Leo the Lion (cookies)

 
So, my sister, Molly, recently had her third baby. Her third boy, I might add.  Her third boy, all of whom are ages 4 and under.

{I'm not a psychic, but I see lots of Legos and Hot Wheels in her future.}

Meet Leo...

{I know, right?  Not only is he beautiful, he's the sweetest baby ever.}

These cookies were really heavily influenced my i am baker's lion cookies.  (Amanda uses a glaze icing on her cookies and they have *the prettiest* shine, don't they?}

Want to make them?  You'll need:

• circle cookies
• royal icing in AmeriColor Egg Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Deep Pink and Super Black
• decorating tips in #1 and #2
• disposable icing bags
• toothpicks
• squeeze bottles
• AmeriColor Gourmet Writer, black
• a baby named Leo ♥

 
Sketch it out first, if you want.  I usually do.  And I make a note of whether I need colors to outline (O) or fill (F).

 
OK, let's get decorating.  Pipe a circle in the darker color with a #2 tip.


Add ears.


With a toothpick, scrape away the separation between the ears and the face.


Outline the mane.

Thin the two yellows with water until they are the consistency of thick syrup.  Cover with a damp dish towel and let sit for several minutes.

Stir gently with a rubber spatula and pour into squeeze bottles.


Fill in the mane with darker yellow.


Fill in the face with lighter yellow.


Drop on darker dots for the ears on the wet icing.

Let the cookies sit at least one hour.


Using a #1 tip, add the whiskers, eyes and mouth in black icing.  Add the nose in pink.

Let the cookies dry overnight.


The next day, add little dots on the face with a black food coloring pen.


{PS....whenever I think of lions, I think of Mr. TidyMom.  He let me bottle feed a LION, y'all.  And the lion's name?  Leo.}

Welcome to the world, sweet Leo!  We love you!

Blinded by June

Q.

This past summer, I developed a love for gardening. It's so wonderful to put a seed into the ground, watch it grow and see it flower -- it's tangible and fulfilling. As I did my planting, weeding and watering, I noticed June bugs flying around in the warm summer air. They flew around erratically, plowing into every hard surface in the surrounding area. It made me wonder: Are June bugs blind?

A:

June bugs are part of the beetle family (Phyllophaga sp.) and has two sets of wings. The top set is part of the beetle's exoskeleton, which serves to protect its body, the second set of wings are for flight. As the top wings are heavy, they throw the beetle off balance, making them clumsy fliers. The June bug has poor vision and has an attraction to light. Therefore, June bugs are not blind, just visually impaired, with poor coordination.

Source:

Answers.com - Why do June bugs crash into things?

Frosted (JUMBO) Animal Cookies

{image from Mother's cookies}

When my friend, Teresa, from Blooming on Bainbridge mentioned that she loves Frosted Animal Cookies, a little light bulb went off in my head. 
{PS...if you've never visited Teresa's blog, go now...they say Disney World is the happiest place on earth; they're wrong.  It's Teresa's blog.}

Why not make my own *larger* version of them?

See, I love Mother's Frosted Animal Cookies.  When kiddo was a toddler, I lived on a diet of Mother's Frosted Animal Cookies and Vanilla Coke.  Then I weaned myself off of them and started my current diet of Starbucks Pumpkin Bread and Iced Decaf Vanilla Lattes.  Much healthier.

I didn't have all of the correct shapes for the cookies; I did have an elephant cutter, but the rest, well...I improvised.

We have frosted animal bunnies, ducks, giraffes....

....and the all-important frosted animal stegosaurus.

For the flavor, I wanted to be authentic. So, I checked a bag of Mother's Cookies to see what flavor they used to make them so delicious.  Vanilla? Almond? Lemon? Butter?  Turns out, what makes them so delicious is just plain ol' sugar. I couldn't find any flavoring in the ingredients whatsoever.

Or maybe it's the sprinkles.

So here is my not-so-authentic version:


Lemon Cut-Out Cookies

3 c. unbleached flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. sugar
2 sticks salted butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
3/4 tsp. grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.  Set aside.

With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and cold butter until fluffy.  Add in the egg, vanilla, lemon juice and zest.  Beat until combined.

On low speed, add in the flour mixture in 3 additions.  Scrape the bottom of the bowl as necessary.  Knead together the dough as needed by hand as it will be very stiff.

Roll out on a floured surface and cut into shapes about 3/8 to 1/4" thick.  Place on parchment lined sheets.  Freeze 5-10 minutes on the sheets before placing in the oven (this will help prevent cookies from spreading).

Bake 9-12 minutes, depending on cookie cutter size.  Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Lemon Royal Icing

4 TBSP meringue powder
scant 1/2 c. water
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp light corn syrup
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy.

Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine.

Add in the corn syrup and lemon juice

Increase speed to med-high and beat for about 5-10 minutes, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form. (You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) Do not overbeat.
 
Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing or divide and color using gel paste food colorings. (I used AmeriColor Gel Paste Food Color in Bright White and Deep Pink.)

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Remember last week when I visited my friend Cheryl from TidyMom? She wrote a great post about our visit.  Even though it was our first time to meet, I felt like I had known her for AGES!  We talked from the second I stepped off the plane until the second she dropped me back off at the airport.

Cheryl is just what she is on her blog....fun, funny, creative, smart, beautiful...I'm so  thrilled to be her friend.  She also has an adorable husband and 2 beautiful girls! (AND, her cupcakes are delicious!)

