How to make a Vintage Teddy Bear Cookie

These Teddy Bears were for a "Vintage Toy" themed birthday party. I have a few bear cookie cutters, but they just weren't right. A vintage bear is thin and lanky. I didn't want the traditional chubby bear found in most baby sets. So, I think I should re-name my blog "and I didn't have the cookie cutter" - In this case I made a rough cookie shape and I like the way it turned out, kind of jagged and rustic looking behind the bear.
All dressed and ready to go to the baby shower. Please excuse the photo quality - you can tell this one was taken late late at night. I don't photoshop anything, I just want to give it to you as is. If the photos are getting dark, you'll know I'm up late decorating!

Here's what you will need

1) Sugar cookies baked in a rough outline of the bear (I trace the image onto the back of a paper plate before cutting the dough.)

2) Tan colored royal icing, keep some thick for outlining and thin some for flooding. I mixed a little bit of brown with the icing... For a good royal icing recipe look here.

3) Accent colored thick icing for the bear's bows. I used red (deep pink + tulip red + super red all americolor) and blue (royal blue + black americolor)

4) Piping consistency black icing for the facial details.

5) Not too much time for decorating :) This one is pretty easy.

Outline cookies using an edible ink marker. It is best if the color of the marker blends with the icing color. I used the KopyKake 300xk for this step because this was such a big order. The bear itself would be fairly simple do do with out the projector - lots of simple circle and oval shapes. Now outline the bear with the piping consistency tan icing. I used a Wilton size 2 tip.

Flood in alternating sections. I really wanted the bears appendages to look separate. Allow one section to dry for about 20 minutes before filling in the next area.

At this point I was exhausted and stopped taking pictures. When the face has set (about 30 minutes later) add a small circle for the bear's face and flood that circle. This adds depth to the bears face. I also added detail to the ears and the bow. Pretty easy!
These bears were a favorite of last week's work.
Here are the other cookies for the baby shower. I will post the other tutorials soon.

How to make a Monster High Cookie

Monster High Cookies ready to be delivered.

This post will show you how I made the Monster High Cookies... this was a very fun project and will be used as a Birthday party favor.

You will need:

1) Royal icing - thick consistency black for outlining (please make at least one day ahead, the charcoal color will change to black overnight. I'm using Sweetsugarbelle's recipe found here.

2) Royal icing - medium consistency using the 20 second icing by Sweetsugarbelle found here.

3) Royal icing - medium consistency for the bow, I was able to match the image with a mix of Americolor Electric pink and Lilac. I used Sweetsugarbelle's 20 Second Icing because I wanted to bow to stand up and add dimension. See link above.

4) White flood royal icing for the face.

5) Monster High logo template and a paper plate

6) I used the KopyKake 300xk because I wanted them perfect.

7) Sugar Cookie dough

Prepare template for dough - I've been using the back of a paper plate.
Cut out dough, the shape doesn't have to be perfect.

Outline bow and face using a larger tip. I used a Wilton size 3.

Let the black outline dry completely - you don't want bleeding of the black into the white. I waited about 18 hours.

Flood the bow with pink. This is the fun part, it's like playing on those computer games where you click to dump the color in.

Wait about 30 minutes and fill the in the white area.

A couple of hours later I outlined the eyes and filled in with the medium consistency black icing.

Let these cookies dry for about 24 hrs before packaging.

Here it is, a foggy 2am photo of the cookie.

We did alright making them all look exactly the same. I love mass production. Zero creativity required.

I love the way they looked packaged and ready to go.

My little three year old Timmy saw these and said, "What happened to Hello Kitty???"

How to make a Buzz Lightyear Cookie

Buzz Lightyear Cookie

You will need:

1) Image of Buzz to follow

2) Round cookies (I used beeinourbonnets recipe found here)

3) Thicker, piping consistancy black Royal Icing

4) Flood colors, purple, grey, white, blue and skin tone Royal Icing (best royal icing info found here by SweetSugarBelle)

5) Black edible in markers

6) A whole lot of time :/

Outline buzz with the edible ink marker, then pipe outlines in black. I used the kopykake 300xk

Now Flood alternating sections. If you don't wait long enough between sections they will flow together. I was unhappy with his face in these so I just rushed through the flooding.

Add the eyes. Do this when the face is still wet, but there is just barely a skin forming. I waited too long on some and he looks crazy-eyed in a lot of these cookies.

Now keep flooding

Add extra facial features. I decided it didn't look good with black icing so I switched to using a black edible ink marker.

I am Buzz Lightyear - Universe protection

Character Faces are really hard!! I think maybe if I went a little bit bigger I could have had an easier time.

What I learned... don't rush through flooding sections, even if the eyes look crazy. Flood only about 4 faces at a time so there is enough time to add eyes... Don't do this the same weekend as a Hunger Games Premier

Baby Girl Shower Cookies decorated with Royal Icing

My favorites from this group.

