The Stenciled Eid Cookies

Sometimes the precise baking recipes yield perfect results, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes ideas as perfect as are in your head, they just don't work out practically. That's what happened to me over the past week as I was playing around with a cookie cutter set that Deenna of Salaam Design was so generous and sent me a LONG time ago!


Maybe it was the heat wave, maybe it was my low patience for baking that I have during Ramadan, but none of my "fancy" ideas worked out! But fortunately third time is a charm!! Cause once I stuck to my go-to cookie recipe and my new found love for stencils, I FINALLY got presentable, shareable and postable (yes, I just made that word up) results!


So, took a few pictures and finally getting to writing out this post! Before getting to the how too, I thought that I would point out that the cookie cutters are on sale and Salaam Design uses priority shipping so you can hint to your loved one about your Eid gift :D


Back to the cookies, as I mentioned a few lines ago, I used my go-to cookie recipe and along with it my easy peasy royal icing recipe tinted with Americolor Super Red. I recently did a post on cookie stenciling, so just going to direct you there for the how to's, so point in reinventing the wheel, right? The link to that post can be found here.


Lastly, the stencils that I used are from Once Upon an Eid and The Cookie Countess. I have another post in the works using the Eid Stencils, hopefully I will get a chance to share them ASAP!


Have you started your Eid baking? This is my first batch of cookies, and I know that I have to make a ton more Friday! Please leave me a comment with a link to your Eid baking ideas!

More Eid baking and crafting ideas can be found here.

Enjoy!
Farhana

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The Tres Leches Cake

Happy (late) 4th of July! I hope you all had lots of fun with friends and family, with lots of good food and sweet treats. We sat out the fireworks as its Ramadan and stayed in doors as temperatures are in the high 90s! But I couldn't resist the chance to do some tax free shopping, as we are spending the weekend in Portland.


I was going to share this recipe a while back, as its the perfect desert for 4th of July, color theme and all! Plus it can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge ready to serve. I always use the fresh fruits and add them right before serving, to avoid the whipped topping from getting runny.


Have you tired golden raspberries? This was the first time I noticed them at the store and haven't seen them since, they are really good! You can use any combination of fruits that you prefer or those that are in season. An excuse to go to the farmers market?


This recipe can easily be doubled and baked in a 9x13 dish or two 10 inch spring foam pans. And making the whipping cream yourself is a little extra effort, but totally worth it. I have on occasion used cool whip, but fresh whipped cream really is the best!


In my opinion, this is the perfect summer dessert and I know that I will be making it again and again this summer, and I highly recommend that you try it!


Lastly, shout out to my Jenny Bhabi for the pretty flower bouquet over graduation weekend. I loved it!

The Tres Leches Cake

Ingredients
for the cake
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

for the sauce
1/2 cup condensed milk
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup whipping cream

for assembly
1 cup whipping cream
1 Tbsp instant vanilla pudding
fresh fruits of choice (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, kiwis, etc)

Method
For the cake
  1. Preheat oven to 350*F and line and grease a 10 inch spring foam pan.
  2. Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale.
  3. Add in the milk, oil and vanilla essence, continue beating.
  4. Lastly, add the flour and baking powder. Beat until combined.
  5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean.
For the sauce
  1. Mix all the milks together.
  2. Once the cake comes out of the oven, poke with a fork and pour the milk all over the cake.
  3. Keep the cake in the fridge for at least for 4 hours to overnight.
For assembly
  1. While the cake cools, beat the whipping cream and instant pudding until it forms stiff peaks.
  2. Chop/slice the fruits.
  3. Once the cake is cool and sucked in all the milk sauce, inverted the cake onto a serving dish.
  4. Cover with the whipping cream and arrange the fruits on the cake just before serving.
  5. Store in the fridge until its time to serve!
Enjoy!
Farhana

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The "Hamsa" Cookie

Am I back on the same day? Let's just say that I am trying to play catch up as I have a bunch of products to share with all of you. Dalia of Once Upon a Eid was so kind as to send me a box full of baking goodies, beautifully and creative goodies! I am so excited to use them and play around with the different cutters!


