One of my favorite cookies of the past couple of months, I saw this design on a post in Facebook, and made my own. I simplified by using fondant flowers instead of piping them. It is not exactly a dream catcher motif, but I suppose it’s close enough….
You’ll need to get those fine lines going, the finer you can get them, the better the outcome. I went as fine as I could, but intend to repeat this type of design in the future and aim higher. Or, maybe I should say aim finer? 😉
It all starts with a frame-shape cookie cutter flooded in red. Then just eye-ball the design, going down the cookie in rows, as shown in the composite below.
For one of them, I tried to do a more complex pattern, that could have worked better with finer lines. Still, for a first attempt, I like the way they turned out. Once you have the lines piped, get some fondant flower and add them with a tiny bit of Royal icing. The leaves were piped with thick consistency icing and a very small leaf tip from Ateco (ST50).
Since I had the fine lines going, I did one more design over white background. I think they go well together.
I visualize similar designs with a background in Americolor Wedgewood, or Dusty Rose, or even a simple gold, flowers with different shapes and colors. Perfect for Mother’s Day, or just to offer to a special friend.
One year. 111 posts that documented last year’s journey through the cookie universe. Today I share a few thoughts on what cookie baking and decorating means to me.
Cookies share love
Food and love are associated, for obvious reasons. You can cook a special meal, bake a cake, a pie, a loaf of bread, all to show love and appreciation, but there’s something about a cookie that makes it just perfect for that. It is small, one or two bites, it can be decorated with that particular person in mind, and if you offer someone a dozen cookies, they can last for quite some time. One of my favorite things is to design a series of cookies with someone in mind. Like this set for my favorite golfer and his buddies….
Donating cookies became a regular part of my weekly routine. I would say that 99% of my cookies are donated at the end of the day on Fridays. I like to imagine they brighten up the day of whoever gets them, particularly kids. I’ve flirted with the idea of selling my cookies, but quickly realized that it would turn a wonderful hobby into something totally different. Quite likely not better…
Cookie decorating as a skill
Let’s face it, nobody was born with a cookie in one hand and a piping bag in the other, decorating like a pro. Every single cookie artist you admire started somewhere with very basic designs, with icing that rolled off the sides, or was “wrong” on some level. Don’t ever assume you cannot do it because you are not at their level. Cookie artists are there to inspire you, not intimidate.
The pleasure of improving
There’s something about learning a new skill and detecting progress that I find immensely satisfying. I don’t care what it is. Learning a new language, getting better at skiing, completing the first marathon… Cookie decorating offers the same pleasure. Each new technique brings a challenge, often associated with initial failure and some frustration. But if you don’t give up, you will conquer whatever skill is needed. And that will become a little invisible medal on your chest that will make you feel great, and might even spread to other areas of your life.
What’s the point?
Why work so hard making a cookie that will disappear in a few seconds? I get that remark sometimes when I share photos on social media. If you feel that way, cookie decorating is not for you. First, the “work” is not really work, but pleasure. Second, if you make something knowing it won’t be around forever, it just makes it more special. Not trying to say they are on the same level, but think about sand art: amazing artists will draw intricate designs on the sand before the tide washes them over. Why spend time and energy on that type of art? Because it does not need to be permanent to be appreciated. Because when you make a special cookie design to give to someone, you truly say “you are special to me.”
Cookie decorating, patience and self-criticism
Patience: a virtue I do not have. Self-criticism, quite the opposite. There is no way to rush certain steps in cookie decorating, or you will pay a painful price. By embracing this hobby, I believe I am a little more patient in general. It did not change me completely, I still get irritated at many little things, but a little improvement is there. As to self-criticism, I try to refrain from pointing all the little boo-boos I see in my cookies, because I realize how irritating that can be. I acknowledge them, and make a point to avoid them next time around. As in everything in life, there is a fine line to navigate. We need to be kind to ourselves.
Cookie decorating as a journey
I have always envied people who can draw and paint. People who can create art from their own imagination. Cookies gave me a venue to work within my very limited artistic skills, thanks to many artists out there (you know who you are) who share their knowledge and are so supportive and helpful. The possibilities of techniques, colors, designs, are endless, and so is the learning journey. If you have any desire to start such a journey, but feel insecure about it, please take the first step. Bake that cookie.
I invite you to step with me on the second year of my personal cookie journey. I promise sprinkles and color. There will be failures.But it will all be very sweet!
As I mentioned, Marlyn from Montreal Confections has been proposing challenges for her cookie-followers to work on their own. Here is the assigned task for the month of April.
