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MY FAVORITE KIND OF COOKIE

May 6, 2023May 5, 2023sallybr3 Comments

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…

ONE YEAR AGO: 3D Macarons, the Saga

TWO YEARS AGO: My First Cookie Platter

THE MANY FACES OF A COOKIE

May 2, 2023May 1, 2023sallybr2 Comments

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

TUNDE’S SIMPLE ELEGANCE

April 29, 2023April 28, 2023sallybrLeave a comment

This is a delicate and beautiful set of cookies designed by Tunde Dugantsi, tutorial available once you join her Club Cookie Academy (totally worth it!). Visit her site (click here) for details and to come and play with us. As I told you in my previous post, cookie decorating is all about challenging yourself, and with this set I definitely pushed my limits a bit. The trickiest part of course, piping the central grid for the largest cookie. I found myself holding my breath and quite nervous, but I am glad I accepted the challenge!

Some of the steps to make the cookies are shown below… Tunde’s tutorial is very detailed and she makes it seem easy and straightforward to do, as if she is gently holding your hand. Her grid ends up with closer lines and a lot more finesse, but it is the kind of piping work that the more you do, the easier it gets. Pretty much like all in life, right?

What I love about this set is the use of a minimal number of colors: two tones of green, and ivory. That is all you need. The rest is patient piping of the details that do take the cookies to a higher level. If piping the grid feels like too much, you can use Sugarveil and make the grid that way, then glue to the cookie and pipe the design.

They would be perfect for Easter, for a Birthday party, a wedding set, or just to let someone know they are special to you!

Tunde has countless tutorials available for you once you become a member of her club, and she uploads new tutorial often, so come on over and be ready for some amazing cookie adventures!

ONE YEAR AGO: Dream Catcher Floral

TWO YEARS AGO: Fun with the Mini-Projector

MY COOKIE BLOG TURNS TWO YEARS OLD!

April 27, 2023April 26, 2023sallybr2 Comments

Time does fly when you are having so much fun! Two years, 221 posts published, and so many new techniques tried! My views on cookie decorating have not changed, I will refer you to last year’s post if you missed my thoughts on the subject. For my third year I guess the idea is to keep challenging myself because that’s how we improve. Today I share two macarons, same exact background, but the decorations take them into quite different directions.

The macaron batter was divided in four portions and dyed teal, pink, orange, one portion left without any color. They were added to a bag and shells were piped. After baking, some got a little flower piped with Royal icing, and some got a design with a food safe black pen. They were all filled with Lemon Meyer buttercream.

So there you have it. Two years, two macs. And let’s now start the road to the third year of cookie adventures!

ONE YEAR AGO: My Cookie Blog Turns One Year Old!

WHEN BREAD AND COOKIES COLLIDE

April 25, 2023April 25, 2023sallybr1 Comment

Have you heard of the Uzbek bread stamp? It is a very nice gadget used to create a design on flatbreads. I’ve had mine for many years, you can get it at etsy (click here). Many other patterns available, just do a search on the main site. I decided to use it to decorate cookies, and my adventures ended with a delicious recipe that I shared today on my main food blog (visit the post with a click here). So, for the first time I have two articles published on the same day, as I really wanted to share the recipe for this set.

It was important to come up with a recipe that would bake without any distortions, or the tiny holes would be closed. It is a little tricky to get the design to work well on the first attempts, you’ll need to play with the amount of flour on the stamp and on the cookie dough itself. But once you get the gist of it, I think it is a wonderful way to decorate with no icing, just food colors such as Sugarprism or luster powder diluted with vodka. Here I show a few examples…

The cookies look great even without any painting, but in the picture above I used Sugarprism watercolor (click here for the product).

In the versions above the top left was painted with metallic colors (luster powder diluted with vodka), and the other two with Sugarprism watercolor, adding a light spray of PME luster once the colors were dry.

The cookies above used both acrylic color from Sugarprism (click here for the product) and luster gold powder.

For these cookies I used once again Sugarprism acrylic colors, they blend very nicely even on a naked cookie!

I have not tried yet, but will soon make the pattern on chocolate cookies, I think they will look great painted with metallic gold or copper. Also, I intend to fill the pattern with Royal icing, using the tiny holes as a guide. Stay tuned, I am super excited about all the possibilities…

ONE YEAR AGO: Happy International Macaron Day!

FOR THE LOVE OF ROCKS

April 23, 2023April 22, 2023sallybr4 Comments

My Dad would love these cookies! He collected this type of rocks, I remember having a bunch of them around, of all sizes and colors, although I think he was partial to the amethyst and its gorgeous purple. Some were really big and extremely heavy, so they stayed in the same place in the living room, and were dusted from time to time. I can still picture them in my mind.

