Afternoon Tea at Van Dusen Gardens

61st Annual Rose Show and Craft Sale

at the gorgeous Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, BC

Sunday 20th June, Father's Day, 12:30pm-4:30pm

Father's Day cookie Set

Flower Cookie Pop - 3 cookies

Waffle Ice creams to welcome summer

I'd like to invite you along with the rest of your family to the

Vancouver Rose Society 61st Annual Rose Show and Craft Sale this Sunday,

at the beautiful Van Dusen Botanical Gardens.

Come celebrate Father's Day at Van Dusen Gardens, especially if your dad is an avid gardener, come for a stroll and have afternoon tea or coffee in the perfect setting for a special day.


This year they have taken a “sweet” turn and welcomed some Bakery Market vendors,

and Cookievonster, that'll be ME incase you're wondering who :OP

will be serving up some yummilicious baked goodies for the day,

such as mini donut-muffins, mini cakes and an assortment of fantabulous cookies,

including some Father's Day, Canada Day and Garden themed decorated shortbread cookies.
There will be tables to sit and enjoy a tea party with yummy treats, and still take some home.

We are also looking forward to seeing an array of tables with Garden related products.

The Rose show will also feature a judged Rose show in over 150 classes, 25 awards, expert demonstrations, throughout the show by leading rose experts and judged photography exhibit,
Of course, there will be Roses of every possible kind and size,
Hand tied bouquets and blooms at the end of the show for sale

as well as other perennial plant material.

Vancouver Rose Society Annual Rose Show, in Floral Hall, Cedar Room & Covered Walkway.
12:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Hope to see you this Sunday :O)

Cookievonster's new 'LOADED' cookie

Green Tea Shortbread cookie

I am... first and foremost, an Artist

My biggest love <3

Has any of you ever sat down and thought to yourself, "Am I a right brain person, or am I a left brain person?"

Here's a little test for you to try and see if you are a Righty or a Lefty

http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_test.htm

I'm a Righty

And am kinda proud of it! Kinda because sometimes I wish I wasn't so absentminded and a little less loonie! But, I like being who I am, I'm also a Libran, which adds to my Looniness

*wink*

To write this blog, I did some reading on what the characteristics of a Righty are, and I giggled all the way through it. It was spot on!

Basically...

Righties are creative, absentminded, philosophical Dreamers!

I am also sure I have a slight case of ADD and OCD. When I was working on projects like clubs and bars and restaurants, we were always nominated to have the cleanest washrooms, so imagine my house. I spend 80% of my life cleaning, and 20% stressing that its not clean enough. Things are never perfect enough for me, I can always do better. And I always wonder off topic, because everything interests me and I bore easily. And I'm starting to wonder what the point of this specific blog was about. HAH! That might be the Libran in me however. Oh, and its also because I am a dreamer and absentminded, and loving it!

Anyway, why this brain topic? I've had a week to sit back and not do any markets or baking or stressing about where Cookievonster was going. To reflect back on what my aim was, and trust me, this is hard for a righty, we don't plan; actually we do, but we most probably might not follow it, and we don't wrote things down, and even if we do... we'd probably make a few more list because we just find it more fun than actually following the list. Righties just do it, like the NIKE ad - DO IT! Set the target and DO IT! DOOOOOOO IT! I love saying that, DOOOOOO IT! heheheheheh

(Oh, any future possible investors/ partners in my business, have no fear... Cookievonster is here, heh heh. I might be absentminded, but I am extremely good at what I do, and everything else I take on. I literally just don't know any other way of doing things. Whatever I do, I only know how to do it at my very best, and I wasn't called the "bulldozer" in one of my past companies for no reason :OP )

oh dear, off track again.... My aim... and for those of you who have read my very first blog entry, my aim is to open up my own cafe in the near future.

