These are a few of my favorite things...

It dawned on me recently that I started this little blog in hopes up spreading the word about my budding business, yet I didn't exactly showcase any of my favorite creations. Duh, Brooke! So here are some of my favorite cookies and cakes:

Last year's mitten and snowflake cookies for my Cocoa Bar at work

Cupcake cookies for a birthday

Baby onesies and bibs for a friend's baby's sip-and-see

Dr. Seuss cookies for a baby shower for twins, aka Thing 1 and Thing 2

Cookie platter for a pharmacy school graduate

Baby shower cakes for coworkers. The monkey is actually 2 cakes - a 3D monkey on top of a 1/2 sheet cake.

Cookie platters for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day at the office

Tinkerbell doll cake for a coworker's niece's birthday. She flipped when she saw it!

I can't wait to see what gets ordered next. I love trying out new designs and giving treats my personal touch. It's strange to look back at cookies from a year ago and see how much I've improved, while at the same time thinking of ways to make my confections even better. Hopefully 2011 brings many opportunities to do so, and I'll have even more to add to my list of my favorite things.

Ice Princess

Last weekend, my friend and coworker, Michelle, asked me to make cookies and cupcakes for her daughter's 7th birthday at the ice skating rink. Of course, she wanted them to be snow and ice skate themed. She actually ordered the cookie cutter she wanted me to use, and we worked together on the design. They looked adorable packaged as favors for the party guests. And it's clear that I need to use a real camera.

I also made the birthday cupcakes. The birthday girl requested cherry chip, and that's what she got. I got to break out the Cricut Cake and edible shimmer dust to make the fondant snowflakes.

It took some playing around with the Cricut Cake to get them right, but in the end I was very happy with the result. The little birthday girl had a great Ice Princess Party and loved her treats.

Bake at 350 on Pioneer Woman

I'm probably the last person in the world to discover the mega-blog known as The Pioneer Woman by Ree Drummond. One day a couple weeks ago, my Twitter was all aflutter with tweets about Ree being on the Thanksgiving edition of Throwdown with Bobby Flay (she won, by the way!). I'd heard of her blog but never visited. Oh man, have I been depriving myself. She's full of fabulous recipes, along with ideas for decorating beautiful tables. Her blog is a collage of awesome photographs with down-to-earth friendly commentary. It's fabulous, and I'm kicking myself for not checking it out sooner.

I was very excited to see that Ree recently hosted my favorite cookie blogger, Bridget of Bake at 350 at her Lodge in Oklahoma. Some lucky ladies won a day at the Lodge and hands-on cookie decorating lessons from Bridget. I am Jealous. Capital J. Bridget has been a phenomenal inspiration to me. I have tried out a lot of her designs and then tweaked them to put my touch on them. I'm always learning, and she's always teaching. When I had questions last year about making cookie favors for my wedding, she was more than happy to answer questions, and I appreciate it so much. So please, go check out Bridget's visit to The Pioneer Woman's ranch, and then go check out Bake at 350if you haven't already.