Welcome to Angela Rudy Cookies, formerly known as Oh, Sugar! Events. We specialize in hand-decorated sugar cookies to make your event feel truly special. So put your feet up and stay awhile as you browse our site for inspiration from our latest projects.

In the market for a couple dozen show stopping favors? Please contact Angela Rudy Cookies for a custom quote. Enjoy!
Email: angelarudycookies@gmail.com

Friday, March 29, 2013

Spring Fling 2013

Spring has sprung over here at Oh, Sugar! headquarters. My dear friend Ryam from The Inspired Mama and I wanted to throw the tiniest party ever for our little senoritas and our mutual friend Jo-Ann's little sweetie pie.  As is the case when Ryam and I get together on a project, things spun a little out of control and got a tad grander than we originally intended. We just can't help ourselves.  And actually, we did pretty well this time keeping the costs in check and scaling back in some areas like the food and sweets table (there were only four guests at this soiree!) Here are pics from our spring fling and stay tuned for more posts with tutorials from this party in the future.  Enjoy!
Our tissue pom back drop was a brilliant last minute adjustment when we had to scrap Ryam's original plan to use silk flowers on a smaller scale.  I love the different sizes and textures and the big WOW factor we achieved for a little cost and elbow grease. We also had carrots two ways: in gummy form (top right) and original recipe (bottom right) in cups with ranch, making them nice and portable instead of having to hover around the food table.
This little garden stand is holding cakes baked right inside, topped with green grass frosting and a golden wrapped Lindt chocolate bunny.  It was found at a thrift store and got new lease on life with a fresh coat of pink spray paint. Also on hand to carry out our spring theme are some sweet and simple Oh, Sugar! flower cookies.
Speaking of flowers! Take a gander at this cake.  There is a great story behind this beauty that you'll want to read here. Trust me it's worth the click!
More grub for the girlies. Rice Krispie Treats, sweet little peanut butter and sprinkle sandwiches and apple sauces dressed up with pink velvet ribbon and fab wooden spoons.
We moved the dining table outdoors to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather.  In the center, a galvanized bucket with butterfly nets and pith helmets dressed up with ribbon and silk flowers, which doubled as an activity later on in the party. Ryam worked her magic on small groupings of silk floral arrangement in varying heights of tin cans covered in decorative papers and scraps of pretty ribbon. Her collection of Dollar Tree ceramic plates were perfect for our outdoor party because they don't fly away with every gentle breeze and really elevate our table, as do these paper napkins dressed up with fab glittery purple bows.  
More table top goodies! Ryam scored those sweet pink and purple fabric covered baskets, which served as our jumping off point for our color palette, from the Dollar Tree, and I found the basket filler goodies there as well: six packs of egg-shaped sidewalk chalk, cans of purple silly string, butterfly sun glasses and matching twelve-packs of bangle bracelets.  (Have I mentioned how much we love the Dollar Tree?)
Silly girls in butterfly glasses.
The girls went on a bug hunt so those pith helmets and nets really came in handy.  They each had seven color coded bugs to find scattered around the garden and backyard.  Cheap and easy and the girls loved it.
On to Carrot Croquet! I found these cute carrot golf club and ball sets at, you guessed it, the Dollar Tree, along with some garden trellises that had the potential to make super cute wickets.  A little surgery and a spritz of spray paint and we had a croquet set.

And on to the rest of our activities.  Here the girls are decorating their own Easter hats with pipe cleaners, silk flowers and butterfly clips.  They also decorated spring shaped sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles, made sidewalk chalk art and had a silly string war in the grass, while the moms sat back enjoying carrot cake and swapping funny kid stories. What  fun day for everyone. Happy Easter!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Cake Wreck Recovery

I look at a lot of pretty party blogs and think, "Man, these mamas have got their stuff together!"  They probably aren't scrambling to hide junk in their bedroom as guests are coming up the walkway. They probably aren't yelling at their kid with empty threats of,  "Stop CRYING or I will cancel your party!" They probably even get in a shower before putting on a perfectly tasteful strand of pearls. 

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they're more like me than I think, they're just not 'fessing up to the madness behind the tissue poms. I know all the party blogs and Pinterest boards can make even the best hostess feel a little deflated and insecure. Is it enough? Are mustaches in or out? Where can I get chevron paper straws for my mason jars?  Trust me, I get swept up in the trends, too.  It's fun! And I love throwing parties. But truth be told, it is ugh-lee up in here up to the very last second.  I am a sweaty, smelly stressball making mad dashes to get everything ready: setting up tables, finishing last minute touches, cleaning up after a tornado of chaos, etc. I'm going to expose the ugly truth about the behind the scenes craziness that goes into those perfect parties you see in the blogosphere with a little story to make you feel better if everything doesn't go just right at your next soiree.
Sooooo. Y'ever have a baking day like this?


This triple decker beauty was for a party I was hosting later that afternoon. Like in 2 hours guests would be arriving.  Crap!  This was going to be a gorgeous flower covered centerpiece on the buffet table for my kiddo's tiny Spring Fling party.  I don't know what went wrong because I bake these kinds of cakes all of the time.  I DID forget to grease the sides of the cake pans, which gave me some torn up sides. And then one of them cracked down the middle. And then it all just crumbled and fell apart when I tried to stack the layers. Yikes.  What's a hostess with guests on the way to do?
STEP 1: Head to the grocery store! My Vons had some simply decorated, double layer carrot cakes for $9.99 a pop. This juuust might work.  I picked up two of them and rushed home to Frankenstein them together.
STEP 2: Stack the cakes.  I happened to have a cardboard cake round and some plastic drinking straws to cut up and insert in the bottom cake as supports.
STEP 3: Scrape off the "carrot" globs.
STEP 4: Scrape off the coconut flakes, fill in the separation between the stacked cakes and break up the crusted over frosting.

Then get ready to go royal icing transfer CRAZY:
This was the original idea for the cake I wanted to make, only it turned out a bit larger than I initially planned.  I had premade all of these royal icing flowers, so I just started pressing them into the sticky frosting, layering the smaller ones on top to cover any gaps. This was going to work! Crisis averted.  Almost.
Top view
Back view. Ok.  Hold up. This is not cute.  Of course I didn't have enough flowers to cover the whole cake. (Did I mention the store cakes were a bit larger than I had originally planned for?)  Luckily this wasn't for a client and my party guests like a good laugh! And I could turn this side towards the wall to hide it. Thankfully it all worked out in the end.  Whew!
From disaster to delightful in 20 minutes!