Petals in my Pocket

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So this centerpiece platter is a perfect example of how my brain plays “association.”  I latch on to a thread (spring time bridal shower and the bride.to.be’s love of  happy flowers) and off my thoughts go!  What is happier than daisies, right?  Jump to “he loves me”, “he loves me not.”  No negativity at such a happy occasion so that becomes “he loves me lots.”  Which also rhymes with “we’re tying the knot.” And you pick a petal, so a big cookie that does so too, why not?  And as I think of multiple daisies, I start humming the song “Daisy Bell” (circa 1892, thank you Harry Dacre).  ***Google “Daisy Bell” and you will find a fun story about the origin of the lyrics– it always comes back to either love or money or both! Or Hal from the movie: 2001, a Space Odyssy***  Floated around the idea of using the “I’m half crazy” part but opted for a more appropriate “give me your answer” nod to the wedding vow “I do!”  and placed that with the bicycle built for two! Back to picking things, the bride picked the groom and visa versa and Bob’s your uncle, platter is planned!  Anyway, hope you’re not half crazy following my creation process.  um.  Enjoy the pictures, at least?

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“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” bouquets

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The high school play was “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and all 3 of the triplets were part of the cast.  Tradition might suggest flowers for the final night performance but I beg to differ.  Cookie bouquets are unique and so delicious (even if they don’t last as long as blooms! yum. yum.).  I do believe Willy Wonka and the Oompa Loompas would approve.

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Olaf from Frozen the movie

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Okay, Olaf is totally cool but Kaylyn is even cooler!  And these are her birthday favors…

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I started with a design of Olaf making a snow angel and a dried, white iced cookie.  I drew Olaf’s basic shape with a blue edible food marker; this was to achieve that slight bit of blue to distinguish Olaf from his same colored background.  I then filled in the face and the lower body and gave that a rest.  Followed that (after dried) with the middle section and the feet.

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I used a simplified brush embroidery technique (thank you Sweet Ambs) to give the snow angel effect and then added arms, mouth, nose eyes, buttons, and extra snow.

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Finished the process with 1) black edible “paint” (see previous posts on how to paint) for hair and face details and 2) stamping “cool” and paint-outlining the whole cookie in blue.  The favors were bagged and tagged but, alas, no final pics of finished favors.  DSC_0616 DSC_0629

Rustic Wedding

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Wanted to make a “storyboard” for my niece and her rustic wedding.

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Base icing for heart shaped tree slice and other cookies completed.

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Next time I will stamp the bride and groom name and add their wedding date.  Always room for improvements…

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Little grapevine wreath.

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Pinecones with dimension.

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St Paddy’s Day 2014

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Everyone’s Irish for a day (or two or three…).  Or at least a wee bit.  Here’s my way of celebrating this year.  And, a special thank you goes out to my leprechaun helper, Sean.  Definitely a favorite ginger.

Conversation Shamrocks.

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What The Luck?

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‘ish puns.  questionable humor.

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wee leprechauns for good luck.

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Pub science sounds a lot like pubescence.  May result in similar behavior.

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Pi Day 2014!

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This is the one day to be completely “irrational!”  Let’s hear it for never ending Pi and all of it’s crazy connections (NPR has some links to crazy Pi facts and activities!).  The Pi platter included pumpkin and key lime pie, a cow pie, pirates and and a concoction or circular area and circumference.DSC_0579 DSC_0568

And, in memory of a great physicist and mathematician, happy birthday Albert E!  May we all go forth and passionately create our own theory of what is relative!

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Vera Bradley Birthday Party

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Midnight Blues is the pattern.  I definitely saw midnight and a LOT of blue when decorating the cookies for this birthday party…

Requested were 12 favors that had the pattern on a purse plus one large cookie cake.  I took the daisy within the pattern and made the “cake” such that guests could pull a large petal or a small cookie, depending on their appetite.DSC_0695

I didn’t have a cookie cutter to match so I sized a 4×4″ purse on card stock and hand cut the shape.

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The base layer was a very saturated black.blue (half and half Americolor royal blue and black, required lots of gel to achieve the color).

