Don't you just hate it when you pour your heart and soul out into a deeply personal blog post that took days to write and perfect, only to have it inexplicably disappear into the swirling black hole of the internet? Technology, you suck. 

We're halfway through January, which means it's time to start thinking about Valentine's Day. That's right - any efforts to burn off those Christmas calories are totally futile. Hello, foil-wrapped chocolate hearts and molten lava cakes and those weird little red cinnamon heart candies. Sigh.

Anyway. I've been wanting to try this wet-on-wet rose design for some time now. As we all know, SweetAmbs (do you think if I keep linking to her website she'll notice that I exist?) is the undisputed queen of this technique, and makes it looks so flipping easy (it's really not). "Oh please," you might be thinking, "your cookies turned out just fine, Adri." 

DID THEY NOW. 

The cookie with its face melted off was my first attempt at executing this design. As you can see, it didn't go well. Neither did the one next to it. But I started to get it by the third and fourth cookies, which was a relief. 

I think these are adorable for Valentine's Day, or even Mother's Day if we're looking ahead in our calendars. 

In any case, what have we learned today?
1. Practice makes perfect.
2. Melted-face cookies have no calories.
​:) 

You know how in that last post I was talking about my compulsive need to do everything myself? Yes well. I made my own wedding cake. 

This was my first time stacking a three-tier cake (or any multi-tiered cake), and also my first time making gumpaste flowers. Did I practise beforehand? No. Did I decide to go full-tilt the week before my wedding and just do it? Yes. Was it a good idea? Well... that depends. 

Eight years ago I gave up sugar for Lent. It was an enormous challenge for someone who loves sweets as much as I do, and I was pretty impressed with myself when I made it to the end.

I was expecting to lose a bit of weight during the process (I did not), but what I didn't expect was for my taste buds to totally change. Since that Lent I haven't needed sugar in my coffee or tea, and I've been totally turned off of milk chocolate. I'd never been a big fan of dark chocolate, but that changed too, and it became my new Favourite Thing.

So you can imagine my total delight when I discovered Sweetopia's delicious recipe for these dark chocolate sugar cookies. They are insanely addictive and I want one right now. They bake up a little bit fudgy in the middle, and with just a pinch of salt in the dough... omnomnomnom.

There's nothing like the sight of bright, colourful tulips to herald the arrival of spring.

​I made these pretty tulip cookies to celebrate the high school graduation of a family friend. It was my first attempt at the wet-on-wet technique, and I think it turned out quite well.