Chewie Wookiee Cookies

Happy Star Wars Day! I made these Chewie Wookiee Cookies at the end of spring break for my brother (who's a huge Star Wars fan & loves CCCs) since his break was the week after mine and I wouldn't get the chance to see him. My mom suggested leaving him a note, but I thought cookies would be better (i.e. more delicious) :D.

So the story behind these cookies started a few years ago, when I saw Philip Tseng's "Han Solo Cup & Chewbacca the Cookie" (below) online. Seriously, baked goods and Star Wars in an adorable presentation; it does not get better than that. And you know I'm all about the food puns :). Btw, check out the other illustrations on his site for more food illustrations (even a "Cherry Pie-rate"! Remember my Apple Pie-rate Ship?) and pop culture references (Adventure Time, TMNT, Arrested Development, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Back to the Future, Gameboy). If you like them, many are available as t-shirts and prints!

[Han Solo Cup & Chewbacca the Cookie | Image Credit: Philip Tseng]

Okay, flash forward to last year. I was visiting my brother in LA and saw his new Threadless shirt, with that same graphic! After seeing it again, I knew I needed to bake these cookies. Plus I'd been hoping to make something Star Wars related for a while. I took out my staple Thick & Chewy CCC cookie recipe and adapted it to this project.

I knew I'd be decorating the cookies with chocolate, so I left out the chocolate chips (feel free to leave them in if you like things extra chocolatey). And since I had some mini red Solo-ish cups lying around, I busted out my craft skills and decorated one of them, because just like Han needs Chewie, cookies need a cup of milk.

P.S. If you don't use all the cookie dough to make the Chewie Cookies, take the remaining dough, add chocolate chips, cut up some Snickers bars, and make Snickers stuffed CCCs!

Bailey's Bear Truffles

I'm sure you've noticed the lack of posts these past 2 months, all due to computer woes and the lack of a decent kitchen. But no worries, I was recently home for spring break, and I finally had the time to create some desserts!

Actually, I've made these Bailey's Truffles a few times already, with rave reviews. The great thing about truffles is that they don't require a lot of ingredients and are rather easy to make, yet everyone always thinks they took more work than they did ;). Being without a kitchen has made it hard to get any baking done this year, but with a microwave and a mini fridge, these truffles were definitely doable.

Usually truffles are just rolled into balls and either dusted with cocoa powder or dipped in chocolate, but I wanted to play around with the shape of my truffles just to see if it could be done (without any molds or any fancy equipment)... and somehow I ended up with truffle bears. But then I figured, everyone likes bears, what with teddy bears being so popular, so why not?

To give them a pop of color and to spiffy them up, I gave my bear truffles bow ties (plus I just really like bow ties). The ties also allow for a bit of customization. The first time I made these bears, I gave them green bow ties for St. Patrick's Day, while for this blog entry, I gave them classic red ones. But of course, these truffles don't have to be shaped into bears. Rolled into balls, dipped into chocolate, and topped with whatever you want: sprinkles, a white chocolate design, or even left plain, they're still equally delicious!

Happy 2013!

Another year over and a new one beginning! Happy 2013!

The beginning of a new year is always a time for self-reflection (I'm big on New Years Resolutions). This year, one of my New Years Resolutions is to find balance. As you've probably noticed, these past few months have been lacking in posts. So a part of this "balance" is figuring out how to introduce hobbies back into my life, things like art, baking, learning languages, and of course blogging.

With a semester of medical school behind me, I have a better idea of what I can handle. This semester, I hope to find a way to work my hobbies into my schedule so it's not just study study study all the time. In terms of art, I'm thinking for February, I'm going to challenge myself to do at least one sketch a week (I'll save painting and pastels for summer), and for March, a photograph a day. In terms of baking, I'm going for a more structured approach since the process takes such a large chunk of time, what with planning, buying ingredients, the actual baking, and decorating. And, of course, my goal for blogging for now is to post at least once a month; no more months with no posts >:|.

A little bit on these cookies. For NYE this year, my friends and I decided to stay in for a casual get-together (lots of Mario Party while sipping sangria). To match the mood, I opted for something a bit fancy, but not over-the-top, which resulted in these cookies. They're not too hard to make and are quite pretty. I really like the contrast between the more demure pink icing with white pearls and the wilder black icing with silver balls. These are perfect for both a fancy dressy event and a casual night-in chilling with friends.

P.S. Did any of you make any interesting New Years Resolutions? Share :)!

Sucré Giveaway!

This post is going to be short but sweet (literally). It's my first giveaway (exciting!!!). The lovely people at Sucré want to give one of you their Holiday Chocolate and Macaron Collection!

"Discover true Holiday bliss with our 15 piece festive Mint Chocolate & Dark Truffle Collection paired with our 15 piece peppermint and chocolate flavored Holiday Macarons."

Sucré is a sweet confection studio located in New Orleans, Louisiana. They have two shops in New Orleans where they sell a variety of amazing desserts: cakes, cupcakes, pastries, gelato sundaes, chocolates, and macarons. But if you're not from New Orleans, don't fret as they offer many of their scrumptious sweets online as well. I've listed their website below, check it out!

To Enter:
1) Leave a comment below telling me your favorite holiday treat (mine: peppermint hot chocolate and chewy gingerbread cookies).
2) You must be a follower of Diamonds for Dessert (click "Join this site" on the right via Google Friend Connect).
3) Fill out the entry form to provide your e-mail address so I may contact you should you win.

Rules:
1) Contest only open to those residing in the continental US.
2) This giveaway ends at 11pm PST on 12/26/2012.
3) The winner will be announced at 12am (midnight) of 12/27/2012 here on this post and will also be contacted via e-mail. They will have 24 hours to respond with their shipping info (if they fail to do so, another winner will be chosen).
4) Duplicate entries and those that don't complete all three "to enter" tasks (as listed above) will be disqualified.

This giveaway is sponsored by Sucré.
Website: http://www.shopsucre.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shopsucre
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SucreNewOrleans

P.S. I know I announced last week that I'd have this up on Saturday but 1) I got stuck at the airport for 1 1/2 days (SNOW >:|), 2) my laptop died (so I didn't have computer access until I got home), and 3) I got sick :(. Sorry for the delays!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!
Congrats to the winner: Madonna (I've e-mailed you)