Baking up a storm!

One of the last things Matt and I had to finish off before the wedding this past Saturday was to bake and put together our little wedding favours for our guests. When we thought of how we wanted to thank our guests for joining us for the night, we immediately thought of something that was handmade and something they could take home and enjoy later... or on the ride home, for that matter. I immediately discarded any ideas of knitting or sewing any sort of gift... there simply was not enough time for that. We tossed around a couple different ideas of what I could bake, and when it came down to taking time into consideration, Matt suggested my famous chocolate raisin oatmeal cookies...a favourite of mine and his.

I had baked these cookies several times before (they are often a favourite at the Reid cottage), but never on such a large scale. All in all, we did 3 batches for a total of 160 cookies. Our little kitchen was once again turned into a mini factory as we mixed together the ingredients and spooned them on to cookie sheets. I was actually quite surprised at how fast we managed to cook them all. I think because we broke them up into batches, and cooked two sheets at once, that really, things kept on moving at a good pace. We just got into a good rhythm... mix, spoon, bake, cool, repeat. At least this gave us some good practice for down the road when we have kids and they need baked goods for the school bake sale. Plus, my new red Kitchen Aid got some good use... it matches my apron, too!

After all the cookies had cooled, we put them into small plastic bags, 2 to a bag, attached a ribbon, and a recipe card that I had printed out earlier. I thought this would add a nice personal touch to the gift, giving people the recipe to bake at home. Plus, the recipe card could serve as a little reminder of our special day. I was really happy that this was our little treat to our guests, and I had a lot of fun putting them all together. I should thank Marg and Harold (my mom and dad) and Matt, too, for helping in our little production line Friday afternoon. We all worked together cutting ribbon and tying on the cards. The work sure did go a lot faster with the extra hands. (Luckily there are extra cookies for us to enjoy, as I don't think everyone took one home... I'm sure Matt would enjoy a few in his lunch this week... and I've already been snacking on them... )

This baking experience showed me how my brother must have felt before the wedding. I had asked him to bake 80 cupcakes for our wedding, in place of a traditional wedding cake (which he agreed to willingly....?), and he did such a wonderful job! I got a lot of compliments on these tasty treats, which hopefully I remembered to share with Jeff. He matched the icing to our wedding colours, made both chocolate and vanilla, and they were delicious! I guess baking runs in the family, eh Jeff? Thanks again for your help on these. It was really appreciated.

So, now that the wedding has come and gone, it looks like I'm back to everyday crafty items, namely knitting. I've been working on the stuffed animals as of late, but I'm thinking that I might have to knit something for myself.... There is a sweater that I knit last summer that didn't turn out quite how I wanted, so I'm thinking of pulling that out to start again. I'll keep you all posted.