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…
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!
This cookie was quite a labor of love, and I actually made it twice because I was not very happy with my first attempt. The cookie was designed by Adriana Alvera and a very detailed tutorial published in the March issue of the online magazine D’licious (click here to see all issues available). Originally, it is a very large cookie, but I reduced the template in my computer a little bit.
I fell in love with the whole concept, and could not wait to try and make it. Basically, one side of the butterfly is decorated as a stained-glass component, and the other is piped with Royal icing and painted. Below, some of the steps involved. The cookie as shown in the magazine started with both sides flooded white, but later the background of one side was painted in light blue. I decided to just flood in a very light blue-green pastel tone so I would not have to paint the background.
I used the projector to draw the images on both sides, and then piped the outline in black with an icing tip PME 1. The other side I used a pipeless bag and medium consistency icing, in white. Once that was all set, I painted all features, the stained glass side using a mixture of 50:50 Everclear and honey to dilute the gel dye.
My first attempt had a few boo-boos, the main one was not centering the body of the butterfly correctly, and also messing up a bit the design because I could not adjust the size of the image correctly with the projector (long story, I fixed that on my second attempt). As you can see below, the body did not end symmetrical. My main advice is to pipe the body first, and then make sure both wings are placed symmetrically on each side.
This basic design of two different styles in the same cookie is very cool, and can be applied to many different images. I intend to explore that in the future.
It is definitely not a cookie you can make a dozen of to share, but let’s suppose you want to gift a special Spring-inspired cookie box, this could be included as a centerpiece.
Many thanks to Adriana Alvera for writing such a detailed tutorial and providing all templates to bring this cookie to life!
Inspired by this post from Pies and Tacos, I made a batch of macarons filled with Oreo buttercream. I opted to dye the shells with a touch of gray, as white shells give me trouble. They often get dark at the edges in the final stage of baking.
The recipe for the sunflower seed macarons can be found here. I used a very small amount of Americolor Gun Powder to get this hint of gray. The template for the shells was downloaded from Pies and Tacos, where you will also find the recipe I used for the filling.
Sunflower seed macarons have a coarser texture, so to be safe I piped some regular round ones, in case I had issued baking the bunny shape. But the Macarons Gods were smiling on me that day, and they all baked without problems! After baking, I painted the ears with luster powder + vodka and added the details with food safe pen. A little dry pink luster powder for the cheeks for a final touch, and a fondant rose just because. The round ones were just painted with a fan brush using luster powder + vodka in two colors, pink and blue.
The Oreo buttercream is lovely! Make sure to crush them super thin (filling and all, not need to worry about it). The addition of cream cheese cuts the sweetness a bit. All in all, a great little macaron project for the season.
They were donated to the folks at my orthodontist office. And they were very kind to share this photo on their Facebook page!
For this month, Marlyn proposed that we paint the dough with white before baking, to get the crackled white effect. That’s it. I went to work and made a few designs, with Spring in mind. What do you think?
The whole idea is to use AMERICOLOR WHITE to paint the dough before baking. I bake my cookies from frozen, so I paint them right after cutting, and then freeze. I had one additional design attempted – brush embroidery over the crackled base. That did to go well, maybe it explains why I have never seen it around…
All designs were simple, requiring just white or pink piping consistency icing for the details. The cherry blossom tree was a little more involved, as I used three tones of pink, brown for the tree, and had to pipe the dots in stages so they would not all join together. Still, pretty simple to put together.
Simple 6 petal flowers using a design inspired by Tunde Dugantsi (a blog post about it will come soon, stay tuned), and small butterflies.
Crackled base is another method to decorate that minimizes icing, and it is so easy. In theory, cookie dough with more leavening agent will originate a more dramatic look. My chocolate dough has no leavening at all, so the effect is subtle. Your kitchen, your rules!
Marlyn, I look forward to your next challenge! They are absolutely wonderful and help me a lot…
This is a very simple project, two colors of icing to flood a plaque-shaped cookie, then four additional colors needed in very small amounts, to pipe the details. I added a gold air-brushed border, but that step is optional, the cookies will look ok without the border. But as you may have noticed, sometimes it is hard for me to leave a poor cookie alone…
For flooding the cookie, make a green and light blue Royal icing, and flood the two regions, let them set….
Then make a brown thicker consistency to pipe the tree. Just free-hand it, make a few branches and allow that to set for 10 minutes or so.
Next, add little dots for flowers, and using a very small leaf piping tip (or improvising by cutting a piping bag with scissors at an angle), pipe leaves.
The air-brush on the edges is the final optional step. And you are done!
Inspired by a recent Facebook live from Haniela, this is a fun, unique way to decorate a simple leaf-shaped cookie. A mixture of textures, colors, and sprinkles come together to play with the basic design. Some cookies used the perforated mat as a component of the design, similar to what I shared in the latest online class by Amy (click here). Haniela used piped Royal icing flowers, I went with fondant decorations.
The cookie in the center is from the Mother’s Day Florals shared a couple of weeks ago (see post here).
For some of the cookies, the leaf was divided in two, the background painted with gold (or lightly brushed with a thin layer of green royal icing), and after flooding the other half, cookie crumbs dyed with green were added for textural contrast. Haniela’s tutorial goes over every detail of all these designs. Video available here.
