Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti Birthday Cake (Vegan)

I made this vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti cake for Cassidy's 30th birthday. Every year I bake Cassidy a birthday cake from scratch, and this year I wanted to make something super chocolatey and over-the-top. I don't have a recipe for this, but basically I made some chocolate hazelnut biscotti and used them to decorate a basic 2 layer chocolate cake iced in chocolate hazelnut buttercream, and topped with chocolate sprinkles. It isn't perfect looking, but it tasted fantastic and was a lot of fun to make. After some time the biscotti absorb some moisture from the buttercream and they get a brownie-like texture. Yummm.

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Seahawks Football Cookies

I made some super adorable Seahawks football cookies! I'm not even a football fan (not in the slightest, actually) but after seeing so many cute cookies floating around on Instagram and Pinterest I knew I had to try my hand at some.

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Fall Leaves

These fall leaf cookies were made using the wet-on-wet technique using the Wilton Color Right System. I first saw this done by Sweet Ambs in this Youtube video. I wanted to make cookies that were super realistic and organic looking, and I think I achieved that! The nice thing about this type of decorating is that there are really no mistakes and no rules. You basically just paint some colors directly onto the wet icing, swirl with your scribe tool, and see what you end up with! They're like snowflakes - each one is special and different in its own way. 

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Monogram Baby Cookies

Autumn makes me want to use darker, bolder, slightly muted colors. These monogram cookies were made for the arrival of my friend Thavi's first baby, a sweet little girl. Thavi is a classy girl and I wanted these cookies to be just as classy. I also wanted to shy away from using the traditional pastels and pinks that are usually associated with baby girls so I opted for some bold jewel tones. Polka dots, stripes and swirl roses upped the cuteness factor. 

What is your favorite part about fall? For me it's definitely the changing of the leaves, hot drinks, and dressing in layers.

Decorated Sugar Cookies - It's A Girl!

It's raining babies! Baby cookies are quickly becoming my most frequently ordered cookies, but I don't think I will ever tire of them. There are too many adorable designs out there to try.

For this set I tried out a new technique - covering a sugar cookie with delicious homemade fondant instead of the usual flooding with royal icing. It's a great option for when you have a ton of cookies that need to be flooded with one base color but you are short on time. Sometimes commercial fondant gets a bad rap for its bland and chalky taste, but  homemade marshmallow fondant is out of this world delicious. It literally tastes just like marshmallows.

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I used Callye's tutorial for the swirl roses and Elise's recipe for the marshmallow fondant. And don't think for a second that I free-handed that cursive - Sweet Ambs and her tissue paper method  saved me there.

Honestly, where would I be without the Internet? ;-)

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Sweet Dreams Cookies

It is fact that a face, in particular a smiling face, can make anything instantly adorable. Although I'm pretty sure these cookies would have been adorable without the faces too. My favorite part has to be those little pink cheeks!

My friend Macey ordered these cookies to gift to her friends who just welcomed their first baby boy! These cookies remind me of softly lit nurseries, mobiles, and classic story books. So cute!

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Winnie the Pooh Baby Shower

When my good friend Kathleen ordered classic Winnie the Pooh cookie favors for her sister Anne's baby shower, I knew I wanted them to look a certain way. I wanted to try to recreate E.H. Shephard's whimsical and childlike illustrations, and while I wouldn't say these cookies are quite on his level of artistry, I was pretty happy with the results!

To achieve the nostalgic illustrated effect I opted to hand paint each individual cookie using gel food color as my "watercolor" and food-only paint brushes to paint with. While the process was time consuming, I think it was well worth the effort. I always feel happiest when I am creating something artistic with my hands. All my stress and worries seem to disappear, and it's so rewarding to see what you come up with at the end of it all.

Kathleen loves anything with peanut butter, (one of her dogs is named Peanut Butter!) and she requested that half of the order be peanut butter flavored. As usual when in need I turned to Haniela. I used this recipe. I was really impressed with how well the dough acted, with hardly any spread at all. Of course the end result was delicious too.  I'll definitely be making these again, they would be amazing with some chocolate ganache spread on top or with some mini chocolate chips folded in before baking.

I think my favorite cookie design of the set has to be the one with Pooh digging for honey from the honey pot. It's the quintessential Pooh!