ALE yeah, turning 21 is reason to celebrate. And in the US, adulthood means you can legally raise a glass. In honor of Denver’s craft brewing industry and those whose HOP(e)S and dreams are set by beer, I present two of my best BREW.ha.ha cookie sets.
Oh no I didn’t. Yes WHEY, I did! This order was for a newly married couple who met at the gym and were both into power lifting. The client gave me free rein with design and so I LUNGED into the puns. Never been so dead (lift) serious in my life.
Let’s talk about mistakes. I work incredibly hard not to make them. But I did. In my haste (4 different sets were on our dining room table that day) to get a friend her birthday cookies on time, I totally misspelled a play on words. No pun pride that day. Luckily, it was a dear friend and I gave them to her anyway. She said she didn’t even notice (that’s how good a friend she is). Despite my spelling fail, the gourds in the set turned out beautifully and the pun was perfect for the season. And, here’s the most important part, the cookies are always tasty.
Bottom line, I just want to pass along a hug to those of you who like things just so, who strive for perfection. It’s frustrating when things don’t go according to plan but mostly it’s US that care so deeply about perceived imperfection. Others, not so much. Here’s to continuing on. May the rest your day still be GOURDeous.
Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated in Mexico on November 1 & 2. It was at one time celebrated during the summer. Long ago it was changed to coincide with the Catholic holiday called All Soul’s & All Saint’s Day, and the indigenous people of Mexico have combined this with their own ancient beliefs of honoring their deceased loved ones.
They believe that the gates of heaven are opened at midnight on October 31, and the spirits of all deceased children (angelitos) are allowed to reunite with their families for 24 hours. On November 2, the spirits of the adults come down to enjoy the festivities that are prepared for them.
Sugar art was brought to the New World by Italian missionaries in the 17th century. The first Church mention of sugar art was from Palermo at Easter time when little sugar lambs and angels were made to adorn the side altars in the Catholic Church.
Clay molded sugar figures of angels, sheep and sugar skulls go back to the Colonial Period 18th century. Sugar skulls represented a departed soul, had the name written on the forehead and was placed on the home ofrenda or gravestone to honor the return of a particular spirit. Sugar skull art reflects the folk art style of big happy smiles, colorful icing and sparkly tin and glittery adornments. Sugar skulls are labor intensive and made in very small batches in the homes of sugar skull makers (although now production is becoming commercialized).
My “sugar skulls” for 2016:
Oh my, all the PAWSibilities when it comes to black cats and halloween. It’s a FURmiliar TAIL of word play and topic. This one is LITTERally PURRfect. Hope your Halloween is full of wonFURful treats and CLAWver treasures.
There are some people in life that you just HAVE to admire. These cookies are heading to a baby shower celebrating the coming of their FOURTH boy! Holy testosterone! (As you can tell, we have a mere two children. And I was pretty happy to have the energy for them….).
Blue and the number 4 were interwoven throughout the set. I added a little silver bling because everybody deserves a little bling (especially a mom of four!). The “4” cutter is part of the zebrawood cutter set from SheyB ! They have such fast and friendly service!
This little outfit cutter is my current favorite. Can’t get over how adorable it is. Thank you Kaleida Cuts (so many designs to take advantage of!)!!! The clever technique is from the genius Tammy Holmes. Utterly brilliant design. Utterly delicious eye candy.
Every boy in this family has a name that begins with the letter “C.” The fourth will as well. And heaven forbid that I not take advantage of a chance to word play. I knew love was in the foreseeable future…
Ryan wanted her birthday to be centered around jack rabbits. I did a cookie take on the invitation artwork (sorry I can’t give the artist credit/wish I knew who her/his name!) and added a few embellishments…
I wanted a soft background with lattice work (those rabbits had me thinking of Mr. MacGregor’s fence but with something sweet for 5 year old girl …). Stencil hero Killer Zebras came through again with just the right touch.
After I flooded the cookie in pink and airbrushed gold sheen (Americolor), I put the base of white royal icing for the bunny (and the black eyes about 4 hours later). They dried overnight before I added the details with my trusty Rainbow Dust pens. Luckily I had some purple flowers I had made with leftover icing from another cookie set; they worked perfectly to sync up with the invite design. And the result:
In MamaMayer’s garden…
So my amazing friend Lisa was fast approaching another birthday. How could I make her laugh and let her know that she is showing no signs of aging? By expressing my sentiments in cookie, of course.
This box of cookies was taken to a Croquet and Rose’ themed birthday by a party guest. Got to love a cute theme that rhymes! And what could go wrong at a party that mixes excessive amounts of wine with a large mallet and heavy, hard ball?
I may or may not have had to do some “research” about rose’ wine???????
I am so happy for Katherine- that she is graduating from high school and heading to Pitt to study neuroscience. But, dang, she is the youngest of the swim kids with whom our children hung out! All this growing up is happening! An era of chlorine is over (I mean, even Michael Phelps is retired now). Yikes!
In any case, it was one last graduation set to make. I made two platters: one focused on the nerdy inclinations and the other on her future university, Pitt.
For the Geek inside us all (okay, maybe not ALL of us), I focused on some biological responses. #nerdsrule #chemistryiseverywhere Those stamped clever/nerdy sayings came from pencils I bought from Newton and the Apple.
But my favorite was the Myelin sheath dress. (I try to come up with my own clever creations whenever possible. I think this is another Mama Mayer original.)
Lastly, here are a couple of close ups for the Pitt cookies. I have a thing for puffy cookies….
Mama Mayer Bakery 