A Master Creation’s New Blog

Thank you for taking the time to visit this blog. I’ve decided to start blogging simply to add my story to my creations. My work is dedicated to all that have placed faith in me to create something wonderful for them.

Aileen Master

Thanksgiving Spread

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this time of the year. This is the time I get to experiment with new recipes and use my family as my taste testers. This year I made pumpkin bread and truffle pops.

The pumpkin bread recipe I altered to make it healthier. I lessened the oil and sugar and replace it with sweet potato puree. I made muffins for the kids and made mini bundt cakes to hand out to family. I wanted to sift powdered sugar on the little cakes, but after awhile, the moisture of the cake would dissolve the sugar. So I had royal icing and used it as a glaze. I still wasn’t satisfied with the look so I had left over fall jimmies and I added those to the cake. I still wasn’s happy with the outcome, so I realized the little dip in the middle would hold a fondant flower nicely!

The truffle pops are actually an old dessert I use to make but just as truffles to give to family and friends over the holiday. I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile to add to my menu for next year. It’s actually harder than it looks! Chocolate has to be tempered correctly or else it clumps up. It happened many times to me. After I got the right texture of the chocolate, I started dipping the truffles to coat them evenly…still a work in progress. The fondant flower was again another after thought. I didn’t particularly cover the truffle all the way to the top of it, so I wanted to cover the truffle with something and this is where the fondant flower came to play.

Here’s the complete Thanksgiving spread… Truffle pops, pumpkin bread & red velvet mini cupcakes.

Aisa & Chris’ Baby Shower

I was very excited to make these cookies for my good friends Aisa & Chris. I’ve known Aisa since high school. It’s been a wonderful friendship that has seen lots of laughter and lots of tears, lots of turns in the roads but without a doubt, she is one friend true friend that I’d do anything for.

The baby shower was a Safari theme and all Aisa & Chris’ friends and family helped with this shower. It had to be one of the best team work I have seen in years! I was in charge of the favors so here’s what I came up with:

This is the complete set of cookies:

Baby Safari Rattles

Baby Safari Onesies

Giraffe Onesie & Rattle. These are my favorites!

Elephant Onesie & Rattle. I forgot to add the tail!

Tiger Onesie & Lion Rattle.

Monkey Onesie & Rattle.

Aisa & Chris have not picked out a name for the baby, so I thought of making safari themed cookie pops. Inspiration came from
SweetSugarBelle Cookies. I remember seeing her safari themed cookie when I made my queen of the jungle cookies.

As my gift, I made a diaper cake. The lion head was a last minute addition. I was going to make another baby carriage, but I figured the lion head would be better.

Last but certainly not least, I must show you all a very talented cake decorator. Aisa’s cousin, Debra, made this amazing cake! She worked all week on it on top of her full time school and work schedule. She traveled all the way from Las Vegas to deliver this cake. I’m so excited for her and can’t wait to see her continue her passion to make cakes.

Congratulations to Aisa & Chris! Can’t wait to meet the baby girl!

Mustache cookies?

11/16/09-Revised post-I knew I should have had my sister read a draft of this before I posted. I have a few things that need to be corrected. Sorry Sam! Changes in bold.

Okay, these cookies have an interesting story that has to be told….

My older sister called me up last sunday excited of an idea she wanted to do for her friend’s birthday. She wanted to give him something original, unique and fun. Her friend Sam was doing a contest with another friend of who can grow a mustache faster. Sam was doing a fundraiser for the Movember Foundation where groups grow mustaches for the month of November and raise money for Prostate Cancer research and for the Lance Armstrong Foundation The deadline was 11/11 for the contest which apparently Sam’s birthday. is at the end of November. As an original, unique and fun birthday present, my sister thought of having me make mustache cookie. The kicker was she wanted them on Wednesday AND she lives in New York…I live in California. Pressure was on!

Originally I wanted to make actually mustache shaped cookies so when Sam received them, he could “try out” different mustache’s, but I was afraid they would break during the shipping. So my sister sent me a link Mustache silhouettes. So as a compromise, I followed these designs and added them on square and circle cookies.

I have to say I was so nervous making these! I think with the rush of getting them done and out the door the next day was on my mind. In order for me to get them done in time I had to used marshmallow fondant as the base and royal icing for the writing and designing. The nose was giving me problems, but I finally got the hang of it. I added the borders to give a final touch on the cookies. My sister wanted me to make the number of cookie to equal Sam’s age. For the last cookie she wanted a birthday greeting. She wanted me to change “November” to “Movember”…as an inside joke with the mustache’s.

Happy Birthday to Sam!!!

Inger & Phil’s Wedding Cupcakes

It’s been over a decade since I last talked to my friend, Inger. Such a fun gal to hang out with and always wears a beautiful smile everywhere. With the magic of Facebook, we were reconnected and with a wonderful surprise that she got married a few months ago! Her friends and family wanted to throwing a wedding reception for Inger and Phil. To my surprise, she asked if I could make cupcakes for the reception. I beamed! How fun to make cupcakes for an old friend AND for her wedding reception. The reception was the same day as Elaina’s birthday and I knew we were going to have a little party for her, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to be a part of Inger & Phil’s wedding reception. It was a Hawaiian theme reception with the colors deep blue & white, so Inger saw my cupcakes I made for Rhonda (Cupcakes for Rhonda)

Did I mention Inger wanted 160 cupcakes?

She also wanted to give decorated cookies to her wedding party so she wanted surfboards and plumeria’s.

Congratulations to Inger & Phil. May they have a wonderful life together!

