Summer unnofficially begins Monday and of course the stores are filled with cool summer stuff like these super cute sand toys that can double as cookie cutters! I'm guessing you could also use them as molds for Rice Crispy Treats and other things too.
I'm sure I never paid attention to sand toys before but once I decided I could use them as cookie cutters I started finding them all over the place. Just look at these little dinosaurs I found at Target! I love the cute little T-Rex and the set of 4 was only a buck!
You use the sand toys pretty much just like any cookie cutter. Be sure to flour them up really well though so the dough doesn't stick inside. If the dough does get stuck just whack the mold on the countertop and the dough will fall out.
Because the edge of a sand toy is not as sharp as a real cookie cutter you might get thin dough whisps dough around the cookie's edge. (this often happens with plastic cookie cutters too) Don't worry about trying to clean up the edge of the cookie when the dough is unbaked. It's much easier to scrape away any little stray bits with a knife after the cookies are baked and cooled.
Most of the sand toys I've found have an edge that is good enough for cutting cookie dough but once in a while you'll find an odd one that isn't going to work. The blue whale seen below has a good edge, but the green truck has a weird little lip on the edge and it's not going to work as a cokie cutter. Nuts.
You can find these cute little guys in the toy department or in the "dollar-store" section that many stores like Target and Walmart have. Be careful though, if you are anything like me you might get a little carried away!
If you're starting the holiday weekend early be safe and have a good one!
My favorite part of cookie decorating is designing the cookies. A very close second is piping all the final details. To be honest, sometimes I find all the piping and filling in the middle to be a little dull. Plus it can be really time consuming. Why not jump to the fun part and let colored dough do all the heavy lifting? Just like making gingerbread at Christmas you can make simple red hearts with pretty lace piping for Valentine's Day or orange cookies with black piping at Halloween. Today I'm going to make pretty, and oh so simple, colorful flowers for Mother's Day!
All you need to get started is your favorite cookie dough and gel food coloring. It is important to use gel colors because the watery-type food coloring will make the dough sticky and the cookies will spread during baking.
Once your dough is mixed add a few drops of your gel color. If you are using the Wilton pots scoop the gel color out with a small palette knife. I prefer to mix the color into the dough with my stand mixer so my hands don't turn a shocking pink!
I usually don't chill my dough before baking but if you do then color the dough before chilling. The color will deepen even more as the dough chills in the fridge. Also, don't worry if the dough color is a little shocking because the color will fade a bit during baking.
Because you're going to leave so much of the cookie's surface exposed during decorating you want the cookies to have nice, smooth tops. To ensure smooth cookies roll out the cookie dough between sheets of parchment paper. If you use rolling guides your cookies will also be perfectly even. I always roll my cookies this way because I don't have to add any extra flour!
When the cookies are hot out of the oven GENTLY smooth them with a cookie spatula. You don't want to press down on the cookies because you aren't trying to flatten them and you could tear the soft tops. Just let the weight of the spatula smooth down any little bubbles or bumps that may have risen up.
When the cookies are cool you'll have a nice surface to decorate!
Now you're ready to pipe the details. My favorite thing about decorating cookies like this is you can use just one color of icing. How easy is that! You could use coordinating icing colors of course but one bag of piping icing is all you need. I like to use a piping consistency that is just a little on the soft side. That way all the little points flatten themselves out.
Doodling in icing is so much fun and it becomes really addictive. Don't worry about whether all your loops and dots are "perfect" just have fun with it. Make them as simple or as complex as you like! You could also try brush embroidery on these or the look of lace.
If the piping alone isn't enough icing for your tastes then start by adding a coat of icing to the back of the cookie before you decorate. Let the icing dry overnight before you flip the cookies over and pipe the tops.
A few tips for working with colored dough:
Try to use as white of a cookie dough as possible. The dough will lighten a little during baking but if you normally use spices or brown sugar in your sugar cookies switch to a whiter recipe for these. Unless you want all your colors to have a vintage feel and then by all means use brown dough!
If the color of the dough is a little uneven after mixing then knead
it by hand for a minute. Wear plastic gloves to avoid coloring your
hands.
The colors of the dough will fade a bit during baking so tint the dough a little more intense than you want it to end up.
Keep a very close eye on your cookies while baking so they don't brown!
