Top Cookie Design for the Month

From over 950 Bakers World From wide over 2000 cookies submitted I was top 5 for the month!!!!!

http://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/blog/saturday-spotlight-this-months-hottest-cookies

Sharing the love.

After recently joining Julia Usher's cookie site http://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/home

 I was amazed to see of the amount of cookie makers out in the real world.
 In the weeks since the site's launch we are over 900 members strong and every day more cookie bakers are signing up to join the best place on the internet for all of us to be under one collective united umbrella. Thus far over 1800 cookie photos have been shared. I was thrilled for 3 days to have some of my cookies at top 5  twice.

This is the 5th cookie under the heading of Hottest Cookie of the Day!

  For the month one of my sets is top 6 so far.Talk about being thrilled to tears! 
http://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/clip/wedding-cake  This only reinforces me to continue to learn and create and hopefully make new friends while sharing my passion.

Baking and designing cookies is a form of creative expression. It is as endless as your imagination.

There are so many ways to take a piece if dough and transform it into something delightful and artistic not to mention delicious.
I choose to work with Fondant , not Royal Icing for the time being.
And the therapeutic value to this also amazing.

Easter 2013

     I have spent much of the past few months studying ,experimenting and developing an addition to the lollipops and candies I already use for my Sugar Wishes bouquets. I thought the perfect addition was cookies. So here begat my new passion. Before I post the final union of my two loves I will show you what I have been working on. I have so many new friends on Facebook that I follow who have shared their tutorials and given me a platform to learn from! There is so much talent out there I am in awe. This new passion is partly born out of my love to create and partly out of a need to fill my time. And let truth be told, with the economy in Greece the way it is, there is a strong financial incentive too !    This is the result of my efforts:
     This first group is based on Royal Icing and a few techniques I acquired on my journey. All cookies are based on a sugar cookies recipe I developed using a combination of several recipes. It was a process of trial and error before I found what suited the climate of Northern Greece best.

                    I am accepting a limited number of orders for Easter in May .

Armed with a new set of cookie cutters and sugar paste I worked on these cookies.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

     Actually made some Sugar cookies today with my daughter. I wanted to show her how to make and work with fondant and use my new cookie cutters and stamps.
      The cookie recipe is from Signature Sweet Shoppe. Jenny Arata has her own  cookie business in California and gives great tips and tricks on her various videos on youtube. 
      I got the cookie cutters and other goodies from Cake by Samantha Shop in Athens. Ordering from her was easy and things were shipped and received immediately at reasonable prices.She is an artist making fabulous cakes.
      The fondant actually turned out really well and much easier to work with thn other recipes I have tried.
      It was a really nice project giving me time with my 23 year old daughter, Nanna, who is never too old to learn fun things and just being together was worth the effort. Enjoy!

Home-made Cake Pop Tutorial

Home-made Cake Pops

by Tina Tsourtsoulas

   "This is not my usual postings of my candy bouquets. This is a picture tutorial I did of making cake pops that can easily be put into buckets for birthday parties and baptisms I wanted to share.

These were made with my daughter on some downtime just hanging and being creative together. Something I treasure. Enjoy!" T

     A wonderful project creating something fun and delicious. Although they are easy to make they ARE time consuming so a little patience is an important ingredient.

     Box cake mixes and ready made icing now available in Greece make the basic pop easy enough. Bake the cake as usual and add a tub of icing, mixing the two together until it becomes like a sticky play dough.

     

Put the cooled cake into a bowl

Crumble

Add icing

Mix well

In the meantime melt chocolate over boiling water on the stove

While the chocolate melts you will begin to roll small balls of the cake mixture with clean dry hands. You may have to rewash your hands several times during this procedure since the mixture is sticky. 

I used a melon scoop to get a balanced amount in each ball.

Place on a tray with a non stick baking paper

And roll 

And roll- a box  cake mix should give about 35 balls.

By this time the chocolate has melted

You get out your cake pop sticks

Dipped them in the melted chocolate

And stick it into the cake ball. Repeat this until all the balls have a stick and put the tray of cake balls into the freezer for 45 minutes. 

While the cake pops are chilling gather your candies topping and colored sugars

Now gently dipped each pop into the chocolate mixture which is continuously over low heat

letting any excess  chocolate drip off for a few seconds before you begin to decorate

Using your imagination sprinkle the hot chocolate coated pop with different toppings

And stand to dry

One by one

Coat and decorate until they outer layer is dry.

Now bag them

Add a ribbon  and you have created a joyful treat!

I hope this tutorial helps you to create something special!