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Archive for February 2012

Cookie Birthday Party: Part 2

Monday, February 27, 2012

Before we begin...let me show you one of my favorite pictures from the party.
I'm referring to the man in the Harley shirt rolling out the dough...not the rump of the lady bent over smack dab in the middle of my photo.
That's my wonderful husband, who decided at the last minute to come and help me. I've been making cookies for a year now & this is the first time he's helped bake cookies.  Believe me when I say you will need as much help as you can get if you decide to lead a cookie baking/decorating party.

So, let's get right into it, shall we?  How about I cover the what went wrong first? 
I do like to end on a positive note.

WHAT WENT WRONG
 (ooohhh check out that alliteration!)
or... THINGS I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY

*I don't think having a 'making the dough' station is worth it.  It killed all of 5 minutes and only the older kids (all 3 of them) wanted to participate.  This meant that once the ingredients were added to the bowl, I pretty much made the dough myself.  Think about how much easier your day will be if you don't have to lug all of the ingredients with you!

Here the kids and I are adding the vanilla.

*Don't put alot of time and effort into making pretty icing in piping bags, especially if your demographic is a group of 3 year olds.  Eventhough I had the bags tied with those perfect purple tie thingies, the kids managed to squeeze most all of the icing out of the top.  I'd highly recommend just buying the pre-made cookie icing from the store.  The little kids won't know the difference...or care...afterall, it's just going to end up all over the table, floor, and their faces anyway.

*Be sure to ask what type of surface the kids will be rolling the dough on.  In my home, I use my butcherblock and I always tape down my wax paper.  In this particular case, the countertops were super, duper nice and tape didn't need to be stuck to it....which resulted in a whole lot of this....


*Limit your amount of decorations for the kids to use.  In this case (and in hindsight), I think I provided the kids with too many options.  I could have let them use the food color markers only and they would have been just as happy.  Remember, I'm still talking about the three year olds.  They loved the colorful pearl balls I showed you in the last post and they loved the colorful royal icing decorations I brought with me.  I was surprised to see how much sanding sugar, little sugar pearls and bagged icing I had left.  And if you minimize the decorations you take...you minimize clean up. 

*I had two pre-made cookies per kid for them to decorate while some of the other children began rolling out the dough.  I should have taken more.  Take into account how long cookies take to bake and cool.  My roll out sugar cookie recipe takes 9 minutes to bake, but the chocolate mint dough I had pre-made took an average of 11-12 minutes to bake, especially after the kids continued to kneed and roll and kneed and roll it.  Also, take into account that 3 year olds won't actually sit there and decorate for 15 minutes....the cookie will be popped into their mouth within 30 seconds. I guarantee it. Having not enough cookies to decorate in the beginning and trays waiting to be popped into one oven and cookies cooling leaves some serious gap time between decorating the initial cookies and the ones made at the party.  Kids get bored quick! 

*Know what the party thrower expects of you.  Do they want you to have all the kids at one location at a time or is it okay to have several kids and different stations at the same time?  Do they want you to talk to everyone and essentially 'lead' the party or are they okay with you blending in the background and simply supervising?  In my real life job, I lead activities and programs for seniors for a living, so it was unnatural for me to not be talking and leading the party.  The children showed up at random times and consequently I got stuck in the kitchen on oven duty and didn't do much 'leading' at all.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

*The kids had a great time.  That's the bottom line.  That's all that matters.  They loved it. 

Check out little Henry.  He made about 25 cookies.  He LOVED rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters.  He was the only little kid who maintained an interest in the cookie making for an extended period of time.

*My mom had the foresight to take wet naps with us. 
We were able to help keep the kids as sticky free as possible. 


*At the end of the party, most of the cookies looked like this (check out the plate)...

Which is exactly what I meant when I said I needed to let go.


HELPFUL HINTS
(aka...things I will do IF there is a next time)

*Definitely nix actually making the dough

*Take atleast two other people with me to help out.  It's great to count on the parents, but it's best to have someone you know really well and are able to ask (demand) for help.

*Raise the demographic age.  The next time around (if there is one), I'd like to actually teach a group of kids interested in learning about cookie decorating.  I love to share my cookie knowledge (the little I have) and I think a group of pre-teen girls would be the perfect age group. 
They're in that learning stage and wanting to act older and this could be right up their alley. 

*If possible, visit the location of the party.  This will help you prepare and plan for the location of your stations.  You'll also be able to scope out the oven situation (double ovens would be oh so helpful!).

*If you do get asked to work with pre-schoolers, take lots and lots of cookies for them to decorate.  Keep it colorful and simple.

