Private Cookie Decorating Party, March 2015

Sugar Cookie Decorating Private Party, March 2015, Middletown, MD

I had the privilege of having a private group to the bakery for a cookie decorating party.

They worked on Easter and Spring themed cookies....

What a great job they did and a lovely group!

I also had a super sweet young lady in for a private one-on-one cookie decorating class.  She was such a sweetheart and quite the piper!

For more information on cookie classes and parties, please visit my website.

Easter Bunny and Chick Sugar Cookies

Easter Sugar Cookies Decorated with Royal Icing - Chicks and Bunnies

I bought some new cookie cutters for Easter this year.  Love the floppy eared bunny.

This chick is huge.  New from Wilton this year.

Happy Easter!

Cookies are available for order through my website.

Easter / Spring Cookie Decorating Class

taught by me!

This class was back at the end of March.

I work at a recreational cooking school.  I do office work and assist with classes.   This was the first class I ever taught.  It was a blast!  Caroline, Elizabeth and Wendy were my assistants.  (How cool is that?)  Elizabeth is an awesome photographer.  She snapped some photos during class.  I snapped a few too.  Even if hers weren't watermarked, I'm sure you'd be able to tell whose photos are whose!

I baked the cookies the day before class.  The students made the icing and decorated the cookies.

Here's Caroline.  Pastry chef extraordinaire.  Personal chef extraordinaire.  Caterer extraordinaire.  Teacher extraordinaire.  Yeah, I'm a huge Caroline fan.

I usually assist HER.  This time, she was assisting ME!  It was such a comfort to have her there.  Actually she was a comfort before class even began.  I went in that morning to set up.  I called Caroline from work.  The conversation went something like this....

Me: "Caroline!  There are only a few toothpicks left in the box!"
C: "Don't worry.  I have some.  I'll bring them.
Me:  "Caroline!  I can't find the paper plates!"
C: "They're right there under the prep table."
Me: "Oh. Yeah.  I see them."
Me: Caroline! I only have 14 #2 tips!"
C: "There might be more in the drawer.  I have two.  I'll bring them."

I could go on.  There was more of the same.  She ended the call with.... "Don't worry.  You'll do great.  The class will be great.".  Shew.

Here I am giving my little introductory talk.  Explaining the basics of sugar cookies and royal icing . . .

One of the fabulous students adding water to some royal icing to thin it a bit before coloring . .

Me demonstrating adding coloring to some royal icing . . .

Adding more water . . .

The class working away at their cookies.  This pleased and cracked me up.  They were totally absorbed in the decorating.  There was very little chit chat . . .

Two students decorating.  Just look at those skills! . . .

Working away . . .

Having a taste . . .

Finished cookies by one student!  Aren't they awesome?!  Oh, and check it out.  She took notes! . . .

Packing up their cookies for the road . . .

I so enjoyed that class!

A few weeks ago, I heard from one student that made cookies on her own.

One of the assistants, Wendy, has been making cookies at home.

Yesterday, I got an email from another student.  She made cookies for her sister's bridal shower.  Here they are! . . .

I'm so proud! :)

Snail Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing - Tutorial

I just got a mini snail cookie cutter.  So cute!  I wanted some larger snails to go with the little ones but didn't have another cutter, so I decided to use round cookies and see what I could come up with.

I love how the minis came out.  I have to admit that I'm still unsure how I feel about the round snails.  I just don't know.  I didn't want to add dorky mouths but it feels like something's missing.  No personality.  I'll have to try these again sometime to see if I can jazz them up.

Would you like to see how to make them?  (Brace yourselves for the horrible camera phone photos to follow.)

With a food color marker, draw spirals and heads on the round cookies.

Next, totally ignore the spirals that you just drew and pipe them.  Let dry for a little while.

Flood the spirals.  Let dry.  Flood the bodies.  Let dry.

Add the blue sky background to the rounds.  While it's still wet, add the antennae.

Pipe dots for eyes on the rounds.  For the minis, use a toothpick to place dots for the eyes.

Pipe dot details on everyone.

Or come up with your own ideas to cutify the rounds!  Maybe white dots, then the blue on top for the eyes?  Maybe more of a side view with just one eye?  Some cute mouths?  Clouds in the sky?

What would you do differently?

Tulip and Daisy Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

I recently put in FOUR different orders for cookie cutters! Three of those have arrived so I gave some of them a test ride. So fun!

Aren't the tulips sweet?  Oh how I love mini cookies.

I already had the daisy cutter but I did them differently this time.  Usually I decorate them like this.....

 This time I wanted to make the petals more defined.

I like them much better this way!

I was expecting some craters but as you can see, they were quite minimal.  No idea why.

I love this set!

How to Make Flower Centers - Royal Icing Sugar Cookies

Do you find it difficult to create royal icing circle centers on your flower cookies? It's not easy to make them consistently the same size.  It's also not easy to get a perfect circle!  Would you like a trick to help you out?

