Luvz2Bake!: 2016

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Summer Cookies

These are some cookies I made for summer. I used rolled cookie dough, flower cookie cutter, grave cookie cutter, ice cream cookie cutter, 6 pointed star cookie cutter, circle cookie cutter, royal icing, chocolate royal, and edible markers.

I'll start with the sunflower:

I used a flower cookie cutter to make the flower cookies.

Next I made a circle with royal icing dyed yellow and then outlined every other petal. Next I outlined the top of rest of the petals and let them crust.

I then took some of the chocolate royal icing and dyed it a bit darker. Next I pipped 1-2 lines in each petal, depending on how much room there was, starting at the circle. I made sure they were different lengths, petals of flowers are not the same. Nature is beautiful that way.

Then I filled in every other petal with the yellow royal icing and let them crust before filling in the rest.

Next comes the middle. I used chocolate royal icing to pipe ball shapes for the seeds. This will take a bit, because if any of the icing touches others and it is still wet, they will merge. So I needed to make sure none of the "seeds" touched and also wait for them to harden. You can see in the flower on the right there are a lot of "seeds" to pipe.

And we have a sunflower!

The sun is next:

I used a 6 pointed star cookie cutter to make the sun shape. After they were baked, I used a circle cookie cutter and a light colored edible marker to trace the middle of the sun. Using a dark one is easier to see, but with light colored icing, it can easily show through.

I then used that circle as my guide, I outlined and filled 3 of the points with a yellow/orange royal icing. Then I let them crust and finished with the last 3 points.

Sorry, I forgot to take a pic of my next step. But after letting all the points crust I filled the center with a yellow royal icing and let it completely dry, around 24 hours.

When that is done, I used a black edible marker to draw sunglasses and a smile!

And TA-DA!! A sun!

We all scream for ice cream. . . cones:

So, for these, I used an ice cream cone cookie cutter. When they were baked and cooled, I used some chocolate royal icing to outline and fill the whole cone part. I then had to wait for that to crust before I could pipe lines in a criss-cross to make it look like a waffle cone.

After the cone crusted, I outlined and filled the top of the ice cream cone with white royal icing. I thought it would look better if I made it look like the ice cream came over the top of the cone a bit. And I have a yummy ice cream cone!!

Lastly, a nice cool drink of lemonade:

So for this one I used a grave cookie cutter and cut off the top. I thought this would make a great shape for a cup.

So I took some chocolate royal icing and outlined the cup making sure to make an oval for the top of the cup. I then took yellow royal icing and made a squiggle about 3/4 of the way up and filled the whole bottom portion. Immediately, I filled the whole top with white royal icing. Waiting too long will make a line between the icings because of crusting, and I didn't want that. The cookie then needed to dry completely.

When it was dry, I used a black edible marker to draw some ice cubes. And we have some lemonade!

Those are my summer cookies!

Have fun decorating!!

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Chess or Checkers Cookies

This yummy checkers board is made from the Roll Out Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing and a colored candy like Skittles or M&M's.

For this cookie I cut the dough into squares and baked them. Dye some of the royal icing with black coloring. I find that the easiest way to do this is to use Wilton's Black Ready-To-Use Icing. I then used some edible markers and a ruler to make a grid pattern on each cookie. Now, I didn't do this, but I should have made a black outline around the edges of the cookies BEFORE filling the grid. That would have made the cookie look nicer.

Next I filled in each square alternating between black and white icings. I did this as quickly as possible because the icing will start to crust and the finished product will have ridges. Now that wouldn't be bad, but I wanted a seamless look like a real chess board. When this is all done, I let them dry for about 24 hours.

When everything was dry, I placed the colored candies on the spaces. All done! This is a fun way to play and eat with your treats!

*I know that I made a chess board but used checkered pieces, if you want to have red squares instead of white either dye the royal icing red before decorating or use a red edible marker to color the dried white squares.

Yummy Royal Icing

This recipe is also from The Decorated Cookie (she is AMAZING!). The original recipe is Here

Ingredients

4 tablespoons of meringue powder

1/2 cup of water

2 Tablespoons of Crisco

2 tablespoons of light corn syrup

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

7-8 cups of powdered sugar (sifted)

Directions

First whip the meringue powder with the water for a several minutes until it is fluffy and forms peaks. One way to know it is done is if the bowl is turned upside down, nothing falls out. I use a stand mixture with the whisk attachment, but it can be done with a hand mixture as well, it will just take a bit longer. When that is done add the next 3 ingredients and mix. Finally add the sifted powdered sugar.

*The normal consistency is thick. If you want a stiffer consistency, add more powdered sugar, for a thinner one add more corn syrup. DO NOT add any more water, that causes a kind of cracked, discolored look when dry. Also this icing does harden enough to stack the cookies on each other but it is not a hard as normal royal icing. I have found that this icing is not great for pipping 3D decorations like roses. This royal icing is more appropriate for that.

Normal Royal Icing

The original recipe is here.

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons of Meringue Powder

4 Cups of sifted Confectioners (Powdered) Sugar

5 Tablespoons (substitute some of the water with flavoring if you prefer)

Directions

Mix sugar and meringue powder together. Add water and whip.

Stand Mixer: 7-10 minutes at low speed

Hand Mixer: 10-12 minutes at high speed

* For thicker icing, use less liquid. It is best to start thicker and slowly add water, than to add too much water and have to put more sugar in it. Use clear flavorings to keep the white color. This icing is good for 3D decorations.