Baptism Cookies

When asked to make cookies for two little girls' baptism celebration, I jumped at the chance...then quickly realized that I don't exactly have cookie cutters in my collection that really fit that theme. I bought a cross cookie cutter (the obvious choice) and then settled on two other designs that I already had cutters for, to accompany the cross cookies.

I knew I wanted to have a lamb somewhere in the overall theme, but could not find a cute lamb cookie cutter. All of them were more or less farm animal shapes, so I opted to paint little lambs/sheep onto a simple round cookie with each of the girls' names on them. I really like how they turned out -- those cute little fluffy things!

Last but not least, I decided on a cute daisy design to tie the whole thing together. This was by far the most time-consuming cookie, just FYI. I know, hard to believe, but it is true. Why? I thought you may ask. Because the center was a different color, and because I 'flooded' each petal, that meant I had to individually pipe the border for each and every petal, then flood each one separately without interfering with the yellow center.  I love these daisies but whew they are not for the weak of heart (or hand).

So, what do you think??

(SSH kudos to Sarah for diving into sugar cookie decorating with a fury...and some really great results!)

Cookies...Again!

This week, I made my first ‘order’ of sugar cookies for a luncheon in honor of two new little bundles of joy. I really, really enjoyed decorating these cookies, and was enlightened on how many baby-themed cookie cutters there were out there. Unfortunately, this was a rush order and I didn’t get to search for more than the cutters I already had, so these are pretty basic, but I still love them nonetheless. It forced me to go a little above and beyond on the simpler shapes!

Once the cookies are cool (I let mine sit overnight in an airtight container), pipe a border for the shape you want to create.

That will need to dry for a while so it creates a wall to contain your flood icing. I usually outline all of my cookies and then go back for decorating them. Once dry, you can use the thinned-out icing to ‘flood’ them. I prefer to use a spoon to pour some icing onto the cookie, then spread it out evenly, making sure that it touches the border.

If you want a flat design, you should flood one or two at a time, and no more than that, so you have time to go back in and add your other designs before the flood icing dries. If you wait to long, any icing that you add to the cookie will be raised.

To do polka dots, just drop a contrasting color of icing, thinned out, onto the wet flood icing. Just know that wet icing will expand a little bit, so don’t put the dots too close together, or make them too big!

If you want to do ‘pearls’ around the edges, wait until the flood icing is dry before you put the dots on the cookie. If you want the dots a little bit above the surface, wait until the flood icing is almost dry before doing the dots, so that they are rooted in the icing, but are still raised above the surface.

Letters are a pain and there are some good tips out there on how to make a good looking monogram or something but I say practice, practice, practice (and use a good, clean icing tip). I think mine turned out okay, but I need some more practice...which I will get lots of as I next week with another baby-themed order!

Happy baking!