Oh yeah, I also bottle fed a 750-pound lion.

If you have a bloggy friend, I highly recommend making the effort to get together in REAL LIFE!

Ewe Tube

I'm not sure what got into me.  I saw this cartoon on a card at Target:

...and thought, "that needs to be a cookie!"

Maybe it's the videos at University of Cookie.....or the vlog post for TLC.....maybe it's just 13 years of being married to Mr. E, Pun Master. 

I hope you'll forgive me!

Here they are on You Tube learning about cookie decorating....

...and making new friends...

...and now ready for their close up on Ewe Tube.

I'm sorry. Truly.

{Can you think of any more pun cookie ideas?  I think facebook might be a little creepy.}

The Fish Produced by Welch's

Further to the questions spawned by my Central American vacation; I had a look at a jellyfish, this got me thinking. I know that jellyfish are invertebrates and are completely see-through, but how do they know what to do to survive? So, today’s question is: do jellyfish have brains?

A:
Jellyfish do not have a brain or a central nervous system, yet they function on an elementary nerve net. They have limited control of movement and generally are pushed along with the ocean currents, however can propel themselves through contractions of their body. Jellyfish eat by collecting small fish, plankton and microbial organisms as they swim; they use their tentacles to sweep food into their mouths.

Sources:

How Stuff Works: Jellyfish

Wikipedia: Jellyfish

Coral coloured Coral

Part of the reason that I have fallen so behind on writing and researching is because I went on holiday to Belize. I stayed in San Pedro – that’s right, Madonna’s La Isla Bonita! – and it was the most beautiful piece of paradise that I have ever seen. I snorkelled for the first time while there, and experienced the wondrous world under the sea. This spawned new questions. Today’s question is: what is coral bleaching?

A:
Coral bleaching is the whitening of corals due to stress. The skeletal structure of corals are white, but are usually covered with tiny plants called zooxanthellae algae, which provides colouration. The algae are photosynthetic and provide nutrients to the coral’s soft tissue.

If rate of photosynthetic production is too high, the coral will begin to expel some of the algae on its own, this is still considered bleaching. However, when corals experience stress on their environment, more zooxanthellae is expelled than normal, exposing the skeletal structure. Coral reefs can recover from bleaching, however it can take months to build up the same amount of algae and sometimes there is no recovery and whole reefs die off.

There are a number of triggers including: increased water temperatures, increased UV rays, changes in ocean current, increased sedimentation and low tide/wind exposure.

Thankfully, the reef in Belize has been well preserved and has not experienced extensive bleaching. Belize is very eco-friendly and provide all tourists with precise instruction on how to ensure that their reefs and marine life stay healthy.

Sources:
About.com: Coral Bleaching
Wikipedia: Coral Bleaching

Pony Party

I know, I know, the Kentucky Derby is over. I still had to post them because...

a. I promised a few twitter friends that I would (I could never deny my twitter friends!), and
b. don't you think they would be cute for a birthday party?

My dad belongs to a group that holds a Kentucky Derby fundraiser each year. (You can read more about it in this post...it's a great event.) This is the 3rd year (or 4th?) they've ordered cookies for the event...and for the week prior to the Derby, our house is covered in horsies.

To make some ponies of your very own:

• In royal icing, outline the "saddle" in the color of your choice with a #2 tip.
• With another #2 tip, outline the shape of the horse in brown (AmeriColor Chocolate Brown).
• Thin a contrasting color royal icing and the brown to the consistency of maple syrup; let sit several minutes covered with a damp dish towel. (Details on how to thin royal icing are here.)
• Run a rubber spatula gently through the icing to pop any large air bubbles and transfer to a squeeze bottle.

• Fill in the saddle area, using a toothpick to guide into corners.
• Fill in the horse in brown, using a toothpick to guide into corners.
• Let sit at least one hour.

{You can see I've lost my natural light from the pictures...sometimes decorating cookies is an all day, or multi day, project.}

• With a #2 tip, add the detailing in the contrasting color and go back over the outline of the saddle.
• With a #2 tip, add the mane, eye, tail and hooves to the horse.

• Let dry overnight.

Giddy up!

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There is a new video over at University of Cookie! Renee of Kudos Kookies shows the basics of PAINTING on cookies. It is very cool and a whole new way to decorate cookies. Be sure to check it out!

For BEEing sweet. . .

This summer we adopted two kittens from the animal shelter. Want to see them?

{That's Spike on the left and Bluebell on the right. This is the day after we adopted them.}

Yes, they are adorable, but they also came home from the shelter quite sick. (They looked fine to us.) Let's just say, we've gotten to know our vet quite well over the last two months. I won't go into all of the gory details...and they are fine now...but I will tell you, one almost died and the other developed a nasty eye infection and had to have an eye removed. (OK...I went into the gory details.)

So, you can see why we've come to love our vet and the staff at the clinic. They've taken such good care of our little ones and I wanted to make them some cookies.

But, what to make for a vet's office? Do they really want to EAT a cat or dog cookie? It seems wrong. Hearts, too personal. Paw prints, not special enough.

Here's what we came up with...bees!

{The inspiration for these comes from an old Martha Stewart Kids magazine....best magazine there ever was!}

Yes, I enclosed a goofy note saying, "Thank you for BEEing sweet to Spike & Bluebell." :)