How to Make Photo Cookies - How to put an edible image or printed sugar sheets on cookies

Guest post from my sister Mary :) 
I have no time for baking, blogging, but was able to give Mary virtual support while she made these....
Here's Mary:


I get the motivation every two or three years to learn and complete a new birthday baking project.  A couple years ago, I tried Bakerella's cake pops.  Before that, it was Uncle Ralph's homemade-from scratch 5 layer chocolate cake with homemade chocolate frosting.  Delectable! (Maybe Suz will let me post this recipe later).  Sweets by Suz and BeccaCrocker gave me much needed moral support each time! 


Anyway, this year I wanted to try and make photo cookies.


The first time I saw photo cookies was last year as a party favor for my sister's 40th birthday.  My sister-in-law ordered and shipped them from a bakery in New York City.  The cookies were so cute and tasted pretty good too!  But it felt kind of odd literally biting my sister's head off. haha


My son, David was pretty excited about bringing these to his class - to say the least!  Here are the steps:


1.  Create a Word Document.  I inserted a snapshot of David onto a Word Doc.  Do not use a copyright photo.  I sized it to 2.5x2.5.  Then I copy & pasted 11 more pictures.  12 pictures fit on one page.


2.  Print the Image on a Sugar Sheet.  If you "sweet talk" your local bakers they will scan and print the pictures for between $6.00-$8.00 a sheet.   They will not print a copyright photo.  The baker gave me some extra sheets for free because the printer didn't get bottom row of pictures quite right.  nice!  The sugar sheets are on the left and the paper is on the right. 

3.  Make the sugar cookie dough. I used Bee our Bonnet's recipe.  Cathy's trick totally saved me!  This is the only way I will be making sugar cookies again.  Roll out the dough immediately.  Place on parchment paper or in-between plastic wrap.  Layer on a cookie sheet and stick in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.  This made the dough so much easier to cut out and I didn't have to keep rolling out with flour.

4.  Cut out the cookies.  I do not have a square cookie cutter.  I used the paper for a template and used a pizza cutter.  Suz coached me through this whole process and was so helpful!  She said, "Pretend that you are quilting and cutting fabric." 

Cut off all edges.

Flip the paper around to cut the sides exactly.

5.  Make the frosting.  I followed this tutorial on Sweet Sugar Belle's blog.  I bought a #3 frosting tip and a couplet.  I used a sandwich bag as my frosting bag.

6.  Piping.  Make the frosting into a stiff consistency.  Pipe around all edges of the cookie.  Save some frosting for mixing colors later.

 Wow- I started getting a sore arm/shoulder from piping!  This step took me so long.  My right shoulder bothers me and I tried to be super careful during this step. It didn't really matter anyway because the sugar picture covered it up.

7.  Fill with frosting.  Fill the squares with a thinner consistency frosting.  By this time the frosting in the tip turned rock hard.  From this point until the end I just cut a little corner of the sandwich bag off and did not use any tips.  It was easier for me to just stick the frosting in a baggie and cut a small opening in the corner. (Sorry I forgot to get a picture of this step).


8.  Place the picture on the cookie.  I followed this blog, however, I was in a time crunch!  I simply cut the picture out and carefully set it on the frosting while the frosting was still wet.  (Use white frosting for the base so the colors don't get messed up).  I took a new art paint brush used strictly for baking to secure the picture and brush off all crumbs.

9.  Mix Colors for Frosting Edges.  I used Wilton yellow and blue.  I mixed these two colors to get a green too.  I started getting "cookie fatigue" and my dreams of making little beads like this all around quickly vanished.  I whipped through this finishing step using the colored frosting in the baggies.

Finished cookies ready for school.

One HAPPY birthday boy!

Seeing David's excitement made all the work worth it! 

10.  Time Savers.  After I made the cookies for the school, I used all the leftover pictures and dough to make more cookies for the family party that night.  By this time I was beyond "cookie fatigue," but didn't want to waste those cute pictures or the rest of the dough.  I made the same number of cookies with this second batch in A FRACTION OF THE TIME that I took on the first batch!  NO PIPING.  NO FILLING.  All I did was glob some frosting (Elmer's Glue consistency) on the cookie.  Place the picture on it and then spread it around with the paint brush. Then I quickly finished the edges with the leftover frosting in the sandwhich bags.  I have a NEW RESPECT FOR SUZ and all you cookie makers out there.  It really is "art" and takes a steady hand.  I felt like I was "scrapbooking" with food.  You are amazing!  Thanks for your helps, tips, and tutorials!

-Mary :)

How to use Sanding Sugar to Decorate Cookies

Decorating with Sanding Sugar is as easy as using Elmer's glue and glitter - Use wet royal icing, cover with sugar, shake off excess - that's it. If you want just a small area covered in sanding sugar you will have to do this in sections.

I really only use white Sanding sugar. I love the way it softens the colors of the royal icing. With the small Easter Eggs above I simply covered the eggs with thin consistency royal icing then sprinkled white sanding sugar on top of the egss. The sugar sort of takes on the color of the icing.

Sanding sugar looks best with simple designs. It adds texture, and allows for light to bounce off the cookie in hundreds of directions. I had to make A LOT of simple Valentines Day Cookies and Sanding Sugar made these pretty.
To add sanding sugar just to the edges add icing to a cookies as usual, allow it to dry completely. Add a thin royal icing border and immediately add the sanding sugar. Shake off the excess. Just like adding glitter to a simple craft.
Do not use sanding sugar on detail work such as lettering or scrolls. I used yellow sanding sugar on the duck on the right. It does not work there. I used white sanding sugar to outline the bubble letters "BABY" - it works there because it follows simple lines.
Here is another example of sanding sugar giving something extra to a simple design. These flower centers and the edges of the petals were added on the second day of decorating.

