Bakes by Beth

Busy, busy, busy chiseling away at the weekend prepping for NEXT week. Next week? Uh yea, the 4th of July snuck up on us. How has half the year already come and gone. Bonkers, if you ask me. The 4th has always been a day to celebrate for us. When we were young it was certainly in close competition with Christmas for favorite holiday. Our parents did it right. Huge cookout/pool party, backyard softball games, and a firework show put on by my dad where you were just never quite sure whether the woods would catch fire or we'd be calling 911 for a burn injury. Everyone would gather to watch the show (*dad diving through the smoke away from lit fireworks) and the kids would all run around later in the dark seeing who could find the most burned up firework remnants. Best. holiday. ever. The 4th has evolved a bit over the years and we all leave the firework shows to the professionals (duh). Now it's still about fireworks and swim parties and eating and this year, camping! My Dad i

Frozen themed cookies going out today in honor of Hadlie's 4th birthday. I'll admit, it seemed a bit odd having the snowflake cookie cutter out at the end of June but oh my, I love how the snowflakes turned out! I took a long pause before saying "yes" to the Frozen theme because I wanted to make sure I would be turning out a product the customer (and birthday girl) would love and I just wasn't confident trying to recreate Ana and Elsa. I ultimately told her I could do the dresses and she said that would be great. I really love them and I hope they do too! "4" complete with a little glittery (edible) snow It's difficult to see in the color here but the dots are two tones of purple and teal to match the other cookies and snowflake colors. Um yea, I'll be making these at Christmas! Princess Ana Queen Elsa, complete with edible glitter brushed on the cape When the temp "real feel" hits over 100

I have been a cookie baking and decorating machine today! After getting home from work yesterday and making sure everyone was bathed and fed and teeth brushed, I set the kids up with a movie and I started making cookie dough! I started on the caps last night and finished up with rest of this batch today (along with a different themed order!) They turned out great (I think!) These treats go out to twins graduating and heading off to the University of Cincinnati. Good luck in the fall, study hard! It was oddly mesmerizing decorating this caps. I had an efficient pattern going on. One day... ONE DAY... I will treat myself to a projector. Until then... free hand it is. Congratulations to the graduating class of 2018!

Unicorn cookies for a little lady's first birthday celebration this weekend. Lots of icing consistencies, lots of piping bags scattered across my work space, gold dust powder, gold mist spray... lots of pastel prettiness for a super sweet birthday! Happy birthday, Kynlee!   I love this face ;) These little unicorns turned out so cute! They were a bit of challenge with several dries to be able to give some dimension to the legs and the mane. I have been very careful moving these because I am just waiting for that horn to break off! The cookies are thick but that point, eeek! Fortunately, no catastrophes... yet! I was planning to flood the clouds and decided to make them puffy instead. I like! Anyone else?!

It's almost that time, Sunman Firemen's Festival time. We're awfully pumped in our house that they're bringing the parade back this year! I've been prepping my donation for the festival dinner.  Mark your calendars for June 8th and 9th--- pork chop dinner, chicken dinner, bands, beer gardens, parade, local booths, activities for kids! I need to whip up a cupcake or two for next week as well, but... if you want a taste of my cupcakes or cookies, hit the dinner and support our local department! taken off of SRFD Facebook page, a great group of volunteers dedicated to our community. Side note: my little brother's in there ;) This took me forever and my husband laughed when I said, "oh my gosh, why did I do this much writing for this?!" He said, "because it's what you do." :)

Hope everyone had a great, long weekend celebrating Memorial Day. We packed up the camper and headed north to one of our favorite weekend getaway locations deep in Ohio's Amish country. Such a beautiful area, a unique culture, and the food... we. ate. so. much. It was crazy. We didn't even bring anything elaborate, but it was sneaking the Amish goodies that did us in. First stop (and some trips multiple stops) was to the best bakery for apple fritters, cinnamon twists, and glazed donuts. Melt in your mouth, I'm tellin' ya. They were still warm when we got there at 7:30am. Later at another stop, an older Amish woman had a table set up with her crafts, some homemade candies and chocolates, canned goods, and cookies. I bought her cookbook and chatted with her for a few minutes. I was reading her book later at the campground and in it was her story about how she had contracted polio as a child and that is why she is in a wheelchair. She said that at that time polio was