Take your Son Daughter to Work Day

Today was take your son's and daughters to work and spend the day with their Dad at Blackboard Transact.  The kids made some cookies then I made a dozen logo cookies as a thank you to the HR director who coordinated this event.  Logo cookies - blah!  But actually, I would make these again because they were fairly simple and I like the color scheme.  

I used the Kopykake 300xk for these.  Here are some tips on doing letters like these

1) Prepare royal icing slightly thinner than outlining icing.  I like to sort of build the letters by stacking the icing close together and the icing has to be thin enough so it doesn't curl when it comes out of the piping bag.  If it is too thick you'll be able to see the individual lines, and not one complete letter.

2) Under-outline the letters.  By this I mean, use the KopyKake as a guide but make them smaller than the image should be.  Use a toothpick to drag the icing to line up with the image.  You can always add more icing, it's much harder to remove the excess.  So take it slow!  

I started with Blackboards main image, but used the white background version.  

Those ones at the bottom were very challenging because I couldn't find my PME 00 tip.

More photos of the cookies.  I love the 3-D look of the Bb one.

On to the Thirty Thursday portion of this post...

This box is a 3 pack sold at the dollar store.  I bought them for Christmas for my kids PJs and was frustrated by the fact that they are SO SMALL!!  Maybe good for doll clothes...  It turns out they are the perfect size for one dozen three inch square cookies.

I am the laziest person when it comes to packaging and wrapping, so I just use what I have and make due.  I like the way the bags looked sealed and folded then all of them are wrapped in tissue paper.

The kopykake was out, I had the logo in the projector so I used it to draw the logo on the box with a sharpie.  I guess I could have made it cuter by printing it, mounting it on cardstock, etc. etc.  but I didn't have time for that - I literally had 5 minutes before the kids ran out the door.

 I found some curling ribbon in my gift wrap box and added a bow.  Someday I'll have a collection of fancy ribbon.  Anyhow, I like how the theme of the cookies is reflected in this inexpensive box.

Thanks again to everyone at Blackboard for making this a great day for my kids!  And thank you black icing for cooperating.

Farm Cookies decorated with Royal icing

 

Farm Cookies headed to Munith, Michigan...

I'll post step by step instructions of each type.  I just wanted to share the group photo.  I purchased vintage cookie cutters on ebay because I could night find any online that looked right.  I hand-cut the barn to go with the group.  Have a great weekend!

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 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.

How to make a KitchenAid Stand Mixer Cookie - Favor for a kitchen theme bridal shower

Kitchenaid Mixer Cookie

All the cookie favors

My oldest nephew is getting married soon and some of my siblings decided to pitch in money for a kitchenaid mixer. The wedding color is yellow and hopefully they will like the mixer.

If you want to see the process, keep reading.

To start, I mixed up beeinourbonnets sugar cookie dough recipes found here. To make the process easy I rolled the dough between two sheets of saran wrap. I've also done this between parchment paper or even two silpats.

While I waited for the dough to chill I prepared the royal icing using Sweetsugarbelle's recipe and tutorials. For this project I am going to force myself to stick to yellow, gray and just a little bit of black for details.

To save time roll out dough before chilling

I cut out the shape of the mixer on a paperplate. Simply print the image, and trace onto the plate. If you want to be super careful use an edible ink pen to trace the image. I decided to simplify the shape a bit as I will be making close to 30 of these cookies. Someday I want to make one exact, but in this case I had to be realistic about the whole thing.

Preparing a simple template

Cutting out the dough with my sharpest paring knife

These will chill in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking

After the cookies are baked and cool I put the cookies under the kopykake and outlined the drawing using an edible ink marker. I did this assembly line style. I realized everytime I switched tools I lost time.

Outlining the image using the kopykake

Next, working with about eight cookies at a time, I started by outlining the yellow areas. After that I outlined the gray areas. I then flooded the small sections alternatively. I don't think I got a great picture of this, but I think you get it. Let each small area set up for about 20-30 minutes before filling the next. Then add a few small details using the wet-on-wet technique. I added the bolts, but I don't know if I would add them next time. They look like freaky alien eyes. Especially late at night.

Outline Yellow

Outline grey

Flood sections in an alternating pattern

Final details added while icing is wet

At this point it is 3AM and all the cookies are flooded. I wonder if anyone is even reading this.

The next day I painted the Wilton silver dust, mixed with 1:1 with lemon extract. I found lemon extract really cheap at business Costco for this purpose.

Final details added

Now the last details have been added. Oh the sad moment when you have more royal icing left and no more cookies to decorate. See those two blobs of black frosting in the corner...? That's how I know the details are dry and the cookies are ready to stack or package.

In the end I wished I would have made these multi-colored but I just had to get these done. Happy Bridal shower Jenna!

Peace Sign Retro Cookie Designs with Royal Icing - How to make a spiral design on a cookie

Here's what I've been working on the past couple of days... I matched the colors off of a plate, a little bit unconventional but it works. When I finished I didn't get close ups of some of my lettering. The Kopykake really helps.

This cookie happened by accident, and was the last one I did so it is sloppy. I wish I would have done more of the peace signs this way. I love the look of the marbling of colors in this design.

Here is a tutorial of how I made the spiraled web design. When I made something similar last October I made the mistake of first covering the cookie with icing and then adding the swirls. As they dried the icing oozed off the cookie ruining the design.

I used royal icing that had been thinned with just a little bit of water until it was the consistancy of honey. When in doubt, stop adding water in order to get the icing right. It's better to go too thick than too thin. If it's too thick for decorating it is so easy to go back and add a few drops of water. It is much more difficult to thicken; however, this can be done by adding just a little bit of powdered sugar. I've found that I get little lumps when this happens. So when in doubt, stop adding water.

I added the aqua color first and left space for the next colors. Before you do this try to draw a picture of what you want so you know which order to add the colors and how many lines of each to add. If you just want to add one accent color, it is okay to first flood the background and then add the spiral on top, but when you are adding multiple colors don't flood the background.

Now add the second color - see how I started just past the blue line and tried to get as close to the blue as possible.
Adding the third color, again going just outside the orange.

Now adding the white, the cookie is almost completely covered in icing.

I have just added the last color, the black and will add just a few drops here and there to make sure it is completely covered. It's okay if there are small gaps because dragging the toothpick will help the icing to spread.

Now the fun part - drag a toothpick from the center out to make the web design. You can experiment with this and go all sorts of ways to get the look you want. This technique is great for making Christmas ornaments, candy cookies, spider webs, fireworks, etc. Clean the toothpick in-between each use so that you don't get blobs of brown in the center.

Now the cookie just needs to dry.

I love how each cookie looks a little different.

I ran out of orange icing and frustrated squeezed the orange on the cookie wherever. Then I layered with other colors. I love how the one on the left turned out. I really liked the one on the right the way it was because it reminded me of Spain. Maybe a tourist brochure I had seen once. I want to make a Dali replication on a cookie... just because.

Always Always mix dark colors in advanced to avoid that gross dye flavor. Here I am preparing the icing and will stop at this point even though the colors are not quite dark enough. You can only get around this when you are doing pastel colors. I've found that any dark colors, including orange, need time to develop.

Two days before decorating, mix the colors. I'm going to stop here. The burgandy color will get darker over the next few days, and the charcoal will turn black. You can always add a little bit right before you use the icing. In order to get the red color to match I added more tulip red and brown to get it to match the plate.