Tiny Canary, this one's for you!

This post is dedicated to Tiny Canary 2009! Hello & welcome to Sweet Bippy Papers! Sit back and scroll through the pics.

I launched my brand in February of this year & have had an Etsy shop since then. However, I feel like my work will be represented more clearly here on my blog. My products are chic paper goods with a purpose. To set myself apart, I pride myself on designing practical items that can fit into your every day. I love all things culinary so I focus on items like recipe cards & kitchen magnets. Other items include all-purpose labels & tags, bookmarks, & of course, thank you cards & blank notes. I am currently working on a 2010 Cocktail-of-the-Month Calendar that will be finished shortly & ready for Tiny Canary. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer, because I would love to be a part of this great event! If you would like to see more, check out my Etsy shop at www.sweetbippypapers.com.

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Recipe Cards
5 current designs, new designs in development for the holidays.
Sold in sets of 10 cards for $10/set.

-Airmail Chic 6x4 Cards-

-Darling Deer 6x4 Cards-

-"Eat It, Love It, Crave It" Recipe Cards-
Set of 12. 3 different designs, 4 of each
$12/set

-Culinary Charm 4x6 Cards, Green-

-Culinary Charm 4x6 Cards, Pink-

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Kitchen Conversion Magnet
Simple, straight-forward, clever & oh, so useful!
$2.50/magnet

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Patterned All-Purpose Tags
Set of 10 tags. Five different designs, 2 of each.
$2.50/set

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Notecards

Various designs in A2 format (4.25" x 5.5").
Blank notes = 3 cards & 3 envelopes per set. Thank you notes = 5 cards & 5 envelopes per set. Prices are $8-10/set. Birthday cards are sold as singles at $3.50/card.

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Dashing Little Bookmarks
Set of 5 covetable bookmarks that will make anyone want to read. Five designs in the set.
$2.50/set

**All products are printed on 110 lb cardstock**

Thank you for your time and I hope to see you in November!

Yours truly, Mary Lynn

Working on...

I have a genius idea. Well, okay, at least I think it's a genius idea. And it's currently in the works...

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A calendar! But not just any calendar. A cocktail-of-the-month calendar for 2010. Aren't you pumped??? I am! I'm still working on the form--what size? How will it hang? Should it REALLY be this horizontal? Right now, I'm trying to work in a 6x4 recipe card so when you're done with the month, all you have to do is chop part of it off and the cocktail recipe can be kept for a rainy (or sunny!) day. Genius, right? Okay, maybe not genius, but pretty good. So I can't promise it'll look exactly like this in the end, but it'll be close. Wish me luck!

coming soon to a kitchen near you...

Et voila! Or something.

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I'm working on new recipe cards for both print & pdf format. Here's a work in progress. Click on it for a closer look (I think it should work across platforms & browsers). Fun, right? Hang on. It gets better....

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THERE'S THREE OF THEM! All in one set! Because who doesn't want a little variety in their life?? And sometimes, saying "eat it" is just funny. But I think I'll be switching the colors of "crave it" and "eat it" b/c the confectionery light purple/pink feels more alluring for "crave it," while the green just feels better for "eat it." Do you care? Probably not? Moving on.

I'm personally OBSESSED with helvetica neue & bodoni so I had to throw myself a bone and design something around my two favorite typefaces. Let me tell you something. When you have a close relationship with certain fonts, the design process goes WAY FASTER than when you're forcing yourself to use something different. It's like having a conversation with a close friend vs trying to converse w/ a new acquaintance you don't quite have much in common with. Am I crazy, or does that make sense? Anyway, those are your words of wisdom for the day, brought to you by MLP.

Cookie Craving. Peanut Butter Ginger Bacons.

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Oh yeah. I went there. And they're even dipped in chocolate.

I can't really take FULL credit. The idea came from Joy the Baker when she made her Peanut Butter Bacon cookies a few days ago. It was super easy. Have you ever made 5-ingredient peanut butter cookies? Peanut butter, sugar, egg, baking soda, vanilla. That's it. No flour, so I guess they can even be called "gluten-free." So it's basically that, plus cooked bacon.

Well. Here's my problem. When it comes to baking and recipes, I can't just leave well enough alone. (That's the saying, right?) I have to doctor it up or do something to give it my own twist. Even before I make the original recipe. People yell at me for this. I say "Screw it. I wanna do it this way." It's so much more exciting! So what I did w/ the cookies...

