Christmas – For the Love of Cookies

WREATHS AND TREES

January 6, 2023January 16, 2023sallybr1 Comment

With this post, I will finally close the chapter on Christmas designs… Last year I made wreath designs using the appropriate cookie cutters, this time I decided to improvise and use two round cookie cutters instead. Scalloped edges give a touch of elegance, although I admit, icing that is a little more tedious. I used two different methods to decorate – adding texture with a fondant baller, or adding a delicate pattern with stencil and air-brush. I honestly do not now which one I prefer, so you decide!

All the cookies get flooded with green. Two of them were allowed to set overnight, or for at least 6 hours. The other two had the surface textured once the icing starts to crust. It is hard to tell exactly how long to wait, as it will depend on the consistency of your icing, the humidity of the environment, and of course the recipe of icing you use. But you can wait for 30 minutes and try one spot, see how it behaves You want the icing to give in but not crack. The second design was air-brushed in gold using a stencil. All of them got the same decoration, a little fondant painted with food gel + vodka.

I used the exact same color of green to make a tree to match the wreath,
and added a couple of fondant decorations just for fun.

Another combo of tree and wreath with a slightly darker shade of green…

I ended up making quite a few of the wreaths, because I loved the design so much… As to trees, they were for the most part quite simple and straightforward…

Flooded in green, texture with fondant baller, and a few dots of red + sparkle of luster gold diluted in vodka.

Two tones of green, allowed to crust for a while, then the edges of two colors pressed with a fondant baller, next day painted in gold.

Super simple designs again, just a little brush embroidery with white Royal icing on the top ones, and even more basic design on the bottom.

Finally, for something completely different, a pink tree, design suggested by my friend Toni. Just flood with pink, wait for it to crust well, and add swirls with piping consistency pink, I used a slightly darker shade. Add sprinkles, and you are done! Many other colors will work too, and you can also do the swirls in a contrasting color instead of keeping it monochromatic, although I prefer this way, I think it is quite charming and elegant.

Save these ideas for next year! I can always say I was THE FIRST to blog on Christmas cookies in 2023! HA!

ONE YEAR AGO: For the Love of Snowflakes

AMY’S CHRISTMAS HEXAGONS

January 2, 2023January 16, 2023sallybr1 Comment

One more series of cookies designed by Amy, this time the class was not live, but a series of videos pre-recorded so that each person made the cookies whenever most convenient. The full set had 10 cookies, I did not make them all, but loved each one that was born in my kitchen. Here you can see some of them…

To find out more about Amy’s online classes, check her Instagram page with a click here.

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I also made a couple of Christmas trees to match some of the cookies, and some round ones with the swirl border which I absolutely love.

Below, some of the prep stages of the cookies. The candy cane design was not from class, I had watched a reel on Instagram showing the technique and decided to add to Amy’s designs.

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My favorite design from class was definitely the one below…

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I love the elegance and simplicity, the division of the cookie in two sections adding texture as sanding sugar to half of it. Definitely my favorite. I made a little Christmas tree inspired by it.

Another great design that I confess I did not hit correctly, is the poinsettia. I should have been more careful when I planned the positioning of the petals, but I still like the way they turned out. Amy teaches how to pipe all the petals using tipless piping bag, a great skill to have under your belt.

We also made a nice little snow-covered brunch…

And, bringing back the hexagon with the swirl border, my green colors were a little thick, but I love the way that gave a little bit of extra lift to the design, so I will keep that in mind for the future.

I love this series, and hope to re-visit the techniques again in the future, as well as making the few I did not get to yet. The swirl border can be made in many different ways, as you can see in the composite picture in the beginning of my post. Great for Valentine’s also, so get your imagination going!

Amy, those were amazing designs, thank you once again for the super detailed instructions in all of the videos!

ONE YEAR AGO: Happy New Year from the Snowy Village!

