Good Things by David

Creating sugar cookies for my friend Jayne (a British expat) is always a pleasure because she gives me so much creative license.  She has been a big supporter of my sugar cookie craft for almost a decade now, and I have her to thank for prompting me to pick up the pace and churn out cookies by the dozen each and every season.   Her request this time around was simple: "design a set of Easter cookies for my family in England and make them pretty."  After going through my archive of past cookies, and perusing the cookie cutters in my pantry, I decided on a few shapes and designs for these special U.K. bound cookies. A large Easter egg cookie cutter, a large five inch plain-round cutter, and some very special cookie cutters from the former Martha by Mail catalog were all gathered on my large kitchen counter. I then quickly began to plan Jayne's cookies. Have a set of baked and cooled egg-shaped cookies and several large round ones as well.  Batches o...

It isn't quite Easter at my house until I've iced a few sugar cookies and have brought out my vintage Fire King jadeite.  With spring in the air and the promises of sunny weather, it's the perfect time to initiate an Easter egg hunt, and to make a few Easter baskets for the kids this holiday. I love Easter to no end.  The pastel colors, the dyed eggs and the endless sweets, bring back good memories from childhood.  Who doesn't remember getting those Paas dye kits from the local Kmart or F.W. Woolworth store? Mom would usually set out bowls to hold the dyes, and us kids would carefully dunk each egg into the smelly solution, turning them around with the little wire holder that came with each kit.  Good times! As I said, Easter just wouldn't be the same without my sugar cookies.  For family and friends, near and far, I baked and iced some whimsical hatching chicks and some hatching bunnies.  A few small, blue-eyed bunnies decorated with colorf...

For me, Easter evokes some of the best memories from childhood.  Weeks prior to it, probably around Ash Wednesday, mom would make it her duty to blow out eggs and save them for us so that we could dye them a few days prior to Easter.  Using one of those Paas kits from the local Woolworth's, we would set out bowls of boiling vinegar water and drop those food-coloring tablets in them.  Depending on what we wanted our eggs to look like, my brothers and I would give the eggs a quick dunk for light shades or let them steep in the mixture for minutes in order for them to take on a deeper hue. As much as I would like to dye Easter eggs these days, I find it so much more rewarding to color sugar cookies in the shapes of eggs, bunnies and other images, so that I can hand them out to friends, family and neighbors.   Over the years, I have gathered quite a nice collection of Easter cookie cutters, some of which are collectibles and others which are not.  I've...

Baking and decorating a charming bunny cake is such a sweet way to highlight a birthday party, celebration or other special occasion.  If you happen to have one of those cast-aluminum bunny pans that were sold through the Martha by Mail catalog, then it's as easy as whipping up some cake batter and baking it in the oven.  Swiss meringue buttercream can then be piped with a star tip to define the shape of this adorable bunny. I think this cake is perfect for Easter! From Martha by Mail. The tradition of molded cakes derives from the ancient Middle-Eastern custom of stamping symbolic designs on holy bread.  By the seventeenth century, Western bakers used special molds to create shaped cakes for holidays.  Every year, Martha decorates a lamb, bunny or chicken cake for her Easter centerpiece.  This durable cast-aluminum mold will last for years.  Use it with our recipes and decorating instructions to create your own annual tradition.  Before...

I've come to admire a blogger who creates the most beautifully decorated trees of anyone I know.  I think you will agree, once you see them for yourself, that Darryl Moland's eye for color and design is nothing short of brilliant.  We come to associate a decorated tree with Christmas and the winter season, but if you take a moment to rethink the possibilities presented by Darryl in his blog, The Decorated Tree (of Life) , you may find yourself wanting to have a decorated tree in your home year round. White Christmas A true artist who uses trees as his blank canvas with which to work, Darryl expertly arranges adornments based on season, holidays and special celebrations.  His graphic design and photography background is evident in each of his arrangements, but so is Darryl's expressive flair for creating harmony with such effortless skill.  I love the fact that many of his arrangements are for tabletop trees, because it gives one the ability to place it ju...

Create beautiful Easter bunny and Easter egg sugar cookies to give as special gifts this coming holiday.  A few decorated treats can easily be placed into Easter baskets for the kids, but they can also be baked by the dozen for favors at your Easter luncheon.   Elegant, yet easy to do, each of these cookies can get embellished with any number of sprinkles, pearl candies or sanding sugars.  You can, however, keep them simple and charming without any edible ornaments.  With only four colors of royal icing, there is minimal effort in making a flock of bunnies and eggs. The first order of business is to choose the cookie cutters for this project and then make the cookie doughs.  The bunny you see here is an American made copper cookie cutter from  Copper Gifts .  When I found out that  my friend Janet was putting her entire collection of cookie cutters up for sale, I sought out the shapes I needed to fill my own collection and p...