Dinosaur Party Cookies

It's a good thing that putting together photographic tutorials isn't my day job.
I'd have been fired by now!
Because (once again), I have a couple of snaps of how to make these cookies, but short a few key steps.
The problem is that I either get carried away as I go, or I'm just winging it - and don't know what the final product is going to turn out to be. These eggs being case in point: I hadn't thought to add the dusting and painted-on cracks, but they looked a little bland, and that's when I added those final touches. I wish I had taken a picture before and after,  but I didn't so...

I'll just have to explain. Ok?

Ok...

For the Dino-emerging cookies: 

Use a wide flat brush or pallet knife to apply a patch of flood-consistency green icing* to the cookie. Allow to dry, then flood the egg around the gap. Once that is dry, pipe in an eye. Dust the cookie  to add dimension and paint on some cracks with a fine paintbrush.
*If you are doing claws emerging on a vanilla cookie, then use a background of black icing ( I didn't here because the chocolate cookie was dark enough). 

For the Dino-pawprint cookies:

Use a small sponge or flat-tipped brush to apply brown icing onto the cookie. (The best consistency is slightly thicker than flood-icing.) Allow to dry, then use a template to sketch on an outline of the dinosaur paw. Flood outside / around this area. When the icing outside of the paw-print is dry, pipe squiggles of icing on, and use a sponge to texture it.  Once dry, dust a little green colour onto the cookies for extra interest. 

These cookies were a huge hit with the 10 year old boys at my son's party. They even ate the greens without complaint. 😉

Recipe for the chocolate cookies here:
http://teacakeandcreate.blogspot.com/2013/06/chocolate-cookie-recipe.html


Happy baking & decorating!

xxM

Dinosaur Birthday Cake - with Tropical Leaves

There's a lot of things I could say about this cake - like how I made the dinosaur (head, body and tail moulded as a single unit for stability); or the teeth (done the way I made shark teeth for another of my son's birthday cakes); or even how the wooden gate was constructed (and what a big difference the shading on it makes). 

But ... seeing that I didn't take any progress shots of those steps, I'll just share a quick tropical leaf tutorial with you instead. 

Not the tropical leaves in the background of the photo (which I pulled off the road to cull from a plant on an abandoned verge. Did I hear someone say crazy woman?), but the ones on the cake:

 Because that's what you notice about this cake, right - the tropical leaves...!?!

Ok, maybe they're just part of the background decor, but I was super-pleased with myself for figuring out those wedges!

Tropical Leaves:  

Cut leaf shapes out of green paste (I use my standard modelling chocolate / fondant blend ), use the tip of a petal piping nozzle - e.g. an Ateco 104 - to cut the wedges out of the leaves. (Did I hear someone say brilliant?!) Brilliant!

Add veins with a dresden tool/ leaf veiner,

and some shading with powdered colour 

Yes, that's what he's looking back at and grinning about - those tropical leaves!

If you are more interested in those teeth though - you'll find a quick tip for making them here:

http://teacakeandcreate.blogspot.com/2016/08/shark-themed-birthday-cake.html 

If you want to see this fella without teeth, I shared an edentulous picture of him on Instagram.

Happy decorating!

xxM