Birthday Cake Ice Cream :)

I love that birthday cake flavored things have become so popular!  I am such a long time fan of cake batter ice cream, I used to get it as a special treat as a kid at Maggie Moo's (are they sill around?  It is kind of like Cold Stone).  I picked up a box of Funfetti cake mix the other day, so thought I would try this recipe from food.com (adapted a bit).  Super easy, very creamy and very delicious!

1 Cup 1% Milk, very cold
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream, very cold
1 tsp madagascar vanilla extract
2/3 cup 'Funfetti' cake mix

Directions:
1. Dissolve milk and sugar in bowl (the longer you do this the more smooth your ice cream will be!)

2. Whisk in heavy cream and vanilla.

3. Whisk in cake mix, keep stirring until very smooth.

4. Chill in freezer for 5 minutes, just to get it very cold again.

5. Pour in ice cream maker and mix for 30-35 mins.  

6. Mixture will still be runny, but very thick.  If you want sprinkles, mix them in now so they are even throughout!

7. Pour in container with lid and freeze overnight.

Top with more sprinkles before serving and enjoy!

Grapefruit Sherbet with 'Candied' Zest

There is something about the smell and taste of grapefruit I just LOVE.  It is so refreshing and actually reminds me of my dad cutting one up and pouring sugar on it for me when I was kid :)
I recently have been using a great organic whipped grapefruit soap, so every morning after my shower I am CRAVING grapefruit everything.  I found some amazing, juice heavy, ruby red grapefruits in my grocery store today so I decided to put my much neglected ice cream maker to work!

Grapefruit Sorbet with 'Candied' Zest

For 'Candied' Zest:
Coarse zest of one grapefruit
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp sugar

For Sherbet:
1 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
3 tbsp of cooled candied zest
2 tbsp vodka
2/3 cup fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
2/3 cup heavy cream


To make 'candied' zest:

1.  Wash grapefruits thoroughly
2. With a vegetable peeler, zest one grapefruit.  Set aside.
3.  In heavy bottomed saucepan, combine sugar and water.  Heat until all sugar is dissolved.
4.  Spread zest evenly on rimmed baking sheet.
5. Carefully pour sugar water over the zest.
6.  Let zest sit in the sugar water until cool (about 10 mins, dont over cool or it will get super sticky).  Then strain.  Discard sugar water.
7.  In a bowl, toss zest with 2 tbsp sugar.  (zest still retains a nice tartness, but is not as bitter as straight off the fruit!)  I let my zest dry out for about 20 minutes before I started the sherbet base.

To make Sherbet:

1. Combine Sugar, salt, and candied zest in a metal bowl.
2. Whisk in grapefruit juice.  Stir until sugar is disolved.
3.  Add vodka to mixture (this helps with the texture, you cant taste it)
4.  Cover mixture and chill in freezer for 45-60 minutes, until very cold.
5.  In separate bowl, whip heavy cream to form soft peaks.
6.  Slowly add in chilled grapefruit juicy mixture, slowly, stirring between each small pour, so you don't flood the whipped cream.
7.  Pour into your ice cream maker!

I have the Cuisinart ice cream maker, and I churned my mixture for about 40 minutes.  The picture is of it straight out of the machine.  After chilling for a few hours its much more solid, and certainly delicious!  Creamy and refreshing, doesn't get much better ;)

Enjoy!

I Pinned It and Did It Fridays!

I have been working on this one for awhile!

I have been wondering what I can do to spruce up my cookie space's white walls...I really hate painting apartments, it is just generally a pain and then they charge you to paint them back at the end of your lease.  So if you dont get that paint up before you move in, it really isn't worth it...and I just generally don't have time and hate the smell.  And our walls are actually a nice bisquey cream, so they aren't that bad in person, but need something fun :)

SO I have been pinning picture walls for a long time on pinterest and have been curating some frames for a month or so now!

Here is the finished wall!  I am pretty happy with it!

There is my logo and my cookies and posters, I bought the keep calm and eat a cookie on Etsy and the other one which you can't read from the picture says "you are what you craft," I made that one!  I made the clock as well!


What do you think of my Peapods picture wall?!

Martha Stewart Show! And I Pinned It and Did It Friday!

I have been trying to update regularly but these past two weeks have been quite hard because I had to do over 300 cookies each week!  I am a one woman show over here and it gets a bit tough.

Any way, I want to first say Happy Birthday to my puppy Peapod!  He turned 7 on Wednesday.  I couldn't imagine my life without him...he is the namesake for my cookie business....has kept me company when I am lonely or stressed out... and he even lead me to my husband (who I met in a dog park...)!

Happy Birthday, Peapod!

Some big things are happening here at Peapods!  After last Friday's Purseblog feature, I have been approached by several organizations to do some pretty exciting things, so more to come on that in the next few months!  

