Bakerella in T.O.

What a day!

I would never in a million years have thought that this would lead to this! Which would lead to this followed by this!  This brings us to December 4, 2010.  The day that Rich and I met Angie Dudley, a.k.a. Bakerella! 

Saturday Morning:

Saturday began with a thrill for Rich and I since Bakerella was in town for the signing of her new book, Cake Pops.  All of the excitement took place at Williams Sonoma on Bloor Street. 

What was even more exciting...

As soon as we got to the store, the employees at Williams Sonoma knew exactly who we were (once Rich mentioned our names) and led us upstairs to meet with Bakerella.  She gave Rich the biggest hug and began to tear up as soon as she saw me. It was the first time we had met in person.  She is definitely one of the sweetest people we have ever met.

Beside her in the photo above is Roseanne Dela Rosa, associate editor of Weddingbells magazine.

As soon as she finished her interview with Angie, she interviewed Rich and me for an article she will be writing for an online feed of Wedding Bells. That was pretty cool! Rich was super excited!

Saturday Afternoon:

By this time, it was well after the noon hour. After Angie answered many questions from her fans, she began the signing...She brought Rich and I right to the signing area (no line up for us). I noticed one girl whisper to her mom, "Mom, that's the couple who got married on Bakerella's site!" That was hilarious!  As we sat beside her so she could sign the book, she asked all of the fans in line if they remembered us.  No joke, people actually started cheering. It was nuts! We were a famous couple...for a few minutes anyway! 

The message written in fuchsia pink was perfect!

In this shot, she was eyeing my labels on the back of the cupcake sugar cookies I baked for her.

These girls were by far the most creative "gift bakers." Carolynn, (in the middle) drove in all the way from Ottawa just to have her book signed and meet Bakerella.

She and her friend Candy created their own original "Canadiana" to welcome Bakerella to town.  They included the most amazing moose and beaver cake pops! (Way, way more creative than my cookie pops.)

For those of you who would like a lesson on these cookie pops...here goes...they were were pretty simple to make.

I decided on cupcakes since Bakerella loves everything cupcake!

I used a skittle for the cherry on top and stuck it to the cookie with royal icing.

Then, I piped and flooded the cookie with more icing and added a few sprinkles as a garnish! Simple as a cupcake!  For my sugar cookie recipe, click here. For the recipe I use to make royal icing, click here. 

Saturday Evening:

Saturday evening was the "icing on the cupcake!" The rumours are true.  We went out for dinner with Angie and her mom!  And we had a blast! All joking aside people....Rich and I had dinner with BAKERELLA! We went out for dinner with the next Martha Stewart! The picture above was awesome...how funny is her mom?!  She was cracking up because as soon as our dessert, (buttery, phyllo pastry crepes filled with melted white chocolate and fresh blueberries) arrived at our table, Angie and I both took out our cameras and began shooting photos! I got a great shot of her taking a picture of the dessert!  

What a day!  It certainly was a memorable one for us. Thanks Angie, for including us in your first trip to Canada. We hope to meet again, perhaps on your next book tour?! 

Have you ever met a star before?

Bakerfella

I can't believe my husband...always coming up with some new idea to make me smile!  On Sunday afternoon, Rich forwarded me an e-mail he had sent to Bakerella just a few days before! Of course, (without telling me), he e-mailed Angie (Bakerella) to tell her that we are now married and sent her a link to my Cookie Seating Card Post.  As if that wasn't enough, he also sent her the link to our wedding highlight video. And now this...!  Bakerella posted a follow up post to our proposal!  Check it out by clicking here....Thanks Richie, I love you! 

Cookie Seating Cards

I am now married!

And I had a zany idea to make cookie seating cards instead of doing the same old printed seating cards. So off I went...

Day 1

I bought ten pounds of butter, a huge bag of flour, a dozen eggs, a new bottle of vanilla, 3 bags of sugar and some salt. I was on a mission! A mission that ended up taking...oh...only about 6 days to make and an extra day to pack....um...ya...the week before my wedding. I think that Bakerella would be proud! 

Day 2

Making the dough. To make the dough for these cookies I used my favourite sugar cookie recipe.  I divided each batch of dough in half, packaged each disc of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerated the dough overnight.

Day 3

I removed the discs of dough from the fridge and let them return to room temperature. I rolled out each disc on wax paper, piled up the rolled out dough and set it back into the fridge. The colder the cookie dough is, the easier it is to cut out the desired cookie shape.

After many hours of baking, I finally ended up with about 175 cookies!

I bought a new cutter for the occasion!  Love it!

Day 4

I finally found a fantastic recipe for royal icing!  I made large quantities of each, but I ended up having to double the recipe to pipe and flood all of the cookies. 

I found this recipe on Sweetopia who got it from Antonia74.

Antonia74’s Royal Icing Recipe
Ingredients:
6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar

Directions:
In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds. Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more. Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer. Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy. Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying. Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

I found that even to piping the cookies, I did have to add warm water to thin out the icing. But overall, it turned out very well!  A recipe that I am thrilled to share.  To flood the cookies, I used the same icing but continued to add water to make it even thinner.

Day 5

I must have been so busy flooding the cookies that I didn't take a single picture of my repetitious acts of squeezing the bottle to color in the cookies!  They turned out so well with very few air bubbles.  If air bubbles form, have a toothpick on hand to pop them immediately.

Day 6

I used almost an entire container of brown food colour to colour the royal icing for personalizing!  It took a very long time to personalize every single cookie.  I wrote the table number in the heart and the names of each guest on the body of the cake! 

Our apartment turned into a bakery!  Rich loved that!  He even wrote about it in our speech!  Whoo...the cookies were done!!!  Now...for the packing party!

Day 7

My family and friend Marnie came over to help wrap everything up! First, we labelled the bags with stickers that said "Melissa and Richard, August 8, 2010," then we bagged, tied ribbon, curled the ribbon and placed the cookies in containers in alphabetical order.

Ta Da!!!

I was very happy with the final product.

The cookies seemed to go over pretty well!

I had to make us each our own cookie!

Just call me Mrs. Gardos!

Cookies for a Wedding

A friend of mine gave her friends a cookie platter as a small gift for their intimate wedding.  The cookies turned out really well!  I think I am getting better at this, the more I practice.

I used purple icing for the accents this time, instead of the usual pink.

The icing turned out really well.

I followed the method that Marian from Sweetopia uses.  She uses the same icing to pipe and to flood. Click here to see some of her incredible cookies.   

Nonetheless, I am very happy with these!

The cookie tray looks great, don't you think?

Congrats to the newlyweds!

Enjoy!