Fundraiser

There is a fundraiser this weekend for a young man who loves baseball. Two dozen special cookies cookies are our contribution. I'll post a picture of the finished basket presentation as soon as it is available.

Like the Easter cookies, this cookie is our basic sugar cookie topped with a thin layer of butter cream icing, then topped with fondant. The red stitches were piped on using royal icing.

The Peeps are Coming! The Peeps are Coming! The Peeps are Coming!

Adopt a Peep!

Don't be left out in the cold when Blair County experiences an invasion of sugar cookie chicks this Easter Lenten season.

The Sugar Buzz Factory is baking the cutest sugar cookie Peeps on the planet to raise money for our furry friends at the Central Pennsylvania Humane Society (CPHS). All of the cookies are homemade without additives or preservatives right here in Blair County using flour, sugar, eggs, lemon juice, baking powder, vanilla and food coloring. Each Peep is approximately 2" x 2 1/2" and is about 3/8" thick.

A dozen of these handsome Peeps is $12.00 and is packaged in a kraft box with a handle. They are so adorable, you're gonna want to cut air holes! Choose: All Yellow OR Mixed Colors

You can pick up your Easter Peeps at Fresh Bark (CPHS's Thrift Shop located across the road from the shelter) as long as supplies last. To ensure your get your peeps, call Debbie Pierce at CPHS: 942-2477 or email Leslie: lhayes78@atlanticbb.net. We'll try to keep a supply at Fresh Bark right up to the holiday. A portion of the proceeds go directly to CPHS.

Steelers Win Superbowl

There are certain aspects of football and the Superbowl that appeal to me. Like the idiot commercials, the unsportsmanlike conduct, the frenzied yelling and screaming during the game that would ordinarily draw the police, and the snack food.

The cookies were David's idea to send to Ben stranded down in Texas for the past few years. They are sugar cookies topped with Royal Icing, "Steelers" is written in chocolate buttercream and the colored logo thingys are made of fondant.

Christmas Light Cookie Ingredients

We have had requests for the ingredient list for the Christmas Light Cookies.

While the exact recipe is Top Secret, I can tell what is NOT in them: additives, fillers and preservatives.

All of our cookies are lovingly made fresh from scratch with the purest ingredients right here in Blair County--just for you.

For example, we use real butter, not margarine, imitation butter, I Can't Believe this Crap's Not Butter or butter-flavored grease in a can. We also use real eggs, not imitation low cholesterol eggs. If your cholesterol is high, you shouldn't even be looking at cookies, let alone reading a blog about baking. Your cholesterol probably just rose 10 points the past 5 seconds.

Anyway, we believe that good old-fashioned ingredients not only taste better, but are healthier than all the imitation stuff on the shelves, which is why we stick to the basics: eggs, butter, flour and sugar--and this is why our cookies are as good as what Grandma used to make.

Sugar Cookie & Icing Ingredients

Sugar: regular and confectioner's

Flour

Butter

Eggs

Baking Powder

Vanilla

Lemon Juice

Food Coloring

The Cookies are accented with purchased decorations such as non-pariels, Sparkling Sugar, jimmies and dragees.

Buy A Cookie, Be A Light

When a foster child is initially taken from their home, they often leave with nothing. This season, the Sugar Buzz Factory is helping Blair County Children & Youth raise money for their Special Fund which supplies these children who are spending the holidays away from their family with the extras in life, such as Christmas presents and warm winter coats.

As of today, all of our Christmas Light Cookies are being sold as a fundraiser. If you would like to purchase these cookies (pictured in the post below) all of the profit will go to the Blair County Children & Youth Special Fund, and your checks should be made out to them as well.

Individually wrapped cookie: $2.00

6 cookies in a gift box: $11.00

12 cookies in a gift box: $20.00

And yes, we know that's expensive, but it's for the kids.

Thank you in advance to all of the folks who are making this possible by volunteering their time, talents and commercial kitchens: Beth & Larry, David, Tessa, Nancy, my mother and anyone else I can talk into icing, wrapping, packing, selling and delivering cookies for this drive.

By baking zillions of cookies in the next couple of weeks (in our spare time) we hope to be able to make every Blair County child's Christmas merry & bright.

I Know! I Know! I Know!

I know that I've been lax with my postings and haven't kept you up to date with all the latest Altoona, PA baking news. But I'm back! And I brought pictures of the yummies direct from our new hand-crafted stone patio.

This picture just makes me want to break out the cider and bob for apples.

Where have I been the past month? In the garden & in the woods, getting inspired. Do you see that pumpkin and gourds pictured above? Well, we grew them.

The Sugar Buzz Gang has been doing a lot of hiking out in the woods, particularly on the old railroad beds on Wopsy & Blandburg Mountains and I have been getting a lot of inspiration for fall cookies from Mother Nature as we stroll under the canopies of brilliantly diverse colors.

In the vegetable garden it was harvest time for the gourds & sunflower heads & we have been pulling down the corn shocks to put the garden to bed for the winter--which is right around the corner!

I spoke to a little old lady from the 28th Street Church of the Brethren today who requested a Key Lime pie & fall sugar cookies for the bake sale table at their fundraiser on Election Day a.k.a. MY birthday.

No problem. Mother.

The cool weather makes my mouth water for warm chocolate chip cookies made with black walnuts anyway, so while I'm at it . . .

Stay tuned for more pictures of Fall Sugar Cookies as the batches just keep coming this fall. I am truely amazed at how brilliant the fall colors really are.

Be a Cookie Hero

One of the best things about baking is that it combines two of my favorite hobbies: sugar and gardening. Okay, I'll admit that I don't always enjoy digging in the dirt, which is why I appreciate flowers when I get to play with them in icing.

My third favorite hobby is writing, so blogging about baking and decorating with flowers is a natural. Go figure that anything like this would ever fall into place. Ha.

Anyway, I was inspired by Wilton's garden colors and by some really cute cookies I saw on the web, so I decided to make some of my own.

To make these cookies:

• cut out and bake sugar cookies
• allow to cool
• dip in very thin royal icing flavored heavily with lemon juice
• allow to dry
• decorate background with royal icing in a few of your favorite colors
• allow to harden
• pipe a half rose in pink and stem in green with buttercream or royal icing
• pipe some buttercream or royal icing dots all around
• deliver to your boss, mother and future mother-in-law

These cookies are beautiful and addictive.

Viola! You're a cookie hero.