Happy Cinco de Mayo! Celebrate with the Chihuahua Cookie Cutter!

I made this cute Chihuahua Cookie using the

Chihuahua cookie cutter from our Cloud K9® website.

1. Use the dog shaped cookie cutter to cut the cookie from the sugar cookie dough and bake according to your recipe or package instructions.
2. Let the cookie cool completely before icing it.
3. Spread the white decorating icing to the edges of the cookie and let it dry.
4. Add the eye and nose with black decorating icing as shown in the photo above. (It helps to use a toothpick for these features.)
5. Add the dog collar with red decorating icing and a plastic decorating tip (or an icing writer) as shown in the photo above.
6. Let the icing dry.

Adios!

Carole

We have over 80 different breeds of dog cookie cutters on our website.

[Text and photo copyright Carole of CloudK9.com All rights reserved.]

Mother's Day Gift Idea!

Mother's Day is a little more than 2 weeks away! Cloud K9 ® has a great gift idea for Mom...especially for Dog Moms!

Let Mom keep a picture of her favorite kids and furkids in one of our locket necklaces.

Our locket necklaces are made from vintage molds and are available in over 35 different breeds of Dogs, plus a Paw Print, Rabbit, Cat, or Horse (with horseshoe).

A great gift idea that is sure to be treasured for years to come!

Carole
Cloud K9

Dog Cookie Cutter Series: St Patrick's Day (Irish Setter)

What would be better for St. Patrick's Day than an Irish Dog Cookie? Today we feature a whimsical Irish Setter cookie to celebrate the day, made with the Irish Setter Cookie Cutter from our Cloud K9®  website.

1. Use the dog shaped cookie cutter to cut the cookie from the sugar cookie dough and bake according to your recipe or package instructions.
2. Let the cookie cool completely before icing it.
3. Spread the white decorating icing to the edges of the cookie and let it dry.
4. Outline the dog with green decorating icing and a plastic decorating tip or use an icing writer.  Add the green shamrocks and collar as shown in the photo above.
5. Let the icing dry.

Carole

We have over 80 different breeds of dog cookie cutters on our website.

[Text and photo copyright Carole of CloudK9.com All rights reserved.]

Valentine's Day Cookie ~ I Heart This Cookie!

I made a special cookie just for Valentine's Day using the Chihuahua cookie cutter from our Cloud K9® website.  But you could use any of the more than 80 dog breed cookie cutters on our website.

To start...follow our blog instructions for the Chihuahua cookie cutter.

To make the hearts, I used a red "icing writer" tube and added hearts all over the body of the Chihuahua. 

To make the hearts, I made 2 commas back to back:

                                    Start with a comma                   Add another comma.Voila! A Heart!

I heart these cookies!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Carole

[Text and photos copyright Carole of CloudK9.com All rights reserved.]

White Christmas

We were fortunate enough to have a White Christmas!

A little bit of snow coated the dog statue.

Snow rests on the holly leaves.

In a few weeks or months, the birds migrating back to our area

 will hungrily gobble up these berries.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Hope your Christmas was Merry!

Carole

[Text and photos copyright Carole of cloudk9.com  All rights reserved.]

The 12 Dog Days of Christmas

 A friend bought me a cute dishtowel at our local Sur La Table store.

It's a clever rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas with a Dog Theme.

   

A Dog's Christmas

A Peekapoo in a Pear Tree

Two Chewed Slippers

Three Chased Cars

Four Guarded Doors

Five Golden Retrievers

Six Flowers Flying

Seven Westies Walking

Eight Legs a-Lifting

Nine Hounds a-Howling

Ten Fleas a-Hopping

Eleven Labs a-Licking

Twelve Leashes Tugging

Woof! Woof!

The towel is from the Sur La Table store, but, I can't locate it on their website.

If you are interested, you can contact the store or email them: SurLaTable.com .

(Note: I do not receive any compensation for featuring this item.)

 

Hope you enjoyed this cute version of the song and Happy Howl-idays!

 

Carole

How to Decorate Dog-Shaped Sugar Cookies

Fun with Dog-Shaped Cookie Cutters

Sugar cookies are always fun, but they are especially fun when they’re in special shapes… like dog-shaped sugar cookies!