These cookies are really easy to make. All you need is rock sugar, available online or maybe you can even find it at your grocery store. I ordered this one. You will need to place some in a bag and crush it a bit so that you’ll have smaller pieces. Then all you need is to flood your cookies with white Royal icing, immediately place the sugar crystals on top in any pattern you like. Wait at least 6 hours to paint with diluted gel color (I used vodka to dilute). Finally, a little gold luster and that’s all! I also added gold luster in a fine splatter all over the cookie, but that is optional. It does make a bit of a mess on the countertop!

These would be great in many colors, but I am partial to purple. They will always bring memories of my Dad.

ONE YEAR AGO: Happy International Macaron Day!

INSPIRATION FOR APRIL: PINATA COOKIES

April 17, 2023April 16, 2023sallybr2 Comments

For this month, Marlyn kept her instructions super simple. Make a piñata cookie. The idea is to enclose goodies inside a cookie, and make them visible through a window. I went with a Mexican theme, and here’s my homework!

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To make these cookies, decide on a shape, and then bake THREE cookies of that shape. The bottom one will be a solid cookie. The middle and the top will have an opening that you can do using a small cookie cutter. It is best if you refrigerate the rolled out dough so that once you cut the shapes there is no distortion.

As to the transparent window, instead of adding candy during baking, I prefer to make a sugar syrup. The recipe I use can be found in this post. Just make sure you are super careful, it is going to be hot!

Little M&Ms are ideal to fill the opening, as long as you don’t roll your cookies too thin, so that you have enough space to play. If you don’t have a large space, adding sprinkles can be a good, festive option also.

I think piñata cookies are great additions to a cookie gift package, and you can imagine a ton of different shapes as your starting point. I close the post thanking Marlyn for yet another cool challenge!

ONE YEAR AGO: Floral Bunny Ears

AMY’S GNOME AND FLORAL FOR APRIL

April 14, 2023April 11, 2023sallybr1 Comment

To join Amy’s series (you can join now and have access to past and future tutorials), click here.

In perfect synchrony with the season, this month’s series matches a Bunny Gnome (!!!!) and a Carrot composition… how is THAT for creativity and cuteness?

Quite a few details went into the Bunny Gnome, I love the shoes, the beard and the little carrot he is holding tight…

It all starts by making the shoes (and if you want, also the nose) using fondant. The shoes are made with Easter egg molds that are cut at the base to fit well on the shape of the cookie. Once that is made and painted, you can start drawing the sections to be flooded. It all goes by super fast.

For the Floral Carrot, Amy used a cool method to add the background, to preserve some texture. Then the carrots and the green tops are added with thick consistency Royal icing, and tipless bags cut with scissors. Simple and straightforward.

The carrot piping is a great skill to have, but as Amy points out in the video, the main thing to pay attention to is – keep them looking as carrots. There is a danger zone in there (cough, cough, cough). I say no more. Very important to keep that in mind when piping the single carrot on the Bunny Gnome…

This was a very unusual and fun set to put together, and I am hoping whoever got these cookies when I donated them last week, got a smile with their sweets!

Before I leave, make sure to think about joiningAmy’s Gnome and Floral Adenture, by clicking on the link on top of this post. It is wonderful to see the productions everyone else comes up with, little variations in colors, and because the videos are available full-time, you can decide when to make any of the sets from past months, and wait for her next tutorial, usually available on the first day of the month.

ONE YEAR AGO: For the Love of Bunnies

BUNNIES BY THE WINDOW

April 11, 2023April 10, 2023sallybr3 Comments

I wanted to make them last year when I first watched Marlyn on a Facebook live, but time passed, and I missed that chance. You know how it goes. Summer arrives, bunnies take a secondary seat, pretty soon it is Fall and all you can think about are golden leaves and pumpkins. But, 2023 was not going to fool me. Here are my little bunnies, very curious creatures, looking for carrots to munch on.

To watch Marlyn demonstrating these cookies, click here (starts around the 12 minute mark).

Each of these cookies is actually a double, as you can see below when they are open… They are actually not glued together, just placed on top. I guess you could conceivably glue the two parts together, if you prefer. The bottom cookie has just the head of the bunny and a little decorative border. One thing to make sure is to pay attention to the space you have for the bunny’s head. I did not take in account the length of the ears and almost made a couple of them too big to fit in the window opening….

Below some of the steps to make them. Use pastel colors, and don’t be shy mixing and matching them for the details.

This was one super fun project for a Saturday morning. If you are insecure about piping the bunny over the cookie, you can use fondant molds or you can make them as Royal icing transfers. I was a bit worried about cratering, but the Gods of Icing were smiling at me that day. I am forever grateful!

As Marlyn pointed out in her video, these cookies will fit nicely in a small pizza box. No matter how you intend to package them, they will definitely make your friends smile!

ONE YEAR AGO: Colored Cookie Dough

For the Love of Cookies

because cookies make the world better…

Author: sallybr