Sugarprism

PLAYING WITH CHOCOLATE ROYAL ICING

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Chocolate Royal icing is a departure on the regular, white type, made by replacing some of the powdered sugar with cocoa powder. I used the recipe published in Amber’s new cookbook (which I recently reviewed here). If you don’t have the book, you can always use recipes found online. Cocoa powder contains up to 22% fat in its composition, so it can be tricky to use in items that are normally very low in fat. Macarons and Royal icing are two examples. I ended up ordering a special cocoa powder that is fat-free (available here) and it worked a lot better. The icing was smooth, dried without bubbles, and behaved a lot like regular white icing. Works amazingly well for macarons also, but that is another story to be told another time… Chocolate Icing has intense flavor and a beautiful brown color. One of the simplest ways to dress it up is coupling it with a stencil and gold air-brushing.


You can also use the air-brushed image to take it one step further and pipe the design to lift the image…

Going one step further, wait until the piping is fully set (preferably overnight) and then have some fun painting. Sugarprism is the ideal product because you can blend the colors very easily and it has excellent coverage, even on a dark background. For this technique, I followed the idea of Michelle, inventor of Sugarprism, in one of her many wonderful Facebook videos.

Opinions were a bit divided on these cookies. Some people loved the painted look, others preferred the more austere piping without colors. But everybody thought gold goes very well with the dark cocoa background, and I fully agree…

If you have never used Chocolate icing, consider doing so. It is a great alternative when all you need is a solid background, plus it adds a nice chocolate flavor to your base cookie.

ONE YEAR AGO: For the Love of Ukraine

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW…

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I am totally, completely, absolutely, overwhelmingly in love with these cookies! Why? Because they were painted free-hand, thanks to the guidance of the one and only Michelle, inventor of Sugarprism. She hosted a Facebook event where several members of her group got busy decorating with her in real time. I had so much fun bringing these two guys to cookie-life.

Find Michelle’s info through her IG page with a click here.

Below you see some of the steps in the painting process, that happened on a naked cookie, no Royal icing at all… Michelle uses little guiding dots to space the different portions of the design, so that everything ends up with perfect proportion in the end. Even to paint the star, she had a cute method so that the points would end up exactly where they are supposed to. We started making a blue background darker in the edges and lighter in the center, and then slowly painted all the components on top.

As usual, her classes are fun, light, and make you feel super empowered – that feeling of – I PAINTED THAT – did not leave me for a long, long time!

Another advantage of this method is that you will use no Royal icing at all. Sugarprism has excellent coverage even on the naked cookie, and its delicious vanilla flavor won’t negatively interfere with your bake.

I am not sure I will ever be able to paint something without a guiding hand to lay out the path for me, but maybe one day I might be able to look at a painting and figure out how to do it myself. Could be a little goal for the new year…

ONE YEAR AGO: Christmas Cookies

FOR THE LOVE OF FALL

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Inspiration for these cookies came from a design I saw in the internet a while ago, captured a quick screenshot, but forgot to save the source. It coupled hearts with fall leaves, and I think it is a nice cookie tribute to one beautiful season in our beautiful planet.


Bringing this design to life is not difficult at all. You will need just white Royal icing in flooding consistency, but not too loose because you want to be able to get some volume in the different sections, and also you don’t want to risk them joining together. I sketched the leaves on the naked cookie, piped the leaf component first, allowed it to set for 10 minutes or so, then came back and did the rest.


Once that is fully set, at least 4 hours, you are ready to paint the details. You can use food gel diluted with vodka, or go for Sugarprism, which is my favorite option. Let your inner Monet fly!


Sugarprism dries quickly, wait about 20 minutes and you will be ready to add the details. I used Royal icing dyed with Americolor Gold, in piping consistency, and a piping tip #1. Later I painted the details with luster gold powder diluted with vodka, but that part is optional, the design will be ok without this step.


They are a little time-consuming but not too bad, and if you enjoy painting they give you a chance to get some Zen-time…

ONE YEAR AGO: Gobble Gobble!

