Teacher Appreciation Cookies

I'm crossing my fingers as I say... err, type this... we have always had such great luck with teachers!  I can't say enough good things about my kiddos teachers this year!  They're fun, patient, kind and they know how to teach!  This is definitely going to be a tough bunch to follow!  

For Teacher Appreciation week, I whipped up some yummy teacher inspired sugar cookies...

Mrs. Turner, Ms. Trina, Ms. Wendy, Ms. Amanda & Ms. Naomi - You guys are the best!

Springtime Cookies

I had an order request for a variety of springtime cookies that would be fun for both boys and girls.  A challenge?  Hmmm, not so much, all I had to do was look around for some inspiration.  Here's what I came up with...

Flowers - They're beautiful and blooming everywhere!

Butterflies - I haven't seen many yet,but those first few that have ventured into the sunshine have been beautiful!

And baseball!  Nothing says spring quite like that first trip to the Ballpark!  Go Rangers!

Ninjago Cookies

Every once in awhile, I get an order that my kids just love!  This one was a favorite for my little hunky-monkey, Max!  

Luckily for him, I made a few extra and surprised him with it at "treat time"!  (Yes, we have a designated time of day when we eat treats - is that so bad?)

Make it personal

Until I got married, I didn't have a middle name - seriously!  My parents wanted me to take my maiden name as my middle name when I got married, so they didn't give me one.  

Needless to say, I was thrilled to take on that "W" in Whisenant so I could finally have a monogram!  I mean, really, it's just not the same with two letters.

Anyhoo, many of you have asked if I can personalize cookies for you.  The answer is YES!  I'm happy to do that and think it really brings a little something extra special to whatever you're celebrating.  

Here are a few examples of some things I've personalized to give you some ideas...

Ombre cakes

I saw an ombre cake on Pinterest a few months ago and fell in love.  I knew I had to make it!  Luckily for me, one of my clients saw it too and asked me to bake it - YAY!  Funny  how things work out that way sometimes.

Sweet vanilla cake with buttercream icing - all ombre, inside and out!

If you know me, you know I couldn't stop there!  I had to make some for my family too.  This time, I decided to mix it up a bit and make mini ombre cakes.  

My kids loved them!  I loved them!  Aren't they adorable?

Gig 'Em

Gig 'Em!  Whoop!  Go Aggies!

Vanilla cake with sweet buttercream icing, topped with a yummy "Gig 'Em" sugar cookie.  Doesn't get much better than that - unless, of course, you're not an Aggie fan!

For my little chick-ees

After seeing all the yummy goodies I was making for other people, my kiddos really wanted some Easter cookies of their own in their baskets.  The Easter bunny definitely delivered with some big bunny cookies.  Sadly, I didn't get any photos of them before they were gobbled up.

I did manage to snap a few photos of the baby chick cupcakes I made for my mother-in-law to give to my little chicks and their cousins at her house, though.  Here they are... 

So they were easier to transport I packaged each cupcake in a clear plastic cup with fun Easter grass, wrapped in cello and tied with a bright yellow ribbon.  Everything just looks better all wrapped up so cute, don't you think?

Spring is in the Air

I just love spring!  Everything about it is so new and fresh!  Our backyard is coming alive with little blooms and shoots of green are breaking through the dark, winter-worn ground.  It's so exciting and puts a skip in my step!  

We have an ivy planter basket attached to a column under our back patio.  It seems to be a favorite spot among doves each spring for nesting.  This causes me quite a bit of anxiety because once the weather heats up, my kiddos are clomping in and out, slamming the door and squealing with delight as they chase bad guys, fly like fairies and run wild with their amazing imaginations!  And as happy as this happiness makes me, it scares the poor birds away and they abandon their little eggs.

Normally, I try to scare the birds away in during their "home hunting" so our planter is left empty.  But this year I was preoccupied indoors (Many, many thanks for all your Easter cookie orders!  You guys are the best!).  