May 4th is a favorite "holiday" of Star Wars fans because of the punny goodness of saying "May the Fourth be with You!" Last year several of the cookie artists I stalk on the internet were posting their Star Wars cookies and I didn't have any so I had to step it up this year. While it isn't quite the fourth yet these aren't quite Star Wars cookies either!
The next installment of the Star Trek movie reboot series is coming out in a couple of weeks and I for one am looking forward to it because the first one was so good! Writer/director J.J.Abrams did a great job of taking the series in a new direction while still preserving the original series. So much so that Disney went and hired him to direct the new Star Wars trilogy coming in 2015! Woot! I figured that deserved a Star Trek/Star Wars cookie mashup!. The design for the characters came from these super cute cartoon versions of the Star Trek guys called Quogs and then I gave them the Star Wars treatment. It was kind of surprising how well both casts melded together.
Spock as Obi-Wan Kenobi is a no-brainer. In the Star Trek reboot Chekov is a wunderkind so he gets to be Luke.
Kirk as Han Solo of course and a Chewie tribble (mmm...tasty).
Even if Princess Leia and Uhura weren't the only girls it would still be a good fit because they are both a little sassy.
Dr. McCoy as C3PO and Scotty as R2D2. I think Scotty "R2D2" is my favorite of the group!
Sulu as a Rebel Pilot. Okay I can't decide if I like Scotty or Sulu best but it's definitely one or them!
And a random old school Klingon as Darth Vader (helmet hair!)
Cookies like this are somewhat complicated and time consuming, for me anyway, and I don't really have a tutorial for them but I'll lay the steps out for you.
I made a few adjustments to the Star Trek Quogs in Photoshop and then printed them at the actual size the cookies were going to be. I drew the Star Wars costumes over my printout, traced their general shape to a template and hand cut the cookie dough.
I used my iPad and the Camera Lucida app to take a picture of my drawings and then "project" them onto the cookie to trace. (you can see a detailed post about drawing with the ipad here)
Next I piped over my drawing and filled in the shapes
And finally I added all the little details.
For more Star Trek/Star Wars cookie goodness check out these other cookie artists;
The weather seems to be crazy all over the place this year. If you are in need of a bright ray of happiness these "painted" cookies are super easy and super cute!
I wanted the flower cookies to be a little whimsical and not quite as perfect and symmetrical as flower cutters are made. Besides which, for some reason it seems whimsical flowers always have 5 petals and it is oddly difficult to find a good selection of 5 petal flowers. 6 petal flowers cutters are everywhere. 5 petal...not so much. As it happens though, you don't need flower cutters at all!
To cut whimsical flower cookies you'll need circle cutters or other roundish shapes and a holly cutter.
Start by cutting the circle.
Then cut little snips of dough away with the various points of the holly cutter
Continue working your way around cutting petals of different sizes.
If you don't have a holly cutter you could also use the point of a heart or a star cutter. The heart cutter will give you a little sharper edge on the petals but you can just smoosh them with your finger.
Once the cookies are baked and cooled flood them in white royal icing and let dry fully for 8-12 hours depending on the humidity in your area. Using a fan will help the icing dry and the base-coat will be shiner too.
The painting step is really easy and it goes pretty fast. Plus, you don't have to mix icing colors, Yay! I made these little paint daubers by twisting a small square of paper towel around a ball of plastic wrap. The texture of the paper towel makes a nice effect on the cookie and you can keep lots of clean ones on hand.
Wet the dauber a little and pick up the first food color patting off some of the excess. Then dab the color on the cookie. You want to use a pat pat pat motion when applying the food color. If you drag or smear the color you'll lose the texture.
Use a clean dauber for each different color dabbing a little color to start and working up to the coverage you want.
If you add more color than you like you can use a dauber with clean water to dab the cookie. Then quickly pat off the excess with a dry paper towel. I think it's best not to do that too much though as you can overwork the surface of the cookie. There's no right or wrong look to these cookies so just let them be spontaneous!
On a side note, the odds are pretty good that your hands will be stained every color of the rainbow when you are done. I don't mind having blue and pink hands but if you have a big to-do that night you might want to wear plastic gloves.
You can also add some spatters to the cookie by flicking the food color with a brush. Let the food color dry on the cookie for a little bit and then pipe a swirl in royal icing.
That's all there is to it! I think it takes longer to describe the process than to actually paint them.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the sun if you have it!
