This one is for all the Game of Thrones fans out there… I am channeling Amber from @sweetambs to bring you heart-shaped cookies that are total opposites, a kind of yin and yang design.
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Starting with a frosty heart…
This is a fun wet-on-wet method, demonstrated by Amber in her recent tutorial. The frosty aspect is intensified by dabbing white luster paint around the edges. I did not have the exact product she used, so mine ended up a little too rough, but I don’t think it compromised the effect. Amber goes the extra mile by painting tiny snow flakes by hand once the icing is fully set, but I omitted that step. Below, some of the stages to bring this cookie to life…
This type of design is perfect to prove that with only TWO colors you can still do a lot… cannot beat the simplicity of wet-on-wet. Come to think of it, even if you did not pull the dots to make the snowflake, the cookie would look pretty cute with just dots, as modern flowers. I joined them with simple pink hearts decorated with a pearly white beaded border.
And now for something completely different, the Yin of my Yang…
Aren’t those super cool? Amber truly set the hearts on fire with them… The design is simple, but I have to say that getting the flames with a realistic shape is a little tricky. I failed at my first attempt and that cookie had to be sacrificed to the Cookie Gods. You will need black (or dark gray), orange, yellow and red. Some steps of the cookie decorating are shown below.
The cookie below was a little “happy accident” that happened because I ran out of black icing…
They formed a nice fiery team…
I hope you enjoyed this “opposites attract” series. Once again, my advice is to use a large cookie to play with wet-and-wet designs. It makes life easier, and especially for the Frosty Hearts, you’ll have more room to play.
This design was imagined by Amber from @sweetambs a while ago and I changed just a few details when I made mine. The lace component is made with Sugar Veil and a special silicone mat (click here for details). I was very scared to use it because my previous experiences with sugarveil were very stressful and most did not have a happy ending at all. But Amber gave a few important pointers, like allowing the product to sit on the mat overnight instead of baking it in a low oven to dry. That’s what I did.
The other important thing is to roll the mat away from the veil, not pull the veil out of the mat, because it will tear, it is very delicate. You need to work slowly and gently guide the veil down the surface, as you pull the mat away from it. Pictures below show the process.
Once the lace is ready, pieces large enough to cover the cookie are cut, and placed over the fully set icing, using either a light brush with water or corn syrup (diluted with a bit of water for easier spreading with a brush). The edges won’t be very smooth, but after that step a little bead border will hide the imperfections. Rose details are fondant painted with luster powder and sprayed with PME pearl luster after drying.
After the lace is set, the fondant roses are glued to the cookie with a small amount of Royal icing. The bead border is important so that the edges of the lace do not show. I still need a lot of practice because my lace turned out super brittle, but compared to my previous attempts, this was much much better…
If you read this cookie blog of mine, you know that I follow a few cookie artists, trying to learn their techniques as demonstrated in tutorials and Facebook live sessions. Amber, from @sweetambs, is one of my favorite cookie decorators. She was a regular presence in Facebook lives, but last year took some time off to work on a special project. It turns out that the special project was the making of her latest cookbook, Cookie Canvas! I am absolutely thrilled to share with you two cookie compositions from this new book, as well as a little overview of the different chapters. In two simple words: the book is a “must-have” if you are into cookie decorating, or if you are simply fascinated by this unique art.
Without further ado, this is my version of her composition entitled “FALL BOUQUET” (page 124).
I was mesmerized by this set from the moment I laid my eyes on that page. The trickiest part is definitely the vase. It requires piping one of Amber’s trademark designs: the filigree! For Amber, piping filigree is second nature. She can do it on live camera, they turn out perfectly spaced, it all works like a symphony. I admit that I had to resort to the mini-projector. Still, it is a very nice design to practice, because you can use it in countless types of cookies that call for a touch of elegance. Once that is done (and the instructions on the book are flawless), the other components are not hard at all. Bake the cookies (template for the vase is provided in the book), make icing colors, and dive in!
I changed just a few details, to incorporate extra cookies in the shape of small flowers. The vase would work for many different arrangements: big flowers, tropical foliage, fruits on sticks… Just tweak the shapes and colors. Of course, if the filigree is too intimidating, you can do something else, including air-brushing with a stencil. But in my opinion, the filigree really makes this set absolutely whimsical.
