Valentine's cookies

HANIELA’S LOVE STATUE COOKIES

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To learn all you need about these cookies, check this post from Hani’s blog.

If you are skeptical about Royal icing transfers, these cookies will convince you that they are a great way to embellish many designs. Haniela provides the template so you can pipe the LOVE motif either over parchment, wax paper, or acetate. I usually go for acetate, but in this particular case they worked better when I used parchment paper. They peeled off easier, I had several piped over acetate break. One important thing is to pipe them “puffy” – you need Royal icing with good structure, otherwise they will be way too fragile. Check the pink at the lower right to see what I mean. Outline first so you can get more to food inside and stay contained.

You can choose any color to pipe and also leave the transfer plain, or cover with sanding sugar. The ones in the bottom left I sprayed with pink luster from Wilton, and that gave an interesting tone over the gray letters. Once the transfers are fully set (I recommend patience and waiting overnight), all you need to do is flood a basic square cookie and place the designs on top, I made an extra cookie with brush embroidery as a companion to the love set. I really like the combination of gray with tulip red.

These transfers are very delicate, so my advice is to make a few more than you will need. And also make sure your base cookie is large enough to accommodate the transfer. I felt I played with danger a bit, mine were almost too small…

The bead border is of course optional, but if you follow this little blog of mine, you know that I am quite fond of them… You can find a lot to inspire you online as far as written messages go. Just pick what is calling your name, and have fun with it!

Before I leave, a note on red food color. Often red has a bitter after taste. One way to avoid that is using “Tulip Red” from Americolor. It is made from a different type of pigment and does not have any taste. It also colors well, so you won’t need to use half a bottle to get the red you want.

ONE YEAR AGO: Cardinals in a Tree, a Pizza Box Set

HUGS AND KISSES

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By now it is pretty clear I am not ready to drop the love theme… This set of cookies were demonstrated in a tutorial by Andi Kirkegaard. You can get all details and join her classes visiting her website with a click here. I have followed her classes before, these florals were favorites of my past. Once again, because those are part of a paid tutorial, I cannot share details or templates, but once you sign up, you will receive quite a bit of material to work from: cookie and icing recipes if you need them, and super detailed instructions as to how much icing to make in each of the needed consistencies. It is not a beginner’s level project, but if you have some experience decorating cookies and working with Royal icing, you will do great.

The full set involved 4 cookies, but I did not do a good job on cookie #4, so I am highlighting the other three. Many details and techniques are involved in the making of these cookies, you will be playing with piping consistency of very fine lines, and a very cool method to make the balloons with a puffy shape. You will also use a stencil, and air-brushing. A mini-projector, although not absolutely necessary, will be quite helpful. Some of the steps are shown below.

Andi is a very experienced instructor, and she will have you work on one particular cookie, then move to another one as the first sets, so it is all quite efficient. I cannot pick a favorite, I loved making this cute trio…

THE BALLOONS…


You will learn how to pipe the balloon component in stages to create lift in the icing. Fine lines will make the basket weave, but of course you could adapt using some other method – perhaps the same technique used for the wood in the kissing booth could work here. Or even use a stencil instead of piping.

THE LOVE JAR

So many details, but don’t you love the look? I think my favorite touch was the air brushing dark at the bottom and getting lighter as you move up on the jar. Just adorable! Maybe this was the simplest of the four in the set.

THE KISSING BOOTH

Well, this was maybe my favorite, after all… Lots of little details make this cookie shine, including the work with Royal icing to give the impression of wood. It was the most time-consuming cookie to make but also quite a lot of fun to see it materializing, little by little.

As to the cookie I could not make very well, here it is… I did not get the writing to work, so it would have been better to just make the background with the stencil, and the ruffled edge. But it is nice to try something challenging. I hope to do a better job next time.

This set of cookies, coupled with some simple hearts would be nice to offer as a special gift, don’t you think?

ONE YEAR AGO: Of Bears and Bunnies in Love

VALENTINE’S COOKIES BY TUNDE DUGANTSI

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For Tunde’s Cookie Club information, click here

If you are familiar with Tunde’s work, you know her cookies are the essence of elegance. They often rely on piping fine detail lines, so if you are beginning your cookie decorating adventures, they might be a bit tricky to get right. Still, the overall design will work without those details, in case you feel intimidated but still want to give them a try. It took me a long time to face the challenge of fine line piping, and there is still a lot of room for improvement, but at least I am a bit more confident now. This online tutorial had a set of six cookies, some large and some small. I honestly cannot pick a favorite, I love them all, but the three below could share the first prize…

To make the set of six cookies we needed Royal icing in red, two shades of pink and white. White icing was prepared in two consistencies, flood and piping for fine lines. I cannot share specific details as the tutorials are for members of her online club, but if you would like to join and have access to all past and future tutorials click here. Some of the steps are included in the composite picture below.

Tunde makes the whole process very efficient, as you work on the cookies sequentially, allowing a few areas to dry as you work on another cookie. The central details can be made as a Royal icing transfer or fondant. I opted for fondant, because I prefer the look of the rose when formed in a mold rather than piped. And it is such a small amount that even if someone does not care for the taste of fondant, it won’t ruin the cookie.