And remember to let go.





Here's one last picture of my mom doing an excellent job of coralling the kids and showing them how to roll and cut the dough.




I mentioned it several times, but I need to mention it once more.  I could not have done this party without help.  My mom and my husband were HUGE helps.  They stepped right in, took orders from me and made sure everything that needed to happen did. 
They were the best wingman/wingwoman a girl could ask for.


Thanks for taking the time to read about my first ever cookie birthday party experience.

If you have any specific questions or are thinking about doing one yourself,
don't hesitate to contact me!  We can learn from each other!! 









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Cookie Birthday Party

Sunday, February 26, 2012

THE BACKGROUND
My mom works at a preschool and was approached by the mother of one of her preschoolers back in December.  The woman asked my mom if one of her daughters made cookies, to which my mom responded yes.  The lady wanted to know if her daughter would be interested in leading a cookie baking/decorating birthday party for her preschooler who was about to turn 3. 

Between preparing to leave for our cruise, going on vacation and the holidays, the party never happened.

And I had forgotten about it.

Until the beginning of February when the preschooler's mom contacted me saying she would still love to have me lead a party and would I still be interested?

Of course!!!

Now...leading a cookie birthday party had never crossed my mind.  Afterall, most of us cookie decorators ( I took a poll, really!) take our decorating pretty seriously and three year olds don't really care about the difference between dragees or sanding sugar, or 10 second or 20 second royal icing. 

I knew, in order for this to be a success, I had to let go...A LOT.

THE THEME
Henry, the 3 year old birthday boy, loves CARS; Lightning McQueen especially.

But his older sister, Beverly, was going to be around too (and some of her friends). Beverly is into princesses. 

So the theme ended up being The Princess saves McQueen.

THE DETAILS
The mom and I settled on having three stations
1) Making:  The kids would actually help pour in the ingredients, start the mixer, scrape the bowl...etc.
2) Rolling out and cutting:  The kids would actually be able to use a rolling pin to roll out the dough and then use fun cutters to cut out the cookies.  They would then pass their creations along to me who would pop them in the oven.
3) Decorating:  The kids would be able to decorate their cookies using a variety of fun doo-das.

SIMPLIFYING THE STATIONS

Station 1: Making:  For this station, I had the ingredients pre-measured into individual cups.  This way more kids could help pour in the ingredients. For the vanilla, I had a child hold the measuring spoon over the mixing bowl while I poured in the vanilla.  This allowed for the exact amount of vanilla to make it into the dough.  We all know what would have happened if the children had poured the vanilla!  The kids seemed to like turning the mixer on and off the most.

Station 2: Rolling out and cutting:  Actually, we had 2 locations for this one station.  The older kids were able to sit on the bar stools at the kitchen counter and the litte kids used a bench which was in the kitchen.  It was the perfect height for the three and four year olds to stand at and roll the dough.  Before the party, I had wax paper out at both locations.  We used three rolling pins.  Two for each of the barstools for the big kids and one for the little kids. I was sure to have lots of flour on hand.  Afterall, you're not really making cookies unless there's flour all over everything!  I brought cookie cutters that kept with the theme including my princessy ones (a castle and tiara), a generic car, and some basic shapes.  And I threw in my awesome Ecrandal Ice Cream Cone cutter because it's so much fun!

Big kid location:

Little kid location:


Check out my AMAZING last minute find for the birthday party.
And by last minute, I literally mean I stopped by Ross' and Marshall's on my way to the party.

Seriously, those cookie cutters saved the day!!!

Station 3:  Decorating:  Yikes!  This is the station that was causing me the most anxiety.  The first thing I knew I definitely needed to do was to take pre-iced cookies with an image on them for the kids to simply color.  I brought two packs of fun colored edible food color markers as well as these cookies.

I wanted them to look like an edible coloring book page.

I gave each child a clear plastic cup and a plastic knife at their seat and I brought the perfect consistency flood icing with me, but I left it white.  Most preschoolers love colors, so I brought all my gel food colors with me and gave my mom (who came to help) specific instructions to squeeze the coloring into the cups herself.  Those gel colors are expensive!! The kids were able to ice a freshly baked cookie any shade they wanted. 

On the table I had all sorts of fun doo-das.  Some clear and colored sanding sugar, some pre-made thick consistency icing in piping bags with fun star tips, some pre-made royal icing flowers and ribbon roses, gold spray food coloring and these awesome pearl balls I found on my last minute run to the store.


I was so excited when I found these pearls...in so many colors. I knew these would be perfect for little fingers to grab. 

