Some call it dessert, I call it a boat!

My Father's 60th Birthday was coming up, so I had to design a memorable dessert that he'd really enjoy... so I made his boat into the topper for his birthday cake! If you've read my posts on making shoes, NES, or VW Bug, then you'll know this will be a vanilla Rice Krispie & icing treat.

I made two large banana bread pans worth of Rice Krispie treats.

Using the two large Rice Krispie treats I sculpted the hull and superstructure.

With the lower and top halves of the ship complete I started painting the hull with Royal Blue icing.

The decks of the boat are a light grey. A black fender stripe runs the perimeter of the hull, to simulate this I wrapped a long string of liquorish around the treat.

Once the icing was done I started adding in details.

 I think I got the memorable part handled... I'll post a picture with this dessert on top of the Birthday Cake when it's served :)

CupCakes! I should probably hide them from GiR...

Over the last few days I've baked a couple dozen batches of cupcakes for some of my friends, so I thought I'd share some photos (Congrats on graduation Nadine, and good times Anne!):

The icing was made from 1/4 cup of melted butter, 2 cups icing sugar, 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract, and 2 tbsp of whipping cream. I ran the mixer for three minutes to produce an icing that was similar in texture to whipped cream. The toppings were all just sprinkled on top, with the exception of the M&M candies - those were placed by hand. The cup cake base was made from a generic chocolate cake mix.

I think everybody enjoyed them as they lasted all of 60 seconds after we took the lid off the container ;)

Apple Cookies

First Post!

This is my first post to my new blog on cookies. I've been sharing my hobby with friends for the last while and have got to point that posting the odd photo on Facebook is not enough.

A fair warning; most of the cookies I make are 'geeky', deal with it, I'm a programmer :P

For my first cookie I will be making a simple cutter cookie (a cookie that you cut into shapes using a cookie cutter):

The Cookie Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2.5 cup flour
• 2 tbsp magic powder
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup butter (melted)
• 1 tbsp lemon zest

Mix thoroughly all ingredients in a bowl, then once combined, place in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Once the dough is firmed up it will be ready for rolling. Sprinkle some flour onto a flat surface and use a standard rolling pin to roll the dough (the flour prevents the dough from sticking to the pin and/or surface).

Next choose a shape you want to make. In my case I chose to make the an Apple. I used a 7cm diameter round cutter to make the initial circle, then a smaller 5cm diameter cutter to carve the bite out, reusing it as the leaf. For the leaf to attach on properly I just cut a notch out with a paring knife and trimmed the bottom to form the apple shape. Yes, to make three dozen took a long time :)

The next step after forming all the cookies was to bake them in the oven on 375F for about 20 minutes (until they turned golden brown).

Once I had made about three dozen cookies I decided that I would glaze them in one of four different colours.

The Icing:

• 2 whole egg whites
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice.

The final result was a very light cookie with a soft icing glaze. On completing this batch I questioned my choice of using lemon zest to flavour the cookie batter, cinnamon and a small amount of apple juice may have been more in theme... the nice thing with these cookies is that I can always modify the recipe next time I make them.

Hope you enjoyed this cookie! :)