Cookievonster just happen to be a stepping stone towards that aim. I have been working hard, putting my very best on all my baking and preparation for Cookievonster that I haven't had time to step back and analyze my journey. Its always best to remember who you are before you continue on your journey in life, because if you forget who you are, you will follow the wrong path and end up at the wrong destination. But if you ideally know who you are, all paths in life, good or bad, will lead you to the right destination. Well, that's what I like to believe anyway. So I try once a while to remember who I am.

Who am I?

I am a Righty!

And I am an Artist.

I was redesigning my website and was thinking how my custom decorated cookies were different from the rest. How? I am first and foremost an Artist. That is how I am different. To me everything I do is Art. From designing my house, to my furniture, to painting a mural on my wall, my cooking, my baking, my garden, my previous jobs, I see everything as Art. I see life itself as Art. I see beauty in everything.

My conclusion, I do not just make decorated cookies, I make edible Art. I take cookie orders that excites me, and from people who understands and appreciates it as Art. I make decorated cookies for the love of it, its not a job, its my passion to have a chance to get inspired and create Art for people who understands this. I give my best because I love it and hope others will too :O)

Bacon heaven, in a cookie...

Who loves Bacon? Hands up!

ME! ME! ME!

I LOVE BACON!

Last Christmas a friend gave me a bar of chocolate. Not just any chocolate bar. It was a fancy gourmet BACON chocolate bar. A Vosges Mo's Chocolate Bacon Bar to be exact. I had seen a bunch of desserts made with bacon on TV lately. Its the "IN" thing, that and Matcha. Green tea is vastly promoted as a healthy ingredient, a healthy habit, and Bacon... well, I'd promote it simply as AWESOME! Bacon makes me happy. I have bacon and eggs as often as I can, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Saturdays, Thursdays, Wednesdays, Sundays and Fridays.

After I had a piece of the bacon chocolate, I definitely had to make something chocolate and bacon. How can I not? Two of my absolute favourite foods in the whole world!

I did my research as usual, and went and tested all sorts of bacon from the deli. Picked up some sausages and cold cuts at the same time too, just to keep the bacon company :OP

In the end, I settled on the aromatic Applewood Bacon.

I started making various versions of bacon brownies, because I loved the chocolate bar so much. MMmmmmmmm... they were GOOD.... and rich.... and very very good. I topped my brownies with some home made smoked coffee infused sea salt to intensify the flavours of the bacon and chocolate. Everyone raved about how wickedly good they were. Addictive, sinful and fantabulous! I was very happy with them, bacon makes me happy, bacon and chocolate makes me even happier.

I had planned to add the Bacon brownie to my list of goodies for sale at the market, but I am Cookievonster after all, and at the Baker's Market, I am situated next to Lily (Yaletown Brownies) who specialized in some pretty decadent brownies.

So I decided to switch and make some bacon cookies. It was an easy task, all I really did was mix the applewood bacon into my Chunky Chewy Brown butter Chocolate Chip cookie and sprinkled it with some coffee sea salt.

Why change a good thing? I still loved my chocolate chip cookie, and it made perfect sense to combine the two. Heavenly. So happy!

Well, now my Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookie has taken over the sales of the Chocolate Chip cookie, so I only make the Bacon one these days for the markets.

So calling all bacon lovers out there, drop by the BLIM Market this Sunday 23 May, 2010 @ the Heritage Hall (Main & 15th) and pick up some delicious mouth watering Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies.

Mother's Day cookie Sets

Please drop by the Baker's Market this Saturday 24, April or 1st May to put your order in with your 50% deposit.

'AJ' set - 3pc set, 3.5inch each, wrapped in a pretty box with ribbons and homemade gift tag.

I had spent the last 3 days working on these sets for Mother's Day, and I suddenly realized.... it's HARD work! Lucky for me I try not to think of this as work, but fun, and it is lots of fun!

Many things inspire me when I research for ideas, but for Mother's Day I kept coming back to two designers who ideally represents motherhood in their work. I have always been touched byAnita Jeram's work, and her beautiful art inspired me to create a set of Mother's day cookies just for her. Now if I only knew where to send the cookies to her... anyone? anyone???

