hello, cookies

i spent the weekend working on a plethora of cookies for several friends.  so much fun!

first up:  macarons for a sweet girl's first birthday party.  the party theme was pink and purple, so i got to play with my food coloring gels.  and since i had some batter left over, i decided to test my piping skills to see if i could make heart-shaped shells:

i think i'm finally over my frustrating baking setbacks, because they baked up quite nicely.

and while i was at it, i decided to go ahead and do all of the baking i needed to do for the weekend.  i let them all cool, divvied them up for each person i was baking for, and put them in the freezer.  this way, all i have to do is make and color the frosting and decorate.

i matched up the macaron shells, and called it a night.

the next day, after dropping the bean off at school, i busted out a quick vanilla bean buttercream and chocolate ganache to fill them.

they looked so pretty and festive in the box.

then i got to work on the baby face cookies for another friend.  borrowing sugarbelle's ideas again (see, i'm not really creative - i just copy other people's genius), i flooded them with a flesh-toned base coat and piped on the faces.

remember the beer macaron experiment?  i actually got to do two different versions for valentine's day requests - one with the belgian beer and another using some good ol' coors light.

last but not least, a bunch of cookies for the bean's valentine's day party at school.  i went a little lighter on the icing for these, because - well, let's face it.  they're 3.

such a sweet holiday!  hardy har har.