FROG ON LILY PAD COOKIES

For these cookies, I did not follow a specific tutorial, I just started from the cute picture on Sweetopia blog, a site that is a great source of inspiration. Marian does have a lot of detailed tutorials with videos and text explanations, but I wanted to try and bring the little frogs to life on my own. What do you think?

These cookies do have a lot of details that you can skip but do make them special. You need a frog cookie cutter (I used this one), and a very large round cutter that you will then cut a little wedge with a bench scraper, before baking. The most involved detail is the lily made with fondant. I used the tools I had available, my lilies are not as cute as the originals on Sweetopia site, but I am happy with them anyway. I used two sizes of flower cutters, a small ball of fondant in the center (painted yellow), and the back of a brush to push everything together and get their final upright shape. A little spray with PME luster in the very end.

I thought about adding two lilies per cookie, but felt it was too much. The other detail that makes them special is the addition of water drops made of isomalt. I melted isomalt and dropped little portions over Silpat, then waited for them to set and added to the iced base with a tiny bit of yellow icing underneath. I now think it would have been better to add them while the icing was wet, so keep that in mind. They are super tricky to handle, kept flipping on me, but other than that, no issues.

I love the water droplet effect, it will definitely be adorable on many different designs in the future.

For the frog, the main detail comes from the eyes, of course. I made transfers with Royal icing white, then used a black pen to add the details, a little PME luster pearl spray for shine. The little red dots on the face were also transfers, but you could easily pipe them if you prefer. A little black icing for the smile, green-yellow icing for the outline, and the frog is done.