That was it, my friends. Two shapes. A few colors. Go to work.
After much mental back and forth, hyperventilation, monologues around the house, I came up with a flower composition to use all colors. Had a few issues with the fine lines, but other than that, I am reasonably satisfied with my cookie set…
It all started by planning the petals around the center, and adding one leaf, making it easier to incorporate the electric green…
Once the cookies were baked and the colors mixed, the fun began… Flooding the different components and adding some wet on wet for the center.
For the final details, everything had to set for a few hours, and the colors mixed in piping consistency. I hit the dark green so well that I spent a few minutes doing a short version of the Happy Dance. Look at those green lines! Don’t you love them? I thought so.
All that was left was some colorful piping to use the other colors, and tie the whole design together.
I really love these little challenges because they force me to do something on my own. Yet another thing to love about cookie decorating. Getting out of your comfort zone to explore the universe of colors and shapes.
April 23rd: International Macaron Day… To celebrate this very important occasion, I share a small collection of ideas using different methods to decorate the shells, or different ways to pipe them. I’ve baked them during the past 12 months or so, most using my default recipe (click here).
FONDANT & ROYAL ICING DECORATIONS
Inspired by this Instagram post, the batter was divided in two colors, light beige (Americolor Cork) and blue (Americolor Sky Blue). Piped them joining two separate small bags inside a larger one, so that the colors would not mix. A little honey was brushed on the beige part, and a mixture of sugar and cinnamon sprinkled to mimic sand. Fondant decorations tied the design.
The overall process is shown in the composite below
Fondant (or modeling chocolate) is an easy way to decorate a simple, solid color shell. In the example below, Vegan Macarons were topped with a sunflower to honor Ukraine. Filled with Pistachio-Lemon buttercream.
PAINTED SHELLS
Any recipe will work (French, Swiss or Italian). The smoothest the shell, the better, as they will be your little canvas. For these Sakura Macarons, one half of shells were painted with pink luster powder, and dots with gold luster applied for added decoration. Very easy and quite effective. You can do all kinds of color combinations.
Below, solid color shells painted with gold luster + vodka, super simple design, no need to be perfect. Just go with the flow and make some flower shapes.
FOOD PEN DRAWING
Once again, any method that gives you a smooth shell will work for this type of decoration. Use a fine tip food safe pen. Below, Vegan Macarons made with aquafaba and a coffee-coconut milk ganache for the filling. I used some gold luster powder to highlight parts of the design, but that is optional.
Below, a simpler design with just the food pen… These were French meringue (my default recipe) filled with Papaya-Mango Buttercream.
DIMPLED SHELLS
I love this simple method. Once the shells form the skin, use a fondant ball tool to form small indentations on the surface, in any pattern you want. You can then paint, if so desired, or just leave plain as a textural note. Two examples below. For a more detailed explanation, see my first post on this technique (click here).
PIPING SHAPES
For this method I prefer either a Swiss or an Italian meringue because it is more stable. Shells are piped in different shapes, like the two below. The main thing to consider is that the shape must be symmetrical, or you need to pipe mirror images so that the two shells can fit together perfectly. In both examples below, the final decoration was a little luster powder in pink, and fine food pen for the facial features.
PIPING WITH DIFFERENT ICING TIPS
For all macarons piped with 1M, 2D or other detailed tips, you will be better off using an Italian meringue and reducing the macaronage to a minimum, so that the batter will hold the design of the piping tip as much as possible. A couple of examples with the 1M tip, my favorite icing tip ever… You can use it to pipe roses or a heart-shaped mac. The base of the macs was piped with a regular round tip so that it is fully flat.
You can use both sides of the shells piped with the 1M tip, for a totally different look in the final macaron… These below were filled with Nutella buttercream.
The 2D tip is also a possibility for piping macs, once again using the Italian meringue and very little macaronage. Another thing to keep in mind is that these shells need to rest longer than normal shells before baking, or they will crack during baking. The macaron in the center was piped with a different tip, but I need to work on that a bit more before I can talk about it. It is a mac-in-progress…
ROYAL ICING DECORATIONS
These can be super simple and effective also. I often have a little Royal icing leftover from sugar cookie decorating, and I just save them for a mac-emergency. Like the three examples below, two coupled with sanding sugar.
Three years ago today the world lost someone very special. A brilliant young woman, who was getting ready to embrace science as a life-time commitment. She loved color. She loved to sing. She loved life. Some cookies that I make have what I call the “Aura of Aritri.” Like these ones. I think they would have made her smile.