Dough
You can make sugar cookie dough: from scratch, or use a mix that comes in a little plastic pouch.  I prefer not to use refrigerated sugar cookie dough that comes in little tubes, since the small size of the "slice and bake" dough is not wide enough for larger cookie cutters. (Although you could possibly try rolling pieces of the dough together to make a larger piece of dough.)

Decorating the Cookies
There are numerous options for decorating dog shaped cookies. Tubes of icing designed especially for decorating cookies are available in a variety of colors, and special tips can be used for different effects and textures.  Semi-Sweet and White Chocolate chips can also be used for decorating cookies. (Note: chocolate can be toxic to dogs, so the cookies described here are for people and not for dogs.) Some of these supplies are shown in the photo above.

Cloud K9® carries over 80 different dog theme and dog shaped cookie cutters. I selected 3 dog breeds at random for today's blog:
Labrador Retriever Cookie Cutter ,
Cocker Spaniel Cookie Cutter ,
Great Dane Cookie Cutter.

Here We Go!
Make sure the cookies are completely cooled before decorating them!

You can leave the sugar cookie plain without decorating it.

Shown: Cocker Spaniel

Or you and the kids (with supervision) can decorate the cookies with simple designs.

 Shown: Labrador Retriever. Collar and eye created with tubes of cookie decorating icing and decorating tips (or "icing writers" sold at many craft stores).




Coat Textures and Patterns

For Short-Coated Dogs

Shown: Harlequin Great Dane. You can “ice” the sugar cookie with white chocolate chips. The white chips are melted, then smoothed on with a knife or spatula. This gives a sleek smooth look. Let the chocolate harden.

Dogs with Spots
Then black spots are applied using a tube of black decorating icing over the coating of white chocolate



For Long-Coated Dogs

Shown: Cocker Spaniel.  Cover the front of the cookie with decorating icing; you can use various implements (spoon, fork, table knife, spatula, toothpicks, decorating tips) to create waves or texture in the "fur." Additional icing is applied on the ear to make it more 3-dimensional.

More De-"Tails"

Shown: Holly Wreath Collar. You can use a tube of green decorating icing with a decorating tip to create texture and then apply red holly “berries” using a tube of red decorating icing and a decorating tip. (Or you can use "icing writers" which are available at many craft stores.)

The options are endless!
Have fun and I would love to see your photos!

Happy Howl-idays!
Carole
PS We will be covering lots more dog breeds in future blogs! Stay tuned!
[Photos and text copyright Carole of cloudk9.com  All rights reserved.]

Howl-iday Cookies (Dog Cookie Cutters Series)

Nothing says the "Holidays" like homemade cookies...and nothing says the "Howl-idays" for people who love dogs like dog shaped sugar cookies!

Next week, we will be starting a blog series on decorating dog shaped cookies...just in time for the Howl-idays!

We feature over 80 different dog breed cookie cutters on our website.
Click Here to take a peek at them.

Join us next week and let the fun begin!

Carole
CloudK9

Sweet Gifts and Recipes

Just in time for the holidays, I found a nifty little section on the C&H Sugar website.

It has recipes for Sugar Cookies (of course, it’s a sugar website!), Muffins, and Sugar Scrubs (to moisturize and exfoliate).  They even provide templates for labels to print out and put on the bottle of sugar scrub.

Sugar Scrub

I tried the Sugar Scrub recipe last night.  A perfect evening to try it (when the temperatures were supposed to dip to 10 degrees)...and of course, everyone has dry, flaky skin with this weather!  The recipe was easy to make, did a good job of exfoliating, and also moisturing my skin!

This site is worth checking out:

Holiday Sugar Recipes
 
You can make some really sweet gifts!
(I do not receive any compensation for linking to the sugar website.)

Enjoy!
Carole

[Photo and Text Copyright 2009 Carole of CloudK9.com All Rights Reserved.]

