Month: May 2023

FIFTEEN MINUTES OF ZEN

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If you’ve been around my cookie blog, you probably know that I am a huge fan of the Zentangle method of drawing. The amount of inspiration available in Instagram, Pinterest, and the number of tutorials in youtube is quite amazing, so I advise you to grab a cup of tea and browse around. Not too long ago I found this youtube channel and fell in love with it. Every day, Kelli demonstrates one “tile” (Zentangle drawings are called tiles as they are usually made in 2 inch or larger square sheets of paper) that takes no longer than 15 minutes to make. Keep in mind that when doing it on paper, you can add a lot of shading and details, when I do it in cookies it is simpler and therefore faster. But equally relaxing and rewarding. I share with you today just a few examples using her tutorials, and some departures I did on my own. All cookies must be flooded and fully set, and then you need a fine tip black pen. I often use PME pearl spray to give the cookie a final shine, but that is not mandatory.

This first cookie was made following this tutorial.…

Then I made a second one using only two zentangle motifs from the first one…

Next, one of my favorites, following this TULIP tutorial from Kelli.
It became one of my favorite designs!

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The top right is a pattern called TAXI, and you can see her demonstrating it here…..

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I love how changing the background color has a huge impact on the design, and even if you mess up something, it always ends up ok in the end. Or so I believe…

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ONE YEAR AGO: May Inspiration, Character Cookie

TWO YEARS AGO: Out of this World Sugar Cookies

MAY INSPIRATION, A BOUQUET

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For the month of May, Marlyn proposed the task of making a bouquet out of cookies. She demonstrated two ways of doing it in her Patreon site, and her versions are amazing, large flowers, two different ways to attach the sticks to the cookie. I decided to make very small cookies and use them to top chocolate cupcakes with a green buttercream icing to look like grass. What do you think?

This is really a great way to present cookies. You don’t need to couple them with cupcakes, they stand well alone, imagine them in the center of a dessert table for a kid’s Birthday table… Or a Spring-Summer get together.

It all start baking the cookies with a stick (Wilton makes paper sticks that are pretty sturdy and stand baking), that you should cut small, so the cookies fit nicely in a baking sheet. That stick is then removed (you can save the small sticks for future adventures), and a larger stick with the size appropriate for your design, is placed, then iced all over to glue it together with the baked cookie. Steps shown below.

You can use any colors and designs to the flowers, just make sure to mix and match so that your final composition is as cheerful as it can be…

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I hope you consider making cookie sticks – imagine butterflies, a little sun, even animal heads, anything looks cute on a stick! And it is quite easy to do, just make sure you handle the cookie by the cookie part when you first ice the back to glue the stick. It will be very fragile until fully set.

ONE YEAR AGO: Zoo Animals, a Birthday Set

TWO YEARS AGO: Marlyn’s Peacock Paisley Cookies

STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER

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Let me take you down, ’cause I am going to….
Strawberry Fields! Cookies are real!

Ok I better stop or things might degenerate beyond belief. This was a set designed by Tunde, and it has her unique style for sure… I loved making them and hope you find them as adorable as I did… To join her cookie club and follow all the tutorials she shares on a regular basis, click here.

Once again she makes beautiful designs with a minimal number of colors but this set relied heavily on Royal icing transfers instead. Tiny strawberries and flowers made in advance, then glued to the cookie. The small leaves were piped in the end. Here some of the steps to bring this set to life.

I won’t say that the cookies are beginner’s level, because two techniques require a bit of practice: the basket weave and fine lines for the flower pot. But those could be simplified, the basket weave can be made using a stencil, for instance. Still I believe that the only way to improve is to challenge yourself, and sets like this are a perfect opportunity.

I made the plaque cookie very large, but it will work on smaller frames also. And I used the projector to write the text because I have a hard time centering the words and making them uniform in size.

Once again, the kind of cookies that gives a smile when you see them…

ONE YEAR AGO: The Mandala Hand

TWO YEARS AGO: Marlyn’s Peacock Paisley Cookies

THE BUTTERFLY PUZZLE

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Be prepared for serious cuteness overload! Marlyn did it again, came up with something absolutely adorable and unique, a puzzle cookie forming a butterfly image, using 4 square cookie cutters and…. an exclamation point! You can cut that by hand if you don’t own the cutter. The detailed tutorial is available on her Patreon site, which you can join with a click here.

