Thursday, December 17, 2009

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.


Monday, November 23, 2009

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!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

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!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Cover Girls

I sent these cookies off to a magazine to be photographed. The colors may seem out of season now, but the issue is going to come out in the spring. I can't wait to see how pretty they will look in professional photos!

Monday, November 2, 2009

More Monograms!

I've fallen behind lately on my blogging! My time has been taken up by my new job as a free lance decorator for my favorite cake decorating company based here in Illinois. I'm still making cookies on the side for my Etsy shop so there is little time left to post!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Merci

Jacqueline is the creator of Merci New York - a fabulous blog for brides. I just had to share this great piece that she posted about SweetAmbs Cookies. Read it here. Merci Jacqueline!!


Wednesday, October 21, 2009

I'm back from my break and I've reopened my Etsy store!

These pretty plum and peach cookies are for a November wedding. I think the Brush Embroidery and Monograms go very well together.


Monday, October 12, 2009

Happy Fall!

I designed these cookies in collaboration with White Thread, a beautiful blog that has great wedding photos and ideas for brides in the Carolinas. The cookies will be for a photo shoot but the final selection isn't shown here so you'll have to wait and see what it is.


SweetAmbs is on a break. I'll be back sometime next week.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is one of my favorite things to make. I make mine with 2 loaves of bread, sugar, milk, heavy cream, eggs, butter, vanilla beans, cinnamon, and homemade caramel sauce. Yum!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

This had to have been one of the most fun orders I've worked on yet. The bride chose these colors for her Florida wedding and I imagine that it must have been a beautiful reception. Working with all this pink, orange and gold really brightened things up around here!

Monday, October 5, 2009

Pop Stars

Star cookie pops, pop stars.. get it? These pink zebra striped cookies were a custom order for a birthday party.
To make these cookies, I rolled my dough out thicker than usual. I made the cookies between 1/4" and 1/2" thick so that there would be enough room for the stick to go through the dough. I didn't want to just place the stick on the back because I needed it to be really secure for shipping.

For the icing, I covered the star in white and then went over it in pink stripes. I then used a scribe (or toothpick) to pull the stripes across the cookie and bring each one to a point. When they were dry I bagged them up, tied them with a ribbon, and shipped them off to the birthday party.

Friday, October 2, 2009

600 Button Cookies!!

These little button cookies were for the volunteers at an event in Canada called Walk to Remember. The colors were based on the ones here in this banner.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

A huge THANK YOU! to Junebug Weddings for selecting my cookies to be shown in their feature in Your Wedding Day Magazine! Junebug was chosen by the magazine as one of the top wedding blogs of 2009. Congratulations, Junebug Weddings!