Another cookie I made from the book was a Lantern design. I could not quite do it the same way Amber instructs, because I did not have matte white powder. If you have her book, you can look for it on page 106, and you will see that by using that product she managed to produce the perfect effect of light getting dimmer and dimmer as you move away from the lantern. Absolutely gorgeous. I went with a sparkly background instead, spraying a bit of Diamond Dust.
And now that I shared two of my cookies, let me walk you through the book…
The book opens with three chapters that will cover all the basics needed to indulge in the hobby of cookie decorating. If you are a total beginner, that’s where you should start.
Chapter 1: Cookie Decorating Basics In this chapter she talks about the equipment needed, shares her favorite recipe for cookies and frosting, and goes over the basic methods of dyeing the icing, checking consistency (VERY important), flooding, piping borders and making piped roses. It ends with troubleshooting, I urge you to read that part, it will come in handy at times (wink, wink).
Chapter 2: Icing and Frosting Recipes Amber shares several recipes to make alternative icings, and it really shocked me that I’ve never departed from my basic vanilla-lemon base. Will work on that soon, stay tuned.
Chapter 3: Cookie Recipes I am always trying different ways to flavor my basic sugar cookie dough, and in this chapter Amber offers several tasty possibilities, such as Pumpkin Spice, Lemon and Almond, Lime and Coconut, Maple, Strawberry. I have tried a couple, and the Strawberry Cookie is worth buying the book for. There, I said it!
Chapter 4: Celebration Cookies Now the decorating fun begins! This chapter is perhaps the one with most advanced cookies. You will learn how to make piped roses (wet on wet), use filigree (for beautiful wedding cookies), and brush embroidery to decorate a gift box (which you can of course simplify and make as a regular cookie). I love all the designs in this chapter, the Birthday Cake maybe is my favorite. The Graduation Cookie teaches a very cool way to do a marbled background (which I intend to try soon), and the Back to School, that closes the chapter, shows how to come up with a chalkboard look. Super cool.
Chapter 5: Seasonal Cookies I love this chapter, beginning to end! It opens with Valentine’s Day. Amber is a pro at making designs that mimic leopard print, and that’s what she chose to feature a heart-shaped cookie. Totally modern! I considered making it to feature the post, but ended up picking the Fall Bouquet instead. Tulip Bouquets (with clear explanation on how to make the cookie stay on the stick), Marbled Eggs, Fall Bouquet, Lanterns and Stars (I made the lantern as a bonus featured in this post), are just a few of the examples. Maybe my favorite of this chapter is the Goth Pumpkin, on page 117. I absolutely MUST make it soon, before Halloween says goodbye. It is unique, elegant and vibrant. I am also smitten by her take on Snowflakes. I would say that in this chapter you’ll find designs that are friendly to beginners and even the Snowflakes (page 142) that look absolutely stunning, are in fact doable with her detailed step-by-step instructions.
Chapter 6: Anytime Cookies This is simply FUN. She opens the chapter with Pizza Slices, perfect for a Summer party. Ice Cream Cups, Coffee and Donuts (love this series), Fruit Slices, Tie-Dye T-Shirts (cool to the limit!), Butterflies… I think (but it is hard to choose) my favorite would be the Dinosaurs (page 175). Very creative and not too difficult to put together. The way she cracked the icing to have the dinosaur little foot coming out of the egg, is just brilliant. Yes, I want to make that one soon.
Chapter 7: Templates In this chapter you will find everything you need to make cookies that need to be cut by hand (such as the vase I featured), or piped on the cookie (like the lantern, also featured today). Also sketches to help you pipe borders and the amazing filigree.
So that’s that, my friends. Amber’s book is clearly a labor of love! Every design has many step-by-step pictures and a very detailed list of everything you need, from equipment to colors and consistencies of icing, to make the cookie come to life. I cannot imagine the amount of work that went into the making of this book! Beginners in cookie decorating will find plenty of designs to play with, and those who like to stretch their limits will also have a blast with the book. I think Amber says it all in the final paragraph of her Introduction to the book, and I will transcribe it here for you:
The designs in this book came with step-by-step instructions and are meant to be recreated by you so you can learn to decorate cookies. As you get more comfortable with decorating, I encourage you to combine these techniques to create your own unique works of edible art. Most importantly, have fun!
