Thick and Rich

Neither are attractive combinations in men, but all are desirable when it comes to facial moisturisers.

Earlier this month I attended the launch of Benefit's B.Right Skincare range and snaffled me up the entire range of moisturisers as I left. And I have been using them night and day since. Lets take a closer look shall we?

Triple Performing Facial Emulsion.

Triple performing facial emulsion SPF 15 hydrates, protects & comforts the skin with an oil-free, lightweight formula. I use it in the mornings and it is great for under makeup. The cap comes off to reveal a little pump distributor and two pumps and I am set. It is lightly fragranced but with a fresh scent that I like. Works. Not oily. Good.

BUY IT HERE

Total Moisture Facial Cream

When it comes to night creams, the richer the better for me! This chunky glass jar houses a thick cream which provides concentrated immediate & long-term hydration which makes it perfect as my night cream. Contains exclusive tri-radiance complex to help develop the skin's reserves of water & reinforce skin's moisture barrier for a radiantly refreshed complexion. Give it a miss if you are an oily skinned diva and stick with the Emulsion. But I am a combination skinned queen and this is working for me.

BUY IT HERE

It's Potent Eye Cream

Love this little jar of goodness! LOVE. My favourite all all three. I am a recent convert to highly concentrated eye creams but suffer from millia around the top of my cheekbones. Millia are little white fatty deposits that ... oh I do not bloody know why they are there. Mr Wiki describes them as Millia, also called a milk spot or an oil seed, is a keratin-filled cyst that can appear just under the epidermis.

When it comes to strange things on my body, I am a fricking walking test case.

Anyway. It's Potent Eye Cream is great for thinning dry skin around the eyes. I am a little addicted to it and use it twice a day. A little goes a long way. Contains a peptide complex known to help restore elasticity & firmness, a blend of hydrating botanical extracts and it really does fade circles and brighten the entire eye area. Best of all for me it does not irritate my keratin-filled cysts. Nice.

BUY IT HERE

OR WIN IT HERE!

Leave a skincare tip and Randy.Org will select 3 Randomites to receive a jar of my favourite It's Potent Eye Cream. Leave an additional comment if you retweet this giveaway for an extra entry. Drawn Wednesday 4th May. Open to residents of the entire world!

Go Forth and Be Bright!

1. Become a follower of this blog, and leave me a comment telling me so.
2. Leave a comment and tell me your absolute favorite color of disco/pixie dust that Karen carries, or if there is a color that you would like to see in her shop.
3. Tweet or share this giveaway on Facebook.

To be fair, I cheated on the cake.  It's a Rice Krispie cake. I'd never even heard of them until a few weeks ago, but it was EASY to make.  The only thing I regret is that I did not take the time to add a beaded border to the cake.  I ran out of frosting and too lazy to make more.

Now on to the good stuff! It's the dead of winter and to help with the winter blues CSN and their really fabulous office furniture site are sponsoring another fantastic giveaway. If you're looking for a little something to spruce up your blogging hq home office this is a great site. I wouldn't mind a nice desk and chair to do my blogging from.

Any of my US or UK readers can enter to win a $40 gift certificate to any of their 200 stores. Get something for someone special or treat yourself!

Rules

1. Enter by 12pm GMT Wed Feb 16th Now closed

• leaving a comment below this post stating what the best Birthday or Valentine gift you've received is.
• If you're also a follower leave a second comment stating so to get a second entry.
• A third entry can be tweeting "Win CSN Gift Certificate from @Cupcake_Kelly http://americancupcakeinlondon.blogspot.com/2011/02/giveaway-time.html" and remember to come back and leave a third comment saying you've tweeted

2. Shipping costs are not included
3. Gift certificate is $40 or the GBP equivalent (UK winner must shop at the UK store).
4. Winner will by chosen using random.org

Good Luck!

Sorry to have kept everyone waiting.  I had such a huge response to my latest giveaway, and it took me a while to sort things out.

First, I would like to say, I enjoyed all of your comments more than words can express.  They made me laugh and brought back my own special memories, so I thank those who were willing to share their "Nanny" with me.

