One of my most favourite memories is making chocolate chip cookies as a child.  I think I started making them at around age 5, and then it became "my job" to make cookies.  I always used to day dream that I was teaching a cooking class as I was making the cookies.  I would pretend that I was giving instruction as I went through the steps to make the cookies.  The most important step was always to taste the dough once it was all made, before you cook it, "to make sure everything was alright".  That was really just my excuse to eat raw cookie dough.  I LOVE IT!!!  I would almost rather eat raw cookie dough over cooked cookies!  But, alas, I was told I could no longer eat the raw dough because I might die.  No one wants that...  Thankfully, some other bakers, who love cookie dough as much as I do, have figured out a way to have your raw cookie dough and eat it too!  I decided to try out a few raw cookie dough recipes, and here are my results:

The first step in edible cookie dough is heat treating your flour, to kill any bacteria that might be living there.  Preheat your oven to 350 and spread your flour out on a baking sheet.  Bake for 5-10 mins.  That's it!  Super easy.

https://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2014/04/edible-cookie-dough-recipe-two.html

Ingredients
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon  milk
5 Tablespoons  flour (To eliminating any bacteria risks, by toasting your flour at 350 degrees F for just 5 minutes we kill off any harmful bacteria.)
2 Tablespoons chocolate chips

I found this recipe on the internet titled as "Cookie dough for two" so I figured I would give it a shot.  I was also going to try one titled "Cookie Dough for One" but the recipe was nearly identical, so I figured the portions was just a matter of opinion.

This recipe was fairly easy to make, but it involved you mashing your butter and sugar together with a fork (due to smaller portions), so you better be sure your butter is soft for this one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be2waiwxHcI

I love Cupcake Jemma.  She makes some amazing stuff and is super entertaining to watch.  She makes these incredible looking cookie dough cupcakes, so I just HAD to try her recipe.

120g soft unsalted butter
50g chocolate chips
95g caster sugar
45g demerara sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g plain flour
2 tbs plain yoghurt
pinch salt

Super simple to make!  Just pop everything in your mixer and let 'er rip!

The third recipe I tried was my own variation, based off of my chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I'm not even going to bother posting it here, because it honestly wasn't the best.  It came out a little grainy and the flavour wasn't where I wanted it to be.

Cookie Dough for Two on the left, Cupcake Jemma in the centre and my own recipe on the right.  My recipe turned out much like the Cookie Dough for Two, but the taste and texture wasn't as good.  Cupcake Jamme's dough came out the smoothest.  It reminded me of the cookie dough that you would find in a premium ice cream.  I think it probably works wonderfully in and on top of cupcakes and cake.  However, for just eating raw, the texture wasn't what I was looking for.

My favourite was the Cookie Dough for Two (or for one, if we're being real here).  The texture and the flavour were exactly what I was looking for in an edible cookie dough.  Adding the flour one tablespoon at a time let me control how moist or how dry I liked my dough.  Also, let's be perfectly honest - if someone wants a little cookie dough to eat, making a huge batch isn't ideal.  These portions were perfect for someone like me, who wants a little cookie dough here and there, but doesn't need the temptation of a freezer full.

Finding a cake that would work for both my oldest Niece as well as my Nephew is becoming a challenge the older that they get.  Since their birthdays are within days of each other, it isn't always practice since we often have one family party, and there's only so much cake people can eat!

This year, I decided to go with a Galaxy theme.  I made cake, cupcakes and cookies (I'm trying to work on my cookie skills this year).  Everyone was pretty impressed with the display, and loved the dipped cookies!

Sometime the challenge of a cake is the recipe, sometimes it’s the technical aspects of the decorating work and sometimes the challenge is the deadline.  This time, the challenge was all of the things.  Most of my cakes are one-of-a-kind creations, which means I need to sit down and puzzle out exactly how I am going to make it happen.  Once you do something once, it becomes much easier to do it a second time, but I didn’t have that luxury with the Slot Machine cake.  This one was a doozy to figure out – and I was short on time!  Once the basic construction was done, and I had the shape of the cake right, everything started to fall into place afterwards.  I “cheated” a little by using some edible images to decorate some of the aspects of the slot machine instead of making them by hand.  Personally for this cake, I think this was the right way to go.  I wanted the reel to look as authentic as possible.  Some people have asked why the Cherries are the winning symbol instead of the bars, but that answer is simple – that’s what the customer asked for!  Inside is carrot cake with cream cheese icing.

I also made some cookies as give-aways for my customer.

This year, I get to watch one of my very best friends get married – to one of my other good friends!  We all met at work when we were kids in our 20’s, and I watch Josie’s and Roshan’s relationship develop and grow.  It started with a crush and before we knew it, Roshan was decorating Josie’s office with cute butterflies and hearts.  Now that they are set to tie the knot, I took the opportunity to jump in and make some cake!

