Good Things by David

You can surprise your sweetheart with a few envelope-shaped sugar cookies this Valentine's Day if you plan a few days in advance.  Even if you don't have a cookie cutter in this shape (I don't), you can still create a few of these cute edibles.  Very simple and easily accomplished by anyone. The Valentine's Day hearts above, are ones that I've created in the past.  They are customer favorites, so I make dozens upon dozens of them every single year.  Those are easy to make too. For the envelopes, cut out as many cookie dough squares as you can, and then slice off the top two corners of each square to create the shape of the envelope right before baking.  That's all there is to it!  If you have a house-shaped cookie cutter, you can try using that for the envelopes. For the royal icing colors:  mix Chefmaster 'Super Red' until you get the desired shade of red.  For the pink, mix a couple of drops of Chefmaster 'Fuchsia' until you get a light pink (u...

If you're looking for some Christmas cookies that are very much of the holiday, but are also holiday neutral images, look no further.  Wreaths, snowflakes and snowmen can be made for any winter occasion.  They can be given as gifts to friends, family and neighbors no matter their religion, and they can be shipped anywhere in the country or across the pond if they're made thick enough and packed well.  Holiday Sugar Cookies Can you believe that I don't actually own a wreath cookie cutter?  How utterly embarrassing, I know.  This, by no means, should prevent one from cutting out beautiful wreaths as long as there are fluted rounds and/or plain round cookie cutters on hand.  These are a must for any baker of any baking skill level.  The snowflakes and snowmen cookies do require you to have cutters in those shapes, but they can be found just about anywhere baking supplies are sold.  Online is best these days! Christmas Wreath and Snowflake Sugar Cooki...

  It's Thanksgiving, a day to be thankful for what we have. I have my health, as does my husband. Our baby cat is healthy and happy. The house is warm and our plates are never empty. Mom, dad, my brothers, sisters-in-law, my niece and nephews are all healthy (they're  celebrating the holidays responsibly). Every day I am thankful for this. My family are never taken for granted.  Peace and love to you and your cherished ones. Happy Thanksgiving,  David

This year's Thanksgiving will undoubtedly be different in many ways for everyone.  Small gatherings of immediate family members that live in one's household only is what we should be doing.  Let us follow proper guidelines now so that we can gather with our loved ones to celebrate many more holidays in the future.  I want everyone to be safe and healthy. Thanksgiving Sugar Cookies Sitting here on this L.E. Smith Caramel Glass cake stand is a set of Thanksgiving-themed sugar cookies that are absolutely easy to make.  No intricate designs that require skill.  Perfectly baked sugar cookies, a bit of tinted royal icing, a few tools to help you along, and you're good to go!   Make a small batch of sugar cookies in the shapes of turkeys, acorns, adorable foxes and some apples to have at the dessert table for your family.  Get the kids involved and have them personalize turkeys with the names or initials of those who will be sitting for the feast at the end o...

My wonderful cream and green enamelware canisters from the early 1930s deserve to be recorded and displayed as reference for every collector out there.  What I try to do here on the blog is not only share ideas and creations, but I also hope to guide people in the right direction with correct information about a particular subject.  Nothing is more frustrating than doing an online search and coming up empty about the things I like to collect.     After opening a dialogue with several individuals here and abroad, I came to realize that no one had really written about the canisters that I love having in my colonial home.  Little did I know when I was able to acquire these, that it would lead to a new bounty of information about a particular company specializing in steel objects for the home.     Vintage Cream & Green Enamelware Canisters If you were to quickly glance at these cream and green enamelware canisters sitting on my large kitchen island, yo...

My collection of L.E. Smith caramel glass cake stands from the Martha by Mail catalog is finally complete.  It took quite a while to gather each of these pieces, because I didn't have the luxury of buying them from the catalog when it was in business.  A vendor here with a set, a vendor there with one, and then the keen eye of a friend of mine (thank you Daniel!) who thought the cake stand may or may not have been a Martha by Mail piece.  That is how I acquired these cake stands.  This exclusive shade of slag glass was commissioned by Martha Stewart for her catalog business (Martha by Mail) in the late 1990s.  I've written  a detailed post about this collection before.  You can read about it by  clicking here .  The plain round cake stands for the catalog come in four sizes.  The smallest measures 6" in diameter and the largest measures 12" in diameter.  The ones in between measure 8" and 10" in diameter.   I had no idea that t...

You can never go wrong with a chocolate layer cake.  Whether you make one for a birthday or to celebrate someone fantastic in your life, a tall, dark chocolate cake covered in a delicious buttercream is the way to go.  I have yet to find someone who refuses a slice of chocolate cake. Plan ahead: bake and cool the cake layers, and if not icing that day, wrap each layer in plastic wrap and chill until ready to use.  You can freeze the layers for up to one month (thaw overnight in the refrigerator).   For this cake, I used Martha Stewart's Ultimate Chocolate Cake.   Click here for the recipe.   I find that chilled cake layers are key for applying flawless Swiss meringue buttercream.  You can do it on room temperature cakes, but crumbs are more likely to come off if the layers aren't hardened a bit. Swiss meringue buttercream is perhaps one of the easiest buttercreams to make, because the preparation is straightforward and basic.  Egg whites and sugar...