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

December 28, 2022January 16, 2023sallybr1 Comment

Christmas is over, but I did not get to share all the cookie designs I’ve made in the past few weeks with the season in mind. So I am forced to go on with the holiday theme for a while, maybe two or three more posts. Such is the life of a cookie blogger… Ornaments are a lot of fun to play with, not only you can use cookie cutters with the perfect shape, but you can also add fondant ornaments as decorations in a round, rectangular, or plaque format. And you can even add holes to your cookies and turn them into real hanging treats for your tree. Let’s go over each one of these ideas, shall we?

DESIGN #1
SPRINKLED ORNAMENTS

I love how festive those are, and how easy to put together. I used Chocolate-Chipotle as the basic cookie, then all you have to do is ice the part that you want to add sprinkles to. Cover with sprinkles, let that set for 30 minutes or so, and flood the rest. Painting the hook part with gold is optional, but I think it elevates the design a bit.

DESIGN #2
WET-ON-WET

Always so striking and very easy to make, just add horizontal lines with contrasting color to the flooded base while still wet, and pull with a needle in one direction, then the other. The closer you make the lines, and the more lines you add, the better. But you can also add the pattern to just a small portion of the cookie, as I did below…

DESIGN #3
HANGING ORNAMENTS

You can pick any cookie shape you want, from snowflakes to Christmas trees, bells, ornaments, just make sure they are large enough to incorporate a hole on the top. Then use any decoration style you feel like to bring the ornaments to life.

DESIGN #4
FONDANT ORNAMENTS

For this type of design, any shape of cookie cutter will work, just pick a background color and make little fondant ornaments, in my case I chose to spray them with Wilton gold. A little hanging line piped with a very thin icing tip, is all you need to finish things up. The possibilities of color combinations are endless….

Fondant decorations can come in quite handy for other shapes too… And they can be made in advance and just wait for the right opportunity to play…

DESIGN #5
PLAYING WITH TEXTURE

I loved this set so much! The central ornament was flooded with red, next day thick Royal icing was applied with a stencil. The other ornaments were painted with Americolor White before baking. Then just a few details added to complete the design.

So that wraps up the ornament concept for the year of…. 2022. With the speed that time is flying, I bet it won’t take long for the next round of Christmas-themed cookies to show up here!

ONE YEAR AGO: Is it a cupcake? Is it a fern?

MARLYN’S INSPIRATION POST FOR DECEMBER

December 17, 2022January 16, 2023sallybr3 Comments

Once again, the task for the month of December was very simply stated: use metallics to decorate your cookies. There are two ways to do it, you can air-brush or spray paint using products available from Wilton (such as this one) or from PME (such as this one). When you consider how fast the spray painting can go, it is a super efficient way to decorate many cookies at the same time. Of course, if you are going to gild the lily with extra piping or sprinkles, that will add a bit more time and effort, but in my opinion it is totally worth it.

For all the designs I used flooding either with Americolor Gold (to spray gold later) or Americolor Gun Metal (to spray silver). Once that base is set, I added details in piping consistency using either a similar color or white. That then gets painted with luster powder. If you start from white flooding, the metallic effect will be less pronounced, and the final color a bit more faded.

A similar approach will also work with silver…

I also like pairing silver and gold…

Of course, other shapes benefit from metallic decoration also… For the light bulb, I coupled Wilton Silver spray with luster powder bronze for the top and gold for the streak of light on the left side. The modern tree got gold on silver.

Bells also love a little shine, the one below quite simple to decorate, with a border using brush embroidery.

Solid gold pairs nicely with some sprinkles, in this case to make a real ornament that can be hung from a Christmas tree…

So many possibilities, including adding a metallic finish to Springerle cookies….

I loved this month’s inspiration challenge, and confess it was hard for me to stop making more designs…

I hope you’ll consider incorporating metallics into your cookie decorating, I am already dreaming about some serious shine for Valentine’s!

ONE YEAR AGO: Amy’s Christmas Cookies

OF BELLS, CANES AND ACORNS

December 3, 2022January 16, 2023sallybr2 Comments

No more holding back! The holiday season is here to stay, at least for a while, because truth is, we will blink our eyes twice and Valentine’s will be peeking from the corner. Today I share three cookie shapes very popular for the season.

