feathers and such

 First of all I have to say that these are some of my favorite cookies that I've made.

 I mean seriously... feathers! I'd never done them before, and to be honest it was hard finding a cutter for them (especially one that didn't look cartoon-y to me) so in the end I made my own. I didn't want to hand cut them because I had a lot to make...

These were for my friend Kelsey's wedding. She was doing a magpie theme so we went with a combination of feathers, footprints, and their initials.

She even had a cool font picked out for their initials. 

 I liked the addition of the footprints because the feathers and initials are bold, and the footprint cookies have a simpler feel to them.

A couple more of those feathers, just because I liked them so much... in fact I must have liked them, because they were packaged up in Valentino boxes. Because apparently I'm that fancy...

 And here they are at the wedding (I love seeing my cookies "in action", so to speak)

catching up

Life is busy - as always - so I've been neglecting this site. Although if you follow me on Instagram you'll know I haven't stopped baking! But I am way behind on pictures. Some of these will look familiar to those who do follow my Instagram, but not everything. Since this is a picture heavy post just click on the link at the bottom to see all of the pictures.  Ok no more talking, here is a brief view of some of  what I've been up to over the last 3 months or so (I'm saving a couple of my absolute favorites for posts of their own).

a random assortment of cookies

Life gets busy and I don't always get around to posting everything I want to post. So I was going through my phone trying to clear out some space when I came across these photos... lots of cookies I've never posted here. These are by no means everything, but I thought it would be a good way to catch up a bit. So here is a random assortment of never before posted cookies...

{monster eyeballs, for Halloween, if you can't tell}

coconut buttercream frosting - and a wedding cake!

My baby brother got married! I actually already talked about that in this post here, but that was the actual wedding in Idaho. Their reception was out here in Washington since this is where they are both from. I made the cake and about 17 dozen cookies for their reception. That, along with a couple other orders, is why I was so busy last week!

 According to Tommy (my brother). neither him or Carly are big cake fans. Because of this they didn't want regular cake, so they decided on pound cake with Coconut buttercream frosting. That, my friends, is a whole lot of pound cake! It was so good - but rich!

For transportation reasons, I had to keep the tiers separate and

assemble/finish the cake when I got there...

And of course I got there late, so I was rushing to get things done! As my sister says... that's what happens when you try on 4 different dresses and can't decide what to wear! It's true. In the end I just went with something that matched my boots because I just had to wear them... I wish I'd gotten pictures of those!

I had a helper though, so that sped things up was completely adorable but a major time waster! It's hard to get things done with a two year old trying to swipe a taste of frosting.

He is too cute to be upset with though!
Thankfully Grandpa swooped in and saved the day cake.

People were starting to arrive as I was finishing, but I think I did alright!

Tommy said they wanted a "homey" looking cake... I'm not sure exactly what that means... or if I should be offended that they came to me to produce something "homey"... but he's my brother so I suppose I'll give him the benefit of the doubt!

 Aren't they cute? Here they are exchanging their rings.

Carly just looks so pretty here!

Cutting the cake... you can see from these pictures that as wedding cakes go, this one is on the smaller side. They didn't want anything too big so the largest tier, on the bottom, is just 12 inches.

 They donned aprons while serving the cake - naturally my brother wore the girly one!

 So how about a recipe? The coconut buttercream frosting is just wonderful! Again, it's very rich - especially when paired with the pound cake - but so amazing!

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Coconut Buttercream

3/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp. coconut extract
3 tablespoons water
6 cups powdered sugar (about 1 1/2 lbs)

1. In a large bowl, cream shortening and butter.
2. Add coconut and water .
3. Gradually add sugar, a little at at a time, until all of the sugar is
incorporated. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl often.
Continue to beat until icing is light and fluffy.

* Refrigerated in an airtight container, icing can be stored up to 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.
* This recipe makes enough to fill and ice a standard two 8" or 9" round layers, or three 6" round layers.

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 I've got wedding cookies to show you guys too, those will hopefully be up tomorrow! In the meantime I'll leave you with this beautiful picture my mom took of the reception hall... I'll have to find more pictures of the reception itself, it was so pretty!

a wedding and a missed baby shower

Posts have been a little slow since last week... but with good reason!

That's my baby brother and his super adorable new wife! Since my husband wasn't able to get the time off work, my sister and I drove out together with our sons, and it was so nice to be able to be there! 

Here Matthew and I are freezing our butts off, but it was worth it! The reception out here in Washington isn't for a few weeks still, which is good because I'm making the wedding cake and cookies for the reception... and I haven't 100% planned it out yet. I should get on that.

While I was gone there was a baby shower for a friend I've known since high school! I hated to miss it, and really wanted to do something for it. Then I saw the adorable theme: cookies & milk. Um....PERFECT? I ended up making some little milk bottles with straws, and I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of them because I was in such a rush to get them done and pack for my trip at the same time! Luckily Merilee got a shot of them for me, and check out the rest of the cute baby shower here!

Ok can I just say... where do I get one of these cake plates for myself!? 

Anyway that's my quick update, it has been a very busy week and a half, but hopefully life will be calming down again soon. I've got some more cookies and another great recipe to share with you, hopefully before the week is out!