Isn’t that the most adorable set of cookies in the known universe? I thought so. The whole process is fun and not overly complicated, as it is all done with wet-on-wet, but you do have to set the basic design with piping consistency in black to get a nice contrast of the edges. That is the trickiest part of the cookie, in my opinion. Since you will be using 4 colors for the wings, you’ll have to work fast so you can pull them with the needle before they set. But the area is small and the task is totally doable, even if you are a beginner. Marlyn’s video is perfect to guide you along. Below I show some of the steps involved.

I love the detail of the grass at the bottom, small details matter so much when you design a cookie. The butterfly wing will work with many different color compositions, so it is a perfect cookie to play with. Adding the small flowers is also another touch that completes this set nicely, plus as Marlyn says in the tutorial, it is a nice way to get a dozen cookies in the little box, just add small flowers all around it. I smiled all the way through the process, and hope this set also gave a smile to someone…

ONE YEAR AGO: Playing with Leaves

TWO YEARS AGO: For the Love of Ladybugs

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

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For those celebrating the occasion today, I offer a centerpiece of a cookie that was a recent adventure online with Amy from @seriouslysweet (click here for her website and to join the group). Many cookie-addict friends joined for that live event. We learned A LOT of different piping techniques and they were done – like I use to call them – without anesthesia. That means right on the cookie, not as Royal icing transfers. With transfers, you can make plenty and pick the best ones. Piping straight on the cookie adds quite a bit of anxiety, but it is super cool and rewarding. The level of detail in this cookie was truly something else!

Let me walk you through the process. First there is the drawing to get the correct perspective – which is not easy for me but Amy makes it doable for common mortals. Then stenciling with icing which is another skill I struggle with, then the wood effect around the chalkboard, and finally all the flower piping. Amy demonstrated everything in real time, at a pace we could all follow. Perfect online class!

It is a bit intimidating at first, to work on such a large cookie with so many features, there is always that fear of messing some step and ruining it, but the Cookie Gods were smiling at me that day…

Amy, thank you for one more super fun class!

ONE YEAR AGO: Stencil Fun: A Tesla Cookie Set

TWO YEARS AGO: Amy’s Dogwood Sugar Cookies

THE WATERING CAN FLORAL

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One more great Sugarprism painting adventure, under the guiding hands of Michelle. Her Facebook group is one fun virtual spot, with free online lessons for anyone who wants to join. Here is the link to her Sugarprism site and to her Facebook group.

It is very hard for me to believe that I painted that image free hand, just following her instructions. Such a great way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon! The Sugarprism product, which I have raved about plenty in the past, behaves just like acrylic paint. It is very forgiving if you make boo-boos, and the colors blend like a dream. My main issue is working with fine lines. I wear mono-vision contact lenses and that makes it very hard to focus correctly. Fine lines are a big challenge for me. But I try my best. Below, some photos of the different stages, as Michelle tells exactly how to paint each line, fill the image and make it sexy with all the shading. She is incredibly talented!

If I could do it again, I would change just two things: lighter background and brighter, maybe yellow flowers. Sometimes when you are following things online and you need to keep the pace, it is hard to visualize the bigger picture. Knowing how the image turned out, I think my background could have been lighter. But it is a minor thing. I am absolutely thrilled with my baby!

Michelle, thank you once more for the instructions and for the effort you put to teach anyone, no matter their skill level… it is just a total thrill!

ONE YEAR AGO: A Vintage Dress Set

TWO YEARS AGO: For the Love of a Golfer

FOR THE LOVE OF FLORALS

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Springtime, Mother’s Day, they both beg for floral cookies. A small sample of different styles to celebrate this special week. Below the cookies just a few words to describe the technique used.

Royal ice in white. Painted with Sugarprism (click here for the product) using watercolor techniques. I sat down with some youtube videos showing how to paint simple flowers, and went to work. A brush accent with gold because I cannot help it.

Same basic technique but using luster powder diluted with vodka instead of Sugarprism. You don’t get the same effect, the paint dries super quickly so there is less room to play with density or mix colors together. It goes fast, though, and you get the metallic aspect of it, which can be nice too.

This is a fun and easy technique. Apply dry luster powder loosely in the shape of flowers. Then just do the outlines with a black pen, fine tip to make the design pop. You can use a Q-tip to apply the powder or get a specific brush to do the job, like the one below.