HOLIDAY GOLDEN BELLS

This beautiful design comes from a recent Facebook live from Marlyn. You can watch it with a click here. I want to repeat these cookies making a composite like she suggested, and also using the same spray she did to get the golden coverage. I ordered a can, but it has not arrived yet. For this batch I used my air-brush but the gold is not very strong. I painted the details with luster powder to make the gold more evident.

I love everything about this design, if you make it, try to get a bigger curvature at the bottom, so that the inside of the bell is more evident. Every detail you pay attention to can make the cookie look better in the end. I just find it hard to cover all the details on the first time, it is hard for me to see the “bigger picture.”

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GINGERBREAD BELLS

These are my own design. All details of these cookies are made with piping consistency icing, either over a naked cookie, or on a fully set background of icing in the color of your choice. The light shine on the cookies is a coating with PME pearl spray, which I think does a nice job particularly on the naked cookie. I also played with a different color combination, using black piping consistency for the details.

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DIPPED MARBLED HOLIDAY CANES

These cookies, like the golden bells, also come from Marlyn. For a quick tutorial to see exactly how to make them, check this video. These are fun and simple to make. Marbling in many cases calls for drops of food gel on the surface of runny icing, but that method has some drawbacks. The density of the dye and the icing is different, if there is accumulation of dye in some spots it won’t look very smooth. The trick that Marlyn uses is to make royal icing in the colors to be marbled and add that to the surface instead. Works like a charm! Once you do that marbling, the cookies already look pretty cute, and you can be done. But of course, if you have time and want to add the further embellishment, go for it. You’ll need piping consistency icing. I used Gold from Americolor and then painted with luster powder, exactly as demonstrated in the video.

ACORNS

Definitely the simplest of all designs, all you need is flooding with brown, same color of icing in piping consistency for the details. Once it is all set, I brushed some copper luster powder on the piped area, and called it a day!

I hope you enjoyed this small set of holiday-inspired cookies. I have many things planned and looking at the calendar, I am not sure I’ll be able to get to them all this year. Way too many cookies, way too little time!

ONE YEAR AGO: Let the Holiday Bakes Begin!

MRS. CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN

November 17, 2022January 16, 2023sallybr2 Comments

Too early? Nah, never too early for the visit of such a cutie pie… I am so enamored with this set, made thanks to the detailed online class hosted by Amy last weekend. Isn’t she adorable?

Amy taught some super cool techniques, and I cannot share the details, as this was a paid class and it would be unfair to her to publish it for free here. Trust me, though, if you are interested in improvement for your decorating skills, her online classes are a must! You can join her Facebook page and get updates on future classes with a click here.

This set of cookie cutters is from dotsandbows, and you can find it here. They work as a stacked composition of four to make Mrs. Claus in all her cute glory. Before class we needed to have the cookies baked, Royal icing in different colors and consistencies made, and fondant decorations dry and painted.

Below, some of the steps, starting with the sketch of all we would do to each cookie, everything drawn by hand, Amy explaining exactly where to place each line, how to curve it, etc. For me, who cannot draw a full moon… super helpful!

The coolest technique was to make the hat. I did not hit it correctly, but Amy showed us how to make the hat acquire folds, and wow, that was something! But my consistency – rather the consistency of my Royal icing – was a little too thick and I need to re-visit the issue in the future.

I also love the detail on the rim of the glove and the top of the boot, it is the second time she uses this technique in her decorating classes, and I now feel pretty comfortable with it.

I just loved this cookie design so much! I look at her and it is impossible not to smile… Thank you, Amy for another fun couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon… I look forward to the next adventure!

ONE YEAR AGO: Baby Turkey Cookie Platter

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

December 25, 2021January 16, 2023sallybr7 Comments

Sharing the last collection of cookies for the season, these are simple to make, and I like their almost minimalist look, particularly the Christmas tree. I wish I had saved the source of my inspiration for the little gift packages, but I took a screen shot of some Instagram stuff, never saved the actual post and was unable to find it again.

