30th Birthday Cookies & party sign decor

I wanted to share with you bright and creative party décor and 

cookies that I created for my cousin’s 30^th birthday recently.   

The inspiration was so fun; it was the décor of the Garces Restaurant Group 

called Distrito in Philadelphia, PA. 

At Distrito there is a plaid postcard wall (see photo below) 

which ideally lead me to design the plaid cookie favors. 

Along with the cookie favors that were done free hand, you will see the birthday celebration signs that I designed and personalized them with photos of Brian and his family!  All to coordinate with the highly energetic décor of the establishment.  

By the way if you live in the Philadelphia area or any where that there is a Garces Restaurant Group eatery, I highly recommend it.  The food and atmosphere was both equally excellent, I hear great things about all their chefs and places.  I will say that the party quest certainly added flare to my experience there, but certainly a must try!

Under the Sea Cookies

Under the sea fondant & royal icing decorated cookies~ 

I enjoyed making these cookies for the St. Alphonsus School's Father/Daughter Dance last week.  

For the water and sand I piped a wavy line and then brushed the icing down with a paint brush and then free hand the rest of the designs.  

Peace, Love & Under the Sea~

Stacy

All rights to photographs and cookies belong to Scrumptious Swirls

1st Birthday Animal Cracker Milestone Birthday

Here are all the photos from a 1st Birthday Party I styled at The Giving Tree in January.  Again a big thank you to everyone who helped me execute this fabulous party for my sweet little niece!

The Animal Cracker Collection by Fresh Chick Design Studio

Milestone Banner & Graphic Banner handmade & glittered by The Purple Pug

Candy Jars filled with Animal Cracker Snacks 

(very practical for a child's party, especially for cost)

Cake Sign~ Use a personalized cake sign to add height to your cake and 

get a keepsake from the birthday celebration! 

Keep Calm and Monkey On! Love the signs that were hung around the party! 

Birthday signs & Posh Party Pretties custom made party hats as center pieces! 

Again, practical & different! 

Unique (in a sense it is the guest of honor) photo cupcake toppers on paper straws! 

Like the shape the punch I used is on the left side of my page! 

Animal Cracker snacks to top the cupcakes, keep the theme going with the desserts!

Strawberry banana nilla wafer cookie buttercream cupcakes!

Dress up your white ware cake stands with pom fringe from JoAnne's fabric!

Homemade banana mini muffins topped with honey nut Cheerios (Monkey's love Cheerios)

Sweet photo toppers, make your party more unique by making photo cupcake toppers! 

Paper luggage to hold custom muslin bags filled with sugar wafer cookies! 

Baby's 1st Smash Cake

Banner made with stickers & scrapbook paper

Photo cookies by Allyson Jane

Gerber Daisies to brighten the table!

Party favors with cake balls & rice krispy treats! 

Party Favor Table

Birthday Girl monkeying around with her party guests! 

Happy Birthday to me! 

Posh party pretties custom made party hats!

My brother & his pretty family! 

Credits & Vendors~

Planning, Styling, Cakes, Cookies, Cupcakes by Scrumptious Swirls by Stacy

Invites, Graphic Designs, Signs ~ The Fresh Chick Design Studio

Party Hats~ Posh Party Pretties

Banners ~ The Purple Pug

Paper straws & alphabet letter cups~ Fort & Field

Paper Luggage~ A Touch of Whimsy

Photo cookies ~ Allyson Jane

Again a HUGE thank you to everyone involved!  Especially the parents of the cute little monkey!  

Peace, Love & Monkey's 1st Birthday,

Stacy

Scrumptious is a Fancy word for Yummy! Part 2~

Bringing you 4 more cookie recipes from my favorite bloggers!!  Kate Landers of Kate Landers Events LLC, The Super Chick from Celebrate Today the Super Chick Way! Kim from The TomKat Studio & Bird of Bird Craft Studio!  

This was an extremely fun feature for me and I gained some scrumptious recipes for sure and have plenty of scrumptious gifts to hand out to many for Christmas!!

Not so bad for my 1st Christmas as a blogger I shared a total of 14 Cookie recipes with all of you this season!  I surely hope you had a chance to bake a few!

I set up these cookies on my dinner table and as inspiration to have a few of your girlfriends over for cookies & cocktails to relax and catch up this holiday season!  I always enjoy my Christmas decor~ so I wanted to share a bit of what my table will look like come this weekend.  It is coming together...mainly missing my fresh flowers & green but I won't add them until Friday!  So here you have the final 4 cookie recipes!

