Seriously Sweet on Davis Street

MRS. CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN

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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

AMY’S HAUNTED HALLOWEEN MANOR

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To join Amy’s Facebook group and be on top of future online classes, click here.

One more class under my belt, but this one I messed up a bit. The full set contains 4 cookies, but you will only see three, because… tragedy took place. What is Sally’s life without a little drama?


I cut the cookies by hand because instead of buying the cutters. Their shape is so unique, I did not anticipate using them again until next Halloween. If you’d like to buy them, the set can be found online (check the store clicking here). Lots of little details went into the making of this composition. Before class, we made fondant decorations and prepared all the icing. I also made a few bones as Royal icing transfers. If you have a mold for that, you can go with fondant or modeling chocolate.


In the beginning of class, we made the little green eyeballs, and with that step out of the way, we were ready for decorating action!

The bottom cookie, which had a door and two tombs, gave me a lot of trouble. I made a few mistakes, ran out of black icing in the middle of the class, had to rush to make more, and things went downhill fast. So that cookie was sacrificed to the Cookie Gods, hoping that they will be kinder on me in future projects.


They work great together as a set, but also as individual cookies, as you can see below. The one with the windows was a lot of fun to make. Amy makes us draw everything free-hand, which blows my little mind. One line at a time, she takes us there. I love it!


And of course, the spider web piped as wet-on-wet is a great technique to keep in mind for this time of the year. You can add that to all sorts of cookie shapes, place a fondant spider or a ghost on top, and you are all set! Simple, yet effective…

Amy, thanks again for yet another amazing class! I just wished I had not messed up the bottom cookie, but I know everybody else in class did a great job with that one, so trust me, not your fault!

ONE YEAR AGO: Cookie Lace Designs

AMY’S PINEAPPLE COOKIES

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If you’ve been around this baby blog of mine for a while, you may have noticed that I follow a few selected “cookiers” very closely. Amy, from Seriously Sweet on Davis Street, is always inspiring me and pushing me to try more challenging techniques. At some point I will gather the courage to attempt one of her super elaborate “Tiki” creations. Hopefully soon. But today I share one small component of that series, her cute Pineapple Cookies. They were a ton of fun to make. My favorite part? The leaves, piped with a tipless bag, generating a cool 3-D texture. I was super scared to try it, but Amy’s tutorial is perfect! You can watch it here, the pineapple decorating starts around the 12 minute mark. Cutting the bag to pipe the leaves is shown at 27 minutes, give or take a few seconds. Brilliant!

It all starts with a little drawing on the baked cookie to help you out….

Then the sections of the pineapple are piped, allowing sections that are not touching each other to crust. Just 15 minutes or so, is more than enough, and you can come and complete the remaining sections.

Once the pineapple segments are crusted, Amy suggests using the air-brush to spray the edges with a very light touch of green. Ideally try to get all the outlines of each section, working very gently. These small details make the pineapple come to life. A bit of gold brushed on the leaves is also a nice touch. A cookie without those details would still be pretty nice, but if you can go the extra mile, why not?

I highly recommend that you watch Amy’s tutorials on Facebook, and consider joining her fun Facebook group called “Cookie Snack Attack with Seriously Sweet.” If you love to bake cookies and want to improve your technique while interacting with a bunch of people hooked on all things Royal icing… that group is for you!