Valpo Baseball Cookie(s)

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I was soo excited when my Aunt, after looking at this blog,
contacted me to make a cookie for her upcoming party. She has made and decorated these cookies for years and she trusted me to make one for her big party and I was honored to do it!  Plus, sports themes and mascot recreations are something I love doing for cookies and I was really pumped to get started on this one and make a great impression.

My cousin is a pitcher for the Valpo University baseball team.

Today, my Aunt and Uncle hosted 70 baseball players and parents at their house after a game against Butler. Their house and decor for parties always impress guests so I knew this cookie needed to do the same. 

And yes I said cookie (singular), but I'll discuss that later :)

My Aunt was a great help in designing the cookie. She had an idea of everything that she wanted to see included on the cookie and she sent me all the logos and info I needed which saved me time, but still gave me the freedom to put together the cookie and do all the finishing in my own way. 

I chose to do the more intricate Valpo logo because I think it makes a much stronger impression and a better look for the cookie. The 'baseball' banner underneath the University name is my own addition as an attempt to incorporate baseball into that center image. The baseballs themselves balance the cookie and stand out well along the edges while giving it a little extra detail with some clear sprinkles. The ribbon border is one of my favorite looks and the yellow ribbon connecting the baseballs was perfect for this cookie! The finishing touch was a generous sprinkling of silver sprinkles all around the edge to contrast the black tray and add a special touch. With a little text to cheer on the crusaders and some graphic designs to help bring the baseballs and the logo together I think I achieved a pretty well executed cookie that I am really proud to have created. 

but....

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Unfortunately, I had made a mistake!!

That cookie that I just decorated was supposed to be made without nuts! (A point that apparently slipped my mind while baking). To remedy this situation I decided to bake and design another cookie, the way my aunt had ordered it this time. Even though it was made and decorated in a short amount of time, the second cookie needed to match the look and quality of the first. For this second cookie, I wanted to do something more directly related to the baseball team itself so I chose to put their jersey as a center piece. I outlined the jersey with some similar graphics as the first cookie, included another shout out to the crusaders, and finished it off with another ribbon border and a round of sprinkles just like the first. 

It was a good thing they were hosting 70 people because in the end they received both cookies for the party since I had made such a mistake. My Aunt was gracious enough to accept 2 cookies and happily they both worked extremely well together and looked great in the party roomed decked out in Valpo gear.

Cathedral Christmas Party Cookie

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My latest cookie was actually done in a bit of a rush, but I still did my best to make a fun and fitting cookie for the Cathedral girl's basketball program's annual Christmas party. I coached the freshman team so this again was a gift for the girls on my team as well as a way for me to chip in for the desserts in the pot-luck style party.

A couple of things needed to be included in the design: Basketball, Irish, and Christmas. I stuck to holiday colors because of the Christmas theme of the party and since the green works for both the school colors and the holidays it worked well for the cookie as a whole. 

I chose to do a similar design to my last basketball cookie.  At the center is a large basketball full of orange sprinkles, but for the holidays, I added a fun little twist and put the Santa hat on top of the ball. The hat actually added a lot of texture to the actual cookie, but sadly that part does not photograph particularly well. On the white fuzzy part of the hat, I used the same technique that I did to make the dog's fur a couple cookies back which adds depth and a more realistic look to the hat. I topped the white areas with clear sugar flakes that added just a bit more sparkle.

Overall, this is not my best nor my favorite cookie I've done and I could find many flaws that I would do differently given the chance, but for a last minute design I really did like some of the attributes of the cookie which I addresses above. It also worked very well for the casual event and the girls loved that I took the time to make something special for them. Most Important though is that the cookie tasted excellent and I left with an empty tray; always a good feeling.

St. Thomas Basketball Party Cookie

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St. Thomas Aquinas (STA for short) is a small catholic grade school in Indianapolis where I coached the 5th grade girls C team for the 2010 basketball season. So, for the end of the year party I decided to chip in for the desserts and make a cookie for the girls.

The design is straight forward mostly because they don't have a visual mascot that I could use so I decided to use the school's name atop a basketball. I chose to make the name large and bold to stand out against the basketball (which is covered in orange sprinkles, since we are dealing with 12 year old girls after all :D ) The year and mascot name surround the ball and the bold central element is completed with yellow dots and white sugar pearls to make a fun statement in the center of the cookie.

A fun element to this cookie is that I was able to include all the girls names from the two 5th grade teams that year. I decided that a Tiger paw would be a cute little addition to accompany the names and add an element to tie it back in with the name in the center. It took me awhile to finally come up with the idea, but I think it turned out so well and made the addition of the names much smoother since I could form them along with the little icon. The color of the paw also correlates to the 5th grade team the girl was on that year either the blue or gold team. I also added a single sugar pearl in the center of the paw, again it's something not necessary to the design, but a detail that was fun and appreciated by my girls who each wanted the piece with their names and the paw. 

The simple but fittingly festive border is perfect for this cookie and brings together all the school colors in a new way that really finishes off the cookie well. Seeing all the girls so excited about having their names on this cookie really made it so worthwhile and the compliments from the parents (especially all the dad's) made me really glad that I decided to make this cookie to celebrate the girl's season.

(sorry for the poor quality of the photo)