Once again I followed the cookie-steps of Amy to make these adorable cookies that celebrate one of the most fascinating creatures of this world of ours. Honey bees. Her tutorial can be found as part of Tuesday Cookie Therapy here (starting at 36 min and 30 seconds) and a more detailed version focused only on the bee cookie is available here.

Three different cookie shapes. Royal icing templates make two sizes of bees, and the little bee hive. All templates for transfers are available at Amy’s ko-fi shop for a very small fee. You get 4 PDF downloads, one of them lists all gadgets used in the project, from cookie cutters to cordless air-brush.

THE ROYAL ICING TRANSFERS

You can use parchment paper placed over the template, or stick them in plastic bags (or those plastic page protectors for folders) and pipe away. For the cookie recipe, I used my default (Neat Edges Sugar Cookies), flavored with 1/2 tsp honey extract and 1/4 tsp almond emulsion. Keep in mind those need to be made the day before to fully set before you add the details with a food pen. Once they are ready, you can plan their placement over the cookie.

THE BEEHIVE COOKIE

Amy designed a very nice method to make the beehive shine (make sure to watch her tutorial). Flood it in sections (so they are kept nicely defined), but when you do half of the sections, air-brush some brown color just at the edges. If you don’t have an-air brush, you can conceivably brush some powder but you will have to do that when the icing is totally set, so the cookies will take longer to be finished. Once the icing is crusted (probably after an hour or so) you can glue the bees on top.

But the final details must wait another day, as the fine pen can hurt the icing if not fully set. Add the antennas and flight path, and you are done!

For the hexagonal and honey pot, I flooded the whole cookie, let it fully set, and then air-brushed a honey comb stencil with brown dye. Bees and a honey drip were added, plus the final touches with a food pen. Diamond Dust gave some of the cookies a final shine I like very much. Amy is big on Diamond Dust too.

I painted the honey drip and the small hive with Baby Yellow pearl dust from Oh Sweet Art. Unfortunately it seems to be unavailable at the present time. It is one of my favorite colors, very subtle.

Hexagons are one of the most versatile shapes in the cookie universe. I have made bee cookies in a more simplified way, just piping small blobs of icing for the bee’s body. It works, but Amy definitely takes the concept to a whole new level!

BAKE COOKIES!

BEE HAPPY!