Tag Archives: hand decorated cookies

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

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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Hats Off

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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!

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It’s a Jungle Out There

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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!

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Ode to Polar Vortex

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We’ve had our fair share of Buffalo snow and wind over the years but this storm was particularly blustery and bitter!  For those of you who know the area, I 90 was closed from Rochester through the PA border.  Although we were sequestered in our home, we had electricity, heat, and one perfectly delightful fireplace!  I had been wanting to try the dark chocolate cookie recipe from Sweetapolita so ta-da, silver lining for everything.  (thank you Sweetopolita! Delish!)  Here are the results.

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Basically I wanted to do a study in 2x4s.  Most might think Lowe’s lumber, but I mean 2 inch by 4 inch, as in cookie terms.  I started with a 4″x4″ cookie and cut in half.DSC_0554

Then I made the earmuffs using a horseshoe and a ruffled circle cookie cutter.mixing cutters

This is my interpretation of snowmen during the blizzard…DSC_0586

Added a little retro snow (LOVE retro!)…DSC_0553

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Here’s a through.the.window glimpse of what Buffalo looked like mid-polar vortex…  Appreciating your homestead about now?DSC_0575

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

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The periodic table has enjoyed a rejuvenated coolness ever since Breaking Bad.  Personally, I always thought there were loads of interesting stories associated with the elements (ie: Copper and clean air/water systems and the 1976 outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease OR Iodine and Mahatma Gandhi and the British salt tax.  Apparently the British have an inspirational way with taxes and revolutions.).   So I’m “breaking” out the elements again- this time to celebrate that jolly, old elf.  How does he know if we’ve been bad or good? NSA?

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