A TOUCAN ADVENTURE

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This cookie composition was designed by Amber. A short video demonstrating how to make it is available on her youtube channel (click here). For a much more detailed tutorial and access to the templates, you need to be a supporter in her Patreon site (click here).

I cannot lie to you, these are a bit of a labor of love. I actually made it a lot easier by piping the Royal icing transfers in white, allowing to fully dry, and then painting. Amber has incredible skill and did the whole thing piping different colors in each section of the beak. I loved the whole process, and assembling the final cookie to reveal the full bird sitting on a branch. How does she come up with this stuff? I have no idea, but I am so glad she does!

First things first, making all the transfers – either following Amber’s method, or if you prefer to paint, do them all in white first. She has the templates sized perfectly not only to cut the cookie by hand, but to draw the image of the toucan so you can pipe the basic shape and add the transfers. Using paint you can do the beaks with different color combinations. I used Sugarprism and food pen for all components.

Once those are painted and dry, you can work on the cookies…

I made two with a very smooth background, and one with a bit of texture, working the surface with a thick brush. Because it would be important to get the surface of the bird smooth, I just cut its shape with parchment paper and laid on top of the icing while wet. That area stayed flat, and once the icing was sightly crusted I worked the regions outside the bird with the brush. Next morning I removed the parchment paper with the shape of the toucan, and proceeded with the Royal icing step.

Some of my piping could have been a little more precise, but overall I am very happy with these cookies. Once you spread the preparation in a couple of days, it is not overwhelming. If you watch Amber’s tutorial you’ll see she gilds the lily further by doing brush embroidery over the black wing. I confess I was afraid of ruining the cookie, so I skipped it.

This would be a nice center piece to include in a set of tropical smaller cookies,
or simply to offer as a gift to a special friend.

Huge thank you to Amber for sharing very detailed tutorials in her Patreon site!

ONE YEAR AGO: Marlyn’s Pizza Box Beach Cookies

PAINTED ROYAL ICING TRANSFERS

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When you decorate cookies, it’s pretty common to have leftover Royal icing. It does freeze well, but you can also make royal icing transfers in all sorts of shapes without worrying about color at this point. Let them set for a few hours or overnight, and then use any method of your choice to color them. Michelle, the inventor of Sugarprism, is a pro at this. The birds below were made following her lead.

I got so hooked into the process that right away I started making several different transfers. The advantage of making them all white, is that you can choose the colors later, to match any cookie you are working on. Here are my first two babies… The first one coupled with Royal icing in piping consistency, and the second with painting (luster powder) + food pen.

The main thing to consider when making the transfers is using a slightly thicker consistency and piping in stages so the design won’t be flat. This works when making flowers, butterflies, birds, pretty much any image. As to how to add color? Any method works: food pens, Sugarprism (both the acrylic and the watercolor types), food gel diluted with vodka, luster powder. I normally bring all my tools out to play and go with the flow.

A few more designs using the transfers… The one below is definitely one of my favorites ever! I brought back my days of studying Mandarin and incorporated a modern rose with the ideogram for love. I find that particular ideogram very beautiful. One of its components (the central motif) is the ideogram that represents the heart. The Chinese language has incredibly beautiful details that captivate the mind.

For the butterflies, I used a different method to paint flowers: dry dusting with luster powder using a sponge brush in a very loose pattern. Next, a food pen adds the real drawing, which does not need any precision.

That is a very easy method to add flowers, and it will give the impression that you spent a lot of time in each cookie, but that’s really not the case. Plus, it is very forgiving.

So here is my small collection of cookies using the transfers I made in the past couple of weeks. As you can see, a transfer can stand alone on its own, or you can add details around it. Your cookie, your choice. But whatever you decide to do, having a little treasure chest with transfers ready to be painted is a very efficient way to decorate cookies. I hope you give that a try!

ONE YEAR AGO: Not Always Black and White

FLORALS

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Spring and Summer, time to celebrate color, flowers, being outside and allowing the beauty of the universe to inspire us. I share with you cookies made in the past few weeks, using several different techniques, but all with flowers in mind. I start with my favorite, following as closely as possible a Facebook tutorial from Marlyn. For this one, sequential piping is coupled with air-brushing to bring to cookie-life Plumeria blooms.

