Party On

This week’s focus is…         MENU Oh how I love food. After you’ve come up with your theme and your décor, it seems (at least to me) for the menu to come along naturally. I do have a few rules I try stick to. When I throw a party I generally like to have something crunchy you can snack on, something healthy(ish), something you could consider to be what I call “real food” aka something you would eat as part of a main meal, at least 2 drink options, and something deliciously sweet. Although I try to have some of the food options be theme-specific, I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary. People might remember if your food was theme specific, but they’re definitely going to remember if your food was delicious. Don’t feel like you can’t make some of your favorite staples for a party! Make food you would like to eat- especially if you’re hosting. You might just have leftovers. If you’re staple food is steak, or something equally expensive or equally larg...

Well, my acrylic stamps didn't happen to work out on the cookies, but I found a purpose for them. I was practicing dipping Oreos in white chocolate when I got the bright idea to stamp them. I tried a few different methods, but my husband had the winning idea. Take a look. My methods- leaving the stamps in the white chocolate while it dried, using a greased stamp (gross, don’t do it), and using a stamp on nearly hardened white chocolate The winning method (eh hem- Josh’s method), putting the stamp in the white chocolate then freezing the cookie That man is a genius! I think they turned out super cute. I can’t wait to use this for a party. I’m kind of a sucker for my dogs so I was actually thinking about hosting a dog’s day out. If not, then I’ll probably keep this in my back pocket for Optimus’ birthday. Like I said- I’m a sucker for my dogs.

Okay, I have persisted and I have a few tips. Fluffier frosting is definitely not the way to go. I used a fluffier frosting and the frosting ended up coming off the cookie with the stamp. This icing seemed to work much better. Secondly, brush cornstarch on top of the icing to limit the stickiness. PaperVine was so right about that! I had a rubber stamp and an acrylic stamp and the rubber stamp worked much better. That’s not to say that acrylic stamps won’t work, but I didn’t have an acrylic block to put the food coloring on. I used the paper towel method I read about somewhere (for the life of me I can’t find it), where you put paper towels into a Tupperware container and soak it with food coloring. You use the paper towels as a sort of ink-pad. Next time I may just shell out the cash for an un-inked foam pad. I’m also interested to see how different types of food coloring works. Some people swear by gel while others swear by airbrush food coloring. Thirdly, make sure you’re hu...

Well…tonight I was in a baking mood. Josh and I went to the store and got supplies to make all sorts of goodies. My plan was to hand-stamp cute designs on to sugar cookies, but it was not to be. Don’t get me wrong- the cookies were delicious, but when I tried to stamp them they turned into runny messes. I’m not impressed. Can you see the runny blue food coloring on the middle cookie in picture two?              I’ve been looking at some other blogs like PaperVine and CakeCentral about how to stamp the cookies- but they generally start after you’ve already put the frosting on the cookie. I think perhaps I need to use a thicker frosting or a fondant to really make it stick. I only frosted half the cookies so here’s to trying out a new frosting tomorrow! After all, this will be a much cheaper alternative to buying a KopyKake in order to make some Apraxia cookies. Getting a personalized stamp made is fairly easy and I’m sure I c...