Valentine's

A FESTIVAL OF HEARTS

sallybr2 Comments

HAPPY 23rd ANNIVERSARY TO ME AND MY FOREVER HUSBAND!

February is over but love is not. Truth is, I ran out of time to share all the heart-shaped cookies that materialized in my kitchen in the past few weeks, so sit back and get some ideas for romance in cookie shape. Below each design just a few details of how they were made.

THE CLASSICS

Red, pink and white. Simple. Wet-on-wet, some with a modern, playful twist.


GOLD

Flooded dark brown, stencil + air-brush gold. Or naked cookie painted with luster gold + vodka.


PINK AND GOLD

Flooded pink, with brush embroidery edge, stencil + air-brush gold and fondant detail.


SUPER PINK

Simple solid flooding, or minimal icing with piping consistency details.


GOLFER’S LOVE

Flooded in white, air-brushed in green and blue, fondant detail.


MARLYN’S BEACH LOVE

From a recent tutorial (click here to watch it), a few details of the design after the picture.

Sand detail first, covered with gold sanding sugar. Three colors of blue + brush embroidery and fondant detail.


AMBER’S BLUE HEARTS

Simple flooding in two colors, brush embroidery with lighter blue. For tutorial, click here.


For these cookies I used strawberry-flavored cookie dough, with a touch of red dye.

That’s all for now, friends! As you may have noticed, I tend to make heart-shaped cookies often, so you won’t have to wait until February to see more… I hope you found something to inspire you when that romantic mood sets in…


ONE YEAR AGO: Montreal Confections and PYOC

MY FIRST COOKIE DECORATING CLASS

sallybr16 Comments

I was contacted a couple of months ago to offer a cookie decorating class at the Senior Center in town, on February 13th, the day before Valentine’s. After a lot of hyperventilation, monologues around the house, intense arguments with myself, I said yes… So here I am to share with you my plans for this adventure. Below, the designs I’ve settled on to demonstrate and have them do on their own.

Now let me go over the decision-making process… First thing that I had in mind was making it easier to get a polished look by adding a border with sprinkles. One of the tricky aspects of flooding a cookie when you are just starting is having a nice edge. By adding sprinkles this problem is for the most part solved. I tested sanding sugar as well as sprinkles, but to keep it simple in class, I might go with only one option. The sprinkles I used for my first test below are not the right colors, but it’s what I had at the time in my treasure chest. Later I ordered the mandatory white, pink and red.

Also with the idea of simplifying, every design will be made with only three icing colors: white, red and pink… They will be divided in groups, perhaps six different groups, so three bags per group is already quite a lot of work to prepare, especially considering I am a total rookie at this teaching thing… Well, teaching Biochemistry is a completely different adventure!

Finally, the designs will all be wet-on-wet because it is the simplest, most forgiving way to decorate. No need to master fine lines, no need for a dehydrator to speed up setting of a base layer. Even designs that seem complicated are in fact quite simple to do.


I hope they will enjoy what I planned, and of course, feel free to change the colors or placement of details.

One particular design will be finished with a fondant rose, I will make several in advance and take them with me…

That will teach them the marbling technique. All other designs rely on piping + pulling the color with a needle.

As this post gets published, I will have 42 heart-shaped cookies baked and ready for class. On the day of, early in the morning, I will make and bag all the colors, check my list of supplies to take (sprinkles, fondant roses, paper towels, paper plates, and other small things), and hope for the best!

Cross your fingers for me, will you?

ONE YEAR AGO: For the Love of Hearts

YODA ONE FOR ME

sallybrLeave a comment

You want to talk about cute? This breaks the Cuteness Scale by the longest shot… I remember when I first saw Marlyn demonstrate the making of this cookie, and it seemed totally out of my skill level. It makes me happy that I could do it now, although I will spare you of the list of self-criticism that it generated. It is hard to get all the details right, but at least I am happy with the outcome.

To watch Marlyn demonstrate all the basic steps for this cookie, click here. Make sure you use a very large heart-shaped cutter because the more space you have, the easier to decorate. I love everything about this cookie, starting with the sprinkle border, and ending with the written message. You cannot get any better! Of course, making a dozen of these would be quite time-consuming, but they would be perfect to include as a special item in a Valentine’s cookie box containing smaller, simpler cookies. Or to gift to that very special person in your life. Below, some of the steps…

You can make the arm, leg and face by piping on the cookie itself, once the base is fully set, but using Royal icing transfers is actually a lot easier and safer, as you can pipe several more and choose the best ones to use. Marlyn pipes the text and the facial features, but I was too terrified to do that, so I used food safe pens. Your kitchen, your rules, do whatever feels right to you.

I am totally smitten by my little Yoda!

ONE YEAR AGO: For the Love of Hearts