I also was selected to be a part of the special Martha Stewart Show featuring all Etsy sellers!  I was selected to sit in the very front row with my cookies, and unfortunately I had no speaking part, but you do see me and Peapods Cookies several times throughout the show!

There I am, with my cookies :)

Here is a closer look at the cookies I brought, Kitchenaid mixers, whisks, piping bags, and dandelion rounds all in Martha's signature color!  I ended up handing them out to the producers, camera crew, and even the director (who brought them home to his daughters!).  So that was quite exciting.

 

The tags I designed for the show!

We also got some great freebies!  Some paint, clay, stencils, and a clay "cookbook".  I have already put my paint and stencils into use!  I got the cutest little owl lamp from West Elm last weekend and spruced up his shade with aqua, pink and grey Martha paints.  Do you like?

One last thing, since it is Friday!!  Here is todays I Pinned It and Did It!

Neutral nails with rainbow tips!   The base is Essie Sand Tropez...my fave nude for my skin tone :)

Thats all...I have been eating at some pretty fabulous places lately so I will try to get soem reviews up at some point this month :)  I need to clear my mind on those places before my big El Bulli extravaganza in two weeks at Next in Chicago!

If you want to keep up with my cookies, please friend me on facebook!  I update on there with cookie pictures almost everyday!

www.facebook.com/peapodscookies

Purseblog Feature and I Pinned it and Did it Fridays....for procrastinators

First off I just want to share this every exciting news, my Celine Mini luggage bag cookies were featured on the Purseblog!  Check it out here!

Words can't even describe what this means to me!  I have been a HUGE fan of the Purseblog and a member of the forum since 2006, I am kind of obsessed actually.  When I had a corporate job in fashion I was the one who would always update everyone if our brand was on the blog, or if our competitors were up there, and just the fact that PEAPODS COOKIES is on there right now....seriously I just have no words  :)

Anyway!

This week was so crazy, with 17 orders and over 360 cookies going all over the country, all over New York City, and will be seen at birthday parties, bridal showers, and baby showers all over this weekend!  I will be posting some fun pics late tonight but a lot of posted on my facebook page: Peapods Cookies Facebook

I however still found time to do a pinned it and did it....no idea how I pulled that off but the 4 hours of sleep per night probably helped.  I have been posting ribbon, wrapping, and craft paper storage for a while now and I have been trying to figure out an idea for tissue paper storage that is not 45 inches wide!

I bought an unfinished frame from Michaels on 96th street and painted it with Martha Stewart's pearl paint in light aqua, cut some 1/4" dowels to fit the back perfectly, covered then with some washi tape (yellow chevrons!), covered the washi tape with clear packing tape so they do not get dirty, then used some model glue to glue them to the back!   There you go, super easy!

Close up of the washi tape covered in plastic clear tape.

Once its dry, hang away!  I love how it is so colorful and cheery and lets me see what paper I have and keeps it off the floor.  Just need to hang it up on the wall today!  I might add some bump outs to the back so it hangs away from the wall a bit more than it is already.


I will have more to post later but trying to get outside today!

Pinned it and Did it Fridays!

I needed a cork board.  I wanted to buy a pretty one in a vintage white frame from Etsy, but they were not that big and over $100!  And then I saw this pin floating around on Pinterest:

Oh yeah, I can do that!  Cork board bought from Pearl Paint on Canal ($8 for 4 tiles).  Washi Tape bought from Paper Presentations on 18th St ($3.50 for solid roll, $4.50 for printed).  I bought two different colorways of tape...

You DO NOT need this much tape....I got nervous.  One roll is enough

I ended up going with the mint/silver combo thanks to a friend's reassurance :)  But I am really itching to make something with that other combo, even the guy at the store who was helping me said it was gorgeous :)

Anyway...
Here she is!

I am planning on hanging my customer orders and such on it so I can see them right there as I work!  You can see some cookies waiting to be decorated peeking in the corner of that last picture, haha.  I added some little cookie-centric stickers just to make it more "me".  

By the way those pictures are waiting for their friends to be done so they can grace my picture wall.  I made the one in front and bought the one in back :)

So, YAY for organization and getting my cookie room one step closer to completion!

GIVEAWAY TIME!

I have been slacking on my blog posts, been so busy over here.  I have literally been making cookies from 9am to 9pm everyday, and them answering all emails, convos, messages, etc at night.  But Peapods is almost at its 100th sale, in only 3 months, so while busy, I am sure am happily cookieing away!

Since it is officially baseball season...I am offering a giveaway of 10 Yankees themed cookies!  Don't worry if you don't root for the Yankees, I can just leave those ones out and you will still get 7 cookies!  Baseballs, bats, jerseys, gloves, logos, and best of all...cracker jacks!

All you have to do is leave a comment on my facebook page under this posting!  If you want to leave me a note here on my blog, I would love that too, just make sure you also enter on Facebook!!

These cookies could be yours!

Just a better view of the cookies, these aren't the giveaway!

So please enter, and stay tuned for some more blog posts!