Kate from Kate Landers Events, LLC favorite cookie is a Butter cookie.  While she didn’t have a specific recipe to share, I sought one out by googling “The Best Butter Cookie” and let me tell you I found it and here is the recipe.  Hands down the best, reminds me of something my Mimi would make when she would bake tins & tins of Christmas cookies for us.  I also opted to just decorate with sugar and not the icing.  I love a simple cut out Christmas Sugar cookie and I had fun decorating these this afternoon with my 3 year old!  

The Best Butter Cookie ~

via http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/2217/best-ever-butter-cookies

1 cup Land O Lakes® Butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 Land O Lakes® All-Natural Egg

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup Land O Lakes® Butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 to 2

 tablespoons milk

Food color, if desired

Combine 1 cup butter, sugar and egg in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add orange juice and vanilla; mix well. Reduce speed to low; add flour and baking powder. Beat until well mixed.

Divide dough into thirds. Wrap each in plastic food wrap; flatten slightly. Refrigerate until firm (2 to 3 hours).

Heat oven to 400°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface, one-third at a time (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to 1/8- to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with 3-inch cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets; sprinkle with decorator sugar. Bake for 6 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Combine powdered sugar, 1/3 cup butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla in small bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often and gradually adding enough milk for desired spreading consistency. Tint with food color, if desired. Frost and decorate cooled cookies as desired.

My friend Genevieve from Celebrate Today the Super Chick Way! Loves her Peanut butter cookies!  These too are my husbands favorites I felt it necessary to make it a bit more scrumptious by chopping up some Reese’s cups and baking them on top! 

Peanut Butter Cookies:

Recipe from www.joyofbaking.com

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Beat in the peanut butter. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat to combine. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the peanut butter mixture and beat until incorporated. Fold in the chopped peanuts, if using. (If the batter is too soft to form into balls, place in the refrigerator for about an hour or until firm.)

Roll the batter into 1 inch (2.5 cm) balls. Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheet, placing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Then, using the tines of the fork that has been dipped in white granulated sugar, make a crisscross pattern.

Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Can be stored at room temperature, in an airtight container, for about a week. Freeze for longer storage.

Makes about 40 cookies.

Peanut Butter Cookies:

3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (105 grams) light brown sugar

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup (185 grams) peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped peanuts or 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Another sweet & spicy cookie is Bird of Birds Crafts shares with us a recipe that she has been baking for years for gingerbread cookies!  For these sweet treat that I used as an idea to let me friends know where to sit.  I am also using my baked cookies as gift tags this year with all my gift recipients’ names on a cookie to label them! 

Below is Birds recipe.  To bake mine I bought at the Fresh Market a ready to bake gingerbread squares.  I rolled them like dough and cut into little men.  A time saving trick in case you don’t want to bake them from scratch. 

Bird Party’s GingerBread Cookies~ This is the recipe I use every year and it comes from The Good Housekeeping Institute

350g plain white flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp ground ginger
100g butter
175g light soft brown sugar
4tbsp of corn syrup or clear runny honey or golden syrup
1 egg beaten
currants etc for decoration
1. Sift flour, bicarb. and ginger into a bowl
2. Rub butter until looks like breadcrumbs
3. Stir sugar in
4. Beat syrup with egg and stir into the mix, kneading to form a smooth dough
5 Roll to about 5mm thick and cut the shapes and decorate with currants
6. Bake at 190deg C or 375 F gas mark 5 for about 12-15 minutes
XOXO
Bird

Now for Kim from The TomKat Studio!  Kim is the very 1^st blog that I followed & shop I bought my 1^st custom printables for one of my girl’s party.  While Kim’s recipe isn’t an actually cookie, they certainly are a sweet treat and she also share a free printables with her recipe!! 

Chocolate Scotcheroos!

Chocolate Scotcheroos
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use a little bit more ;)
1 cup butterscotch chips (I use a little bit more ;)

Place corn syrup and sugar in 3 quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter. Mix well. Add Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until well coated. Press mixture into 13x9 pan coated with cooking spray. Set aside. 

Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. (OR melt using half power, 30 seconds at a time in the microwave ~ as I do!) Spread evenly over cereal mixture. Let stand until firm. (I put in the fridge for 15 minutes so they firm up quicker so I can start eating them sooner)

YUM. I promise.

There you have it!  For Scrumptious Sweet Treat recipes for you to try & share with your family and friends this holiday!!!  

Peace, Love & Christmas Cookies~

Stacy