May the 4th be with you, in cookies!
Every year, I bless my friends, “May the 4th be with you.” Every year. But last year, I went one further, and decided to do that with cookies for one of Jack’s special neighborhood friends who was celebrating a birthday.
*cue the Imperial March*
When it comes to Star Wars, my boys have had LOTS of toys over the years. However, one of the very easiest to replicate, I thought, were their special PEZ dispensers. Well, let’s just say that the cookies were made, and that the PEZ part was easy… but the rest? Not-so-much, haha!
I made a template for the handle of the PEZ dispenser itself. You can find the image HERE, and save it if you’d like. 
For the heads, though, I decided that I didn’t want to waste any time hand-cutting, so I used other shapes in my cookie cutter arsenal. Here’s a quick list:
- Santa head, right-side up = Chewbacca, Storm Trooper, Emperor Palpatine
- Santa head, upside-down = C-3PO, Darth Maul
- Bell = Darth Vader
- Tombstone = R-2D2
- Monster (in the center) = Yoda
- Skull & crossbones, trimmed = Anakin, Leia
- Oval = Luke, Han
- Heart = Queen Amidala (my fave!)
Now, I’m not going to highlight most of the people cookies because, let’s be honest – they’re awful. Do you ever look back at older work & shudder, wondering just WHAT you were thinking?! That’s these cookies for me. However, I’m pleased (still) with a few of them.
Emperor Palpatine.
C-3PO & Darth Maul.
Yoda, even though he really doesn’t fit that shape well, I suppose. Still, you know exactly who he’s supposed to be, right? Right.
And this is the only image with a good angle of little R-2D2 I have. See?
But like I mentioned above, Queen Amidala is my very favorite! Why? Well, I think she just *works* on that heart shape, and it doesn’t require a stretch of the imagination at all. Plus, she just looks so pristine, ya know? I love that.
One of these days, I’ll re-do her, and I’ll use the proper consistency of icings for each portion, etc. But for quick cookies for Jack’s friend, I think she turned out pretty well!
To construct the PEZ dispensers, simply ice the template shape above in sections, to add the dimension of the handle. In some cases, I used the same color for both areas, and in others, I used tone-on-tone for a different look (C-3PO vs Darth Maul, for example). Ice the cookie “heads” separately, and once both the handle and the head are dry, “glue” them together with a bit of stiff royal icing & let dry completely. Easy!
And that’s it! Go now, and of course, “May the 4th be with you!”
Arrrr, Mateys!
It’s time for Fletcher’s 4th birthday, and he chose to celebrate it this year with Jake & the Never Land Pirates!
Fletcher’s mommy has been a sweet friend of mine for several years now, and she has set a precedent in challenging me for his birthday cookies. Last year, I made him these Peanuts cookies for his 3rd birthday, and whew! They were so difficult for me at the time! Now, however, I made Peanuts so many times I’ve lost count, and they’re easy-breezy. In fact, I just did two more sets of Peanuts cookies this week!
So this year was a new challenge. And in the words of Barney (“How I Met Your Mother”), I could only say, “Challenge… ACCEPTED!” 
Just like last year, Fletcher needed a personalized logo cookie. I really had to smush the letters to make room for “Fletcher.” After all, it’s twice as long as “Jake” in the original show’s logo!
And then his mommy had given me a list of characters that Fletcher liked best. I did some researching on my own, and I absolutely *had* to add the lovable Tick-Tock Croc to the mix!
Isn’t he fun? In my opinion, the set just wouldn’t be the same without him!
Here’s a few close-ups of the other characters, too.
Jake himself, of course:
His buddy, Cubby:
His gal pal, Izzy:
I must stop here for a moment to tell you that Izzy does NOT look like she should. You see, I mixed up the perfect shade of light brown, and I filled in her face. Over the next two hours – and to my complete HORROR! – she changed to a MUCH darker shade of brown. Both of my boys commented on it the next morning, saying she was the complete wrong color. *sigh*
His trusty parrot, Scully:
Mean ol’ Captain Hook:
(He doesn’t look very mean up there, does he?!)