Oh my goodness, I can't believe Easter is only three days away!? Somehow I didn't get into making many Easter cookies this year. Maybe because I made a crazy number of bunnies last year. Anyway, why should the bunny get all the love? Regardless, these little guys are cute and easy and great for the last minute!
These little sheep are super simple and you can get by with only two icing colors!
What you will need to make sheep cookies:
scalloped cookie cutters in two sizes (or you could also use two flower cutters if you don't have scallops)
white royal icing
brownish black royal icing
Start by piecing the two dough shapes together before baking.
Outline the scallop edges with white icing leaving two gaps at the top for ears.
Let the outline set up for a few minutes and flood in white icing. Allow the flood icing to dry for several hours or overnight.
4. Once the white icing is dry, pipe two little blobs with the brownish black icing for ears. Add eyes and a little nose too.
5. Pipe around the cookie edges and add random squiggles here and there for the look of fluffiness. You may also want to add a little bow tie just because. :)
That's it! Fast and easy and oh so cute.
Of course a few bunnies might just sneak up on you too!
Okay, I have to be completley honest with you. This is a pretty cool post. Since I've been so bad about posting lately I figured I owed you all something special! Way back at Christmas I got to play with an iPad and I found this fantastic app that lets you use the iPad (or the iPhone) to draw on real things! Of course I had to try it with cookies.
The app is called the Camera Lucida (named after a traditional drawing tool) and it works by opening up the rear camera on your device so you can see your work surface when looking at the screen. (since the app uses a rear camera you can't use it with a first gen iPad) The app then superimposes your reference image into the screen so you can see your reference image and your cookie together. Essentially all you have to do is trace! The app is available for purchase from the app store for $4.99.
Update on the Stand:
You have to use a stand of some kind to hold the iPad/iPhone between you and your work surface. While a vase or even a stack of books will work in a pinch, the best stand would have a pedestal base so you can work easily under the camera. On the developer's blog you can find a post about making a nice and inexpensive stand to hold the iPad. My stand is about the same except the base is from a lamp. Plus mine is an eye sore, heh. The iPad sits on the stand just forward enough not to block the rear camera so it's nice and stable and won't slip. I had the iPad about 9 inches off the table and that was a good height for working under it. I think a tall cake stand would work really well for this too or you could even use the bowl from your stand mixer.
When you open the app you can choose a reference image and then touch the center icon to enter the drawing mode. The little slider will adjust the opacity of the reference image so you can get a good view of both the reference and the cookie. Trace the reference onto the cookie using a food color marker or a graphite pencil. Graphite is non-toxic and I think it's easier to use a mechanical pencil than a food marker but maybe that's just me.
Once you have traced the drawing onto the cookie you can just decorate as usual. For this Om Nom cookie I outlined the drawing in black piping icing and once that had fully dried I filled him in green. Super Easy!
When you first start using the app it does take a little getting used to because you are looking at the screen of the iPad and not your cookie. There is also a little depth perception issue because the camera is basically like looking through one eye. I would suggest just drawing with the app for a while with pencil and paper and you'll get comfortable using it.
Another neat function of the app is that you can take reference images of your work surface from within the app. When I design cookies I usually trace around my cutters and then draw the designs freehand. If you take the photo of your design you can then use it in the drawing mode of the app to transfer your design to the cookie. Since you are using the iPad at the same height that you took the picture you don't have to resize your images and they will fit perfectly on the cookie you cut from that cutter!
Of course since the app was designed for drawing you can use it to draw your designs too. The app has a whole bunch of built in filters and zoom functions to aid in the drawing process.
One little tick that is probably a bigger "issue" on the iPad than the iPhone is that the app wants to make your reference image as big as it can so you can make a nice large drawing. The app will expand the image size to the edges of the screen which could be too big for cookies. You'll need to add white space around your image in a photo editing program so that the design will stay small. I used the free Sketchbook Express app to easily add the white space. (if you watch the video below you can see how I did that)
If you'd like to see the app in action I made a video. It's the first video I've done and while it's probably not so awesome I think you'll get the idea!
Unfortunately the Camera Lucida app is not currently available for Android devices. There is an app called the Artist's Eye and while it doesn't have all the functions of the Camera Lucida app it should still be of some help.
I know this a lot of information and I've just barely scratched the surface with what you can do with this app for cookie decorating. If have any questions please ask!!