'Mom's Tea Party' Set - 5pc set, 3.5inch each, wrapped in a box with ribbon and homemade tag

'Me & Mom' Set - 3pc set, 3.5inch each, wrapped in a pretty box with ribbon and homemade gift tag.

'Birdie' Set - 3pc set, 3.5inch each, wrapped in a box with ribbon and homemade tag.

'Tickled Pink Teapot' Set - 3pc set, 3.5inch each, wrapped in a box with ribbon and homemade tag.

'Peacock' Set- 2pc set, 3.5inch each, wrapped in a pretty box with ribbon and homemade tag.

'Porcelain TeaPot' Set- 3pc set, 3.5inch each, wrapped in a pretty box with ribbon and homemade tag.

'JR' set - 2pc set, 3.5inch each, wrapped in a pretty box with ribbons and homemade gift tag.

Here is the design inspired by jewellery designer Janel Russell. I love the simple message of a mother's love and her relationship with her child. So sweet...

I'm off to finish off my two other designs and will post the photos up tomorrow, so please come back and check it out and maybe you'll find one just right for your mum :O)

'TEA PARTY' with Cookievonster

HAVE A COOKIEVONSTER "TEA PARTY"

Box of assorted freshly baked Mini goodies ONLY $10

A different TEA PARTY surprise every week

ONLY at the Baker's Market,

every Saturday 11am-3pm.

I've always dreamed of having my own little English Cottage, or an old Tudor mansion or castle wouldn't hurt, with an English Garden filled with roses, peonies and every other plant imaginable surrounding the house. All snuggled up in a cozy leather arm chair with a woolly blanket and a cup of tea... OK, so I lie, only Coffee for me, but cookies and cakes for sure! and looking out into my garden with one or two faithful companions by my side. How perfect would life be. Of course in my dreams... it never rains in England. And that's because I've been there twice and it never rained! How lucky!

I had mentioned that the 1st thing I ever baked was a fruit flan, the second thing were scones, some 4 years later. When I moved into my first house with my buddy Bruce way back then, we were so excited.

It was the oldest town house on the block, next to a train track, the whole house would rattle when the train passed by. It was cold and dark, the walls peeled, and as for fun, we used to throw things at the wall to watch the brick wall crumble into tiny bits. He took the room on the 2nd floor, I took the top floor. This house was so old it had a manual 'maid's bell' from the top floor.

We were sure it was haunted too. We used to wait for each other to finish school or after work late at night so we could meet and come home together, simply because it was a little scary at the beginning. I also remember the old wood fire place we'd use to hover over in winter to keep warm. There was a fire place in every room, not that it ever warmed up the bedrooms at all, smoked us out though, but it was nice!

The whole house squeaked, windows jammed, lights were too dim, BUT it had a working oven. It was the best fun Bruce and I ever had when we first moved in. He made chicken rice soup, and I made scones. I can't remember much about my scones, but I sure do remember his chicken soup, yum!

Where am I going with all this? Ever notice how certain food brings back memories of good times? Food and good times always seem to go together.

Oh yes, TEA PARTY! I love tea parties! I started organizing Tea parties when I was about 2, with all my toys, my plastic tea set, and some of mum's cookies. LOVED TEA PARTIES!

I still love a good Tea Party.

But I'd like to have it in England somewhere if I can :O)

For now, I'll have to settle for my own little tea parties in my back yard which I had spent the last 2 years turning into a proper garden from scratch.

'Always do what you love and you'll love what you do' people say all the time. Since I love tea parties, I had decided to make a box of TEA PARTY mini cookies and mini cakes. A perfect tea party should have a good assortment of baked goods, so I have planned to put together a variety of mini goodies every week till Mother's day week just for the TEA PARTY box.

I hope you'll drop by and grab yourself a box of my Tea Party goodies, and start your own precious memories of good times.

