Christmas Bears

Merry Christmas!  It's been 11 years since my last post.  Life has been busy and there hasn't been time to bake cute things, or if there was time, there was no time to photograph and write about it.  This last week hasn't been very busy so my kids and I did some baking.  I hope you will enjoy these cute cookies we made.  My son in allergic to egg so there is no egg in this recipe.

¾ cup Butter 

1 cup White Granulated Sugar 

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 cups All Purpose Flour (I may have used a tablespoon or 2 less)

¾ cup Cocoa Powder 

½ tsp Baking Soda

¼ tsp Salt

350 degrees for about 10 minutes

I rolled the dough in my hands to make the shapes.  I used a tablespoon cookie scoop for the head and made 2 smaller balls for the ears.  We used sprinkles from Trader Joes and used store bought frosting.  I warmed up the frosting a bit and used a spoon and toothpick for the bear's face and to "glue" on the sprinkles.

My daughter's 1st birthday party

Here are rest of the pictures from my daughter's Wallace and Gromit birthday party. To save money, I tried to make most of the food. I also made most of the decorations since I couldn't find party supplies for this theme. I worked on the party about a month before the party spending 1-2 hours on it a day, then the week of, I put in several more hours.

We served Mexican food for lunch. Most was homemade. I made a lot of the food beforehand and froze it. I did some research for food that can be made in advance and still taste good after being frozen.

The food table wasn't very pretty so I'm not posting any of those pictures, but the dessert table was my favorite project. I made several bite] sized desserts. The table is a little too immaculate, I think. Maybe a green tablecloth would have been better.

I made the banner and these little Shaun and Gromit faces from paper.

I made more cake bites, similar to what I've made in the past, except these were made from strawberry cake. Also I used my brownie pan to make them square shaped. I did that a couple weeks before the party and froze them. I dipped them 2 days before the party.

These were also strawberry, but covered in chocolate

This is the only Wallace and Gromit thing I own, besides the DVD's. I love this clock. I bought it from the Suncoast Motion Picture Company years and years ago when Wallace and Gromit was a new movie. I wish there were stores in the US where I could buy more stuff. I could buy online but I'd like to avoid shipping costs.

I made rice krispy treats a couple days before the party. Such a easy to make dessert and one of my favorites.

I made seven layer bars, but left out the butterscotch chips, so that made them 6 layer bars.
These freeze really well. I made these a week in advance and froze them.

Brownies!! love these boys! I ate a bunch. I made these a week in advance too, and froze them.

My friend made these beautiful whoopie pies.

Behind the whoopie pies in the 3 tiered stand, are a walnut vegan dessert my mother-in-law made.

Gromit sugar cookies I made.

I made the cake from a cake mix from the store. I also bought the icing from the store too. I colored some green and pink for the flowers and the grass. Shaun is made from polymer clay.

I had pictures from each month of my daughter's first year of life and mixed them up for a game. People were supposed to put them chronological order....but got too busy and forgot to do the game. Oh well, at least it was pretty! ha ha!

And that is that!! It was a lot of work but it was a labor of love. Anything for my favorite little girl! But it was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed baking and crafting. Since I've become a mommy, I haven't had time like I used to do all these things.

I'm a member of the Wallace and Gromit website and they have contests each month. I've submitted a few things in the past. I submitted the above picture this month. Oh I would love to win!! There's nothing like free Wallace and Gromit stuff!!

Gromit sugar cookies

I've been wanting to make these for a while now. It was fairly easy making those other dog cookies, I thought just a few minor changes and it will look like Gromit!! And sure enough, they do! These are cookies I will be serving for my daughter's birthday party tomorrow.


I didn't make these from scratch. You'll know why when I post about my daughter's party. It's all about the easy way right now because I am making pretty much everything for the party.

I bought a cookie mix from the store and just added egg and butter. I took about 1/3 of the mixture and added a tablespoon of cocoa powder for Gromit's ears.

I used a 2 teaspoon cookie scoop for make even amounts for Gromit's head.

The ears were 1/4 teaspoon of dough.

A semi sweet chocolate chip makes Gromit's nose.

Here's a picture of the dough.

Here they are fresh out of the oven! After baking, I added royal icing eyes. I bought these from a local cake decorating store because I'm too lazy to make them myself.

Gromit, you are soooo deliciously cute!!!!

Shaun the Sheep Cake Topper

I am a big fan of Aardman's Wallace and Gromit. Love Wallace and Gromit and I love claymation! My favorite is "A Close Shave" where Wallace and Gromit meet Shaun. I also love The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

My daughter's first birthday is next month and naturally I chose Wallace and Gromit for her theme. Yeah, yeah, I know she won't remember her first birthday and she doesn't even know Wallace and Gromit yet. I do let her watch Shaun the Sheep though. Unfortunately though, I haven't been able to buy/find party supplies. I was hoping to at least buy a tablecloth and napkins, but I couldn't find any. Nevertheless, I'm still going to have a Wallace and Gromit theme. I'm just going to have to make everything. I do have one thing... guess I can put it on the dessert table or something. It's a clock. A really awesome clock. It's the clock tower from "A Close Shave" with gromit on the side washing it, Wallace on the other side and Shaun on top. Gromits arm starts moving to scrub the tower when the clock alarm goes off.

Shaun the Sheep cake 2002

A few years ago, I made a Shaun the Sheep cake topper from Sculpey for a friend. And this was way before Shaun had his own show. My friend loves Wallace and Gromit as much as I do, So I decided to make the cake topper for her birthday. When I first made Shaun, I bought some fabric that looked like wool. This time I found yarn that was woolly and fluffy and it was much easier to use.

Here are the pieces I made. I baked them seperately, then glued them together after they cooled. I didn't make the black of the eyes with Sculpey. After I baked it, I used a Sharpie marker to draw in the iris. You'll see here that the body is quite thin. That is because Shaun is a thin sheep and I wanted to wrap it with lots of yarn to cover any little bit of black Sculpey without making him thick.

I made holes in the body and legs to insert a toothpick after it was baked. I wanted the legs to be somewhat moveable. Here you will see I had a clip holding the leg...that was because the hole I made in the leg was too small. When I inserted the toothpick, it broke. So here I glued it and put the clip on to keep it in place.

I wrapped the body and the tail a couple times. Then I knotted up some yarn and glued it on Shaun's head.


Here is Sofia with Shaun. She broke his ear shortly after I gave it to her. Thank goodness for glue!

Wish me luck as I attempt to make Wallace and Gromit themed banner, favor bags, and a few other things in the next couple weeks. And if any of you have seen pictures of a Wallace and Gromit themed birthday party, please give me the url--I need more ideas. many thanks.

Eggs and sandwiches

I hope all you mother's had a wonderful day yesterday. I had brunch with my family. It was potluck. I decided to make mini sandwiches and eggs.

i used mini bagels to make a cheddar cheese sandwich.

I saw several people of Flickr make these chick eggs during Easter and thought they were so cute! The beaks are made from carrots and they eyes from black sesame seeds. What you see on mine aren't black sesame seeds though! They are burnt sesame seeds! I only had regular sesame seeds so I burnt them in the toaster oven to make them black! hahaha! of course then they were really hard to work with because they were fragile pieces of coal.

I cut the bottom of the egg slightly so that the egg wouldn't roll over.