Open for Business!

SweetAmbs Etsy shop is back! Now that I've gotten used to my new schedule, I've reopened my online store. And since my little corner of the Internet is going to be featured in the spring issue of Brides magazine (Chicago, Connecticut, Maryland and South Jersey) I thought this would be a great time to reopen.

le bébé très chic

A customer sent me these invitations she created for a stylish baby shower so that I could make cookies to match.

Cookie Exchange

We had a cookie exchange at work this week and I contributed these cocoa meringue cookies with chocolate ganache filling. Meringues are great when you need to make a large quantity of sweets for an event because you can get a ton of cookies out of just a few ingredients. The ganache filling is optional and you can experiment with flavors like orange or peppermint in the meringue.


Cocoa Meringue Cookies with Chocolate Ganache Filling

Meringues - Makes about 8 dozen cookies (4 dozen sandwiches)
1 c Egg Whites
1 ½ c Sugar
¼ tsp Cream of Tartar
1 packet Hot Cocoa Mix

Combine egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in mixing bowl. Place over pot of simmering water and whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and beat on high speed until soft peaks form. Gently fold in hot cocoa mix.
Pipe meringues onto parchment lined cookie sheet using a large star tip. Bake at 200F for 3-4 hours. Turn oven off and leave meringues in overnight to dry.

Ganache – Makes enough for 4 dozen sandwiches
8 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
4 oz Heavy Cream

Place chips in a mixing bowl. Bring heavy cream to a boil and pour over chips. Let sit 5 minutes.
Whisk gently starting at the center and moving toward edges of the bowl until all the chips have melted and mixture is smooth. Let sit overnight at room temperature.
When ready to use, microwave ganache for 10 seconds and stir to soften. Place in a decorating bag and pipe ganache (no tip) onto bottom of meringue and gently press together with another meringue.

More cookie ornaments!

Edible Ornaments

These are my favorite Christmas cookies to make! I use a butter cookie recipe and omit the baking powder to make them a little less fragile. They last a long time so they're perfect for decorating the tree.

This recipe makes about 4 dozen 2-1/2" cookies.

• 1# 10 oz sugar
• 1# butter (softened)
• 2# 4 oz all purpose, unbleached flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 eggs
• 4 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, on low speed. Add vanilla. Sift flour and salt and slowly add to butter and eggs. Mix on low speed until flour is fully incorporated.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and divide into four equal pieces. Cover each piece in plastic wrap and chill for one hour.

Roll each piece of dough to about 3/16" thick. Rolling the dough out on parchment or wax paper dusted with flour will make for easy handling. Place the sheets of dough on top of one another on a cookie sheet (with parchment or wax paper in between) and chill for another half hour.

Cut shapes using your favorite cutters (I use the Wilton 101 piece set). Before baking, poke a hole into each cookie (a Wilton #10 icing tip works great for this).

Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees. Turn half way through baking.

Once cookies have cooled, decorate using thinned royal icing (recipe follows) Let the icing dry overnight and finish the design by outlining in stiff royal icing. You can then paint the outline using Wilton pearl dust in bronze mixed with vanilla extract. Tie a ribbon through the cookie and decorate the tree!

Royal Icing:

• 2 # powdered sugar
• 10 TBS Wilton meringue powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Small amount of brown food coloring

Mix powdered sugar, meringue powder and water on medium speed for 7 minutes or until the icing turns white and fluffy. Add small amount of brown food coloring to tone down the bright white. Set aside about 1/4 of the icing in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator (this will be the stiff icing for the outline). Thin the other portion of the icing using water. Add 1 TBS at a time until the icing becomes slightly thinner than yogurt. To check the consistency, take a spoon full of the icing out and drop it back into the bowl. It should take 10 seconds for the icing to smooth itself out. Store unused icing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

My Etsy shop has been on vacation mode for a few weeks now and I've been getting a lot of inquiries about my cookies! My new job has taken up much of my time so I'm not sure when I'll be able to reopen. I'll post an announcement as soon as my Etsy shop is back up!

Fall Photos

These photos aren't cookies... but beautiful just the same!

This little one was not camera shy.

I'm hoping to find some time to fill a couple of cookie orders this weekend. I've been busy at work making (inedible) wedding cakes! They'll be in print by next summer. I'm excited!