Sugar Cookies – For the Love of Cookies

STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER

May 21, 2023May 19, 2023sallybrLeave a comment

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…

ONE YEAR AGO: The Mandala Hand

TWO YEARS AGO: Marlyn’s Peacock Paisley Cookies

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

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

METAMORPHOSIS, THE COOKIE

April 7, 2023April 5, 2023sallybr4 Comments

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

A LOVELINESS OF COOKIES

September 14, 2022January 16, 2023sallybr4 Comments

Did you know that a group of ladybugs is called a “loveliness?” Cannot think of a more appropriate term… Today I share a set of cookies that made me very happy. I normally find a lot of boo-boos in my bakes, things that I wish I had done in a slightly different way, but sometimes… sometimes they come out the way I hoped. Without further ado, some loveliness for you!

The inspiration for these cookies came from painted rocks. It is amazing what artists can do, and the shape of a rock is quite appropriate to turn it into a ladybug. Cookies are flat, but I think they worked ok too. This batch was flavored with hazelnut and vanilla. Here are the steps to bring loveliness to cookie life…

First, I drew the basic design with a food pen…

Then, I used baby black luster powder + vodka to paint the area in between the wings…

Using flesh tone gel dye from Americolor, I flooded the head region, let that crust for 10 minutes, then outlined and flooded the wings, adding dots of black (wet-on-wet icing).

Here is the loveliness, waiting for final details…

After a few hours, a line of black icing was added to the separation of head and body, gold sanding sugar sprinkled on top (I used this product from Wilton), and a little golden bow (made with fondant) glued in the center.

The loveliness was then ready, just waiting for the facial details next morning…

All that was left to do is adding eyes, a nose and a smile… oh, yes, some blush to the little faces too!

ONE YEAR AGO: Royal Icing Etching

SUMMER GIRLS

September 4, 2022January 16, 2023sallybr2 Comments

Sometimes I decide to throw caution to the wind and try something way out of my comfort zone. Remember the gnomes I made recently? This set of cookies were also designed by Shirlyn, and they pushed me to the limit of my abilities. For sure. Character cookies are not easy, and the only way I could attempt those was following the very detailed instructions in her tutorial. If you compare my cookies to hers, you will realize I have a long ways to go, but every marathon starts with the first mile. So here I am to share my first attempt at these cute cookies, perfect to celebrate all things Summer.

I am thrilled with my girls, because I never imagined being able to even attempt this type of cookie a year or so ago. It was not that easy, I have to admit. My Royal icing was a little too thick, the colors a tad too strong. But I’ve learned quite a few things, and at some point intend to repeat them, trying to keep in mind the level of finesse that Shirlyn achieves.

A mini-projector is a huge help to transfer the image onto the cookie, but there are ways to do it without it, using paper, as demonstrated by my tent-baker friend Tanya (click here)

Below, a few of the steps in this cookie decorating marathon that involved 10 colors of icing…

You might notice (bottom right picture) that my icing consistency was not perfect. I think the lesson to learn is that even if it seems pretty painful to stop and adjust it, in the end it will be worth it. Shirlyn suggested opening the bag, spraying a little water, and massaging it to distribute. That makes it possible to thin it without having to go through the trouble of un-bagging, and wasting a lot of icing in the process. I intend to try it next time.

By the end of the first day, the cookies will be all fully piped with the design, and next day you will have a great painting adventure waiting for you!

I kept thinking that selling cookies like these would be pretty much impossible because they are very labor-intensive and unless you are a famous cookie-artist with a million followers in Instagram, no one would be willing to pay for the amount of work that goes into each one. But since I make them and give them away, this is not an issue. I am just happy thinking that maybe a little girl got the cookies and that they made her smile…

If you are interested in online tutorials by Shirlyn, jump to her Instagram page and stay tuned for her upcoming lessons. And you can still sign up for any lesson she has available right now, including the Flamingo-Gnome and the Summer Girls. I love her style of teaching, and also appreciate that she tells you how to get better, what to focus on next time.

ONE YEAR AGO: Jurassic Park Pizza Cookie Box

SHIRLYN’S FLAMINGO GNOME FUN

August 20, 2022January 16, 2023sallybrLeave a comment

A couple of weeks ago I took a very deep breath and joined an online cookie decorating class that seemed way WAY out of my skill level. Let me just show you the kind of cookies this amazing artist does, by sharing her Instagram page. Still, I decided that if I don’t push my limits, I might be missing something. I won’t lie to you, this was hard on many levels, but once I saw these cookies staring at me, I could not stop smiling…

The class involved two videos, each one 3 hours long. Yes, big investment of time but you get to see Shirlyn making every single step (except of course baking the cookies), in a super detailed way. On day one you’ll make all the Royal icing transfers, and the basic icing of the cookies. Day two is devoted to painting and assembling everything. So many different techniques! She is big on shading, which is a method of painting using diluted gel colors and an almost dry brush to spread it. Sugarprism will also work, but this time I stuck with the gels. By joining the class you get a ton of materials, including all recipes for dough and icing, plus all the templates for Royal icing transfers. Also access to basic videos demonstrating specific techniques of general interest for cookie decorating. You can of course use your own recipes if you prefer, which is what I did. Below, some of the steps involved in making the cookies. I watched the videos and made the cookies a couple of days later, it would be too hard for me to try to decorate in real time with Shirlyn.

On the end of the first day, I had the four cookies iced, and the Royal icing transfers made and painted (I made them early in the morning and could paint them in the evening). Once that was all done, the following day was devoted to adding all bells and whistles. It is truly amazing how shading will bring life to any design…

The coconut cookie was actually one of the trickiest for me. It is a simple design but the details are not easy to do. A lot of room for improvement in that one… But for a first time, I am happy with it. I intend to re-visit all these cookies in the future.

If you would like to learn of future online classes by Shirlyn, visit her website and subscribe to her feed. I will definitely be joining her again, she is super sweet and incredibly talented. And has the patience of a saint to answer questions…

ONE YEAR AGO: For the Love of Flamingos

CHERRY BLOSSOM TREE

July 9, 2022January 16, 2023sallybr4 Comments

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.