Apart from simple Royal icing details in red and green, fondant details make them special. I always use white fondant and paint in any color I want later.

You can do a lot with just three colors of icing, and during Christmas season, it’s pretty much all you need…

Two tones of green can also make a pretty cute wreath design, when coupled with red accent sprinkles…

Just pipe them as shown below and run a needle through the center, drawing a circle.

This year I’ve done a lot of Christmas trees, but not as many ornaments…

It is now time to say goodbye to Christmas cookies… makes me sad, but in a way every season that ends leaves that feeling that too many cookies were left unbaked. But another season comes to get excited about… Can you feel the Valentine vibes forming?

CHRISTMAS COOKIES

December 23, 2021January 16, 2023sallybrLeave a comment

Still in the spirit of the season, a few more ideas for your holiday bakes, starting with socks to hang by the fireplace…

They were made after a video from Marlyn (Montreal Confections), using a “frankencookie” approach (watch it here). A sock cutter is combined with a little head to form the final design. From that point, it is pretty straightforward: ice the different areas, let them set. Pipe decorative lines with black Royal icing, and the detail on top of the sock with a star tip and stiff consistency icing. While that part is still wet, carefully place a mini candy cane as decoration. The eyes and mouth were made with a food-safe pen.

The hexagons were featured recently in the blog (click here for the original post). Once the franken-sock cookie was fully set, I painted a bit of luster pearl on the white part of the sock. Because bling makes everything better.

Moving on, another very cute idea from Marlyn: when a Christmas tree and a dress fall desperately in love and have a baby… You can check her IG video for this cookie with a click here.

Marlyn used a template to get a perfectly symmetrical shape for the dress, I went free-hand. Each layer of the dress is piped independently, starting with the bottom layer. A darker tone of green is air-brushed on the edges, a step that adds quite a bit of pizazz to the dress. The red details and top of the dress are added later, as well as the black belt (with tip Ateco #44).

Finally, my own contribution to this post, with a super simple design using mini-cookie cutters from Sugarbelle. These are tiny, two-bite little things, perfect when you don’t really feel like indulging too much in sweets. All you need is green, red and white icing, plus sprinkles. The fern cookies require some piping consistency icing, but you can conceivably just use a food pen to simplify things quite a bit.

I am definitely going to be using mini-cutters quite often in the future. They are adorable and the set comes with 40 shapes plus a cool “idea sheet” to offer alternative ways to decorate each shape.

I hope your holiday season is going smoothly. For many, plans had to be canceled, meetings with family postponed once again due to the virus that won’t leave us in peace. Let’s hope for a much kinder year ahead…

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN!

December 19, 2021January 16, 2023sallybrLeave a comment

A super fun cookie project, following the cookie-steps of Marlyn once again. Her full tutorial and templates are available in her Patreon page with a click here. You can conceivably make the design without cutting stencils for it, but they make life a lot easier. Same thing goes for the Royal icing transfers, you can skip and just pipe on the cookie but they add a lot, so my advice is to enjoy the path and go with the flow. I am so happy with my little chubby Santas, even if one of them indulged a bit much in the eggnog and got wasted.

Yeap, the bottom right one took over the eggnog and would not let go… Truth is, the air-sprayer malfunctioned and let’s say he got more blush than advisable for a respectable Santa. My apologies. He is very merry, though.

Below you see the items you must prepare in advance, if you want to do the decorations as transfers. You will need Marlyn’s templates for that (link here), or if you are a pro at drawing, you can try to make them yourself. The stencil helps air-brushing the basic design on the naked cookie, but you ca definitely draw it by hand.

I made the beard using two different styles, either air-brushing with the stencil, or piping with Royal icing. I like them both, actually.

Marlyn does so many cute details in her cookies, and I learn a lot trying to incorporate them all. I need to get better at handling the air-brush and judging the distance, amount of dye, and how hard to press the little trigger. But only one Santa out of four got hopelessly drunk because of my actions. Not bad, not bad.

I wish all my readers happy holidays and, if you celebrate….