Josie decided that, instead of a traditional bouquet, she would like to make a brooch bouquet for her wedding day (I had to google it to see what it was, and they are actually quite pretty!).  She decided on red and gold as her theme (being that the wedding is fairly close to Christmas) and she asked her guests to bring a red/gold brooch to the shower. 

I went searching and I found a lovely brooch at a second hand store.  I then went looking for brooch moulds so that I could make cookie favours for the shower, but I couldn’t find anything.  Never one to let life get in my way, I decided to take it upon myself to make a mould of the brooch I found.  With a little food-safe moulding compound, I was able to make 2 moulds very easily.  I then made sugar brooches out of gum paste and then hand painted all 40 of them, which in turn were attached to the short bread cookies.  They turned out amazing!
Of course I also made cake and cupcakes for the event.  The cake is a brown sugar spice cake, (which is Josie’s favourite) with cream cheese icing.  Yum!

About 6 months ago, I had to do one of the things I hate most – disappoint one of my customers.  I had made some amazing wedding shower cookies for her and she wanted to book me for another job, but I was already booked.  It breaks my heart to say no to people, but since there is only one of me, there is only so much I can do.  Luckily, a few months later, she called to see if I was free for a baby shower in September.  And since she was calling so far in advance, I was free!  She sent me a picture of a two tiered cake, covered in buttercream roses on the bottom and topped with baby shoes and roses on top.  Lisa’s Lemon Velvet was to be the flavour (lemon cake with cream cheese icing) of both tiers – so good!!

My client also requested hand made cookies as give-aways for her guests.  I made two dozen cookies, each with a slightly different variation on of the below themes.  These were so very much fun to make!  The decorating is when I get to go back to being a kid and get to enjoy being creative.

Last year it was Tomas the tank Engine and Lady Bugs, but this yeah Julie wanted Sesame Street to help celebrate her twins’ birthday.  Inside Ava’s pink cake, there is red velvet cake with thick layers of cream cheese frosting.  And inside Ethan’s blue cake, there are layers of rich chocolate cake and Oreo buttercream frosting.  So Good!  Julie also decided that she wanted some cookies as give-a ways for her guests and requested these Elmo cookies.  She let me go a little nutty with the colours and I was quite happy with how they came out.

It's not always about the cakes...sometimes it's about other things.  Yummy things.  Things like cookies and care packages.  Once a year, my family gets together for "Christmas in May".  My Dad, two brothers, sister-in-law and Auntie all have birthdays within a month of each other.  This makes it really easy on me to bake up a storm for them - and one of the things I love sending in a care package to my Auntie is cookies.  This year I decided to include some peanut butter cookies - topped with a caramelized peanut (a little trick I learned in the half-a-second I worked in a 4 star restaurant).  I also decided to include some cakes in a jar.  It's the only safe way I've found so far to ship cake.  Let me know if you want one!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a new customer seeking a cake for her daughter's baptism.  Bianca was interested in the ducky cake, but wanted it in the same colours as Quinn's birth announcement, which she kindly sent to me.  She decided on chocolate cake with vanilla bean buttercream (my personal favourite combination).  A couple of days after we figured out the plan for the cake, Bianca decided she would also like some cookies as give-aways for her guests.  She requested Q shaped cookies again with the colours of the birth announcement (pink, green and brown).

This week it was my pleasure to work on the Baptism cake for my good friend's baby - the gorgeous Mila.  Tara had seen a cake I did a few years ago for a first communion and she fell in love with it.  She wanted it duplicated exactly!  Inside is layers of vanilla cake, freshly whipped sweet cream and strawberries.  Tara also ask for me to make some cookie bombonieres to give away to the guests.  And as a last minute request, my famous peanut butter poppers were added to the order.  They were a hit and sold out before desert was even served.  The meal, by the way, was faboulous yet again.  I LOVE going to the Portuguese events - the food is beyond amazing.  I just have to learn how to make those custard tarts!

It's so nice to know that awesome people still exist in this world.  My friend Janelle called me because she wanted to say Thank You to her team in the hospital.  She had been doing a placement in the psych ward (I think?) as part of her Master's degree in Social Work.  She wanted cookies with smiles and "big teeth" to hand out on her last day.  I thought it was an odd request at the time, but if you ever spend time with Jan, you would understand.  She has an amazing smile which she flashes and brightens the whole room up.  These cookies did the same thing for me.  Every time I looked at them on the wire rack, I couldn't help but giggle.  Everyone should have a smiley cookie to brighten their day!