Steelers Fondant Cake Design

With all the Steeler fans around here, I think I'll make for the next bake sale:

Angelique Tulips for Kiwanis Fundraiser

Yes, I know I said no more fundraisers, but when there's a bake sale emergency (like a fireman when the alarm sounds) I usually have to respond.

This is an Angilique Tulip from my garden.

And these are the basic sugar cookie on a stick with marbled fondant decoration to look like a pink Angelique Tulip. The stems (sticks) are covered with floral tape and a silk flower is taped in to complete the look.

These went out the door with carrot cookies with fresh grated orange icing, black walnut banana bread, Key Lime Pie in an Oreo Crust & Key Lime Tarts.

1st Spring Flower

Sometimes, we have to take a break from baking and go for a stroll in the garden.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh . . .

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.

Mumsie's Easter Cookies

Mom and I sat down and made some cookies for the family Easter. The best looking ones were made out of fondant.

We used the usual sugar cookie receipe and topped it with a thin layer of butter cream icing, then placed the fondant on top and decorated.

These were much, much easier to do than the dipped royal icing cookies and I believe they look better too. The downside is that not everyone likes fondant.

Easter Resolution: No more cookie fundraisers

The peeps are all baked and on their way to the Central PA Humane Society as I look forward to hosting the family Easter Dinner next weekend.

Mom is coming over some evening while we decorate our personal cookies, and we'll put the pictures up when they are complete.

Meanwhile, my next project is baseball cookies for a fundraiser on April 24. I have decided that cookies are for marketing purposes only. They are waaaaay too much work for what you get in return. I would really like to concentrate on upscale fondant cakes.

Right. We'll see how long I can hold that thought. Ha.

Check out the Sugar Buzz Factory on etsy!

More Yummy Easter Carrot Cookie Photos

Be sure to check us out on etsy (search sugarbuzzfactory) and flickr (search sugarbuzzfactory).

Easter Cookies

Adopt a Peep 'cause they're invading Blair County. See posting below to benefit the Central PA Humane Society.

This old fashioned Eastertide postcard on a sugar cookie is printed with edible ink onto (edible) wafter paper which is similiar to rice paper, but made with potato starch. There are 14 different designs available and they are all on large, postcard-sized cookies that measure about 3 1/2" by 5" and are 3/8" thick.

Check out the Sweet Little Bunny cookies. These bunnies are also printed on wafer paper and attached to a sugar cookie. Which one is Peter Rabbit? These cookies are over 2" in diameter.

The night before Easter, be sure to leave one of these huge (almost 2" by 5 1/2") sugar cookie carrots out for the Easter Bunny along with a frosty glass of milk.

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.

Toilet Cake

Sometimes I wonder about my friend's sensibilities.

This cake recently came about because my friend, Bob, was looking for a humorous birthday cake for his two friends who were turning 60. And he got it.

The bowl was three layers of vanilla cake with raspberry filling and the tank and toilet paper roll were Devil’s Food layered with vanilla butter cream. Everything was covered with fondant.

The poop was chocolate butter cream, the water in the bowl was tinted piping gel, the handle on the tank fondant, the toilet paper was preforated fondant and the lid was custom made out of wood. There was a detachable card on the inside of the lid that everyone signed for the birthday couple.

Because we had never done this before, it was an engineering challenge. A sturdy platform (cake’s heavy!) had to be built for the tank that included a back so the cake tank wouldn’t lean halfway through the party and we had to find small hinges for the lid, which also needed a place to be attached so it could be opened and closed.

All of the wood was painted white to seal it and to make it washable. The platform was covered with blue and white checked washable vinyl wallpaper to imitate a typical bathroom floor.

Now that we’ve made this cake for Bob, we can make one for you. Contact us with your event: be it an anniversary, birthday, an open house, renovation celebration or any party for a plumber.

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.

Cookie Madness

Today was cookie delivery day for the most part and thinking back, the 2008 holiday season t'was truly the season to bake cookies: 100 to the senior citizens at the local church, 170 plus to Blair County Children & Youth, about 70 to take to a friend's party, 40 to the Humane Society volunteers & workers, 150 for Christmas baskets, and hundreds more for a cookie & egg nog party here at the house.

Adding that up makes about 800 decorated cookies, not including the chocolate chip cookies and Key Lime Pies. No wonder I feel like I've done nothing else during the evenings and on weekends.

The neighbor kids agreed to help me out with the extra broken and messed up cookies and they have been making out pretty well. So well that we finally had to establish a secret code to communicate: I hang a "Cookies!" sign in the dining room window to let them know when there are broken cookies and they stop by on weekends and after school to collect their paper lunch bags of goodies.

I'm gonna settle in for a loooong winter's nap.

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.