One in a Minion

Despicable Me minions were requested for birthday favors/a party platter, with some female versions included!  Conveniently, Sweet Ambs had just posted a tutorial on minion.making and, if ever anyone knew cookie decorating, it would be the awe-inspiring Amber Spiegel.  So I followed her directions other than also making a female version (birthday girl really likes blue so dresses are blue not the green from the movie), royal icing in my own “eyes,”  and using my own hearts (saying thank you to the guests, etc.).  The bigger minions (from 4″ rounds) all had unique faces but the favor sized (3″ tall rectangles) were the same design.

DSC_0596

Step one was flooding the little hearts and letting them dry.  About 6 hours later I painted on the “thx” or “luv” or “Liana.” In the meanwhile, I  did the yellow face background.  I let this dry for 4 hours (Sweet Ambs did not but I had an errand to run.  It worked for me.).  Next was putting on the pants and dresses; I placed the heart on while the icing was wet, basically as soon as the pants on each cookie was completed.  For the dress, I added the dots and bottom trim while the icing was wet first and then added the heart.

DSC_0568 DSC_0573

Then I continued following Sweet Ambs directions.  Here’s how they turned out.

DSC_0595 DSC_0579

After drying overnight, I put a boy and a girl (or Stewart dressed up as a girl) minion back to back to place in the favor bag.  Added a cute little tag and they were ready for the guests!

DSC_0608 DSC_0612

Other Valentines

Just some other Valentines Day cookies…  happy 14th!

A cookie a day keeps the doctor hap.pay!

DSC_0555

Hope there was no bitter in your Valentines Day…

DSC_0588

You make me happy…

DSC_0558

Did Cupid’s arrow hit the mark?

DSC_0561

Cookie stack.

DSC_0553

Mixed heart plate.

DSC_0552

More conversation hearts.

DSC_0560

In the Swim of Things

I am quite familiar with eau de chlorine as both of our daughters were competition swimmers.  And, once you are in the swim world, it is never far away.  At least I have absolutely NO guilt handing a swimmer a cookie.  They are a fit bunch who will burn those calories within the first 25 yards.  I made some traditional, looks.like.a.swimsuit cookies as favors for a swim banquet.  But then I digressed.  A platter for a bunch of gentlemen swimmers who are stealthy like a ninja and maybe, just maybe, caught the water inferences before consuming the “molecules”.  And this week, as college swimmers start the 2014 championship season, I stamped aquatic themed conversation hearts.  I might go as far as to say they turned out swimmingly!

Traditional:

DSC_0342 DSC_0344

H2O and ninjas:

DSC_0559 DSC_0561

I Heart Swimmers:DSC_0567 DSC_0579 DSC_0585

A Geek’s Valentine

Geek. Nerd. Techie. Egghead.  Smart and quirky people warm the cockles of my heart.  There’s a chemistry about them (tee hee).  Here’s to those who claim the nomenclature on Valentine’s day! Um. Please forgive me for sneaking in a Star Wars reference (last photo).

DSC_0554 DSC_0578 DSC_0570 DSC_0558 DSC_0555 DSC_0574

Conversation Hearts

Traditional cookies designs are not usually my “thing”…  but conversation hearts open up endless possibilities on what to write.  I went with simple food related topics on happy, bright colors.  I didn’t know whether I preferred hand printing with food markers or stamping with “typewriter” font.  Typewriter won the day but I have a few of the other too.

DSC_0561

I started by using flood consistency royal icing in deep pink, sky blue, electric green, and white to cover heart shaped cookies.  I let them dry overnight (8 hours- ish) before handling them again.

DSC_0553

I mixed a little almond extract with red red Americolor gel and painted it on the top of my rubber letter stamps.  To assure alignment, I Scotch taped the “word” together for even spacing.  I experimented doing a few free hand too; that resulted in an old school, quirky typeface look.

DSC_0558

The sky is the limit as to what message you want to convey!  Let me know what works for you?!

DSC_0574 DSC_0565 conversation hearts

Love you to the Moon and Back

I don’t exactly know who coined the phrase “love you to the moon and back”.  The earliest I remember was when the nutbrown hare said it in the 1994 book “Guess how much I love you.” Sidebar…can you believe that book is 20 years old?   Anyway, I have extreme adoration for this phrase because I associate it with my sister.  She ends her emails with M&B and whispers it in your ear.  My sister is the kind of sister that everyone wishes they had.  I am one lucky girl.

DSC_0573

The large cookie is  7.5″x 7.5″ .  I free hand cut this from the dough.  I also did not have a big enough cutter to make the quarter earth so I used my trusty trifle bowl.  Hey, whatever works, right?

DSC_0555

I first decorated all of the shapes that would create the top layer.

DSC_0560

The bottom cookie took 8 ounces or so of royal icing to completely coat (and I had to momentarily stop about half way through, thus the lines in the dark blue.  darn.  It’s all about the icing consistency- should have made it a little thinner.)  While this was still wet, I put the top cookies in place and dotted the stars.

DSC_0575

I piped in the arrows with royal icing after the base dried about 4 hours.  Colors used were AmeriColor deep pink, sky blue, electric green, and royal blue (with a touch of black for background). It fits perfectly into a 8×8″ box to ship to my sister!  Thank you kolettehall for the free printable!

DSC_0564DSC_0555DSC_0562

 

My Punny Valentine

What exactly is a normal person?  I’m still waiting to meet that normal family or witness that normal life.  Thank goodness no 2 people think alike. How boring this world would be if we did?

So, I’m going to embrace the fact that my brain function might be considered abnormal.  Might?  How about we give it a classification of atypical and call it a day?  Here is how my mind intertwines with valentines.

DSC_0564

I choose you.

DSC_0556Top row cookies pay homage to Buffalo, NY. We like things spicy 🙂  The next several designs came to mind while listening to Usher’s song Scream. You’re hypnotic, magnetic…

DSC_0558It’s valentiMe!

DSC_0555And lastly, in cahoots with some fruits… also my version of Valentine nutrition.  sigh.

Hats Off

Hats off to Chef’s Restaurant for donating to First Book’s Feed the Need to Read project here in Buffalo.  This project allows First Book WNY to supply books to kids who have never had their own book and/or have none at home.  A big cookie “thank you” for being so generous!

DSC_0557 DSC_0559 DSC_0553

It’s a Jungle Out There

I can’t help it.  The theme from Monk is running through my head.  Oh, Randy Newman!

Baby showers are always fun projects and this jungle animal themed gathering was no exception. Lions and zebras and monkeys, oh my.  Throw in a few palm trees and ta-da!  I wish you could have seen all the decorations at this shower;  Joanne left no moment to chance to make this one of the cutest baby showers ever!

DSC_0590 DSC_0570 DSC_0576 DSC_0589