And of course, the bumbling old Smee:
Icing Smee’s glasses was a multi-step process, by the way. First, I piped all the outlines in black, including the eye “holes,” but I didn’t pipe a full oval, and instead, left it open-ended at the bottom. Second, I flooded in the whites of his eyes, leaving them a bit less than oval to make room for the peach icing to follow. Third, I flooded with the peach icing of his face. Fourth, I flooded his hair and the tuft near his ear with the pale gray icing. Once all those steps were set for a bit, I used golden yellow icing to pipe his glasses, making sure to pipe large enough ovals to touch the original black piping icing where it left off, for a seamless look. Then, I filled in the glasses with a pale blue flood, and I left it to dry overnight. Lastly, I drew on the thinnest lines to complete his eye “holes” inside the blue lens of his glasses with a fine tip black edible food marker. Ta-da!
Besides the characters, I made a few “filler” cookies as well. Fletcher’s mama had requested treasure maps and #4 cookies, and I made several of each. In fact, instead of going with my usual striped number cookie, I borrowed a design from the talented Krista, of Cookies With Character, to make the pirate-y #4′s instead. I also threw in a couple large ships. After all, Jake needs a ship to be a pirate, right?!
I hope Fletcher has a fabulous pirate party tomorrow, and I’m glad I could make cookies again for the festivities! My youngest son is named Jack, and we threw a BIG pirate party bash years ago for his 5th birthday (more pictures & party details than you ever wanted to know!). In fact, indulge me for just a moment in this throwback of my little man:
And now, Mateys, it’s time to walk the plank!
Hippity-Hoppity, Easter’s on it’s way!
Easter 2013. How is it already possible that it’s Easter?! Where has 2013 gone, and how do I get it to S-L-O-W down?!
My parents & sisters were able to visit over Spring Break, and on their last day here in Texas, we got a chance to “play cookie” together. Meaning, they each picked shapes & I cut out the dough as desired. Then I made an array of colors of icing, and we sat down at the table together to “play” with a few designs. I got a chance to use a few cutters that I’d never used before, and really just enjoyed decorating however I felt. Fun!
I love these simple little mini chicks that I first saw from Elizabeth at SweetArt Sweets, and they were perfect for my mom to make without too much trouble. She broke her wrist on Christmas Day, and while the break is healed, she is still recovering her strength. These chicks were perfectly cute without a bunch of piping necessary.
Hail to the Chief!
♪♫ Hail to the Chief,
He’s the one we all say “Hail!” to! ♫♪
The entire time I’ve been working on this President’s Day cookie project, that’s the song snippet that has been rolling through my brain. Remember the movie My Fellow Americans?
So today is a day to celebrate our Presidents! I bring you this man. Or perhaps, this cookie, I guess. This patriotic “man cookie.”
Do you know who it is right away? (Please don’t say Ben Franklin, okay? I might cry. It won’t be pretty, and I’ll think that you love me about as much as my two boys do, for that’s exactly who both of them guessed it was when I was like, “Ta-da! Hey, do you recognize this guy?!”)
It’s John Adams! The first #2 of the United States!
I guess I should take some solace in the fact that a lot of the Presidents, especially the first ones, look sort of the same – like REALLY OLD DUDES. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself while I drown my sorrows in hot chocolate.
About that #2 business… (ha, I just cracked myself up!) … He really was second in a few different ways! You see, he was the first Vice-President, under dear ol’ George, of course. And then four years later, he was the second President, too. He was also the second President to die on July 4, 1826, as his successor, Thomas Jefferson, died just a few hours before him that morning.
Golf Valentine Cookies.
I’m not much of a sports girl. My husband is into both wrestling (yes, all fake) and Nascar racing (they just turn left!), and I know more than I would like to about both of those, but that’s pretty much it. I’m all about the Winter Olympics (Apolo Ohno, anyone?), and then I can cheer, scream, and whoop with the best of ‘em. I have a feeling it’s more about my patriotism than the actual sports, but I just know I enjoy them.
A LOT.
In fact, I have even squirreled away a short letter from Evan Lysacek after he medaled Bronze in the ’06 Games in Torino. It’s pretty precious. ♥
But I know nothing about golf. Nada, zip, zilch. Well, except that it’s kind of like putt-putt, and I’m fond of that. The best part of playing putt-putt, of course, is picking out a brightly colored ball. Somehow, “golf” misses the point of that, and it appears that everyone plays with plain ol’ white balls.
Oh, if I were in charge.
But this sweet chick Stacy wanted to order cookies for her boyfriend for Valentine’s Day. He lives right here in Houston, and she’s way over in Florida, so my cookies were the go-between. She asked for a golf-y Valentine theme, and these are what I came up with for her man.
Welcome to Life’s a Batch! 