I was hard to decide which cookie cutter to use first, then I noticed the hamsa hand cutter (I didn't even know what a hamsa hand was till as while ago). It even came with matching stencils. Stencils seem to be the new thing in cookie decorating, I don't know why I waited this long to try them out.


I am not a fan of too much frosting on cookies, its a tad bit too sweet for me. So I decided to go with a chocolate cookie and white royal icing. This way I spent more time figuring out the technique, also because I didn't do a base frosting layer, drying time was almost nothing!


When making the royal icing, I made it really think, so that it was easily spreadable. Then I placed the stencil on the cookie, spread the icing with a spatula and scraped the icing off using a pan scraper. Then I carefully "peeled" off the stencil leaving an almost a clean image that dried within minutes. It took a bit of practice, but I eventually got it! Can you tell which one I was the first one I tried?


I am in love with the stencils and how easy the technique is! I see myself using this set A LOT! Thanks again to Dalia for such a lovely product!


As I mentioned, the cookie cutter and the stencils come as a set, but you can easily pipe designs onto the cookie, I'm thinking cookies for a henna party, maybe?


Come back again tomorrow when I will be sharing another set of stencils that I received from Once Upon a Eid, and another technique of using them.

The "Hamsa" Cookie

Ingredients
a batch of chocolate cookie dough
a batch of royal icing
spatula and pot scraper

Method

  1. Roll out and cut the cookie dough using the hamsa hand cutter. Bake and cool.
  2. While the cookies are baking and cooling, make the icing, Make sure that it is very stiff and spreadable.
  3. Once the cookie has cooled, lay the stencil on the cookie and spread the royal icing on the stencil with a spatula, and immediately scrap it off. Then carefully lift the stencil off the cookie.
  4. Allow the icing to dry for a few minutes before serving or storing.

Enjoy!
Farhana

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The "Eid" Fondant Cupcake Toppers

A super late Ramadan Mubarak to all of you. You would think with all the free time that I have, I would be able to blog more regularly. Seems not! With my parents in town and awesome weather, I've been having a hard time getting into the kitchen and sitting down at my craft table, but once I got With a Spin's cookie cutters, I couldn't wait to get to the kitchen quick enough! (I would run to my craft table, but that is a huge mess, so craft projects have to wait :) )


Lail designed the cutest cookie cutters and was kind enough to send me a set to play with! I am so glad that I came across her blog and also got to met her too! 


Ramadan is my favorite time of the year, all the family time, sitting down for meals together, shopping and crafting for Eid and most of all making all kinds of themed goodies! Stay tuned as cookies are coming your way, but in the meanwhile enjoy these fondant cupcake toppers. 


I was not a fan of fondant, but after I started playing with it a while back, I came to like it. There is quite a bit of fun stuff that you can do with it. Remember the "12" cupcake toppers, whose excited about Football season coming up, but till then I have Eid goodies to keep me busy :)


The best part of fondant toppers is that you can make them way ahead of time and if you get busy, then you can just add them to store bought cupcakes at the last minute!


Did you see the mistake I made with the "Mubarak". I only noticed while I was taking the pictures, and didn't want to go back and start again. Plus its okay if everything is not perfect!


FYI : With a Spin is offering free shipping till 4th July in the USA.

Eid Fondant Cupcake

Ingredients
white fondant
fondant roller with 1/8th inch markers
With a Spin's star and crescent cookie cutter
red food marker
message cookie cutter
wax paper

Method

  1.  Roll out the fondant to 1/8th inch thick and cut it out using the star and crescent cutters.
  2. Spell out "Eid" and stamp the star cutouts and "Mubarak" on the crescent, just make sure to stamp it the right way! 
  3. Let the cutouts air dry on wax paper for a couple of hours, then highlight the text with a food marker.
Enjoy!
Farhana
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Theme Week 2 : Day 2 of Father's Day Cards

Welcome back and thanks for coming back! I am really sorry about the irregular blogging schedule. I'm just enjoying my summer break with my parents and having a hard time sitting down to craft and blog! Maybe with Ramadan starting I might go out less and stay inside and craft :)


Another set of easy peasy cards today! As I mentioned yesterday, I was sent two sets from Newton's Nook Design and Jane's Doodles. But I also made a card not using a stamp, just in case the stamp set you order doesn't get to you in time!


