An experiment, because my Dad LOVES Sugar Cookies!

I saw a blog on Allrecipes the other day detailing Homemade Lofthouse Cookies. Lofthouse Cookies are the frosted sugar cookies with sprinkles you buy in the little plastic boxes at the grocery store, Target, Wal-Mart...etc. They are ridiculously soft and very tasty. I saw the recipe, and decided to give it a try.

The star ingredients! The recipe is on the bake of the Jiffy Baking Mix...and to get the authentic taste, don't make any substitutions. I don't normally cook with Crisco...but it was perfect in these cookies! The only place I have found the Baking Mix is at Wal-Mart...near the Bisquick. About $2 a box.

Using a hand mixture, blend the ingredients just until well incorporated. This makes more of a "batter" than a "dough". 

I used a large Star Tip and my pastry bag to pipe the batter onto my cookie sheet. I made these a second time as well just spooning the mixture on. Both ways worked great, but piping gives them a beautiful shape.

Top with your favorite Decorator or Buttercream frosting. Light, fluffy and crazy soft. I can see making these a little too often :)

Note: I got 18 normal sized cookies from this recipe...as written, if you made 36 cookies like the recipe calls for, they would be smaller than an Oreo.

Who doesn't love a good deal?

I had a half price coupon at Michael's last week, so I bought myself a set of cake decorating tips and bags. 4 tips, 2 couplings, 8 disposable bags and 5 colors for $4!

I started by just making up a batch of yellow cupcakes for my hubby to take to work.

I also doubled my favorite Cream Cheese frosting recipe when I made pumpkin bars, so I decided to try and make it chocolate! SO GOOD! I added one melted square of unsweetened baking chocolate and 3 TBS of cocoa powder. I also added about 1 cup of powdered sugar to make it thick enough to pipe.

I used a star tip and filled my piping bag with the frosting.

Nothing fancy, just playing around with frosting!

And for Mark to take to work- topped with my adorable Fall Leaf sprinkles from the Calico Bean!

Loving cake...for Breakfast and every meal after!

Second project for my parent's 35th Anniversary dinner...re-creating a mini version of their wedding cake :) This project looked like a disaster early on...but I saved it, and it was mighty delicious!

I started by baking two white cake mixes in 8 inch round pans...to make 4 cakes. I cut two of the cakes smaller to form a top tier for my cake. This was my first mistake...the top tier was VERY crumbly!

My second mistake, using Butter Flavored Crisco in my frosting. I didn't realize it would be yellow- which yielded an ivory frosting instead of white....but it was delicious!

I mixed 1 cup of Crisco with 2 sticks of butter, 1- 2 lb bag of Powdered Sugar, 2 tsp of vanilla and about 4 oz of heavy cream.

I put a portion of the frosting in a ziploc bag with a star tip in the corner for piping.

See..kinda yellow :(

After a terrible disaster with the top tier, I melted some of the frosting to pour over it and then chilled it. I did a normal crumb coat on the rest of the cake, chilled for 30 minutes and then proceeded to frost the cake.

My parent's wedding cake had LOTS of frosting...so I did the same :)

The finished product, decorated with daisies and yellow roses (which were also a little too Ivory).

And the happy couple...cutting the cake with their actual wedding knife! Happy 35th!