The new addition to the Cookievonster baked goods family

Introducing....

the MINI DONUT MUFFINS

I haven't been blogging for a while now.

I won't lie.

I was just plain lazy and I can't sit still long enough to complete an entire blog, even a short one. Something flickers at the corner of my eye,

I get distracted and I vanish into another world.

Lately, it has been the Sun. It was this little thing called 'Summer'.

Every morning when I get up, its shimmer sparkles on my young garden and make the fresh blooms glow and gloat with the widest joyful smiles.

It was impossible for me to stay indoors on the computer, so... I built a deck this summer to sit out at the back with my lap top. Unfortunately, sitting out in the sun got me even more distracted :OP

So.... I'll just have a to back track Cookievonster events now that the raining season has begun and I am stuck indoors.

Here goes...

I have a thing for cute little things. As long as they are teeny weeny and adorable. I love 'em!

I started Cookievonster with average to giant sized cookies, but as I ate, I felt awfully guilty after devouring just one cookie, and felt even worse when I follow it up with another cookie (..and another... and....). So most of my cookies were turned into mouth-popping mini cookies.

Some of you might know that I also offer mini bundt cakes topped with some pretty ooey gooey decadent toppings.... Mmmmmmm. But they were a bit messy to eat, and they were a two bite cake. I wanted to create a 'ONE BITE' treat.

I thought about all the one bite desserts out there and remembered that I love jam filled donut holes. Mmmmmmmm... Donuts! In the end, this is what I came up with. A healthier version of a donut, not fried but baked - I made Mini Jam filled Donut Muffins!

My first recipe was a fresh raspberry jam filled donut muffin with cinnamon and vanilla sugar. Oh my! I popped 8 in a row! Delish! Mind you I'm greedy and I have a big mouth to fit all the food that I eat all day long, but for the less greedy, the mini donut muffins are more like one and a half bites, but they are still cute n tiny!

After that initial jam donut, there is now a series of Cookievonster mini donut muffins.

1. Mini Jam donut muffins with Cinnamon sugar.
2. Fresh Lemon curd filled donut muffins with toasted Coconut.
3. Date and Fig mini donut muffins with butterscotch glaze.
4. Fresh Apple mini donut muffins with butterscotch glaze.

YUM!

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)

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

Give me Lemons... and I'll make some mini Lemon Cakes

Baby Lemon Poppy Seed cakes with tangy Lemon Curd

Someone gave me a huge bag of gorgeous juicy shiny lemons one day and what do I make, lemonade of course, what else? *wink*

Freshly juiced lemonade is awesome. But drinking lemonade everyday and all day long, a little less awesome.

What the next best thing? I cooked my dinners with lemon. I made lemon pasta, baked lemon chicken and a whole bunch of salad dressing.

Still I had some lemon left! I did say I had a HUGE bag of lemons.

I have never baked with lemon before but I do remember a pastry I once had which had some really yummy lemon curd in it.

I'm no fancy pastry chef, so I had to think of something else to have the lemon curd with.

So lemon cake it was! I looked through all my recipe books and surfed the net for some lemon cake recipes.

I selected a few that sounded great in my mind and made my first lemon cake. It was a loaf cake, kinda like a pound cake.

It wasn't too bad at all, especially when eaten with the fresh lemon curd I made to go along with it.

My lemon cake has come a long long way since that first trial. I had changed and tested more recipes than I remember, not all were successful, some, well... weren't that great.

I tried the creaming method, the folding method, the loaf shape, the bundt shape, the round shape, the layered cake and so on.

In the end, I found the recipe that was finally happy with. Its moist, its not too light nor too heavy, mixed with lemon zest and poppy seed and drenched with fresh lemon juice once its out of the oven. More importantly, it has great lemon flavour. Top it off with the creamy buttery lemon curd, awesomeness!

I usually make mine now as one big bundt cake, or as mini baby bundt cakes so that I can fill up each individual cake with just the right amount of lemon curd to satisfy each mouthful, YUMS!

Since then, when I do get some fresh lemons, I make... Lemonade? What lemonade?

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!!!!

The Rebirth of the Classic Oatmeal cookie....

I grew up in Australia, and in Australia we call an Oatmeal cookie an 'Anzac' cookie, and besides my tub of 2.5kg of Vegemite, my house is always stocked up with homemade Anzac cookies. How I wished that I also had a stash of Caramel Koalas at home too.... mmmmmmmmmmm.... Caramel Koalas.......mmm...

Everyone who has tried it loves this oatmeal cookie, and Sally calls it the 'Best Ever Oatmeal Cookie'....why.... Thanks Sal.
There is just something about it that is very satisfying, like a mug of hot chocolate. Especially when the oatmeal cookie is sticky, gooey and chewy with a little golden crunch on the edges, scrumptious!

These oatmeal cookies are usually just made with rolled oats and coconut, which are simple yet delicious. To add more umph! to the oatmeal cookie, I toasted some almond slivers for extra depth of flavour and added some dried apricots for a little extra sweetness and a touch of tartness. I guess that might qualify turning a plain Oatmeal cookie into a perfect Breakfast cookie :O)

Double stacked of cuteness...

I made my very first Iced Shortbread cookie for little Emma's 6th birthday party.
They wanted something different as party favours and asked if I could come up with something like the iced sugar cookies.
This project started my new hobby of hunting down and collecting cookie cutters, Yay! for me, but not so much for my little house that is already jammed packed with full of 'stuff' :OP
I'd love to try making my own too, if only I knew how to, but that will have to be added onto my long list of 'things to try'.
My cookie cutter hunt lead me to the idea of a double layer cookie, and I found a fab set of cutters to do just that. It was a set of one large 5" flower for the base and little individual petals and a bumble bee for the top layer. All in all, it was a total of 9 cookies in one. Quite the assembly job it was, but well worth the end result.

Anyway..... I don't know about you, but a sugar cookie tastes like sugared cardboard to me, more like a biscuit, and I'm not a big fan of biscuits.
I love cookies! So I could not make myself bake any biscuit-like sugar cookies. I just couldn't do it! I need to love what I make so I had to find a recipe that I loved to suit this very purpose. After spending a week of trying out recipes of different sugar cookies, I just dropped the whole idea of it and started from scratch.

What did I love? Well, I do love the melt in your mouth Shortbread cookie, so that was what I started with. I had to adjust my Shortbread recipe to make it suitable for cutting and icing, and still kept all the elements of a delicious buttery rich melt in your mouth Shortbread cookie.

A week and 8 attempts later, I got a recipe that I was truly happy with. It held its shape well, was buttery, with a hint of lemon n vanilla, wasn't dry, and tasted perfect! By this time however, everyone who lived near me was over loaded with shortbread cookies :OP

The assembly line for this cookie was long.... and although it was only an order for 15 cookies, it took forever! Let me put it this way, I had to individually cut, bake, ice and stack each of the 15 big flowers + 15 bumble bees + 105 petals = a lot of cookies!
After a lot more practice, thank God I work a lot faster these days, because those cookies took what felt like an eternity.
But it was FUN! Loved every second of it and I especially loved the Bumble Bees! I even made some extra bumble bees for the fun of it because they were just too cute :O)

So here's my Lemon Vanilla Shortbread Iced cookies