Here's a picture of the decorating table pre-children!!!


More decoration goodies.



Here's a look at what's to come tomorrow!!

Little Henry getting into the swing of things.


Tomorrow I'll break down what went right, what went wrong and have lots of helpful hints!

So be sure to come back as we continue Kooking in Kate Henry's Kitchen!
P.S.  Sorry for the lame picture of me.  I was showing off my brand new apron which I absolutely love!  (This was pre-party can you tell?)



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Cookie Birthday Party Sneak Peak

Saturday, February 25, 2012

This is one of my favorite pictures from today.  I had just put a tray of cookies in the oven and turned around to see sweet little 3 year old Henry wielding a rolling pin and demanding more flour!!!

It was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen!


Stay tuned until tomorrow when I tell y'all how the cookie party went!

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Cornflower Blue

Friday, February 24, 2012


Usually when I get asked to make cookies, I get generic instructions. 

But this time around I was asked to use a cornflower blue shade. 

Thank goodness Michael's had a cornflower blue shade of ribbon that I was able to use to match my icing to (after I bought it of course!)



The other instructions for the order included heart shaped and having the date on them. 

There are so many ways to write a date, but I wanted a bolder font that took up the entire length of the cookie.  For some additional dimention and color I added the dots around the edge.

Then I brushed on some gold luster dust for an extra sparkly finish.

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Walk like a penguin

Monday, February 20, 2012

Two years ago, when we had a few really big snow storms, my work place implemented a 'program' to 'walk like a penguin' when there was snow on the ground. This helps remind you to balance the weight of whatever bags you may be carrying and take small, shuffled steps.



The other day I was asked to make penguin cookies for a baby shower.


And all I could think of was walking like a penguin.

Like these little guys would just hop off the cookie and start walking across the table. 

And this morning, after a little snowfall last night, I was actually told to 'walk like a penguin' into work by one of the maintenance guys. 



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Arkansas Razorbacks

Living in Virginia, I never thought in a million years I'd be asked to make Arkansas Razorback cookies.

But I was.

So I did.


Red icing next to white icing gives me a slight panic attack so I cheated a little.

I made the razorbacks as a royal icing transfer and then just plopped them onto the white flood icing after they were nice and dry and decorated. 

It worked perfectly and I didn't have to worry about waking up to pink cookies in the morning.

The customer loved them and I sure hope her son's basketball team did too!


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Baby Prams

Saturday, February 18, 2012

I love it when I get to use an invitation for design inspiration.


Because these cookies were getting shipped, I decided to use an edible marker to draw the lines instead of piped icing that could potentially chip off in the mail. 



I used a royal icing transfer for the pram which helped save time.   These are some of my favorite cookies.  I absolutely love the polka dots!!!




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Linking Up & Having Fun

Friday, February 17, 2012

Let's face it...we all wish we had more time and more money to be extra super duper crafty. 

Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could just wave a magic wand and have all those beautiful pinterest pins suddenly appear right in our very own home?

I barely have enough time to upload my own creations onto the computer let alone blog about them and add them to FB and pinterest.

But occasionally I make time (because, let's be real here, my allotted 30 minutes of computer time usually turns into 4 hours). And when I finally do get on the computer it's nice to hop on over to one blog, check out their link up party and see tons of creative creations. 

It's a crafty Friday over at Kitchen Fun with my 3 sons and I decided to join in the festivities. 
So head on over and check out everyone's fantastically fun Valentine creations.
KitchenFun

And be sure to check back here this weekend because all of my cookie orders have been completed and delivered and I've got some yummy new creations to show you!




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Valentine Sock Monkey

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

I didn't have any mushy gushy lovey dovey Valentine cookie orders this year, but I did have two orders for Sock Monkey cookies...to give as Valentine gifts. 



I changed the design around a bit, mostly with the hat.

Added a heart and that was that!

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I'm a little teapot!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

I recently had the opportunity to make teapot and teacup cookies for a 5th birthday party.


I was able to pull design inspiration from the napkins and invitations. 






How about a good laugh?

Check out my lame attempt to be creative.


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Kate
Hello there! I'm Kate, a gal who just entered my 30's, with a sarcastic sense of humor and a passion for sugar, baking and royal icing.
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      • Cookie Birthday Party: Part 2
      • Cookie Birthday Party
      • Cookie Birthday Party Sneak Peak
      • Cornflower Blue
      • Walk like a penguin
      • Arkansas Razorbacks
      • Baby Prams
      • Linking Up & Having Fun
      • Valentine Sock Monkey
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