MY COOKIE BLOG TURNS THREE!

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I blinked thrice and here we are, wrapping up three years and 330 articles of cookie blogging fun! To celebrate, a trio of Vintage Birthday Hats, designed by Haniela and shared in her live tutorial not too long ago. I thought they would be perfect to add a festive aura to my not-so-baby blog…

Her design is quite a bit more elaborate than mine, as instead of dots she went with wet-on-wet rosebuds, quite gorgeous! I kept it simpler, but hopefully almost as festive. Below you see some of the steps to decorate the vintage hats. The cookie cutter I used is from this etsy shop.

I kept is simple, just eye-balled the different sections, and flooded regions that did not touch, allowed them to set a bit, then flooded the adjacent areas.

The pompom I made with piping consistency Royal icing dyed with Gold from Americolor, which I also used to pipe the wavy area at the bottom (with a small petal tip). Using Gold makes the final step of painting those areas with luster powder + vodka pop out more. If you use white Royal icing, it is harder to get the full metallic effect.

So there we go, stepping firmly into the 4th year of cookie blogging!

ONE YEAR AGO: My Cookie Blog Turns Two Years Old!

TWO YEARS AGO: My Cookie Blog Turns One Year Old!

THREE YEARS AGO: Welcome to my New Site!

COLORFUL OWLS

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Another great cookie project for all lovers of color! Designed by Amber, it is a bit involved but as is so often the case, a lot of fun to bring to life… I simplified her design a bit, to see her tutorial you can join Amber’s cookie club with a click here.

Start by baking the cookies and drawing the region for the eyes. Then, mix a set of bright colors and use them to flood the body, face, wings. Use wet-on-wet for the dots on the body. Some steps are shown below…

Once all areas are flooded and set, the final details can be added… dots around the eyes, the little beak, the feet… You can stop there and they will be pretty adorable!

But if you like to take them one step further in the level of cuteness, go for some brush embroidery on the wings…

I just love this set! Hope they gave a smile to those who got them…

ONE YEAR AGO: For the Love of Rocks

TWO YEARS AGO: Happy International Macaron Day!

FIVE YEARS

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Aritri was our graduate student, and also a friend. Someone I was happy to see each morning, someone who was fun to do experiments with. Someone we could count on. It’s been five years since she left us, and no one has occupied her bench ever since. It still has her tape dispenser with a handwritten note: DO NOT TAKE THE TAPE! We had some similarities in the way we dealt with our stuff in the lab… As I’ve mentioned before, I often bake cookies that remind me of her. They are the colorful ones. The happy ones. I share today cookies that to me represent the essence of Aritri.

To make this design, I started by flooding with with and allowing it to set. Then I used a light food safe pen to draw the design, and filled the sections with different colors, all using food pens. A little gold Royal icing in piping consistency to outline each section and the perimeter of the whole drawing. Once that set, I painted it with luster powder gold + vodka. Steps are shown below…

The design really pops when the outline is added…

I imagine Aritri would like this design… I certainly hope so…

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ONE YEAR AGO: Cookies to Celebrate the Life of Aritri

TWO YEARS AGO: Three Years, Three Bakes for Aritri

CELEBRATING SPRING

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Once again, a design to please those who prefer a simpler cookie, without icing. All you need is a rolling pin and even the painting is optional. The cookies will look beautiful without added color. But you know that I have a hard time leaving a cookie naked.

The particular rolling pin I used is shown below…

It comes from one of my favorite sellers at Etsy, you can visit it with a click here. The only thing to keep in mind is that the rolling pins come all the way from Ukraine, so if you are in a hurry, it won’t work for you. But there are so many wonderful designs, it is hard to resist getting “a few”.

The most important thing to consider when relying on embossing rolling pins or stamps, is to use a recipe that keeps its shape during baking, so preferably one that lacks leavening agents. One of my favorites is in the end of this blog post from last year. Works well and it is delicious!

