Animal Cookies

I took my my boys to a free day at the zoo.  (Which I will never do again.  It was a madhouse!)  I wanted to bring some fun treats and I had 3 cookie cutters that I wanted to try.  And yes, you do not find dogs, like my cookie, at the zoo, but I wanted to try it, so I did!  You will notice the the faces do not look exactly the same as on the cookies cutters.  That is because when I filled the face i could no longer see the imprints of the face.  But I looked at them, and, for some I changed a little as i put the faces on.

So I baked shortbread sugar cookies and used these cookies cutters.  The cookies got bigger in the oven a bit, but I was able to see the lines still.  Lets start with the monkey:

To keep all the sections separate, I had to do one section at a time.  More than one section can be done at once if none of the edges touch each other.  By the way, I am using royal icing.  I made both vanilla and chocolate icing.  I started with the top of the head, back arm, and the back leg.  After an hour, it was hard enough to move onto other sections.  I mixed some of the chocolate with the vanilla that was tinted a light yellow to get the lighter brown color.  I then filled the face and front leg.  Next I did the front arm.  Then the Tail and hands.  I then let it all dry overnight.  The next morning I used some edible markers to draw the face.

Now the lion:

For this animal, I tinted some of the vanilla royal icing yellow and some orange.  I was able to start by outlining and filling the face and back legs.  When those were done i did the front legs.  After all the yellow was dry enough, I filled the mane with the orange and then let the whole cookie, dry overnight.  I used the chocolate royal icing the next morning to make the face.

Dog:

I filled the head, front leg, and the tail.  Next came the ears and the rest of the body.  Now to get the spots, as soon as I was done filling the body part, I put a few dots with the brown and light brown icing.  It is called wet on wet royal icing technique.  I did this same technique for the brown eye.  When the cookies was all done, the face was hard enough to pipe a nose.  I bet you can guess what I did next, yes, let it dry overnight.  And yes, I used the edible markers for the rest: eyes, mouth, and toes.

I made enough for each of my boys to have one of each and they loved them!  It was a fun trip.  Next time, though, I will go on a different day!

Ruffle Dress Cake

I wanted to make a cake that looked like a dress, but was not a dress cake, if you get my meaning.  This is actually a rice crispy treat cake with whipped ganache frosting.  The ribbon and rose are Tootsie Roll.  I made rice crispy treats and put it in 2 - 6 inch cake pans and 2 - 4 inch cake pans that were sprayed with cooking spray.  When they firmed up, I just took them out and pressed the 6 inches together and the 4 inches together.

I made the ganache by mixing Wilton Candy Melts together.  Mostly white with some orange and pink melts.  After pouring the cream on the melts and letting the chocolate melt, you stir it and make sure it is mixed together and let it set up.  After that you just whip it up with some beaters and you get whipped ganache.  I smoothed on ganache on each tier.  The bottom tier ruffles are made with the Wilton 104 rose tip.  With the cake on a turn table and the ganache in a frosting bag and the tip attached, put the bigger side of the tip closest to the cake.  I started at the bottom and made an up and down motion while I turned my turn table.

I took about  8 Tootsie Rolls, one for the center and then each petal.  Each Tootsie Roll was formed into a ball and then flattened out.  I rolled one up for the center and then just placed a flattened circle, or petal, on until it looked how I wanted.  For the ribbon I took about 15 Tootsie Rolls and mushed them together and then rolled it out and used a pizza cutter to cut the sides.  I made it the width of a ruler, so I just placed that on the flat Tootsie Roll and rolled the cutter along the longer sides until i reached the length I needed.

*Hint* to find the length you need, take some wax paper and place it where the ribbon will be and then use an edible marker to mark where the wax paper meets.

I took the Tootsie Roll ribbon and wrapped it around the bottom of the top tier and then place the top tier on the bottom one and done!!