As some of my regular readers might have noticed, the blog has been a little quiet lately. Not as many posts and recipes as usual, not as much activity. There is a reason for this… I’ve been very busy working on finishing up my first cookbook, SMART COOKIE. I have been up to my eyeballs in cookies, candies, frosting, sprinkles and chocolate, creating so many fun ways to transform cookies.

I started this journey back in January, and the last few weeks have been pretty wild as I’ve been gearing up to make every recipe, all at once, to prepare for the photo shoot that starts tomorrow! All week long my agents will be here photographing the cookies for the book. While I won’t be able to share the finished product photos, I can share a little bit of what’s been going on behind the scenes…

I will be sharing behind the scenes photos from the cookbook photo shoot this week on Instagram. Make sure to follow along! Username lovefromtheoven and I’m tagging the pics #smartcookiecookbook.

So what is SMART COOKIE all about?

SMART COOKIE: Transform Store-Bought Cookies into Amazing Treats, showing readers how to leave the baking to the experts and enjoy the really fun part – decorating! – by using common store-bought ingredients like Oreos, Nutter Butters, graham crackers, and sugar cookies, along with candy like Laffy Taffy, M&M’s, and Hershey bars, to create astonishing treats in less time than it takes to make a batch of cupcakes – and without turning on the oven!

SMART COOKIE is all about taking store bought cookies and turning them into all kinds of FUN and delicious creations. As I’ve been working on this book, I’ve constantly focused on one thing – coming up with fun and festive cookie creations that are EASY to recreate. I’m not a cookie decorator, and I have never claimed to be (and am in awe of those that are – they are truly artists!). I can’t make a batch of royal icing to save my life. While I have a lovely collection of Wilton tips, hearing the word “piping” makes me nervous. I know I’m not the only one who loves to whip up cute treats, but wants to keep it easy. That’s what this is about.

This book is for everyone out there that wants to create super cute cookies quickly and easily, without having to figure out the perfect icing consistency to flood a cookie or needing to go buy special equipment. If you are like me, there are never enough hours in the day, but darn it, you want to create a special class treat or dessert for that baby shower or graduation party. SMART COOKIE will let you skip the baking (don’t worry, you can always bake your cookies from scratch if you want to, but you do not have to!), and go straight to decorating.

While I knew writing a cookbook would not be an easy process, I had no idea how hard it would be to not be able to share my creations with you along the way. I am bursting with excitement over the projects in this book. Every single one I want to take a picture of and post it on Facebook and darn it, I can’t! SMART COOKIE is scheduled to be released through Running Press in Fall 2014.

For now it’s back to finishing up recipes before the photo shoot. Decorating approximately 50 different sets of cookie creations, and finding places to safely store them all has been a bit challenging! About 40 projects are hiding in these racks…

I’m hoping for a big burst of energy today to wrap it all up and get ready for the photo shoot! Here’s my view for the rest of the day!

After the photo shoot my view will be of my computer screen as I finish up the manuscript and get ready to send it off to my editor next month. Hopefully by the end of October I will be back to blogging at my usual rate with lots of fun Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas treats for you! Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram for more behind the scenes pictures from SMART COOKIE and our photo shoot this week!

Pics from the SMART COOKIE photo shoot…