More Easter goodies

Fresh Raspberry buttercream Shortbread sandwich cookie

Easter Cookie Galore

Easter Basket of Mixed Decorated Shortbread cookies and assorted Chocolate Nests.

Cookievonster Special Easter Box set of Assorted Shortbreads (Vanilla, Lemon & Chocolate), and mixed goodies of homemade chocolate Nests, chocolate eggs, bunnies and jelly beans.

Cookievonster Double Stacked Shortbread Cookies





Spring has sprung! Tulips Shortbread cookies.
Mini Cookievonster Double Stacked Shortbread Cookies

My Cream Cheese chocolate fudge cookie

It was one of those nights where I was tossing and turning in bed unable to fall asleep. When that happens, I usually think of food and end up making myself a vegemite cheese sandwich, or a vegemite banana cheese toast sandwich… I know… it’s a bit odd but I love it.However, that night I thought best to skip a late night supper. Unfortunately, that just made me think of food all night long. But then again, I am always thinking about food. I’m greedy like that :OPSome people read novels in bed, some read magazines, I read recipe books or surf online for recipes, and imagine cooking or baking them and what they taste like. I want to make everything I read, especially when there are pictures that just make me drool. Needless to say, I always end up getting even hungrier in the middle of the night and end up going down to have my sandwich anyway.

My mum makes a pretty wicked chocolate marbled cheesecake and that was on my mind that night, simply because I was craving chocolate. Then I thought to myself, “ that would be a pretty good cookie too”. I got all excited and surfed the net, and sure enough, there are lots of chocolate cream cheese cookie recipes out there. Yum yum!

The following days, I tried a couple of recipes out. All of them mixed the cream cheese into the dough, and I didn’t find that the cream cheese flavour stood out enough. If it was going to be a cream cheese cookie, I would like the see the cream cheese and taste it, just like my mum’s marbled cheese cake.

So instead of mixing the cream cheese into the dough, I marbled it in. I was so happy with it, because it sure looked pretty and mum would be proud. Heh heh...

Still, I really wanted the cream cheese to be more profound. The trial went on and on, until I thought of the ‘thumb print’ cookies. Why not just stick a dollop of cream cheese in the middle? Well, the end product ended up becoming my Signature and best selling cookie, and my very own favourite cookie. Never do I fail to make some extra ones for myself when I have an order for it. It taste just like a rich creamy chocolate truffle that has a little crunch but still melts in your mouth.... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yum!

After writing about it, I have to go and make myself some right now when I log off *wink*

Going to the BLIM Holiday Crafts market...

I am finally done with the Vancouver Baker's Market. What an experience it was. Deprived of sleep baking into the wee hours to make sure everythig was fresh, learned lots, met lots of great people and had a fab time... when I wasn't half asleep that was :O)
I'm still baking like a mad woman at the moment to fulfill all my custom cookie orders, I think my right arm is much bigger than my left now from all that icing.
I'm a bit sad, and a bit relieved at the same time that the Baker's Market is over... I really enjoyed it, but I am also swamped with custom orders which I need to put all my love into for now.

However, I have a one-day Crafts Market to attend this Sunday. I got invited in at the last minute and since its a craft market, it'll be a little different from the Baker's Market I presume, and I am quite excited!!!!

http://blim.ca/2009/11/30/sun-dec-20-blim-monthly-community-market/

I'm planning to make mini version of my specialty cookies, plus some decorated gingerbread and shortbreads for the holiday season. So if you are free.... do come by and check the market out... I'm sure I'll be buying lots of my Christmas presents from the market as well because I just love all things handmade.

:O)

The boxes have arrived....

I ordered some clear boxes for my Gingerbread Christmas Trees and they had finally arrived.
They fit perfect!
Well..... they were a bit bigger than I expected so I had to make a couple of new bigger trees for it.
But since I really like making these trees, I didn't mind one bit.
Love 'em!
They're the cutest gifts for the holiday season!!!!