4th of July Sweets

In a fantasy world I would have a gigantic commercial kitchen with all necessary gadgets and ingredients, along with a person to help me clean everything, so that I could bake to my heart's content. A girl can dream, right? While the big dream might not be in the cards for me, the Texas Cottage Food Law does make it a small possibility to at least attempt to sell some of the things that I make without going to the expense of renting a commercial kitchen space.

I've always enjoyed baking in my spare time, and lots of practice and youtube videos have gotten me to a place where I don't mind making and sharing things. For instance- I've made cakes for my niece on two different occasions, decorated cookies for a baby shower, and made plenty of birthday cakes for family. For the first time ever, I even had a friend ask me to make a cake and a smash cake for her son's first birthday next week. While I have a long way to go in perfecting techniques, I feel like I can make great tasting (and often good looking) baked goods.

Lately I've started to do more research about how I can expand what I like to do into a more "professional" endeavor. I'll keep you posted as I navigate those steps, but in the meantime I'm going to keep practicing and improving. I did just that yesterday by making some 4th of July sugar cookies to take to a neighborhood BBQ. While everyone was impressed, I could only see every little imperfection in the cookies. The good news is that the cookie recipe itself is nearly perfected, and I usually prefer taste over pretty any time.

Below are a few things that I have also made recently, including the most amazing S'mores Bites ever!

S'mores Bites with homemade marshmallow topping.

Classic white cake with limoncello curd filling, and pink "petal" frosting.

Red Devil's Food cake with cream cheese icing in a rose pattern.

Onesie sugar cookies and coordinating petit fours.