Root Beer Cookies!

I came across this recipe for rootbeer cookies a couple of years ago and was curious.  Root beer is a always a favourite here so I thought the cookies would go over well.  I printed the recipe and put it into my recipe binder.  The only problem was finding the rootbeer extract or concentrate, as you can’t find this at the local grocery store.  After a while I forgot until I went to a candy and cake decorating supply store to pick up some supplies for a cake I was making for one of my Wilton classes.  They had an entire shelf of extracts, and among them was root beer extract!  I picked some up, but with the cakes for classes and spring coming it still took a little while to get to these cookies.  They were worth the time I kept the recipe around!

Root Beer Cookies
Ingredients:
½ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp root beer extract (concentrate)
1 ¾ cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
(the recipe calls for 2 tbsp of water if the dough is dry - I didn’t need it)

Directions:
1. In a bowl cream together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.  Add in the egg and extract, mixing well.  
2. Add in the flour and baking soda, mix until combined.  
3. Drop cookies onto a cookie sheet and press down so they are flat, not dome shaped.  
4. Bake for 6-8 minutes, cool on a wire rack.

Root Beer Frosting
This is the frosting that went with the cookies, and it is amazing!  I was eating it with a spoon and almost licked out the mixing bowl (I probably would have if O hadn’t already been giving me weird looks).  This would also be delicious on top of cupcakes or vanilla cookies.

Ingredients:
½ cup butter
1 ½ cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)
1 tsp root beer extract

Directions:
Cream the ingredients together.  Add some water to achieve a spreadable consistency.  Ice the cookies when cool.

Reviews:
Everyone loved these cookies, including me.  I couldn’t stop eating them - with or without the icing.  The icing however was my favorite part - it tastes like a root beer float, delicious!  I will be making more of this for sure.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

I love cinnamon buns, well almost anything with cinnamon really.  I had a large craving for cinnamon on day, but didn’t want to have an entire batch of cinnamon buns sitting round the house.  I love the cookie form of anything - they get the flavor but they are a lot smaller than something like a cinnamon bun.  I came across this recipe from Picky Palate and decided to give it a try.

As a note, this recipe makes about 6 dozen cookies (I cut mine a little smaller or else rolled my dough out larger and got a few more per log).  That is way to many cookies to have sitting around or even to try to get rid of at work.  I left a few logs in the freezer after they were made and now if I have surprise guests or I need cookies for the next day but don’t have time to bake, I can pull one out, slice off some cookies and bake them.  It works great!

Picky Palate’s Cinnamon Roll Cookies
Ingredients:
2 Cups sugar
1 Cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup sour cream
6 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder


12 tablespoons softened butter, (separated into 6 portions of 2 tbsp)
1 1/2 Cups packed light brown sugar, divided into 1/4 Cups
1 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon, divided

Directions:
1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time.
2. Mix in the vanilla and sour cream until well combined.
3. Slowly add in the flour, baking soda and baking powder, mix until combined.
4. Split the dough in half and form each half into disc.  Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
5. Cut each disc into thirds and roll each ⅓  about ⅛ inch thick and 12 by 5 inches in size.
6. Spread the rolled out dough with 2tbsp of soft butter, ¼ cup of packed brown sugar and ½ tsp of cinnamon.
7. Roll the dough into a 12 inch long log. (at this point I put some of the logs into the freezer wrapped in plastic wrap.  When you want to bake them, take them out and continue with step 8).
8. Using a sharp knife cut off slices about a ½ inch thick.  Lay the slices out on a cookie sheet.
9. Bake the cookies 9 to 11 minutes at 350F.  Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Reviews:
These cookies are great - a nice sugar cookie filled with a delicious cinnamon filling.  Picky Palate has a cream cheese icing for these, but it is not needed (it is a great addition as cream cheese icing always is, but isn’t needed). I had some of my own cream cheese frosting in the fridge leftover from some cupcakes, and it did go on a few cookies - very yummy. These are also nice 2 bite cookies, so you can eat a couple of them without feeling too bad!

I have loved having these in the freezer as well, it is great when I want a couple cookies, and they still taste just as fantastic!