All the cookies.

Baby rattle cookie.

New Baby Onesie Design, actually by me and not a copy!

I made these for my sister-in-law's sister. My brother flew in from Miami and entertained the kids for close to an hour at the specialty cake store in Phoenix. It's a good one. So I made him a bunch of cookies as a thank you. I had to try out my new cookie cutters anyways. I'm happy with the new carriage cutter; it no longer resembles pac-man.

What I learned from making these... Listen to your ten-year-old daughter - it was her idea to put the stripes on the bibs. Very cute. When doing wet on wet technique work quickly - some of the swirls aren't flat on the cookie.

Inspiration for these: Beeinourbonnet, Cookiecrazy onsies, Cookie crazy rattles, and an actual book! Sometimes I forget there are cookie decorating books out there. This is a fun one! I found it at our local library, Pretty Party Cakes by Peggy Porschen.

Good Fortune Simple Chinese Cookies - Drawing on sugar cookies using an edible ink marker

Mini Cookies for our Dumpling Party

Larger Cookie Favors for Guests to take home

I wanted to make special cookies for some new friends who are going to come over and teach me how to make authentic Chinese dumplings. I checked with my brother who is fluent in Mandarin and he emailed me a link to an appropriate character. It means (according to Google and my brother) good fortune. I did not want these to have very much icing so I used this simple technique for applying a very thin layer of royal icing to the cookies. I love the look it created and the simplicity of this project.

To begin, you need cookies, royal icing, a water and a spoon. Find a container that is just a little bit larger than the cookies you will be decorating.
I thinned out the royal icing by adding just a little bit of water, about 1/4 tsp at a time using the little teaspoon. I know it's ready when it becomes runny, like corn syrup or honey. If you prefer the count method I would say this icing is about a six count icing that would normally be used just for flooding a cookie. Six count icing means that if you make a mark in the surface of the icing in about six seconds the surface will be smooth again.

Now the really fun part, gently dipping the cookies in the icing. See how runny it is? My little six year-old did a great job snapping pics.
It's alive!! So I dipped each cookies and sort of swirled them around as I flipped them over and put them on the tray. Because the icing is so runny it will smooth out on its own.
Some of the icing may go over the edge of the cookie but you can easily wipe that off using a damp paper towel. The goal here is a thin coating of icing. I know my friends don't have a super high tolerance for sweets so this will allow just enough to make a cookie canvas. When dry, this creates the perfect cookie canvas.

You can also do this using a spoon...

Or a rubber spatula.

Pop any large air bubbles. I noticed that the tiny air bubbles disappeared on their own.

Let the cookies dry. This only took about an hour or so because the icing is so thin.

Now using an edible ink marker (found here) draw the characters. Yes, I used the Kopykake 300xk. I can not write pretty letters in English so I didn't even want to try this on my own. I'm sure with a bit of practice it would not be hard to write these characters. I'm running out of time before our party.

All finished. I love the way the icing has almost melted into the cookie. It is almost translucent.

My version of a "fortune" cookie - maybe we'll make these again for the Chinese New Year

How to make a small Hello Kitty Cookie

I love the Hello Kitty Cookie Cutter set - it comes with a larger head and a smaller Hello Kitty with a body. Sometimes the simple head cutter is a little big so I decided to modify the full body cutter to make this little Hello Kitty Cookie.

Use the full Hello Kitty to make the head.
This part seems cruel, but to make a perfectly smooth edge use a little duck cutter, or whatever else you can find to form the bottom of her face.
Voila! Mini Hello Kitty cookie. This measures about 2 inches across and would be the perfect size for a little party tray. I should have done side by side pictures of the two cookies, but take my word for it, this cookie is a great size. The cutter of just her head is sometimes a little big. I like one batch of cookie dough to go a long way.

This little Hello Kitty went to a proud big sister and her bow coordinated with this baby set. If I make a Hello Kitty Cookie to go with every set I create will you start to question my sanity... just a thought. Maybe it could be like "Where's Waldo...?" Maybe someday if you search "Hello Kitty Cookie" my blog will come up. Maybe not.

How to make Fish Cookies using a Round cutter.

Under the sea cookies

I made these cookies just because I had some royal icing left-over and I really wanted some of Lilaloa's delicious chocolate cookies.

I really liked how this one turned out.

Since my goal was just to eat good cookies I took my circle cutter and started cutting, just to see what I would get. I immediately saw a fish and went from there.

Using a paring knife I cut out fins. Do you see the fish?

Here is the fish with the scraps removed.

Here they are baked, I like the ones with the open mouth and would do more of those. For decorating I outlined and flooded the cookies with Royal Icing and added an eyeball. No big deal.

I also made some alligators.

Sometimes perfection is not the goal and we just need to eat cookies.