As to the paints used in this set, they were all luster powders from SugarArt (click here for their website). You can use Everclear or vodka, I opted for vodka in this case, it gives slightly more time to work with the suspensions before it dries.

ONE YEAR AGO: Amy’s Gnome and Floral for April

TWO YEARS AGO: For the Love of Bunnies

COLORFUL CATERPILLARS

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If you like colorful cookies, this is a cute idea, without any need to buy special cutters. Just pick a round shape cutter, a few bright colors of icing (plus black for the outline), and have some major fun!

Go bright and don’t be afraid of mixing colors that might seem to clash, like orange and pink. It all works in the end. Apart from blue, representing the sky, I used the four colors shown below.

Start with an outline with black icing in piping consistency and a tip #3. Then fill the different areas, allowing areas that are adjacent to set a bit.

You can make the body without segments and use the needle to mingle the colors together, or use a single solid color, then add little dots as decoration. Once all is done, pipe the little antennas, mouth, eyes, and they will be done!

ONE YEAR AGO: Bunnies by the Window

TWO YEARS AGO: Colored Cookie Dough

TOTAL ECLIPSE MACARONS

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TODAY IS THE DAY, MY FRIENDS!

After the sugar cookies, I had pretty much decided to do a similar design on macarons. These were actually quite simple to make. Divided the batter in three colors, piped the blue first, small amount. Then the yellow in the center, and the largest amount of black. Once the shells baked, I added the details with a gold and a silver food safe pen. Nice and easy. Filling was Nutella buttercream. Both the recipe for the shells and the filling can be found here.

The black I used is Black Diamond, from Americolor. Azure Blue, and Sunshine Yellow from Artisan Accents. I added a touch of black to the blue, and a touch of orange to the yellow.

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I hope you enjoyed my double feature of total eclipse, and that if you are around totality, clouds will be nice to you and move away…

ONE YEAR AGO: Metamorphosis, the Cookie

TWO YEARS AGO: Marbled Cookie Dough

TOTAL ECLIPSE COOKIES

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This time, we won’t be able to drive to see it, but we will never forget the last one, as we watched just the two of us, in the middle of farm fields in Nebraska. It was truly remarkable. Today I share a cookie design inspired by Amber, and available in her cookie club (to join click here). I changed a few things around, to make it easier for my skill level. Amber shared two versions, one using wet-on-wet (like the one I am sharing) and the other fully painted by hand, absolutely gorgeous. Without further ado, here is my total eclipse of the sun, in cookie shape…


At first I tried making the design as Amber conceived it, but I kept messing up the diamond ring component and it did not look good at all. I went to sleep, woke up in the middle of the night and thought about a way to make this alternative version. I used two stencils with slightly different diameters for a circle, to help me ice the central sun and then, the smaller circle I used to air-brush the black part. Some of the steps are shown below…

Once the icing was fully set, I air-brushed the black portion, and painted the diamond with a pearl paint from SugarArt. A golden pen added stars to the outside edge.

I still find that my diamond ring could be better, but I am happy with the way these turned out… Making perfectly round shapes with Royal icing is not very easy, I took a bit of a lesson on humility with this project. But I do like a challenge and Amber has plenty to offer!

ONE YEAR AGO: Metamorphosis, the Cookie

TWO YEARS AGO: Marbled Cookie Dough

FUNNY BUNNY LOVE

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Just before Easter weekend, Michelle set up a fun class online involving two cookies and a few Sugarprism colors. Here they are…

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Michelle is the inventor of Sugarprism, and I like to call her The Goddess. She is gorgeous, hardworking, witty, super fit, and I am sure she is also a ton of fun to be around. As usual, everybody who participated in her live Facebook event had a blast, and many friends decorated in real time with her, yours truly included. If you join her facebook group (click here), you can have access to all her videos, they are all free! Yes, you read it right. Every single decorating video is free. Goddess. I told ya.

