Happy 2016 Update

decorated snowflake cookies

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Mine was very nice – boys home, family for dinner, all healthy, and a new MacBook Pro which I’m finding difficult to transition to from two decades of using a PC.  I’m selling more images through Getty Images and wanted some better resolution than what I was working on. I don’t even know the name of the screen I had on my old laptop but the screen looks different at every… [Read More]

Spritz Christmas Cookies – Dipped and Delish!

Christmas Spritz Cookies jar-0579

When I was a little girl, about eye level with the table, I remember my mom making spritz cookies for Christmas. They seemed like so much effort for such a small cookie – filling up the copper colored aluminum tube, turning the nob that screwed the plunger down to push the dough through the tube and shaped discs.  Problem was you never knew how much dough was coming out – were you turning the knob too much or too little? … [Read More]

Fourth of July Red, White & Blue Bunting Cupcakes

Wilton-Color-Right-Red-White-and-Blue-Cupcakes

Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays – the festive atmosphere from parades early in the day to the anticipation of sparkling, booming fireworks late at night.  The entire day is wrapped up in a trio of colors and feelings that resonate from a place of deep love for my country. I love the patriotic bunting and paper lanterns strung across the lights that criss-cross from under the eves of the roof to the big trees in our… [Read More]

Sneak Peek for St. Patrick’s Day Cake Decorations

fondant rainbows

Happy March!  I’ve been busy making decorations out of fondant that will adorn a St. Patrick’s Day cake I’m envisioning. I say “envisioning” because I have ideas of certain decorating elements and then I have to figure out how I’m going to make them. This is why I love the creative challenge of decorating cakes, cupcakes and cookies and seeing if I can make those ideas come to fruition. I always ask myself, “Can I figure out a way to… [Read More]

Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year Decorated Almond Cookies

Growing up, I was always aware of the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year, as it’s becoming more commonly called it seems.  Both my brother and I were born in the heart of Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles and my mother would recollect that when my brother was born fireworks were going off.  Since his birthday is on Valentine’s Day there’s a good chance that this coincided with the Chinese New Year.  No fireworks for me when I arrived… [Read More]

Make-Ahead Frozen Buttercream Cake Decorations

valentine's day cupcakes Wilton

As a Wilton brand Ambassador, I’m most fortunate to be able to try new products and create projects with existing ones.  For Valentine’s Day, I was sent Wilton’s Decorator’s Icings in pouches accompanied with sprinkles.  Remembering when my guys were little and to my room-mom days, I would have gladly welcomed the ease of ready made tinted icings since decorating cupcakes for the class party was usually done late the night before. One thing you can do to save time… [Read More]

Shaking It Up With Snow Globe Decorated Sugar Cookies

Have you heard of a Secret Santa/Cookie Exchange?  It’s a natural combination when you’re part of the Wilton Cake Decorating’s Sweet Treat Team. Hmmm, then I had an idea that had me shaken and stirred!  Mostly shaken.  🙂 As in shakin’ those sprinkles! Click on the video below and you might be shaken too!     Snow globe cookies! Watch it snow! ❄️ #cookies #decoratedcookies #decoratedsugarcookies #shakeitoff #snow #wiltontreatteam #wiltoncakes #wilton @wiltoncakes #sweetswap A video posted by Marilyn (Mac) ?… [Read More]

Decorated Ghost Cookies With Fondant

First, thank you to all who participated in my last post’s Fabulous Fondant Wilton Give-Away.  I had fun reading all your comments and seeing how you would use all the wonderful products.  I’ll be choosing a winner soon! If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you know that sometimes, I also like to use fondant to decorate cookies.  On my Pinterest Board – Fondant on Cookies & Cupcakes, you’ll see lots of cookies I’ve decorated using fondant. Today I’m… [Read More]

A Bridal Shower Styling for Shutterfly and so much more

I love the celebrations of weddings and the anticipation of the big day.  I’ve had the delight and honor to be involved with numerous nieces’ and nephews’ wedding preparations from making hundreds of rosettes to hang to baking and decorating hundreds of cookies favors for every guest to enjoy so when Shutterfly asked me to style and photograph a bridal shower theme party using their products of my choice, I couldn’t wait to get started on a bright and fun… [Read More]

Hello! Bridal Shower Styling Sneak Peek!

I hope everyone had a nice Mother’s Day.  I did!  Just a quick check-in today as I’m styling and shooting for a project for Shutterfly that will post on Friday. I’ve had a bit of an injury to my right hand which I believe has been from swiping constantly “to the left, to the left” on my iPad and phone and swirling all around on my track pad on my laptop which I use for everything, even photo editing and… [Read More]