Have you gotten your fingers inky with Hero Arts Ombre Inks yet? That's the ink pad you need for this card!


For the next card I decided to give paper piecing a try! Just stamped on printed paper from Lawn Fawn with memento tuxedo black ink and fussy cut.


The "dad" stamp was also thin enough to use with a single ink on the ombre pad, I used the navy to pool pad. I love finding multiple ways to use the same product!


And for the last card, no stamping necessary! You cannot make a simpler card :)


The background tie paper and the die cuts (2 inch shout letters) are from Ben Franklin crafts and frames.

Thanks for checking out my post!! I'll be back hopefully soon to share another set of cards!

Day 1 cards : here

 Happy Crafting!
Farhana   

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Theme Week 2 : Day 1 of Father's Day Cards

Welcome back to theme week! This time it's all about Father's Day! Which I must say was quite a challenge, I literally just started making/designing cards last night! I was having too much enjoying graduation weekend! Now trying to get back into the flow of things with loads of laundry and vacuuming, hopefully A LOT more blogging! Lots of products to share with all of you :D



As I mentioned before making "dad" cards is not an easy task, but I got help from Newton's Nook Design and Jane's Doodles. They were nice enough to send me some of there "guy" sets. So excited to play with them!










How cute are these sets?









Hopefully the next few cards that I make are a little more creative, but today I kept it super simple, a little die cutting and almost no stamping! 


As always the die cuts are from Ben Franklin Cards and Crafts, I used the 1 and 1/2 inch letters and J166 for the ties.


The insides were stamped with the sentiment from Newton's Nook Design and mustache from Jane's Doodles.


Make sure to follow along (via email on the right side!) to get updates for more posts! Going to try and make some more creative cards to share!! 

 Happy Crafting!
Farhana   

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The Chocolate (Graduation Cap) Cookies {and a Book Review}

Done with my take home exam! Last exam for a long long long time! Submitted it and headed straight to the nail salon for some alone me time :D Then it was back to the daily activities! Had a pretty productive day doing chores and running errands all in preparation for my parents coming to and entertaining over graduation weekend.


And being the baker in the family, and a snobby baker at that I end up baking most of the desserts for all celebrations! So I'm of course I had to bake something for myself too. Sounds pretty lame, but it was nice to be back in the kitchen and baking again. Its been so long!


So long that I almost forgot that I didn't share this great cookie book. There couldn't be a better book out there to show you how to "stretch your cookie cutters". This book may actually help me to buy less cookie cutters! We'll see!


With all that I have to get done before the weekend, I went really simple with the cookies, just cut them using my graduation cap cookie cutter and then piped a tassel on to it using some melted chocolate (orange because my tassel is orange :D)


Chocolate cookies are little tricky to bake as it is hard to tell when the edges brown, so keep an eye on them while they are in the oven!


I also like to chill my cookie dough and cookie sheet to reduce the dough from spreading and help retain the shape of the cutter.


I have one more thing to get done before I can graduate, and I'm off to finish to my last presentation, 2ish days to go!