A Holiday Tip to Save Some Green and Go Green

Save $ome Green
I found this cute little Santa hat for pets at the dollar store (the first way to save money...the dollar store).  This store did not have clothes for 90 lb dogs (probably because the amount of fabric required would cost more than $1).  But, if you have a small pet that will wear clothes, this is a great find!

"Hoppy" Holidays!

Paisley the Rabbit modeling the festive hat!

Instead of mailing a card by snail mail, a cute and clever e-card can be as good or even better!  Who wouldn’t enjoy receiving a holiday email with an adorable pet picture?  The photo of your pet creates a very personal touch.  Plus, during this season when everyone is trying to save money, an e-card you create yourself can save $$$.  In addition to saving the cost of purchased cards, an e-card will also save money on postage!

Go Green!
Sending your own e-card saves paper and it saves trees. You just need a great picture and a clever verse.

For this Rabbit-theme e-card, the verse will be: ‘Hoppy’ Holidays!

You could also use:

Happy Howl-idays or Yappy New Year (for a dog theme),
Purr-fect (for a cat theme),
Fleas Navidad (for a cat or dog theme)!

Be creative and have fun!  Feel free to share with everyone here your great pictures and ideas!

Carole

[Photo and Text Copyright 2009 Carole of CloudK9.com All Rights Reserved.]

Peppermint Bark Recipe (yummy)

About 2 weeks ago, I began craving Peppermint Bark. So I did some searching online and hit gold!  I didn't find a recipe for just any Peppermint Bark, this recipe is based on Peppermint Bark from Williams Sonoma!

The information with the recipe says that Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark is $22.00 a pound.  However, that statement must be from last year.  I made a trip to Williams Sonoma (yes, I spare no expense for my blog followers) and this year (2009) the Peppermint Bark is $26.000 a pound!

I made several batches of the recipe (see one in my picture above) and it is truly delicious.  A few tips:

* Supposedly, crushed peppermint from Candy Canes is softer than crushed peppermint from the little round "Starlight" Mints.

For one batch, I made more of a powder or dust by using the blender, so that I didn't have to worry about breaking a tooth on a larger piece of crushed peppermint.  It tastes equally good using the very finely crushed peppermint.

* I found when using Nestle's white chocolate chips, that the chocolate became very thick when the peppermint extract was added.  This happened with 2 separate batches.  This did not happen when I tried another brand of white chocolate chips (actually from Aldi).

So there is no copyright infringement, I am posting a link to the recipe rather than copying the recipe here:
(I do not receive any compensation for posting/linking to this recipe.)

Peppermint Bark Recipe

I believe, if you can find some of the ingredients on sale (which is easy to do during the holiday season), that the bark costs less than $5.00 a pound. A HUGE savings over $26.00 a pound if you purchase it from the store! Just find a cute tin or container to put this candy in and you will have a wonderful gift...or keep it for yourself!

Enjoy! The only thing that could make this recipe any better is if it had no calories!

Carole

[Text Copyright 2009 Carole of CloudK9.com All Rights Reserved.]

Countdown to the Howl-idays ~ Santa Mascots

Thanksgiving is over...and the countdown to the holidays has begun!

So I will share our Santa mascots: Baron and Paisley!

We would love to see your pet Santa Pictures...either your pet dressed as Santa...or your pet with Santa!

Happy Howl-idays!

Carole

[Text and Photos Copyright 2009 Carole of CloudK9.com All Rights Reserved.]

Howl-idays Traditions

It's countdown time to the Howl-idays!  How can the year have gone by so quickly?

So many things to do: buy presents, wrap gifts, make cookies, decorate the tree, etc.  There are recipes that I make every year, but I also like to try some new recipes to add to the collection.

Are there special traditions in your family?
* A recipe passed down from generation to generation?
* A treasured ornament that brings back a special memory?
* Or do you create new memories each year by trying something different?

We will be posting some new ideas, recipes, projects over the next few weeks to inspire some howl-iday spirit.

Hope you enjoy them! And feel free to leave a comment with your special ideas or traditions!

Carole
PS Unfortunately, no one entered the November Contest for the locket or business card case.
We will try this contest again in the future.
[Text Copyright 2009 Carole of CloudK9.com All Rights Reserved.]