For the plaque shape cookies, I used the same approach as the dry dust but instead diluted the powder with vodka and loosely painted the petals.

Going for a modern take on flowers. The outline was done first, using a single line, so I started at the bottom, went up drawing the leaves, and all the way up to the petals, without lifting the pen. I used to doodle this type of shapes a lot when I was a teenager, so why not put it to use in cookies, right? Once the pen lines dried, I used a food safe pen to paint.

Same modern approach, single line drawing but over a painted background (I used food pen for that).

I enjoyed making them all, but maybe the ones below are my favorites…

If you are fond of painting, I hope you give these designs a try. Sugarprism is the best to get the watercolor/acrylic feel of painting, but you can definitely make florals using many different techniques. Just have fun with it!

ONE YEAR AGO: Happy Mother’s Day!

TWO YEARS AGO: Stained Glass Sugar Cookies

MY FAVORITE KIND OF COOKIE

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No, not a flavor. Not a particular design technique either. My favorite cookie is the one I make with a person in mind. As you may know, all my cookies are donated but I never know who gets them. Every week I try to include cookies that might please a kid, a young woman, maybe a Grandpa out there. For a change, it is nice to make cookies specifically for someone. In this post, I share some that fall into this category, all made in the past couple of months.

FOR A LITTLE PRINCESS WHO TURNED 6 YEARS OLD

This set was part of a tutorial online from Domestika, by Vanille Couture (click here for details). It is supposed to be beginner’s level. They do cover everything, from baking of the cookies to preparing the different consistencies of Royal icing, plus the final step by step tutorial to decorate the cookies. The shapes were cut by hand, no special cutters needed. I enjoyed their teaching style quite a bit and it was fun to follow the class in their original language, Spanish, although they do provide subtitles in several different languages. It is a great platform with many types of courses available, not only in cooking, but all areas of arts and crafts.

She also got a little cookie to celebrate her Bday number…

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FOR A LITTLE BOY WHO LOVES DUCKS AND DOGS

This was also super fun to bring to life, I made four simple yellow ducks and one duck toy, in which the background of the body got a stencil treatment to make it look like wood. I also made a little set of dog cookies, inspired by a certain member of our home…

They received the Paw of Approval before being carefully wrapped and shipped to the recipient…

FOR THE STAFF AT THE DOG KENNEL

There is no price for peace of mind when you travel, knowing your pups will be well taken care of. I often drop cookies at the kennel, and sometimes tailor the images to dogs or cats. This set used free-hand drawing, stencils and the food projector. Some steps shown below. I like using the back of the cookie, baked in a perforated mat, because that texture can be easily incorporated in the design.

This is a pretty easy design, the cookie is ready in no time. Pretty much any color will work, no need to stick to what is out there in nature…

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ONE YEAR AGO: 3D Macarons, the Saga

TWO YEARS AGO: My First Cookie Platter

THE MANY FACES OF A COOKIE

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Of all the stories in Game of Thrones, the one that really hit me hard was the Many-Faced God (Arya’s blindness bit sent shivers up and down my spine), but these many-faced cookies are supposed to be pure fun instead. I made them the first time as a gift to a physical therapy place in town, as they took such great care of me after a little ski incident back in March, in which yours truly and the snow got too close and personal. But once I made this set I realized the full potential of the design, and immediately turned them into cookies for hubby and his golfing friends. They like to have cookies after playing hole #9, so I tailored the messages for the second half of the course.

I suppose my cookies have special powers…

The husband made a hole-in-one that day! Isn’t that amazing?

It all started with a ‘frankencookie”, joining a regular round with a frame, and baking them together…

Then the two areas were iced and allowed to fully set, before writing the text (I used a projector) and making the facial features…

And now, I share the original set, made for the Physical Therapy office…

There are so many possibilities of expressions, it is fun to play with them… eyebrow shape, mouth, eyes, they all come together to convey whatever expression you want. The only thing you need to worry about is cratering of the eyes, since it is such a small area. To prevent that, before filling it with Royal icing, make a little cross or a little line with icing, allow it to set for 10 minutes or so, then fill with icing to form the eye. They will stay nicely smooth that way.

I had a lot of fun making them, and I bet you would too!


ONE YEAR AGO: Amy’s Fabulous Floral Class

TWO YEARS AGO: Sugarveil Blues