Here's a quick little tutorial on how to do it......

I made this platter of flowers, cupcakes, mini flowers and mini rounds for a lady's 50th birthday party.  I wanted to mute the colors a little to make them more sophisticated so I added a touch of ivory to everything.  I'm liking it.

How to create the flower centers.....

The simple little trick is to make a round impression on each of the raw cookie dough cut outs.  Just find something round, the appropriate size, and make a very slight impression into the dough.  The photo above shows them after they were baked.

There have been a few times that I forgot to make the impressions before baking.  If that happens to you, and you remember as you're pulling them out of the oven, it's not too late.  You can imprint the cookies while they're still warm and pliable.  Just be gentle.

Are you wondering what I use to make the circles?

A soda bottle top, lip balm top and a coupler base.



The soda top and  lip balm top are stored in the bin that holds my flower cutters. 



After I use them, they get washed up and put back just like the cutters.

 


Now it's easy to decorate those centers! 




Just outline over the impression with royal icing and flood.







 








Let the centers dry for a while before flooding the petals.  Let that dry too.



Outline the petal details, add dots around the centers and you're done.



 Easy!

Easter Sugar Cookies

I made Easter sugar cookies decorated with royal icing.

I made Easter cookies a few months ago as samples for my Cookie Class. (which was awesome, by the way. More on that later.)

These are just so bright and happy. I love them.

I also love that I wasn't decorating alone this time. My neighbor and her 16 year-old daughter came over to decorate a few cookies. They stayed and decorated for four hours! They left with a tray of super cute Easter cookies. Good thing I made a double batch! I texted my neighbor a photo of my finished cookies the next morning and just guess what she was doing at the time? Shopping online for cutters! I just may have a cookie buddy! One that lives right across the street! Woo hoo!




These hatching bunnies might just be my favorites. I really like the simplicity of the white polka dots on the bright colors.




This cutter is part of the Wilton set. It also came with two hatching chicks that I'm not very fond of. The proportions seem off to me. This cutter I love!










Tulip and daisy mini cookies.



Oh how I love minis! One perfect bite and just adorable. I always reach for a mini. Just my speed.










Sweet little chicks.


















Of course bunnies and carrots.




I don't know why the carrots are one of my favorites. I don't normally think of carrots as being cute but these are!











I just picked this cutter up last week. I was really unsure as to how to decorate those ears.

The area seemed too wide for just one ear, so I added that back one.

I don't know. These cookies don't thrill me. Kinda cute I suppose.

I do like the tails though. They're little dots over the flooded area.


Happy Easter cookie friends!

Chicks Hatching Sugar Cookies

It's a chick parade just in time for Easter!


Aren't they adorable? I think these are my favorite cookies yet!

I made the chick peeking from the egg before. He was inspired by Sugarbelle's cookie.

I was at the craft store last week. At the register I saw some Easter window clings. One of the designs was an egg with little chick feet sticking out of the bottom. It reminded me of the peeking chick cookie. As I drove home I could picture a whole bunch of designs of chicks in every stage of hatching. I got home and started drawing ideas.

They're all made using a chick cutter, circle cutter and egg cutter. For the feet sticking out, I just cut small rectangles and added those to the bottom of the eggs.

I think that my two very favorites are the one with the whole chick emerging (bottom right) and the one with the feet on the egg with his head popping out (middle right).

I just love them.

Easter Spring Decorated Sugar Cookies

I had so much fun making these sugar cookies! They're so springy and happy!


I love the bright colors and the adorable shapes. My favorite is the little chick peeking out of the egg. Simple, yet so darn cute. For some crazy reason, I love the carrots too.

The eggs and butterflies are my least favorite. I struggle with getting things symmetrical.

The bunnies and the chick in the egg were inspired by Sugarbelle's designs. I saw a broken egg, chick and carrots at Sugarbelle's too, made by her friend Tricha. All so cute!

So why in the world am I making Easter cookies in early February? I'm going to be teaching a cookie class at the end of March and these are my samples.

Me teach a class? Crazy, huh? I'm still new to the cookie world.

I work at a cooking school doing office work and assisting with classes. My boss and co-workers have been the recipients of some of my cookies. My boss was the one that came up with the idea of me teaching a class. I hesitated for a while, wondering if I'm ready. But I decided to go for it.

I made up the sample cookies using only #2 tips and squeeze bottles. All 20-second royal icing. I think that will simplify things for teaching the class.

I froze some of these cookies. I'm hoping that they'll still look good in two months so I can take them to the class with me. I've heard that some cookiers have good luck with freezing decorated cookies and some don't. I'm glad to test it out for myself. I'm prepared for them to be ruined. If they look horrible when I take them out of the freezer, I'll just make new samples. No big deal.

I'm nervous, yet excited for the class. Bring on the Spring!

Spring Summer Cookie Gallery

Just click on a photo to be taken to the blog post.