Needless to say, we now have a little Momma bird who sits bravely on her eggs while the world (a.k.a., my kiddos) races around her.  If my estimations are right, we have just under a week until the little birds make their big debut!  I can't wait!

All this to say, Momma bird and her nest full of eggs are the inspiration for these spring-time cupcakes.  Hope you like them as much as I do!  

Get out there and enjoy spring - it's amazing!

Funny Bunny Easter Cookies

These little guys just crack me up!  So I'm calling them my "Funny Bunny" cookies.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Cross Easter Cookies

When I started thinking about Easter cookies, I really wanted to make a cross because, really, that's what Easter is all about - the resurrection of Jesus Christ!  

These turned out just how I wanted - simple, yet beautiful - just like the message of the cross itself.  Because Jesus died for us, we can be forgiven of our sins if we accept Him as our Savior.  It's really so simple, yet so beautiful! 

Glitter Cookies

I really like cookie cutters!  They can totally transform something ordinary into something extraordinary.  And not just cookies, but sandwiches, fruit, pancakes - lots of things!

Having said that, I love the challenge of making a cookie from a custom drawing and hand-cutting.  It's just so unique!

I loved how this custom cookie turned out.  A sparkling cookie for a girl who loves glitter!  So fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

When I was younger, St. Patrick's Day always sent me into full clothing crisis mode.  It always snuck (isn't this a real word?  why the red underline spell check?)  Anyway, it always snuck up on me, sending me scrounging through my closet for something green to avoid the inevitable pinch.  Don't my green eyes count???  Thankfully, now I own more green.  Crisis averted, pinch avoided.  Yay!

St. Patrick's Day also happens to be my husband's birthday.  This year I thought I'd surprise him with a Chocolate Meringue pie - one of his personal favorites!  And, of course some green cookies!  Pretty sure I'll still pinch him though!

Blog URL

I'm always a little hesitant to change anything on my computer.  I'm sure it has a little something to do with the fact that I'm slightly technically challenged.  If only I had a Help Desk at my house, wouldn't that be great?  

At any rate, I'm going for it!  I've got to change the URL (big term for someone so technically challenged and between you and me, I have no idea what it stands for)!  It's driving me nuts having to type all those dashes!  And I'm pretty sure if it's bugging me, it's bugging you too!  

So, here's the new URL - apieceacakemckinney.blogspot.com

Crossing my fingers that everything I've posted up until this point won't just be banished out there into the unknown abyss of the web and will actually show up on the new site!  So follow me!  Here we go!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  

Can you believe it?  Easter is just two short weeks away.  If you're anything like me, you're scrambling to find Easter treats!  And despite the fact that I happen to love Robin Eggs and Peeps, I really don't want my kiddos filling up on all that candy.  

(Did I really just say that?  I love candy!  Maybe I should say I really don't want my kiddos filling up on all that candy in one day.  Yep, that's better!  Because in all honesty, this family consumes its fair share of candy!)  

Okay, so I have the perfect little treats to fill those Easter baskets!  Yummy, homemade treats that will delight little and big tummies alike.  And who wouldn't like getting one of these on Easter - they're so cute!

Get your orders in for Easter cookies now!

Easter cookies are $2.75 each and come packaged in a clear cello bag with coordinating ribbon.  Like this...

To make this treat from the Easter bunny extra special, I can personalize the following cookies with an initial, monogram or name (add $.50 per cookie)...

To place an order, please email me at emwhiz@aol.com.  Be sure to specify which cookies you'd like and any color preferences.

Please get your orders in before Tuesday, March 26th.  Cookies can be picked up on Friday, the 29th or Saturday, the 30th.

Castle Cake

Such a fun cake for such a sweet little girl!

Pink strawberry cake with pink buttercream icing.  The castle towers are hand-dipped in white chocolate and are completely edible.  I loved how the ivy detailing turned out - so delicate and girly!

Facebook

Thanks for checking out my blog!  Come on in and pick out a treat!  And while you're at it, be sure to Like me on Facebook - a Piece a Cake Mckinney!