Marlyn is a pro with the air-brush, it is not something I do without considerable hyperventilation, but slowly I am getting the gist of it. The yellow part worked well, I found the pink to spray too wildly at times.

Below some of the steps to make these cookies…

I love the simple elegance of this design, typical of Marlyn. If you don’t have an air-brush, you can still do the same by painting with gel color diluted with vodka or water. It will take a little longer, but other than that, no issues.

Moving on, some other florals that happened in our kitchen lately….

SUGARPRISM PAINTING

AIR-BRUSHING + STENCIL

CRACKED BACKGROUND + PAINTED FONDANT

Design inspired by Amber, from @sweetambs
tutorial from Craftsy

ROYAL ICING TRANSFERS

(drawing designed inspired by Amber, from @sweetambs)

I still have many floral compositions waiting in line to materialize as cookies,
so stay tuned for more soon!

ONE YEAR AGO: Gilding the Lily with Silicone Molds

COLORFUL HEARTS

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Every once in a while someone sends me pictures of decorated cookies they love and tell me I should make them. Some are totally out of my skill level, so I just reply with a very gentle “are you out of your mind?”, and move on…. But not too long ago my friend Louise sent me a video of a great cookie artist at work and I decided to give that one a try. I actually changed the whole method around. Originally those were made with many (and I really mean many) colors and consistencies of Royal icing. Each cookie requiring several different colors for piping and flooding, then even more colors for the final details. I simplified it quite a bit by using Sugarprism painting over the basic white design.

As I mentioned, these were made with super labor intensive Royal icing work. I took shortcuts, not only to minimize the need to make so many different colors, but because I love the process of painting, and Sugarprism makes it so nice. Plus it tastes like vanilla, so no fear of adding odd flavors to the cookie. I started with fully set white cookies, and used two consistencies of icing to add the outlines and then flood. Make sure that your icing has some “muscle” in it, you need the flowers not to be flat.

Once that is fully set, the fun part is waiting for you… grab your colors (if you don’t have Sugarprism, food safe pens, diluted gel colors, or luster powders will work also).

I waited for the base colors to dry a bit, not more than 15 minutes were needed, and added the details on top, also with Sugarprism and a very fine brush.

I had some extra cookies and decided to play with a simpler design. I made random flowers using golden luster powder diluted with vodka, when that was dry, I added the outlines and details with black Sugarprism and a very fine brush.

So there you have, six heart-shaped cookies, in two different floral styles, one will require some time and effort, but the golden ones are the easiest cookies you can dream of. Apart from grabbing a box at the grocery store, that is…

ONE YEAR AGO: Burning Bush, A Custom-Made Cookie

SUMMERTIME, DECORATING IS EASY…

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Today I share a series of cookies inspired by my favorite season… I suggest you invest in two great colors: Americolor Watermelon, and ProGel Strawberry. You can approximate those tones making some magic with reds, pinks, corals, but I love those shades straight from the bottle. I used them to make all the cookies in this set. Greens were all from Americolor. Without further ado, here is my trio of Summer cookie fun.

DESIGN #1 – WATERMELON LOVE

I used one of my favorite shapes, the candy corn, to make 8 little watermelon slices, and a round cookie for the watermelon face. Super simple, wet-on-wet, and after setting, black icing in piping consistency was used to make the little seeds, as well as the smile and eyes.

Below some of the steps to make what I call the “Watermelon Flower”

The popsicles are even simpler to make… I started by painting the wooden handle with copper luster powder (Bakell Metallic Maroon). Then a very simple three-color piping to bring the design to life. And the mandatory seeds. Of course.

DESIGN #2 – ICE CREAM CONE

Some components of this design were inspired by Marlyn, from Montreal Confections, but I added some of my own little twists, particularly in the cone. I used my favorite little fondant baller tool to generate some texture. The vibrant color is ProGel Strawberry.

The final decorations were thick consistency white-strawberry icing for the swirl, plus sprinkles and a tiny M&M.