Many people start the year off with resolutions, but since I tend to break them so easily, I like to do GOALS.  On December 10,  two years ago, I added this entry to my list of goals: 

When I wrote that, I did it with good intentions, but who knows what would have happened if life hadn't set in.  Within a month, my beloved grandma, Nanny, passed away.

Few people in life are lucky enough to have what I did with her.  Nanny wasn't often the perfect ideal grandma type, but she loved me unconditionally, even when I didn't deserve it. She would literally do anything to help me.  And despite her shortcomings, she taught me a lot about strength and family and being able to smile, even when life didn't turn out quite as planned, and for that I am forever grateful.

I knew for a very long time that Nanny's time was coming to an end, but I guess it never really seemed real until the day before she was gone.  Dad called and told me I really needed to think about going to see her.

 I usually managed to avoid it, because I was terrified of seeing her so very sick, but since she was no longer able to call me daily, I knew it was time.

When I got there it was as bad as I had imagined.  She was painfully thin and unable to speak, and even though I cried the whole drive down, I was determined not to let her know how scared I was because I knew she would worry...and I didn't want her to worry.

The tough face plan didn't go so well after I arrived.  One of my last memories of Nanny is me turning into a bawling mess while she struggled to tell me that everything would be okay. 

It was so very backward in every way...I should have been conforting her, but that was my Nanny, always trying to mend my broken heart.



NOTHING prepared me for the void I felt when she left this world.  Suddenly baking became a refuge,  my distraction.  Now, almost two years later, here I am.

A lot of it is surreal.  This time of year takes me back.  Sometimes I cannot believe so much time has passed.  I have learned SO much and made friends along the way that helped to fill the hole that was left when I lost Nanny.

It also takes me back to those very first days of surfing the net, looking for any and every bit of available information on decorating cookies.

The  first website I stumbled upon happened to be Karen's Cookies.  I was absolutely, utterly, and completely amazed at what I found.  There I sat in the Hyatt Place during our Christmas vacation, enchanted and ordering every cookie cutter and sprinkle I could afford with my handful of giftcards. 

Fast forward to now.  Since Karen's Cookies was the very first cookie door I ever opened two years ago, isn't it appropriate that for my first big giveaway of the year, Karen so generously offered to provide most of the supplies needed for a prize that I have been dying to give away for 2 months?!  For my very first prize of the year, I have, with Karen's help, managed to put together a wonderful  gift! This month's prize is...



This kit has all the supplies I use to decorate cookies on a daily basis...among them, my favorite icing tips and gadgets, my preferred food colors, icing bottles, DISCO DUST and much much more!

Now, I apologize for the tears. {Nanny didn't like re-hashing the bad days}  And I didn't mean for this to turn into a sad tale, especially since this is a giveaway...But overall, this has a happy ending.  A wonderful new story from the end of another, memories that will always make me smile, and the knowledge that Nanny is just as proud of me now as she was when I was a kid and would draw silly pictures of all of her pals.  She carried on every single time like I'd given her a Rembrandt =)

All this said, I really hope this kit falls into the hands of someone who needs it as much as I did at the beginning of my journey, or someone who is as passionate about cookies as I am.



First of all, you can head on over to Karen's Cookies FB page and "LIKE" her since she was kind enough to do this for me. That's reason enough to like her in itself.  And if that doesn't convince you, one looksie at her cookie website will!

 If you already do "LIKE" Karen, just tell her hello, and come back and let me know...she and her hubby Mike have some of the best service and fastest shipping, AND she has this great habit of always tucking a surprise in each package.  You gotta love that!

For a second entry, I just want to keep it simple.  Leave me a comment telling me your fondest memory of your "Nanny" {Everyone has a Nanny, whether you call her *or him* that or not}...

There are no rules about what you share, I'd just like to give everyone else a chance to share something special about their loved one.

Remember, each comment IS AN ENTRY, so post each one separately, AND leave a way for me to contact you.

I will choose a winner next Thursday using random.org, so keep your eyes open =)

*and as always, tweeting this giveaway is a free bonus entry*

Since this is a giveaway post, I had a few birthday cookies in the archives that seemed appropriate.  Afterall, winning is almost like receiving the gift of all birthday gifts.  {That is, if you are into cookies of course =)}

 


Vtay—Adding butter flavoring is inspired! I’m going to try that.

