For the Love of Cookies

Sunflower is the state flower of Kansas, and today I celebrate it in two different ways: a classic, romantic version designed and taught by Tunde Dugantsi, and a modern departure by yours truly. Let’s start with this beautiful group of cookies, with a detailed tutorial you can find in Tunde’s cookie club (join by clicking here).

Aren’t they gorgeous? I spent a Saturday taking my time to make this set, you do need to start the day before by preparing the base of some of the cookies, and making the fondant decorations. You can use Royal icing transfers instead, if that is more your thing. My pieces were made with fondant dyed yellow to make it easier, then I sprayed everything with Wilton gold spray, and once that dried the centers were painted with brown luster powder.

I believe my two favorites of this set are the ones below. A tie between the beautiful jar and the gorgeous basket.

I love the detail of using air-brushed blue to add more pizzazz to the glass component. And the lid painted with copper was a super cool touch. The basket was by far the most complex, for obvious reasons. Piping the basket itself took me a few attempts before I was satisfied with it. There was quite a bit of scraping and “let me start all over”…. I did not have a cookie cutter with the exact shape, so I cut this one by hand.

These three together made a nice composition…

And now, for my version of modern sunflowers, which started from leftover fondant pieces and the desire to put them to use….

I drew random straight lines, added a band of luster powder gold on the naked chocolate cookie, and then did the flooding….

Once that set for a couple of hours, I added details with piping consistency icing in the same color, and glued the reserved fondant flowers.

Modern and classic can always find a way to meet!

ONE YEAR AGO: You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

TWO YEARS AGO: Spring Has Sprung

THREE YEARS AGO: The Many Faces of a Cookie

FOUR YEARS AGO:Amy’s Fabulous Floral Class

FIVE YEARS AGO: Sugarveil Blues