Amber, thank you so much for allowing me to share the designs I made so far. I cannot wait to make more of them, and to continue following you on tutorials both through Patreon and Facebook lives. It is a hobby that I embraced a couple of years ago, and thanks to the help of cookie artists such as yourself, I love more and more each day!
This cool design was demonstrated by Amber in a recent Facebook live, and later she shared full details through her Patreon site. I loved everything about it, and of course wanted to give it a try. She designed it as a cupcake topper, making legs that hang to the sides, super realistic. I made a single one with that feature, but opted for piping the legs sitting on a larger cookie instead. Later I made another version with a different cookie cutter. If you want to practice piping fine lines, this is a great project. Just don’t be disappointed if yours lacks the elegance and finesse of Amber’s. Mastering these techniques takes time and patience. We all have the former, but some of us lack the latter (cough, cough).
Below, some of the steps to make them… First flooding in black, then adding the marbled effect with luster powder diluted with vodka. Legs piped over parchment paper using thicker consistency icing, details on the body with piping consistency. Finally, all the details and legs are painted with gold.
I baked large spider web cookies to accommodate the little spiders on top. In the end, these are very large cookies, probably best to share with a friend. Or call it dinner & dessert!
The spider webs were super simple, just wet-on-wet Royal icing, black over purple.
After I made these, I decided to try a similar decoration using a small cookie cutter, in which the legs are incorporated in the shape. The basic preparation was the same, but since the legs are piped on the cookie itself, it is a lot easier.
It is not as dramatic as the original, but it is also fun to put together. I made some leaves to go along with them, perfect for those who prefer little to no icing in their cookies. Just pipe an outline in black with a tip 2 icing tip, let that dry and paint the surface with luster powder + vodka.
I hope you liked this little spider series, and consider joining the Live Facebook sessions every Tuesday at 1pm EST. Follow this linkto watch previously recorded sessions and to join future recordings.
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!
This was another super fun project, following a detailed tutorial from Amber. Her work is always so elegant and whimsical, I love it. She shared two different variations for the ear decoration, one with plaid wet-on-wet,the other piping a square pattern, which is what I decided to do, as it was new to me. I am so in love with these cookies!
Two basic components to decorate the cookie: the Royal icing plaid motif for the ears, and Royal icing transfers + piped leaves for the lower half. The composite below shows the overall steps. Amber demonstrates one version in a recent Facebook live. You can watch it here, starting at 4 min.
The grid pattern is drawn with a light food pen on the baked, cooled cookie. Then the two colors of squares are piped, one color at a time, so that the edges don’t touch. No need to wait for a long time, just pipe the second color when the first is starting to crust. The lines can be added right away or if you prefer some more definition, they can be added later. Once that is set, I piped a thin border and added rose gold sanding sugar to it.
The flowers were made the day before, then the edges painted with silver luster powder + vodka. Once they were glued to the cookie, I piped leaves with stiff royal icing, and that helps set the whole arrangement in place.
It is a little labor-intensive, but not that bad. Once you have the royal icing transfer flowers ready, the piping of the ears is straightforward. You can also simplify and make it plain, or with little dots wet-on-wet. The plaid is a nice touch, and once you master this technique, you can use it in many different cookie shapes and designs.
If you are serious about cookie decorating, I am sure you follow Amber, from @sweetambs. A while ago she posted a very special tutorial (exclusive to Patreon supporters) to make a Fairy Cottage cookie composition. A real masterpiece with quite a few steps. The thing that fascinated me the most was the pebble work on the surface of the house. You pipe each pebble individually as a Royal icing transfer, and then glue them to the cookie right after brushing some thick icing as a base. Each pebble is also painted with luster powder and vodka in black and brown, to make the final product even more realistic. I wanted to turn that into a pizza box concoction, so I reduced the dimensions of the house to fit inside the 7 x 7 inch box, and simplified the details a bit.
The two large cookies for the house were cut by hand, and I did the same for the small mushrooms, as I did not have any cookie cutter that would be compatible with the final dimension of the composition. Just make sure to keep an eye during baking because the small cookies will bake a lot faster.