Missy—Yes. Definitely. This will dry hard enough to package with other cookies, stack, wrap, ship... Just be sure to let the cookies dry at room temperature uncovered OVERNIGHT. I never ever package cookies the same day I decorate them.


Lex—Tough to describe the consistency. Not so much tootsie roll or taffy like, it does dry hard-ish like royal icing, it just gives a bit.

Vtay and Linda—Meringue powder is dried egg whites with sugar and cream of tartar mixed in. 1 tsp meringue powder plus 2 tablespoons water equals 1 egg white, so for my recipe, hmmm, that’s about 12 egg whites (so eliminate both the 4 tbsp meringue powder and ½ cup of water). Yikes. That’s a lot. But sounds about right. I would also add a bit of cream of tartar to stabilize. Also, the beauty of meringue powder is that you don’t have the concerns of using raw eggs. If you do try and make this with egg whites, I would first start off halving the recipe.

Beth—I’ve never tried substituting butter for Crisco, but I think it should work… You should only need a couple tablespoons. Or start with even one tablespoon to taste.


Margo—This icing, kept in a sealed container, will last several weeks at room temperature. You can also keep the colored frosting that way, or in their frosting bags. The tips might dry and clog, but just unclog with a toothpick.


Also, note that this recipe is very forgiving. The important part is the meringue powder and water whipped, then the powdered sugar added. Then, you can add less or more flavoring, corn syrup, Crisco… Beth, you might even want to try no Crisco if you can’t find it, and more corn syrup for example. You can also add more powdered sugar or water to thicken or thin as you need.

Thanks again Meaghan for all you do!  Stephanie, get back to me ASAP and your signed copy of Meaghan's book will soon be in the mail =)

For today, here are some cookies I made for my uncle, who lives in a house divided...

A little over a week ago, I talked about two types of icing royal and glaze (there are more)  AND I asked you all which you preferred.  The responses were WONDERFUL y'all really made me think! 

However, when I mentioned in the post that oil is the enemy of royal icing, I got several comments from girls who DO add oil or shortening to their icing, which made me wonder... Am I completely right? Totally wrong?...Do I even know what I am talking about, or did I just regurgitate something I have been told without verifying...

Sad story first.  If you like the kind of finish I have on my cookies, oil IS the enemy!  I found this out the hard way (yet again) at 3am last week.  I was making an orange variation of my traditional cookie recipe,when I ran out of my usual flavoring...SOOOOOOO without thinking, I pulled out another bottle of orange extract, added it, and went on my merry way.   At about 2:30 am I took one last little looksie before I went to bed and my icing did not look right...I knew instantly what the problem was. I had seen it before.  I ran to grab my flavoring and verify, and sure enough, it was 11% orange oil.  I shouldn't really repeat the next words in my thought process that EARLY MORNING, but they went something like *BLERG, BLERG, BLERG, BLERG, EFFITY BLERG* (Did I mention they needed to be shipped to one of my favorite Californians the next morning?)  Another A+ for me in procrastination!

Now let me note, I don't really like to document my worst cookie failure EVER for all the world to read, but if it saves someone else the utter waste of 150 cookies going straight into the trash at 3am after 30 minutes of TEARS, I'll make an exception!

*Yes, I said 150 =(*

Alright, that's enough about my sorrows...the point of all this was for me to say, that WE ARE ALL right.  As soon as the comments came in, I  thought of two recipes off the top of my head that I KNEW used shortening.  One recipe, meringue powder buttercream belonged to Karen, of Karen's Cookies, the other to my cookie pal, Meaghan Mountford, author of Cookie Sensations...

From experience, I try not to make it a habit to talk about things I don't know anything about, so I decided to go straight to the source for those of you who WANT TO KNOW! I asked Meaghan her thoughts on the subject of icing and she was glad to share.

I have already taken up MORE than my fair share of this post *hey it's my blog, I can talk if I want to* so I'm going to turn things over to Meaghan and let HER give you "the skinny" on another type of cookie icing. 