This series, with a mandala-design was made with stencils and air-brushing. I think she would have appreciated both the patterns and the colors. They were flavored with Chai extract from Olive Nation, and a touch of vanilla.
FLORALS
This series was flavored with Fiori di Sicilia, and decorated either with brush embroidery + luster powder painting, or by stamping, a technique I definitely need to practice a bit more.
MACARONS
Aritri loved macarons, and these, flavored with Pistachio-Lemon, were decorated with her in mind. Just food-safe pen over the baked shells, and a light spray of PME pearl luster.
I am already a bit sad that Easter is going to be over… As far as cookie decorating goes, it is hard to beat the diversity and cuteness level that this holiday brings. Sadly, I still have some cookie cutters that were left unused, and must wait for next year to make their appearance. Today I share a few designs, my favorite is Marlyn’s Bunny Head, crowned with flowers. So so cute! But there is more: a bunny carrying a basket of flowers, a few Easter eggs, and a naughty bunny stealing a fancy Easter egg to run away with it.
Marlyn has a super detailed tutorial available in YouTube for the bunny head (click here). If you are a member of her Patreon site, you’ll find the stencil file to make decorating the cookie easier (click here).
I opted for a chocolate cookie, so I air-brushed the design in white over the naked cookie as a starting point. The stencil is used again over the iced cookie to add the final details.
Marlyn piped the floral design on the cookie, I made my life a bit easier by using fondant decorations, and the piped small leaves to tie the design together.
MOVING ON…
For the bunny with a basket, I followed a tutorial available in Cookie-a-thon by Lauren Jacobs, aka The Cheerful Baker (click here for her IG page). Some of the steps are shown below…
I modified a few details in the basket and added a little facial feature. I love this cookie shape!
To go along with it, I used a similar technique for florals to make Easter eggs.
I could not help but make a Zentangle design, so it all starts with dots equally spaced on the iced cookie, and then a little drawing with a food safe pen. PME pearl luster spray gives the cookie a shine I really like.
So here is my little Easter collection…
I close this post with the Naughty Bunny, made after a tutorial from Timbo Sullivan during a Facebook live. It is mostly fondant, so if you don’t like the taste, consider the cookie just as a decoration. Lots of different techniques were explained in his tutorial, and the take home message for me is that I need a lot of practice to make eyes. His work is flawless! But I still like my little Naughty Bunny… Everything is fondant, except the pink details on ears and paws, and the grass the bunny is sitting on.
This was another super fun project, following a detailed tutorial from Amber. Her work is always so elegant and whimsical, I love it. She shared two different variations for the ear decoration, one with plaid wet-on-wet,the other piping a square pattern, which is what I decided to do, as it was new to me. I am so in love with these cookies!
Two basic components to decorate the cookie: the Royal icing plaid motif for the ears, and Royal icing transfers + piped leaves for the lower half. The composite below shows the overall steps. Amber demonstrates one version in a recent Facebook live. You can watch it here, starting at 4 min.
The grid pattern is drawn with a light food pen on the baked, cooled cookie. Then the two colors of squares are piped, one color at a time, so that the edges don’t touch. No need to wait for a long time, just pipe the second color when the first is starting to crust. The lines can be added right away or if you prefer some more definition, they can be added later. Once that is set, I piped a thin border and added rose gold sanding sugar to it.
The flowers were made the day before, then the edges painted with silver luster powder + vodka. Once they were glued to the cookie, I piped leaves with stiff royal icing, and that helps set the whole arrangement in place.
It is a little labor-intensive, but not that bad. Once you have the royal icing transfer flowers ready, the piping of the ears is straightforward. You can also simplify and make it plain, or with little dots wet-on-wet. The plaid is a nice touch, and once you master this technique, you can use it in many different cookie shapes and designs.
Easter is just a few days away, so I better share some of my latest cookie bakes that celebrate the occasion… I love the shape of this bunny (cutter available here), standing up to sniff some flowers. To decorate, I went with a gray background and pink flowers piped wet-on-wet, along the same lines of a batch I made last year. I also love the set of Easter stick cookies I ordered recently (available here).
For the bunnies, it all start with the white areas, that are iced first and allowed to set for a little while, 15 minutes or so. Then the gray larger area is piped and immediately decorated with the white and pink details, wet-on-wet. The outline of white on flowers, face and ears was added the following day, as well as the little luster powder in pink for the cheeks, and the eye details. For the stick cookies, two kept the scheme of gray, pink and white…
The other two cookies in the stick set begged for more color, so that’s what I chose to do…
I love this series of cookies, the standing bunny is adorable, I caved and ordered it after watching Amy decorating some in one of her Facebook live events. Resistance was futile.