I candied the bacon first. DELICIOUS. If you haven't heard of candied bacon, it's super easy. You basically coat the bacon in brown sugar and bake or broil it. Some people make a glaze. Some people add a spice. Emeril Lagasse does it with brown sugar & cayenne powder. I made a glaze of 2 tbsp honey, 1/2 c brown sugar, & 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger. Then you schmear it on the bacon—I made 10 pieces. My glaze was too thick and I had a ton left, so next time, I'm going to keep the amount of honey & ginger but only do 1/4 c brown sugar. Then you bake it (or broil it). And then you eat it. And it's AMAZING.

So after the bacon cooled down, I chopped it up into bits and pieces, put it in the cookie mixture, folded it in, et voila. Peanut butter bacon cookies. But that wasn't all. I also added 1 tsp of the bacon grease to add a smokey flavor and 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger to the cookie mixture. I'm obsessed w/ fresh ginger. I can't get enough. Its like I was missing it my whole life and only within recent started integrating it into sweets. There were some doubts, but you know what I say? Y'ALL. TRUST ME. Just trust me on these things. The peanut butter + ginger? It's good. It was a good idea. It's your prerogative not to like it, but just give it a whirl before you go hate on it. Thank you. :)

Alright. After all that, roll it up, dip them in sugar, press some fork criss-cross patterns into them if you like, and pop it in the oven at 350 until they're lovely golden brown & delicious. Probably 8-10 minutes. My oven's a bit psychotic so I can't accurately gauge timing (that story will be another day).

After they've baked and cooled, melt some chocolate w/ some paraffin wax. Dip an edge of the cookies in the chocolate, set them aside and let them cool yet again. I put them in the fridge so the chocolate would set better.

In the end, I think candying the bacon actually toned down the bacon flavor, which made them more versitle. Not everyone loves the idea of bacon in their baked goods but the bacon flavor in these was subtle, even while biting into actual bacon pieces.

So yeah. That's it. I shouldn't say "that's it" b/c it's more involved than I expected, but still easy! What's not to love about a peanut butter cookie dipped in chocolate? AND THEN BACON???? The intrigue level is HIGH. "Say what?? Bacon? For real?" Yes, for real. Plus, you can pass them off as "high-protein cookies" if anyone needs extra convincing. :-)

Adventures in Cake Balls

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What's this, you ask? It's a cake ball! It's cake, frosting, & chocolate all wrapped up into a cute little bon-bon type treat. AND... they're called "cake balls." Let's face it. Saying the word "balls" is funny. (Yeah, you know what I'm talking about!) I'm normally not one to love fifth-grade humor, but even I get a secret chuckle out of saying "cake balls" to people. When they ask "What are these?" and you cheerfully reply "Cake balls!" with a toothy grin, they smile back, giggle like a 10 year old and say "CAKE BALLS?!?" b/c 1) they look super cute--how could you not love them? and 2)...they're laughing b/c you just said "balls." It's fun. Try it. But anyway, I digress. On to the point.

The inside is chocolate cake mixed w/ salted caramel frosting, actual salted caramel, cream cheese, & cinnamon. Then it's dipped in milk chocolate and topped w/ salt & roasted pecans. This was the first cake ball making adventure. I had a batch of chocolate cupcakes that didn't turn out quite right a few evenings ago. They tasted absolutely fine! But I must've been rushing through the motions and not put the right amount of baking powder or something in the mix b/c they just would not hold together. I'd unwrap them, and they'd crumble. Again, they tasted fine! So I really didn't want to toss the 36 bunk cupcakes that I now had sitting around b/c that's some expensive ingredients to just toss, you know? So now what??? How about some cake balls!

Have you heard of cake balls? If not, check out Bakerella. She's got a bunch of ideas. The link will lead you to her "cake ball" section, but she also has some tasty looking cake pops (basically the same thing but in a slightly different form). If you Google a recipe, the basic ones will tell you that it's a sheet cake (baked) crumbled up and mixed w/ a can of frosting, rolled into balls, chilled, and then dipped in chocolate. Since I make all my own goods here at the Sugarlush kitchen, I use my gourmet frostings & other ingredients to enhance the deliciousness of each tasty morsel. It's totally worth it.

Before I leave you, might I recommend a glass of milk to go along with the tasty bites! They're delicious, but SUPER RICH. So maybe even an ideal diet dessert, right?!?! It's by no means low-fat, but you eat just one and you're satisfied! It's a good theory, anyway. ;-)