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After drying the base overnight, I began applying the flower pattern.  Yellow= Lemon yellow with a drop or two of egg yellow.  Blue= Royal blue: just a little bit for the light blue and several drops more for the darker.  Green= Leaf green. Orange= orange. Purple= Violet with a couple drops of regal purple.  Americolor gels all.  I wish I could tell you exactly how many drops but 1) I mixed without counting & 2) it does depend on how much icing you are tinting.  I had sketched a pattern first to balance the colors on the cookie and it mostly worked.  That is also why I always, always make an extra cookie or two for my “oops.”

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Here’s how they turned out against a print of the original design.

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Next I moved on to the cookie cake.  Sorry but it required a little math.  I measured the serving platter diameter and from there figured out how wide top and bottom each petal needed to be, considering that I would have a 4″ circular center and 8 petals, etc.  (If you really want to know how to calculate the measurements, comment back and I will tell.  A little boring.)  Made a hole with/for a candle in top cookie of stack.  Did this BEFORE I baked the cookies.

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I cut out a cookie stack (using cutter set where each cookie gets slightly smaller) for the center to support the happy birthday sticks.  Unfortunately, it was late at night and I mistakenly thought I needed 12 sticks.  Um, “happy birthday” has 13 places, even without a space.  Duh.  So that’s why the sticks weren’t flat around the stack.  My bad.  Just do the math better than me and it will all fit.   These sticks happened to be 3″x .75″ each.

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One more look at the entire production!

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Pink, Grey, and White Baby Shower

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There is nothing finer than a request for a color themed baby shower and a flexible client.  This customer was so incredibly lovely and she was willing to let me take the design reins!  I hope she enjoyed the special day with her daughter(s) and the cookies!

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With pink, grey, and white as the underlying theme, I started with glaze (powdered sugar and water) for the onesies.  I love the complete.melt.in.your.mouth effect of glaze on a sugar cookie.  As long as your design in uncomplicated and you have the drying time, a glazed cookie will offer a little slice of heaven.

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I used royal icing for the balance of the cookies.  Goodness knows there are a multitude of baby carriage designs out there, all beautiful.  But this is how I  approached the cookie for this order.  Started with a dried white outline.  Filled in the pink body and added the grey and white lines while the pink was still wet (immediately after each cookie was filled).  Then filled in the grey buggy cover.  Later came back to add black details.

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Next I worked on the plaque cookies where I wanted to show off the baby’s name.  The general idea came from an IG @sara_sweetsmiles (facebook: Sweet Smiles).  You can follow the steps below.  The grey stripe/dots  and stamping (super black Americolor thinned with almond extract- see conversation hearts post) were added when base was dried 6 hours.

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Georganne Bell is a cookie goddess.  The LilaLoa website is a feast for the eyes and this creative “pinned to your heartstrings” cookie idea is totally hers.  Can’t say enough times how inspirational she is.

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I always like to make some “personalization” for presenting a platter so I used a popular bunting method to announce Miss Savanna’s coming.  I have seen it so many places now that I don’t know who to credit for the original idea.

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The request was for 50 cookies and I think it is always interesting to see how folks plate their cookies for presentation.  Here’s a glimpse of the layering as I went…

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Centerpieces for an Engineers Ball

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Huh?  When did engineers start having dinner dances?  Apparently it is a tradition for the UB student engineers.  I knew one of the lead organizers and he knew my cookies.  This led to some fun centerpiece karma.  I made cookies for half of the 30 tables as there were about 15 engineering clubs involved… I kind.a added one or two more to feed my own pun addiction.  I have a “pun” problem.  A really, truly, serious problem.

So I don’t have pictures of all of the tables because blithering idiot here forgot the camera when venue set-up time rolled around.  The few I have are from my phone and the quality is not optimal.  I did take some pictures before I left the house.  So here they are!

Such Chemistry between Us (AIChemical Engineers)

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Flying High (Aeronautics & Astronautics) -still favor the “paper” airplane…

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Can We be Civil? (Civil Engineers)

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Saluting Computing (Computing Machinery)

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Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Power equals I squared R (Electrical Engineers)

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Space Cadet (SEDS : Students for the exploration and development of space)

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You Drive me Crazy! (Automotive Engineers)

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Take me to Your Leader (Robotics)

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Science Pun Fun

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There were also cookies for Black engineers, Hispanic engineers, Society of Women Engineers, Sustainable world, Biomedical engineering, Industrial engineering, etc.   Drat.  No pictures of those.  Need to plan more time for photos …