The prep steps start with piping the pebbles with gray icing and letting them dry overnight. Paint them while still glued to the paper. Ice the walls and chimney, glue the pebbles. The hard work is done! The window panels were simple white icing painted later in yellow. The door was made with slightly thicker icing, to get some texture with a brush. Amber’s video is very detailed and you will have no issues following it. My favorite part was perhaps the roof, made with brush embroidery. Since the method allows the background to show, it is a nice touch to paint it brown with luster powder before proceeding with the embroidery step. Amber does a lot more to her fairy cottage in terms of details under the windows, and around the house, so make sure to check it out and be amazed. Here is the short version of her video, as posted on IG.
I hope you liked my Little Cottage, I am quite smitten with the pizza box format, which I find perfect to offer as a gift. That reminds me… I need to place another order at amazon for those boxes, because how could I risk running out of them?
At some point this month it was Shark Week. I am horrible about keeping track of this type of stuff, and honestly I don’t really care. But when Amber made some super cool shark cookies, I decided that they can be featured anytime. Period. Her cookies are a lot more elaborate, using a tie-dye background. You can follow her tutorial on a Facebook live clicking here. The fun starts at exactly 5 min.
It all starts with the sharks made the day before using Royal icing transfers. You will need 4 colors + white just for that part. The shark template is available in her Patreon page.
I opted for a three color blue background to simplify it a bit. And also made a slightly different version, with ocean and sky.
The trickiest component is definitely the Royal icing transfer. When you see Amber making hers in the video, you realize how good she is at getting the consistency of the icing just right. I struggle a lot with it. In this batch of cookies, the icing for the transfers was a bit too thin, and the icing for the cookies a bit too thick. There you go.
Looks like my sharks had been swimming through rough waters. And they need braces… But, all joking aside, I loved making these cookies, learned a lot, and will definitely bring them back in the future. Now… what to do to get rid of an ear worm from a certain Spielberg’s movie?
I loved trying this technique because it took me a little out of my comfort zone. You can see Amber demonstrating each step on a live Facebook video that is available here. She starts at 7 min and 50 sec. The cookie dough was flavored with strawberries, her copyrighted recipe is available through Patreon. Of course, you can use any sugar cookie recipe you like. I slightly simplified the decoration of my cookies, and used Royal icing transfer roses for the center. They were leftover from another project.
The cookie dough is pretty cool with little bits of freeze-dried strawberry in it…
Then the fun begins… All steps shown in the composite photo below… Paint a layer of Royal icing with the base color of your choice (thicker then flooding consistency it will dry a lot faster). I used the same color as Amber, you cannot go wrong with teal. The mini-projector helped me draft the eyelet design, and from there all I needed was to trace the outline, and flood the appropriate area.
Next, I filled the center with pink and added the white polka dots (wet on wet)…
Let that set for half an hour or so, add fine lines to outline the design, and gently glue your central decoration. And voilà: your cookie is ready!
I made this cookie a couple of months ago, and plan to do it again, as I would like to do a better job with the fine lines. Those can be very tricky to get right.
I faithfully follow four Cookie Gurus to guide my path through all things Royal icing: Marlyn, Amy, Haniela and Amber. Today I share my adventure with Amber’s Alien cookie design. I thought the whole thing was super clever, joining the “galaxy” theme for the basic decoration with a cute little green being. Here they are, surrounding their Queen, my personal contribution to the theme. You can watch Amber’s detailed video as part of a recent Tuesday Cookie Therapy, with a click here.
Once again the shape of choice is the hexagon, these are 3 inches wide. Amber’s template (available in her ko-fi shop) is used to make the alien’s head, first the green part is piped, and after just a few minutes you can pipe the eyes in black. As usual, the transfers need to be made the day before.
They are centered on the flooded base later. For that step you will need five colors to be piped concentrically: black, turquoise, purple, pink and white.
Amber shows in her tutorial a perfect way to get the galaxy effect using a spatula, not a needle. She also made beautiful stars as transfers, but I failed at those and used star-shaped sprinkles instead. I will try them again in the future, those need a lot of skill to pipe and to handle later. After placing the transfers, add the sprinkles of your choice, and you could be done.
But I could not leave them alone, decided to shower the edges with some diamond dust. To do that, I made a little shield with parchment paper to protect Mr. Alien’s head.
Diamond dust sticks in every surface, so the only way to be selective about the coverage is protecting spots you want to keep without it.
For the Queen, I simply googled “alien coloring pages” and found that drawing ready for my projector. I thought it was a perfect match for these little guys.
For the Love of Cookies 