What a great day!  I think I'll bake something!

Carrot Cake

I love carrot cake!  It's dense and sweet without being too sweet.  And in my home, it's always topped with rich cream cheese icing.  It's one of my favorites and, not surprisingly, was what my husband requested for his birthday last year after I vetoed his cherry chocolate cake idea.  

(See 2/28/13 post)

Carrot cake has so much going on inside and rich icing on the outside.  I really wanted to dress it up, but in a way that didn't compete with the other flavors.  And since it was an adult's cake, I wanted to keep it simple and sophisticated.  Here's what I came up with...

The "flowers" are actually pineapple, thinly sliced and dried. Subtly sweet, they were just the touch I was looking for!  Carrot cake with rich cream cheese icing, served a la mode with pineapple flowers and a sugar-candied pecan - yum!

Valentine's Day cookies

I really like conversation hearts.  Who wouldn't?  It's a whole box of compliments - UR SWEET, LUV U, FUNNY, CALL ME!  So for Valentine's Day, I knew exactly what kind of sugar cookies I wanted to make for my kiddos teachers...

I absolutely loved how these turned out!  So pretty and so yummy!  It made my heart smile!

My husband's favorite cake is cherry chocolate.  As someone who loves to bake, I find the request for this cake somewhat insulting.  Are you familiar with this cake?  It has like five ingredients and you basically dump them all in a bowl and mix.  Don't get me wrong, there's a time and place for quick and easy, but that time is definitely not Valentine's Day, anniversaries or birthdays.  So, in my efforts to create a more sophisticated cherry chocolate cake for Valentine's Day, I came up with these...

Dark chocolate cupcakes with a heart-shaped cherry center.  Now these I can really dig my spoon into with a element of baker's satisfaction!  Yum!

Okay, so did you guys watch the Oscars?  One of my besties throws an Oscar watching party every year (so much fun!) and I made these yummy "awards" for her to include in her swag bags for all her guests (I told you it was super fun - I mean, really, swag bags for all of us!  Cha-ching!)  

At any rate, this is a great example of a cookie I made without having a cookie cutter.  I made a custom template and hand-cut each cookie.  Worked out pretty good, right?  I can do it for you too!  

The only thing I'm not a huge fan of about these cookies (if my life depended on finding something negative!) would be the black icing.  With so much of it, it leaves the mouth a bit purpley-green.  Awesome for a five year old boy's birthday party, not so awesome for a group of glam ladies picking Oscar winners!

Welcome! Come on in and pick out a treat!

So this is it!  The cookies that finally tipped me over the edge!  (And honestly, I can't continue without acknowledging that it really should be "so THESE are it", but doesn't "so THIS is it" just sound so much better?  I think so!)  At any rate, these innocent looking, yummy sugar cookies were the straw that broke the camel's back, the thing that made me finally bite the bullet (yes, sweet friends, those cliches are for you - you know who you are!)  I promise I'm getting to the importance of these cookies. 

So I offered to make some sugar cookies for my hunky monkey's preschool teacher's birthday (got that?) and these are they...

Yummy, right?  And it wasn't just me who thought so!  Family, friends, neighbors, teachers - you all kept saying the same thing about these and many other things I'd baked - "These are soooo good!  You should sell them!"  I knew I loved them, but I wondered if I wasn't having an "American Idol" moment where everyone was just being nice and supportive and the second I actually tried to sell some of my desserts, some well-meaning customer (we'll call him Simon Cowell) would hit me with a huge dose of reality and I'd sulk back home without my ticket to Hollywood and likely drown my sorrows in some "what I thought to be fabulous, but Simon told me mediocre" dessert.  (Whew! I'm thinking that might be a run-on sentence?).  

So there I was at a crossroads.  What to do?  What to do?  Well, guess what? 

I DID IT!  

Yippy-ki-A!  Cakes, cupcakes and cookies now for sale!  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!  Life is short!  Always eat dessert first!