Texture can also be added by laying a piece of crumpled parchment paper on wet Royal icing, and allowing that to set overnight. Once the paper is gently peeled off, the texture stays on the surface. Pretty cool technique. You see those in the picture below.
They can form a nice trio by coupling with a happy sun cookie, made with a spider-web cutter (design by Marlyn, from Montreal Confections).
And the set below would be perfect for a Mother’s Day gift…
I love the use of the perforated mat to help decorate a cookie, and have some ideas for future projects using this approach. Stay tuned!
I fell in love with these cookies moment she shared their pictures to announce the online event. I would not say this was a beginner’s level adventure, but Amy explains each step so well, that I believe even someone very new to cookie decorating could follow. Plus, to give you an idea of her level of detail when preparing for the event, the week before she uploaded SIX videos of cookie preparation. Some cookies had to be flooded, some fondant decorations had to be made and painted. It is a set perfect for Mother’s Day or any romantic occasion. Engagements, weddings… Pure beauty.
The set is designed as seven hexagon cookies to form a beautiful platter when joined together. One of the things that are required is baking the cookies over a perforated mat. Actually, these mats are a complete game changer as far as cookie baking goes, so I highly recommend you get one. I simply never bake over parchment anymore. The base of the cookies is perfect when you use the mats. Many brands available, like this one. Amy used the texture given by the mat as part of the design in two of the cookies.
The cookie on the left is flooded allowing part of the base to show. That gets painted in gold. The effect is simply amazing, don’t you think? On the right, several colors of icing in thicker consistency are smeared over the base.
The day before class, this is what we had to get ready… Several cookies flooded, some wet-on-wet flower motif, and one cookie flooded and immediately covered with embossed parchment paper.
Apart from that, fondant decorations and wafer paper decorations made and painted.
Side-note…. Amy demonstrated how the exact same silicone mold can give you two quite different flowers, depending on how much fondant (or modeling chocolate) you add to it.
There were a few techniques totally new to me, like working with edible fabric to make a bow. It is a little tricky but not that bad, actually. A little patience is required.
I also got to use this super cute ring to hold glue for the first time. It makes it a lot easier to work with the wafer paper bits and tiny sprinkles. You touch the glue with the needle and apply where you want it, no need to reach for the big bottle and risk making a mess. She included one in the box sold independently of the online class, I’ve only found it for sale in bulk (click here).
It was also my first time working with printed wafer paper, which adds a lot of elegance to a cookie.
I’ve participated of several classes online with Amy, each one teaches me so much, but this was truly special. Each cookie fascinated me. Below, my top three favorites. The first one required piping the roses and leaves on the cookie, so perhaps it was the most advanced of all, but Amy guides each step of the piping with perfect attention to details. How to hold the piping bag in the perfect angle, how to move your hand at each petal. A great learning experience!
Amy, I cannot thank you enough for yet another amazing online event. Already looking forward to our next adventure together…
One of my favorite cookies of the past couple of months, I saw this design on a post in Facebook, and made my own. I simplified by using fondant flowers instead of piping them. It is not exactly a dream catcher motif, but I suppose it’s close enough….
You’ll need to get those fine lines going, the finer you can get them, the better the outcome. I went as fine as I could, but intend to repeat this type of design in the future and aim higher. Or, maybe I should say aim finer? 😉
It all starts with a frame-shape cookie cutter flooded in red. Then just eye-ball the design, going down the cookie in rows, as shown in the composite below.
For one of them, I tried to do a more complex pattern, that could have worked better with finer lines. Still, for a first attempt, I like the way they turned out. Once you have the lines piped, get some fondant flower and add them with a tiny bit of Royal icing. The leaves were piped with thick consistency icing and a very small leaf tip from Ateco (ST50).
Since I had the fine lines going, I did one more design over white background. I think they go well together.
I visualize similar designs with a background in Americolor Wedgewood, or Dusty Rose, or even a simple gold, flowers with different shapes and colors. Perfect for Mother’s Day, or just to offer to a special friend.
As I mentioned, Marlyn from Montreal Confections has been proposing challenges for her cookie-followers to work on their own. Here is the assigned task for the month of April.
That was it, my friends. Two shapes. A few colors. Go to work.
After much mental back and forth, hyperventilation, monologues around the house, I came up with a flower composition to use all colors. Had a few issues with the fine lines, but other than that, I am reasonably satisfied with my cookie set…
It all started by planning the petals around the center, and adding one leaf, making it easier to incorporate the electric green…
Once the cookies were baked and the colors mixed, the fun began… Flooding the different components and adding some wet on wet for the center.
For the final details, everything had to set for a few hours, and the colors mixed in piping consistency. I hit the dark green so well that I spent a few minutes doing a short version of the Happy Dance. Look at those green lines! Don’t you love them? I thought so.
All that was left was some colorful piping to use the other colors, and tie the whole design together.
I really love these little challenges because they force me to do something on my own. Yet another thing to love about cookie decorating. Getting out of your comfort zone to explore the universe of colors and shapes.
For the Love of Cookies 