All cookies benefit from a beaded border. The more I decorate cookies, the more I enjoy the beaded border because they make the design quite a bit more polished. It does take a little practice to get not only the right consistency in the icing but also the size of the opening and the movement of the hand. A cookie turntable makes the process easier, and I recently bought a turntable I like a lot. Click here for details.

I had two extra cookies baked and decided to attempt my own design in two of them. First wet-on-wet… A yin-yang Valentine…

The second cookie I flooded in red and next day used a stencil and black air-brushing…

I still have a few Valentine’s designs waiting to be shared in this little blog of mine, so stay tuned!
Tunde, thank you for another great series, as usual I learn a ton from you!

ONE YEAR AGO: Following my Heart

SPRINGERLE FOR LOVE

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Someone is getting married today!

I made these as party favors for my niece Camila’s wedding. Normally I don’t do large batches of cookies, but this was a special occasion, so twenty-five cookies of each style materialized in our kitchen. It was – I cannot lie – a labor of love, but totally worth it! Unfortunately I could not attend the ceremony, as we are back in the US, but I am definitely there, at least in cookie format…

It all starts with baking the cookies and allowing them to dry for 48 hours. I used my default recipe for Springerle, which you can find in my main food blog clicking here. Once they are baked, the fun begins. Yes, each one is painted by hand, I do one color at a time in all cookies to make the process easier and faster. You can find a video showing the whole process included in this post of my recent past. In this batch, the heart-shaped cookies were not painted, just sprayed with PME luster (pearl or a combination of pearl and pink).

I chose to make Springerle because they are supposed to last for a long time, and I had to make them 6 weeks before the big day. These are small cookies, and each guest received two in a small package. I hope they liked them…

Four colors were used for the floral cookies: pink, green, peacock blue, and gold for the edge. Some of them got an extra detail of pearl here and there just to add variety.

For the hearts, things happened a lot faster, as I used the spray to coat the surface. Some got white, some got pink mixed with white, as the pink alone would be a little too strong for what I had in mind. I wanted the to be delicate and subtle.

ONE YEAR AGO: Of Bears and Bunnies

RUFFLED HEARTS

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To watch Marlyn’s tutorial on youtube, click here

This design is perfect to practice different skills using Royal icing, and that was Marlyn’s goal when she came up with it. I suggest that you use a large cookie because it will make the whole process a lot easier, more space, more freedom to move the icing tip around. I used the largest heart-shape cutter from the 101 Wilton Set. Come to think of it, you don’t even need to add all the bells and whistles. The design looks pretty nice even in the initial stages. I loved making them!

At first glance, you might think that this would be a two-day cookie adventure, but it is not. There is no need to wait for each layer to dry for more than 30 minutes, or even less if you own a dehydrator. So a few of these can be made in a little over one hour, start to finish.

I strongly advise that you watch Marlyn’s tutorial because she shows the whole process in detail. The diagonal lines are very effective, but if you prefer to avoid piping them, you can add white dots to the center (wet-on-wet), and that will look cute also, simplifying the piping. Adding the two final edges of ruffles hides any imperfection in the joining of the fine lines with the edge, so the cookie will look very polished. I added a little diamond dust in the end because I cannot skip the opportunity for bling. You know how I roll… 😉

ONE YEAR AGO: Diwali-Inspired Gingerbread Cookies

A BOUQUET OF FLOWERS

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For a little IG video on this pizza box concoction, click here
(I am still learning my way through the reels)

We need something to counteract winter. Valentine’s is just around the corner. Two reasons to make a flower bouquet composition. There is a little story behind it, though. Marlyn, Cookie-Guru-Extraordinaire, asked members of her group what they would like to learn in 2022. Several of us (yours truly included) said that creating our own stuff was a big issue. Unless I see a cookie design to follow, I get paralyzed. A couple of days later Marlyn posted a pizza-box cookie sketch, and suggested we used that as a starting point to come up with our own design. I will share her sketch at the end of the post. In a way, this blog post is like a homework assignment…

For the cookies, I used this recipe (I omitted the black cocoa, used the full amount of Dutch processed). Following Marlyn’s sketch, I used my Cricut to cut a piece of cardboard to use as a template for the cookies (base and little card). Regular mini-cookie cutters were used to make flowers. Everything was baked and then the real adventure began…

From this point, I worked on the pieces of the base and the little card, as they needed to fully set before continuing. The wrap was iced with Chefmaster Gold + Cork, then a piece of crumbled parchment was placed on the still wet surface. The paper is removed next day, revealing the structure underneath. Next, I lightly brushed some copper luster powder in a few spots of the wrap.

The lateral cookies were iced with Laurel green, then air-brushed with gold. I also air-brushed the central base, without any icing. The little card was painted with food safe pen, using a stencil to guide the writing. Then the flowers were decorated, and a little heart added just because… The whole process is shown below.

This was challenging but fun… I now share the initial sketch planned by Marlyn so you can see the starting point.

It was fun to put to use several different techniques to make this box. I debated whether to add leaves, but I like the look with the flowers only. If I used royal icing to pipe leaves, it would be messy to eat the cookies, as I would have to pipe them in between the pieces. So there you have it, a little shout-out for Spring, with romance in the background.

Huge thank you to Marlyn for taking the time to devise this challenge…