It's NOT traditional royal icing.  In fact, Meaghan and I couldn't really decide what it was, but she threw out a few names for me...royal-ish icing, frostingesque, frostal...

I like Royal-ish Icing, so we'll go with that one...

So, without further ado (in other words, SHUT UP CALLYE)  Meet my friend, Meaghan, of the decorated cookie!

Hi everybody! It's Meaghan, from the decorated cookie. A bit of my cookie background: I was a cookie decorator at a little shop outside of Washington DC for almost ten years. In the three years since I left to have my daughter, I've branched out from cookies to work with cupcakes, marshmallows, fondant and any sweet I find interesting, and I share it all on the decorated cookie. I'm also the Edible crafts editor over at CraftGossip.com, where I constantly mine the Internet for sweet, crafty, clever people like you. Oh yes, and I wrote a book in 2007 on the art of cookie decorating, Cookie Sensations. Below are some of my creations you'll see on my blog.




I'm so happy to visit The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle to share my thoughts on a veeeery important cookie decorating topic: the icing. I dare say the icing is the most important part of cookie decorating, even more than the cookie itself. A bad texture or taste to your icing can ruin all your hard work, and finding a great go-to recipe is essential. That's why I'm so proud of the recipe I created for my book. I've amended it a bit here and there since, but it's the only recipe I use and I've made it so many times I can whip up a batch blindfolded.



As I'm sure many of you already know, traditional royal icing, ideal for cookie decorating because it dries hard, is made from egg whites and powdered sugar. I started with a traditional royal icing, but I added a few things, like shortening and light corn syrup, to improve the taste and texture. My recipe doesn't dry as rock hard as traditional royal icing, but left to dry overnight, it will dry well enough to handle, package, wrap and even ship your cookies. Plus, by substituting meringue powder (found in the craft store) for egg whites, you can mix up a batch easily and store leftover icing in air-tight containers for several weeks. Lastly, this icing freezes very well. (After decorating, let your cookies dry overnight, then wrap well in Ziploc bags and freeze. Let the cookies thaw completely in the Ziploc bags before removing.) You can also find this recipe and cookie recipes HERE at my blog. So here it is, my no-fail, trusty, go-to recipe for icing.


Meaghan's cookie decorating icing (Royal-ish Icing)

4 Tablespoons meringue powder
1/2 cup cold water
6 to 8 cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons vegetable shortening (Crisco)
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup (optional)

In a standing mixer fitted with a wire whip, or with an electric hand mixer, mix the meringue powder and cold water on low, then switch to the highest speed and whip for several minutes until fluffy and stiff peaks form. Add about 3 cups of the confectioner's sugar, the vanilla, shortening and corn syrup (if using). Blend well. Add three more cups of confectioner's sugar and blend well. Add confectioner's sugar, 1/2 cup at a time up to 2 more cups (I usually end up with 7 cups total) until desired consistency. This icing is forgiving, you can add a bit more Crisco and/or light corn syrup to taste. And add more confectioner's sugar or water to thicken or thin.



A million thanks to Meaghan for taking the time to explain her icing recipe, and how she came up with it, and especially for putting up with the not-so-computer-savvy blogger...*raises hand*

How interesting!  Now, I realize that everyone has their own preference in icing and may not just drop everything and switch, but in the interest of all things cookie, I thought this was need-to-know info!  And, since you paid attention, I have a special surprise! 

I own this book, and it is one of my favorites.  I love her photos and tips, she has a great section on the history of shaped cookies, AND an awesome color chart.  Also, she is one of the most creative cookiers I know, which is high up on my list of my most respected traits in cookie decorators =)

There are two ways to win this book.

• Leave a comment about royalish icing...anything you please, as long as it's SWEET (the comment I mean)...whether you would be willing to try it, if you have tried it (for us scaredy-cats), or even a question...

• hop on over to FB and leave a comment letting me know which of my cookie designs is your favorite, and why =)  Come back here and let me know.

As always, tweeting this gets an bonus entry, just let me know =)  Just leave your email address with your comment so I can find you...

*If I can't find you, then you can't win, so make sure to leave something! Last day to enter is Sunday!