Sanding sugar gives these chicks and birds a fuzzy look.

I used white sanding sugar on these elephants. I added the sugar to the first elephant immediately, for the second and third elephants I waited a moment to add the sugar and the sanding sugar was not able to absorb the grey color of the icing.

Again sanding sugar for simple designs.

We used sanding sugar here to help hide the fact that our icing was way to thin. So use sanding sugar to hide mistakes.

When you are asked to donate over 12 dozen cookies, and you are really tired use a simple sanding sugar design. I love the way it looks on stars. These look very impressive, especially when light bounces off the cookies.

This crystal sugar made these chocolate cookies so pretty and delicious.

Other notes:

1) RED SANDING SUGAR tastes so so so so gross. I would only lightly sprinkle that on a cupcake. Use with caution.

2) I only like sanding sugar on thicker cookies. It makes a thin cookie too crunchy.

3) Keep out of the reach of children.

Any other thoughts???

Happy Easter! Cute Easter Bunny Cookies - How to make a tiny sticker into a cookie

Bunnies dressed for Easter

Bunny Platter

To begin, you will need:

1) Sugar Cookie Dough

2) Bunny Template to hand-cut shapes

3) Royal Icing in lots of pastel colors (I use Sweetsugarbelles recipe found here)

4) I made the icing in both piping and flood consistency, but you may be able to get away with using just one. My family doesn't like too much royal icing on a cookie so that that is why I always flood with very thin icing.

5) Lots of time to hand cut shapes, a couple of hours to decorate. This part is so fun the time will fly by!

Inspiration - Stickers

I have a big box of stickers I have been collecting for too long. I've finally grown up a bit and let my kids use which ever ones they like. I found these under my daughter's bed, all dusty and squashed and decided I had to make these little bunnies for Easter. So I have no idea the brand or artist, but there they are, and thanks to whomever designed these. I won't pretend it was me. I just find things I think are cute and put them on cookies.

I put the stickers into the scanner, scanned them, enlarged them in word, printed that, then made these card stock templates for decorating. Hopefully you can print these out and save some time.

Template, maybe you can just take it off my page. I'm so not computer savvy and really don't have time to embed or label any photos.
Hand cutting is not easy, but is necessary if you want something unique. Use the template to cut out the Bunnies. I think in the time it would take me to make a cutter I can get them all done by hand. The key here is to have very cold dough.

Meanwhile prepare the icing. I learned to go softer on the colors. I wanted really soft pastels but found they became darker...

...later that evening

35 minutes later. Yes, I timed how long it took to bag everything.

Sorry about the dark photos, I like to keep it real.

Begin by outlining separate parts of the bunny's body. I kept the head and ears as one peice. The little arm was separate from the head.

Now outline and flood section 2, the bunny's outfit. I also added the pink to the ear, using the wet-on-wet technique. I did this while the white is still wet so it dries flat.
From that point, I added the feet. Notice on the sitting bunny the feet go over the dress. I had to think about this a long time. In one of the standing bunnies I left room to place a carrot on top.
Various stages of bunny detailing. I've added a carrot, some facial features. Next I will add the arms on top of the carrot. This has to be done about 30 minutes after adding the carrot. So, as you can see, it's all about layering the bunny sections.
Some notes about the faces. I kept the eyes very wide spaced, and the nose is sort of heart shaped just below the eyes. The mouths go just below that. I learned this time around that some features look better with royal icing. In this case I wanted the eyes to pop out so they are done that way. The mouth I wanted more in the background So I drew it on. I did a few mouths in royal icing but it didn't look quite right.
These bunnies have details drawn on with Americolor Edible writing pens. I think I need a new set. This was difficult as my pens were dull. I should have added some of these details before the feet were attached.

More examples of how I decorated their outfits.

They looked so cute in a little bag with either a mini egg or a mini carrot.

Here is the gift I presented to friends.

Happy Easter!

How to Make a Vintage Toy Drum Cookie

Another, I didn't have that cookie cutter story... this time the request was for a vintage toy drum. I went through some of my easy access cutters and realized the bottom of the rocking horse would give the curved lines I was looking for. I had intended to hand cut them, but after a busy week I looked for a simpler solution. I want to try these again, maybe at Christmas time with bright reds, greens and gold.

For this project I used:

1) Sugar Cookie Dough

2) Rocking Horse Cookie Cutter + Small spatula for cutting the shapes.

3) Royal icing in vintage blue, red and tan. Both thick piping consistency and thinner flooding consistency.

Here is how I cut out the the drum shape. The top and the bottom from the rocking horse and the sides using the small metal spatula. This went fairly quickly. One major mistake - I made this cookie a little too big.
I also used the rocking horse to make "guide lines" for decorating. This made the decorating so much simpler.
Here's how the cookie looked after baking. I have nice lines to help me make the sections of the drum.

To start, make a wide band at the top. I used a Wilton Size 3 tip.

After that I outlined the smaller blue sections and the large red section.

Now fill in the blue section. I tried making the larger bands with all piping consistency but It didn't give the drums the smooth look I wanted. Wait about 20-30 minutes for this to set up before continuing. I must have been pretty tired at this point, I stopped taking pictures.

From here, simply Fill in the top part with tan and the bottom portion with red. When this is dry add the final details. I made the lines with the tan and added more blue lines to add dimension.

When I took the photos all of a sudden the tan turned into a more blush color... hmmm. I need to be more careful mixing colors. It did look a lot better packaged and with the bow.