Before class, we were supposed to make two cookies and ice them in white. Also, we had to prepare fondant roses, either using the method she showed to build a rose petal by petal, or using molds. I made some of each… I ended up using a different one for the bunny, smaller.

Once that is done – preferably the day before – you are ready for action! Here is my countertop right before our video lesson…

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Let’s start with the Love component of the class… What I loved the most was the technique she demonstrated to make the tiny leaves…. very efficient and not hard at all… Some of the steps for making this beautiful floral cookie are shown below.

Once the components are all glued to the cookie with icing, the painting fun begins, using Sugarprism…

I also added a few strokes of luster gold mixed with vodka. I am totally smitten by the tiny leaves and intend to use that technique again soon.

Moving on, The Funny Bunny…

We needed some piping consistency white icing and Michelle explained exactly how to make the bunny with those cute funky little eyes (those are store-bought, but you can also make them with fondant or icing).


I also made some cookies to match the ones from class… Funny Bunny and Easter Eggs…

And a couple of florals…

Michelle, thank you for yet another GREAT tutorial!
Looking forward to our next Sugarprism adventure…

ONE YEAR AGO: Springtime Springerle

TWO YEARS AGO: Haniela’s Mini Bird House

AMY’S CELEBRATIONS FOR MARCH

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To join the crowd doing Celebrations 2024, click here.

Easter is over, I realize that. However, I did run out of time to post about all the Easter cookies baked in our kitchen. Therefore I’ll have to stretch the boundaries of this special holiday a bit. Today let me share with you this adorable piñata cookie designed and taught by Amy in her March chapter of Celebrations for 2024.

Have you ever seen a more adorable standing up bunny cookie? And just imagine that it is loaded with sprinkles inside!

Baking this cookie was interesting, Amy taught a method to get absolutely razor sharp edges so that the cookies match perfectly on top of each other. It is a little bit of extra work, but if you are making just one cookie as a centerpiece or as a special gift, totally worth it. As usual, I don’t divulge too many details from paid online classes, but below you see some of the steps involved.

You bake three cookies, two solid ones and one with a space in the center. The top and bottom cookies are decorated with Royal icing, and then the whole thing glued together, with some sprinkles hidden inside. A real piñata, in cookie shape… The cookies align perfectly, and the edges can be covered with icing and sanding sugar for a polished final look.

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Here is my bunny, ready to be…. well, how could I put it mildly? Not easy. He is ready to be smashed and enjoyed… Such is the life of a piñata cookie!

Amy, I loved this project and the baking method you showed us, it will definitely come in handy in future cookie adventures…

ONE YEAR AGO: Hello, Bunnies!

TWO YEARS AGO: The Quilt Challenge

EASTER BUNNY SILHOUETTE

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This design was recently shared by Haniela in her live cookie decorating session. You can follow the tutorial clicking here. These are not complicated to make, the whole idea is to flood the cookie, allow it to fully set, and go back with a very similar color of thick icing to create a pattern with a stencil. It gives a touch of elegance to the background, and of course you can adapt this technique to countless colors and motifs. I am totally in love with them!

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Below some of the steps to prepare them…. Haniela provided a nice template sheet to pipe the silhouettes, which you must do the day before.

As to the stenciled pattern, you can either match the background tone closely, or use a shade lighter or darker. My background was already pretty dark, so I opted to lighten up things. Check Hani’s video for other ideas. Once that is done, you can glue the bunny silhouette and add the border. I could not quite make the beautiful leaf border to work, my icing was not cooperating, so I used a closed star instead. A little spray with Diamond Dust for the mandatory bling!

The basic idea will work with so many cookie designs! All sorts of backgrounds coupled with silhouettes of butterflies, flowers, dogs, cats, teddy bears… Definitely a lot to play with…


ONE YEAR AGO: Pattern Painting

TWO YEARS AGO: Amy’s Easter Cookie Decorating