The Chocolate Cookie
Recipe Adapted from You Can't Judge a Cookie by Its Cutter

Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups plus 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp vanilla extract

Method

  1. Sift the flour and baking powder together and set aside.
  2. Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until the mixture is a pale yellow. Add in the cocoa powder and continue beating until completely incorporated.
  3. Add the eggs, one at a time and mix till just combined, then add in the vanilla extract.
  4. Finally, add the flour mixture and continue beating until well mixed.
  5. Chill the dough while preheating the oven to 350*F.
  6. Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut to desired shapes.
  7. Bake for 8-10 mins on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  8. Cool the cookies on the sheet for 5 mins before removing to a wire sheet.
  9. Decorate as desired :)

Enjoy!
Farhana

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The Chocolate Chip Cookie Pizza

What a baking recipe? Yes! What happened to this baking blog? School happened! Hopefully starting next week I will have time to bake more and share more!! Today's recipe is a super easy, short cut recipe that you can make for your graduating friend or family this coming weekend or summer!


The original recipe was topped with Nutella and lots of candy, but while I was baking it, I realized that adults don't appreciate a sugar overload as much as kids and decided to tone it down with a little bit of melted chocolate and sprinkles!


My classmate and friend is the one that introduced me to the world of cookie pizza's and there was no turning back! The combinations are limitless as are the flavors. Plus when your short of time you can always short cut with cake mix!


My friend made her signature fruit pizza when she had us over to celebrate her graduation, here's my take on it if you want to try it sometime! I'm going back to the grind, if you try the recipe, leave me a comment!

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Pizza
Recipe Adapted from Todays Mama

Ingredients
for Pizza base
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

for Decorating
chocolate candy melts
sprinkles

Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 350*F and grease a 12 inch pizza pan.
  2. In a mixing bowl combine all the ingredients except the chocolate chips. Mix until just combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips.
  3. Spread and flatten the batter on to the prepared pan. Bake for 10-15 mins. 
  4. When the cookie is cool, melt the candy melts and pipe it on to the cookie and add sprinkles if desired.
See that easy! But if you are serving it too kids, you can always cover it with Nutella or chocolate frosting and top with as many types of candy as you want!

Enjoy!
Farhana

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Sparkle and Shine : Challenge 7

For the first time in a long time I am actually okay that today is a Monday. My class was canceled and I just have my take home left to do and  my final presentation and then its time to PARTY! And blog! I have a ton of fun posts coming up featuring lots of new products that I have gotten my hands on, but are still in their original packaging!


I thought that I would pop in and share some card ideas while I took a break! In between studying I made a few cards using the Sparkle and Shine Challenge photo as inspiration. I didn't know which one I liked best, so I'm posting all of them and you can chose. I did my usual minimum product usage, sticking to one stamp set and a few markers and inks.


I ended up using mainly watercolors, so I decided to link up to the Pretty Pink Posh Watercolor Blog Hop too, especially after my last post got so much attention, thank you all for commenting! I will get back to you personally as soon as I am done with school!



As I mentioned I used a limited list of supplies:

  • Lawn Fawn's Blissful Botanicals
  • Distress Markers in cracked pistachio, mermaid lagoon, peacock feathers, picked raspberry, abandoned coral, ripe persimmon and mowed lawn. 
  • Watercolor paper
  • VersaMark Ink, embossing powder, heat gun, fussy cutting scissors and PPP sequins


For the first card I created a background by stamping and embossing with white powder, when "painting" it and creating an ombre effect.


To finish off I added a die cut sentiment from Ben Franklin (#567), cut from a glitter paper and added a few PPP sequins.


The next card was a little bit more work, I used the butterfly stamp from the set in versamark ink and embossed with a shade of blue powders. Then I used a waterbrush pen to color it in and yet again create an ombre effect. And then fussy cut!


After sticking the butterfly to the cardbase using 3M foam tape, I used multi medium matte to add a few sequins to add a little sparkle!


Save the best for last, right? This one used a little bit more color and a lot more fussy cutting! I stamped a lot of the flowers and leaves with versamark ink and embossed with gold powder and then colored them using a waterbrush pen and distress markers, The background was created similar to the first card.


Once the fussy cutting was done, I adhered to the flowers using 3M foam tape and sequins using multi medium matte. While typing this I realized that I didn't had a sentiment, but I guess now I can use it for any occasion!

Thanks for joining me today! Back to the grind, 5 days till I'm done :)

 Happy Crafting!
Farhana 

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