decorated cookies

INSPIRATION FOR APRIL: PINATA COOKIES

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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

METAMORPHOSIS, THE COOKIE

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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!

ONE YEAR AGO: Marbled Cookie Dough

SUGAR COOKIES: THE GROOVY SERIES

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I dedicate this post to Dr. Aritri Majumdar.

From black and white, I do a 180. This time is all about color. The mini-projector is the easiest way to deal with all the designs, so if you are seriously into cookie decorating, I must tell you this little gadget will shake your world, in a very positive way… Please, sit back and let me show you some of the cookies that happened in our kitchen in the past few weeks.

Mandalas are wonderful to play with…

And you don’t have to limit yourself to simple circular shapes, the same basic style can be applied to many different designs…

Mandala or not, just embrace the colors, and have fun!

All cookies were made either with my default Neat Edges recipe, or the recently blogged Spicy Chocolate Cookie. For decoration, links to the food safe pens and luster powders can all be found in the end of this post.