i heart baking

Baking has been something that I've always loved to do. Growing up, I remember standing in the kitchen watching my mom while she would bake. (and sing! She always sang when she cooked and cleaned. I find myself doing that now...much to the dismay delight of my family!) My mom doesn't bake as much anymore since all of us girls are out of the house, which has been great, since she's given us all her baking tools! But when my mom was baking a lot, she was totally the MacGyver of the kitchen. Seriously! It wouldn't matter if all we had were butter and green beans, somehow she could turn that into the most delicious, melt in your mouth, slap yo sista, yummy Snickerdoodle cookies. (let's be honest here, I really don't need a cookie to slap my sisters, I'd do that all on my own!) They were that good! And to this day, they are my most favorite cookie to devour all by myself bake and share! But as good as her baked goods were, she rarely used a recipe! All from her head. (I know, crazy!) And not like she just had it memorized, oh no, that would be to easy! She learned to bake, on her own, when she was very young, so a lot of her baking came from trial and error! And for someone like me, who absolutely HAS TO HAVE a recipe, my moms "a little bit of this, a little of bit that" is NOT what I like to hear when calling for a recipe! I need exact measurements here, Lady!! Being in the kitchen with my mom, spending that time with her, talking with her, learning from her, was definitely the best part of baking! (mom, don't cry now...but geez, I am a sweet daughter!)

Moving on...

I bake...a lot! (Shocking, right?) It's great because Britain loves being in the kitchen with me. She's my little helper. She sits on the counter top and dumps the precisely measured ingredients into the bowl and stirs everything up, usually making a mess! (like mother, like daughter!) But the one thing that I have a problem with letting her do, is decorate. That's my favorite part! (I'm selfish, so what!) Oh, how I love making those cookies or cupcakes look 'pretty'! Like to the point that it pangs me to see them being ate...my beautifully decorated cookies. Although decorating is my most favorite part of the baking process, I'm so not very creative. At all. Example...my bedroom is an exact replica of a bedroom I saw on the cover of a magazine! The paint color, the curtains, the bedding, everything! I can't can't put things together and it look good! (oh no, don't be sad! I've come to terms with it!) So what's a girl to do when she looks at a cookie as a blank canvas? (see, I can sound artsy!) Well that girl Googles the crap out of, uh, well, cookie decorating! Yeah, I'm a Googleholic! (Oh, I like that word!) And I am a follower stalker, (yes it is to that point) of some great blogs!! I draw inspiration from all over the Internet. The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle has to be my most favorite place to go. She's so amazing and talented! Like the kind of talent that, if you were petty and vain, which I am NOT, you'd totally want to not like her! But that's not how I feel, I'm secure in the talent that I, undoubtedly lack, so I love, love, LOVE her!! (uh, creepy much?) Another great blog that I follow is Sweetopia. She has great tutorials for decorating. And it's amazing what she can put on a cookie!! (I also have an abnormal obsession with cupcakes! But more on that later!)

Reading those blogs, looking at all those adorable cookies they've created, always makes me want to bake. And who am I to stifle one's dream? I've been wanting to try a zebra print and marbled decorated sugar cookie for awhile, and I finally just did it! I spent HOURS looking at I tons of cookies to figure out how to make mine look like that. I still wasn't completely sure, but I tried it anyways...they turned out super cute!! Unfortunately, I only have pictures of the cookies completed, so I can't really show you how it's done. But they are simple to do, and I know Sweetopia has a great tutorial on how to do the marbling! And really, the zebra was easy as well. Pipe lines onto wet icing, with a toothpick, drag the end to a point. That makes sense, right?

For the cookies, I have a sugar cookie recipe that I've had forever but I'm sure any recipe would work. I use glace icing when decorating my cookies. I prefer glace over royal because I think it tastes so much better...but either will work.

I found the recipe for glace icing over at Our Best Bites...she also has a great tutorial on decorating.

So here are some of the cookies I baked and decorated...prepare yourself to be overcome with the urge to not like me, because these cookies are freaking ADORABLE!!!

So sorry about all the pictures, but I am NOT a decision maker either...even if it's about what pictures to post!