Tropical Flower Cookies

My timing of classes over the past few months has been a little off.
I distinctly remember thinking that I should do a monster cookie class for halloween this year, and yet I scheduled it for August. (?!?)
And all these summery, holiday mood classes (Florida Fun Cookies, and More Florida Fun Cupcakes) have been taking place on decidedly un-summery days. I'd take a picture to prove it to you - but just look at a piece of soggy cotton wool, and you'll get an idea of the misty damp conditions outside my window. Nice weather for reading and hot chocolate. Not for sugar work. Grrr!

So, we'll just have to get our rays from a happy sun cookie instead!
:o)

Here's how I made those hibiscus flower cookies:

I don't have a tropical flower cutter, so I just used a normal 5-petal cutter and

a small leaf cutter to change the shape of the petals (any gently curved edge would do). 

Once the cookies were baked and cool, I outlined with royal icing,

then flooded them;

immediately piped a white splodge onto the still wet icing (wet-on-wet); 

added a bit of yellow (wet-on-wet, with flood-consistency icing) 

and used a cocktail stick / scribe tool to drag the white and yellow icing outwards 

Once that background layer was dry, I added another outline and a stamen, using detail-consistency royal icing.

Allow to dry completely before packaging. 

You'll find a recipe for royal icing, and details about consistency here http://teacakeandcreate.blogspot.co.za/2012/07/royal-icing.html

Happy baking!

xxM

Easter Cookies 2016

 I had great intentions to bake and decorate a cake for Easter this year, but we've just come home from a couple of days in the 'Berg and the humidity back here in Durban has made the thought of any baking and decorating, well... unthinkable!
So, this is all I have to offer:  this year's decorated Easter cookies.

Last year's Easter colours were bright and bold, with teal and brown dominating (teal was definitely my go-to colour for 2015). This year it was time to revert back to pretty pastels.

Actually, back in January when I'd scheduled the classes,  I'd had a very clear idea of using a particular combination of purples and greens for these cookies, but by the time March arrived that clarity had disappeared and pastels were the fall-back option. But now looking at these pinks and greens together, I'm quite pleased I forgot about the purples.
What do you think?

Here's how I did the "Hoppy Easter" plaque:

Sketch bunny on cookie (I use a non-toxic graphite pencil)

Outline plaque and fill in a couple of white areas 

Once the white icing has dried, outline the pink head and body and flood the body 

Once the body has dried, fill in the surrounding green with flood consistency royal icing, 

                                                   and add wet-on-wet white dots.

Once the background has dried, flood the bunny's head with pink.        Doing it in this order makes the bunny's head stand slightly proud of the background cookie.

Once the icing of the face and body has dried, use SweetAmbs's teddy tutorial to create the fur texture on the bunny. 

And... of course I forgot to take pictures of  how to pipe on the rest of the bunny's face. Yes, really - again! Sorry... 

So baaaa-d! 

But I think you can figure it out - if you can't,  leave me a comment after this post. 

That grassy look is created using this cookie moss technique. Which you'll find is a very comprehensive tutorial ... with photo's of every step....! 

Happy Easter! 

xxM 

Baby Shower Cookies : Baby Shoe

Most of the time my cookie classes' themes are inspired by what's happening: seasons, celebrations, styles. But I'm relieved to say that this class wasn't one of them. I'm very glad for you if you're  pregnant; but I'm more glad for me that I'm not...!
My son says he wants a brother, and my daughter wants "a gazillion" sisters. I say no NO! You two are just perfect. You two are ENOUGH!

SO,  ahem... I mean so...

How to decorate a Baby Shoe Cookie: 

Outline cookie with piping consistency royal icing, and allow to dry

 Flood with "15 second" baby blue icing.











Pipe on wet-on-wet dots with 15 second white icing, and allow to dry.










 Pipe on stitching with piping consistency icing; and the start of a small button with 15 second yellow icing. Leave to dry.

Pipe a border around the circle of yellow icing to create the button with 15 second icing; and pipe on  the criss-cross stitch.
 Leave to dry.

Royal icing recipe and explanation of consistencies here

Gorgeous baby themed cutters from Treat Boutique

Happy decorating!

xxM 

Hand Painted Cookie

Every now and then I actually get a minute or ten to try out something I've been wanting to do for a while.
This was one of them - hand painting on a cookie.
I'll be the first to admit that I have no painting skills, but it's not too hard to streak some splodges of colour on a cookie. I'm sure my 4 year old could do it... and would have if I'd been willing to share my cookies with her!

I didn't take any step by step photos (again!) because I didn't know how it would turn out.
But basically -

•  create your white canvas by flooding a cookie with royal icing
• allow that to dry overnight
• make edible paints out of a 1:1 mix of gel colour and clear alcohol
• paint on the first colour with a flat tipped brush (size 3) 
• allow to dry
• paint on subsequent colours, allowing drying time in between
• once the paint layers are dry, draw on your chosen image with an edible marker. 

Happy creating! 

xxM 

Marbled Christmas Bauble Cookies

It was love at first sight. That's how my relationship with royal icing began.
The December 2011 issue of Good Housekeeping Magazine featured a platter of beautifully decorated  Christmas ornament cookies that had me spellbound. I had to figure out how to replicate them.
I didn't even know what I was searching for at first, but I finally found marbled royal icing tutorials through Google. And that, as they say, was that!

The background in the photograph above is the page from Good Housekeeping Magazine from November 2011 that inspired me. (The cookies in the magazine were by the incredibly talented Roxanne Floquet)

 

So, I thought I'd share a tutorial with you that replicates that first Christmas cookie that captured me:

Using an icing bag fitted with a size 1 or 2 Ateco tip, outline and flood a bauble shaped cookie with white flooding consistency royal icing :

Still using flooding consistency royal icing (and a bag fitted with an Ateco 1 or 2 tip), immediately pipe parallel lines of red royal icing across the cookie surface:

Start above the first line of red, and drag the tip of a toothpick through the icing from the top to the bottom of the cookie. Follow the curve of the bauble.

Then, clean the tip of the toothpick and drag it through the icing in the opposite direction: from the bottom of the cookie to the top.

Continue until the whole surface is marbled - remember to follow the curves of the bauble.

Set aside and allow to dry completely - it may take 24 hours - before packaging.

It can get quite addictive!

And if you want to see marbling in action from one of my very favourite cookie decorators - have a look at this video.

Happy marbling!

xxM

Pre-Christmas Pink Pig Cookie

I know, I know; and I still fully intend to share my dark-chocolate-and-ginger cookie recipe with you...it is coming!
But, the next few weeks are going to be unavoidably red, green and white...
Christmas is coming... in case you hadn't noticed ; )

So, before we enter December, here's a little pink interlude...

Isn't he sweet?!

Cookie ready

Outlined

Flooded

Wet-on-wet details

The collective noun for pigs is "a drift".  Huh! 

Wet-on-dry details

...and friends.

The cookie recipe I used was this one.

And for a bit more about outlining and flooding cookies see this post on  Royal Icing, and this one on cookie decorating basics.  

Next time - really! - dark chocolate ginger cookie recipe : 0 )

xxM