Along the same lines of last post, today I share one more technique to decorate cookies using different colors of dough. Again, a method that will please those who, for one reason or another, prefer not to have Royal icing. When you couple a chocolate base with the colorful dough, the effect can be quite striking. Marlyn, from Montreal Confections, is once again behind the idea (all details are demonstrated in her youtube video). Dough can also be molded or cut with small cookie cutters and used to decorate a larger cookie. So let’s get to work!
I baked several egg-shaped chocolate cookies and used them in different designs on the same day. For the stripes, you need to roll dyed cookie dough super thin and freeze the stripes, as Marlyn demonstrates in her video. Then, the frozen stripes are placed on your room temperature cookie, gently rolled to press, and cut. Using a plastic wrap between the cutter and the cookie gives a very nice rounded shape. Marlyn comes up with details that are simply brilliant!
Whenever we make cookies, there is always some small amount of dough left, not enough to roll again and cut. That is a perfect source for adding color and saving in the freezer. Just dye each leftover bath a different color, and wait for the right opportunity to bring them out, roll, cut stripes – or different shapes – and add to cookies.
Another simple way to decorate is adding fondant shapes, and a little border with Royal icing and sprinkles. The smaller oval around the head of the bunny is made with a smaller cookie cutter gently pressed in the raw dough right before baking.
The final technique I used that day was cutting a little piece of dough with a very small cutter (using the plastic wrap trick), and placing on the cookie. For contrast, I brushed the surface with Americolor white food dye, to give that cracked effect I like a lot.
A few details around the edge, and here it is, together with the fondant bunnies…
Since my mind cannot get too far from Ukraine these days, I made a couple of cookies inspired by that amazing country.
This post reflects my approach to baking cookies. I don’t sell them, so I never need to worry about making many cookies with the same design as part of a set. Each set of cookies I bake, I can take in different directions to practice new techniques. Below you see all the cookies I made that afternoon. One cookie dough, one shape, several designs.
This is another example of sugar cookie with minimal to no icing. The decoration comes from marbling several colors of dough together. The clever method was shared by Marlyn from Montreal Confections, and was one of the techniques showed in this youtube video(starting at 18 min 15 sec). The moment I watched it, I could not wait to give it a try. Today I share a few adventures with this concept, starting with her original design for Easter egg cookies, then a couple of things I tried on my own with leftover dough.
MARBLED EASTER EGGS (from Montreal Confections tutorial)
Aren’t those super cool? You will need one little special tool to bring these cookies to life – a clay sculpting gadget. They are pretty inexpensive and available at stores such as Jo-Ann or Michael’s. Of course, the Seller Of All Things will have it for you (click here).
Get your favorite cookie dough recipe, make a batch and divide it in three. Use food gel color to dye each batch with a color of your choice. I used green (with some yellow barely mixed into it), purple and pink. Then roll each piece of dough as a log, place them side by side and marble them. Not too much so that the colors don’t mix. Check Marlyn’s video for all the details. Roll the dough as you would normally do, and cut the shapes. After that, mix some white food gel with egg white, whisk and brush a light coating on the surface of the cookie. Immediately use the clay sculpting tool to cut patterns that will expose the dough underneath. That is all you need to do. Bake and admire the results!
Those will please people who don’t like Royal icing, opting for a more austere cookie. The very thin layer of egg white glaze contributes no taste, no added sweetness. I used a heavy hand with the colors, you can definitely get a more pastel tone.
MARBLED COOKIES WITH FONDANT DECORATIONS (from yours truly)
For an even simpler cookie, just cut any shape you like, bake them without any glaze. Once they are baked and cooled, place fondant decorations with a bit of Royal icing as glue.
Those are some of my favorite shapes – skinny hexagon, scalloped oval, and sticks…
MARBLED COOKIES WITH A CRACKED FINISH (from yours truly)
For these cookies, before baking I brushed a thin layer of Americolor white food gel. It must be Americolor, or it won’t work the same way. I should have brushed slightly less dye, make a thinner layer, so that the effect would be more evident. But the general idea still worked. Once they were baked, I added a few decorations with Royal icing, medium-stiff consistency for the stems and flowers.
Stay tuned for one more adventure using colored cookie dough in a different way…
For the Love of Cookies 