Research and Development

What do you think of these cookies?

What? They're just balloons, you say? and you've already seen me do balloons?  Well, look closer...

No, the cookies aren't super burnt...they're CHOCOLATE. Yep, you read that right!  Yum!

I've been wanting to try these for quite a while now, but have been busy with either a sick kiddo or orders.  I finally had some time this past weekend.  They turned out pretty good, but because I like to do a thicker cookie, I had to adjust the baking time and I think I baked them a little too long.  I didn't bake the whole batch, so I'm going to play with the baking time some more to hopefully get it right.  I also didn't like it paired with my usual icing.  I typically flavor it with almond, and for some reason I just didn't care for it.  I think I'll try it with vanilla another time (I still have the almond icing, so I'm going to use it on the rest of this batch, but the next chocolate batch, I definitely want to try vanilla).

What else have I been up to?  Well, let's just say, I made I big mistake on my next project...

I've been wanting to do some cupcakes for a while, and came up with what I thought would be a cute design.  Then I finally decided to make some.  I love cream cheese icing, so I thought I'd make that for my cupcakes.  BAD CHOICE!  I really should have known better too, but I let my love of it cloud my judgement.  Anyway, the icing is way too soft and my design did not turn out at all like I wanted.  I then tried a different icing tip, it too was a disaster (although I tried to cover it up with the Aggie block letter aTm), so I settled on the traditional tip which worked well enough, but was still a little melty.  Oh well!

I wasn't even going to photograph them because I thought they were so bad, but then decided I at least needed proof that I attempted something.  I will be attempting some again at some point with a traditional buttercream and hopefully I will have better results :)

The ones on the bottom right are the ones I was really wanting to attempt.  I wanted to make a flower design, and the petals were just running together a little too much for my liking.

Oh and one more thing.  I realized with my last post, that I didn't post the pictures of some cookies that I did just for fun with leftover dough/icing.  I had recently purchased a dog bone and was really wanting to use it, and the colors I had were perfect for it.  I also decided to attempt a zebra print.  It was ok, but I think I need more practice with it.  It's also not on a white background because I didn't have any white that I could use, so I just used the khaki.  Anyway, here's a pic...