Elaina’s 2nd Birthday Cookies

Why does time go by so fast when you watch your kids grow up? My littlest daughter is now two. More words to learn, more things to explore and more adventures to be made. She’s such a breath of fresh air and a wonderful cuddle buddy. Happy birthday to my baby…Elaina!

For her birthday, we decided to throw a small party with our family. There wasn’t a theme to the party so I picked two of my favorite cutters to make a few dozen cookies. The week of her birthday was Halloween week so I had a few orders to finish plus a 160 wedding cupcakes to finish and deliver on Elaina’s actual party. I don’t know how I survived that week but I had to push myself to make these cookies because my kids ARE the reason why I create what I create. They are my inspiration and my critics! And every week my kids would watch me make cookies for other parties and their little faces would always comment on which ones they want for their birthday and what colors are their favorites. If I give my all to each cookie I make for others, I can give 110% more for my kids birthdays. So here’s a few pictures:

After Elaina’s party, I realized the impact of overdoing too much and not getting enough sleep, because my body shut down and I came down with the flu! I was out for almost a week trying to recover! No regrets…and yes, I would do it all over again the same way for my baby….

Happy Birthday Elaina!

Brenda’s “Surprise” Baby Shower

I was happy to receive in the mail an invitation to a surprise baby shower in honor of my college buddy, Brenda. It’s been almost 10 years since we’ve seen each other and recently reconnected. She’s married and has one son and one baby girl on the way. I was excited to see her again and be part of the surprise. It just so happened that her baby shower fell on a weekend that I was free of orders so I wanted to do something special…why not cookies!

The first set I I knew right away I wanted to do. I love to incorporate siblings into a design so why not add big brother so he can have his own cookie!

Second set had to be included…baby rattle, onesie, carriage & bib. (not shown are footprints)

Brenda & David already picked out their daughter’s name…so why not make cookie pops to spell out her name!

I needed more…so I made filler cookies…stars and flower pops.

I had so much fun with these that I took a few more pictures…

Now what to do with all these cookies? For over 12 years, I’ve been making diaper cakes for friends and family. It’s one of the most practical gifts to give and they look so neat! Well, I wish I had taken pictures of all these diaper cakes, because it’s so popular now! There’s websites devoted to selling diaper cakes…who knew? So, here’s my version…

I just loved how everything turned out with this. I love how the big cookies stand out and how the flowers and stars worked very well as fillers.

I didn’t put a stick on the bib because I wanted it to hang like this…

I was very excited to see my friend, Brenda and to see her reaction when was surprised… unfortunately someone told her about the baby shower! Oh well! Congratulations to Brenda & David, may they continue down the alphabet and hopefully pass us up! ^_^

Allen’s 40th Hawaiian Surprise

Leilani called me to help her surprise her husband on his 40th birthday. They were celebrating Allen’s birthday at a Hawaiian Restaurant so the party theme would be Hawaiian. We went back and forth on a few ideas….surfboards, pineapples, hawaiian shirts, plumerias, turtles…but how do we incorporate the number 40? Leilani saw the pictures from Leelana & Gabriel’s wedding favors and loved the square cookie. My dilemma was to make the cookies “masculine”…Just finishing lots of baby shower cookies and kids birthday cookies, it’s very challenging to step back and think “grown up cookies”. Leilani gave the colors that she wanted brown, yellow, green & blue…and this is what I came up with…

Fun right? I do love this set a lot! The details were fun to make! My favorite has to be the hawaiian shirt.

I tried to replicate my husband’s hawaiian shirt. Next favorite are the turtles!

Plumeria’s are my all time favorite cookie shape to make! and the addition of the two yellow flowers with the #40 is so neat…but it needed more so last minute, I added the bamboo stick on the side.

Happy birthday to Allen!

Leelana & Gabriel Wedding Cookies

Leelana & Gabriel Wedding Cookies

Originally uploaded by AMasterCreation

These cookies have been planned for months and finally were executed last month. 300 cookies for Leelana & Gabriel’s wedding.
a) Complete set. 150 plumeria’s, 150 monogram cookies.
b) Monogram “H” to match the couple’s logo. The two flowers are royal icing and represents the bride and groom.
c) Center of one of the plumeria’s. Not the traditional colors of plumeria’s, but the wedding colors were shades of purple.
d) Packaged wedding favors.

Congratulations to Leelana & Gabriel!

How the Signature Wedding Cake Cookie came to be…

Deidre's Bridal Shower Cookie-October 2007

Every time I see this cookie, I think of happiness, love and long hours! My sister asked me to make these cookies for our friend’s bridal shower. She wanted a cookie to match the cake. I had just bought this cookie cutter from http://cookiecutter.com/, so this gave me the chance to give it a try. When I saw the picture of the cake, I wasn’t sure if I could do it or not. Still new to cookie decorating, I thought fondant would work best so the cookie would look uniformed. I actually made rolled buttercream fondant for this and was my last time making it…but it was very tasty! The red and white accents are royal icing.

Now that two years have gone by, It’s amazing to see how this cookie design has evolved. The swirled heart on top of some of the cookies came from my valentine heart cookie design.

For Nicole's Bridal Shower

For Ryan & Michelle's Wedding

For Ryan & Michelle's Wedding

For 35th wedding anniversary

For Aila & Carlo's Wedding Shower

Always one of my favorite designs!

Baby Jordyn Announcement Cookies

Baby Jordyn Announcement Cookies

Originally uploaded by A Master Creation

So glad to get back to the girly colors! I haven’t worked with this color pallet in awhile. I just love how vibrant they are.

Baby Jordyn is so special to us! We’ve know her mommy since high school and daddy is just one awesome guy. So Jordyn is definitely in good hands.

Welcome Jordyn! We love you so much!