A while back when a friend was having a baby I came across the pattern called For Baby With Love from the Pattern Basket. I loved the look of this and knew I had to make it - they weren’t telling people the sex of the baby so this was a gamble as the quilt was more for a boy. Well they had a girl so I ended up making her a pinwheel quilt and had the top for this at home. I was sure I would find something to do with it sooner or later. Well it seems like it was meant to be, as recently a friend asked if I could do a baby quilt for her. A good friend of hers had recently adopted a baby and she wanted to give her something special. The little one was a boy and she loved the quilt top, so I got to work on finishing it.

 I was waiting for the backing fabric to come in (I had ordered it in as I wanted something specific and the local quilt shops were out), so I embroidered the little guy’s name on the “ribbon” of the quilt. I just freehand wrote his name on with some disapearing ink and then did the embroidery.

I had recently come across a tutorial for Orange peel quilting on Oh Fransson, and decided to give that a try on this quilt. I didn't want to quilt it to close to keep it really soft, so this was great. I love this quilt and am hoping that it is well loved in it's new home.

 

Cake Decorating - Advanced Gumpaste Flowers

I just finished my final class of the Wilton Advanced Gumpaste Flowers class. The flowers that I came home look fantastic and were worth all the wrapping of wire (although I wasn't so sure when I was wrapping wire after wire).

The bouquet (above) turned out nice, even though I pretty much just randomly put the flowers together.

The stargazer lily is gorgeous (my classmate made a tiger lily in orange which was fantastic and I am going to have to try one day!).


The real winner if the class for me though was the briar rose. I want to cover a cake in these!


Thank you to Erin of Erin's Go To Cakes - I had a fantastic time in the class (and all the ones before it)!

St. Patty's Day Green Vodka

I know St. Patricks day is all about the beer, however I have never been a beer drinker. I wanted to get in the spirit this year, so I decided to do my own thing - in green.

I decided to make a green drink that I could actually drink - green skittles vodka and sprite. It was simple to make and tasted just like candy! I followed the directions for making skittles Vodka from Mix That Drink (I actually have all the colors of original skittles, but green seemed the most appropriate for the the holiday).

Ingredients:
Green skittles (you will need 6 skittles for every ounce of vodka)
Vodka
Sprite/Seven up

Directions:
1. In a bottle mix together the skittles and the vodka. Shake to dissolve the candy and leave sit overnight.
2. Run the vodka through a coffee filter to remove any undissolved candy.
3. Mix with sprite/ 7-up over ice and enjoy!

Review:
This tasted just like Skittles and I enjoyed it. It won't be my everyday drink, but it is fun once in a while. I love how bright the color is from the skittles.

Playing with Dr. Seuss

I have been wanting to do something for the last year with some of the Dr. Seuss fabric, but could never find a reason to make anything with them. Finally I just gave up and bought a fat quarter pack to play with. I am sure that they will find good homes (actually I already have recipients in mind for a couple of the projects). In my playing on the Internet I had come across a Dr. Seuss quilt that was strips and liked the looks, so I tried my own version with the stripes, but included some of the panels as well. I like the way it turned out - it is so bright and happy.


I quilted this with wavy lines that are randomly “drawn” across the quilt. This gave so much flexibility and softness to it compared to my last few projects that were stippled and I like the effect.


Then I played with some of the scraps from that quilt and a little bit more of the fat quarters to make a Peek-a-Boo Bunting quilt. I had eagerly awaited the tutorial for this, and then stalled as I couldn't decide what fabrics to use that I had on hand. Once the Dr. Seuss came in it was easy to use my scraps for it - as I love the bright colours and having the characters to place under the bunting.



I love how this turned out! The bright colors are fantastic and make a big impact even with using so little of it. I had been looking for a project to try some hand quilting and this seemed small enough and it needed something between the lines, so I quilted just like the original with the triple wavy lines. I would have to say that it turned out pretty good for my first time with hand quilting!



I still have some more Dr. Seuss Fabric left after these two projects and can’t wait to see what other fun things I can make with them!

Birdie Stitches Update

Last year I started the Birdie Stitches BOM by LittleMissShabby. I have finally finished the top!


I designed my own blocks for November (to make it a little more Canadian - thanksgiving is in October here) and the June block.




I liked the original June block, but wasn't sure about it with the other blocks. After finishing the top I have decided to make the original June block and put it into the back of the quilt as a signature block. Now I just have to decide what I want to use as a backing for my quilt so I can finish it!