DESIGN #3 – STRAWBERRY LOVE

There was a little saga behind these cookies. I’ve done pineapples with a “quilt” look before, but for the strawberry, there were quite a few more little sections. They must be piped in stages, so that only regions that do not touch are piped at the same time. That meant a looong time to finish the six cookies…

Full disclosure: I had 10 strawberry-shaped cookies baked. After six were piped, I was fit to be tied, so simpler designs materialized instead… Like a solid flooding, and a Sugarprism painted alternative, perfect for those who prefer a more austere cookie, as far as icing is concerned.


You could even skip the painting for a pretty modern, unusual look…

But if you have the time and patience, consider going the extra mile and making the quilt look. Adding tiny sprinkles is also time-consuming, so in some I piped tiny dots of black Royal icing instead. For bling, you can also paint the surface with some pink luster powder.

I hope you liked these ideas to celebrate Summer with a cookie platter... A little piping with green on the tops is optional, but I liked the way it made the whole design more vibrant.

ONE YEAR AGO: Puppy Love

A TRILOGY OF SUGARPRISM

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Today I share three different ways to decorate cookies using Sugarprism, starting from the simplest version…

DESIGN #1 – YELLOW FLOWERS

For these cookies, my inspiration were flowers I saw in my walking-jogging route. Intense orange, with a reddish center. I iced the 8 petal flower shape with orange, and once that set I drew a circle that was iced with chocolate brown plus a touch of red. Once that set overnight, I painted the details with Sugarprism red, and finally added little dots of Royal icing in bright yellow.

It is a very simple design, maybe the trickiest part is adding the little yellow dots, because the consistency of the icing has to be just right. It is a good idea to practice on a piece of parchment paper, so that you can adjust with water or powdered sugar if necessary.

DESIGN #2 – MODERN STICK FIGURE

I fell in love with this image the moment I saw it on the Instagram page of Kathy Barbro, who teaches drawing for kids. I knew I had to “cookie it.” So I started with a Royal iced white background, and drew the design with a light food pen. Then I used Sugarprism to paint the different sections, and once that was fully dry, I went over the design and details with a black food pen. You can see some of the phases in the composite below

Little black dots with Royal icing made for a fun border that complemented the design well, I think.

DESIGN #3 – SINGLE STROKE PAINTING

I consider these cookies a work in progress. If you go on youtube and search for “single stroke painting”, you’ll find many wonderful examples, and many tutorials trying to teach you how to do it. They make it seem very easy, but clearly, there is a steep learning curve. Basically, you load two different colors on opposite sides of a flattish brush, press the brush on the surface and twist it to form a petal. I made a “canvas” of royal icing to practice and – full disclosure – my countertop once I was done with the cookies looked like a war zone!

It is a fun technique to work with. I intend to keep trying and also work on different types of flowers and leaves. So expect to see more of my amateurish attempts featured here… Lolita, the flamingo, does not mind, she actually seems quite smitten with my painting!

If you want to play with Sugarprism, visit Michelle’s website with a click here.


ONE YEAR AGO: Sugarprism, a New Kid on My Block

SUNFLOWERS FOR UKRAINE

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Another design using piped Royal icing coupled with painting, this time I used Sugarprism.

Similar to what I shared recentl (click here), this version relied on a stencil air-brushed with gold as starting point… The surface was iced and fully set (color used for the base was Artisan Accents Azure Blue). White Royal icing was piped in sections that were not adjacent, so that if they accidentally touched, they would not merge.

Once all sections were piped, I waited for the center to start crusting, and then used a special little tool to add texture…

This step is optional, or you can use the handle side of a brush. But I find that it adds a more interesting look to the final design. A few hours later the fun – aka painting – starts. I used Sugarprism in Dandelion Yellow + Monarch Orange for the petals, Green + Teddy Bear Brown for the leaves. Teddy Bear Brown was also used to paint the stem.

The final step was the bling: center of the flower painted with gold luster + vodka.

It is hard to find hope sometimes. So many horrible things happen in our world, leaving us with a very intense feeling of impotence and frustration. At least through cookies, we can bring some sunshine and joy to those around us.

Stay tuned for more adventures with Sugarprism!

ONE YEAR AGO: Eyelet-Lace Strawberry Cookies