Pretty in Blue Cookies

My good friend Martilda is expecting her sweet baby boy next month. Of course we needed blue cookies for her baby shower! Blue is also Martilda's favorite color!

For the large cookie, I used a small salad plate as a guide to cut out a big circle of dough. I only added a couple of minutes to the baking time. The night before the baby shower, I used glacé icing to flood the cookie with white. The next day, once the icing was set, I used royal icing to pipe the words and to make the brush embroidery flowers. 

I love the bright white of the royal icing against the soft white of the glacé icing.

The polka dot cookies were decorated using the wet on wet technique with glacé icing.

I decorated these cookies with tiny roses using a similar technique. I love using glacé icing for cookies because it sets well, but doesn't get rock hard like royal icing.

Congratulations, Martilda! I can't wait to meet your sweet new baby!

STATS:

No Fail Sugar Cookies

http://www.cakecentral.com/recipe/2055/no-fail-sugar-cookies

Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/chocolate-roll-out-cookies-240668

Glacé Icing

http://www.thatreallyfrostsme.com/2010/05/glace-icing.html

Royal Icing

http://www.marthastewart.com/316888/royal-icing-for-sugar-cookies

Brush Embroidery Tutorial Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqbDTaauGO0

"Wet on Wet" Tutorial Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAIBpsXgtRE

Sweet Ambs Tiny Flowers Tutorial Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUD4BGWNpsc

Corsage Boxes Perfect for Fondant Toppers

I recently participated in a service exchange with the ladies in my church. I decided to give away fondant baby cowboy boots.

 

I made a denim colored flower to go along with the boots. I used small pieces of extra fondant to hold the ruffles in place while the flower dried.

Once the fondant was dry, I could remove the supports and the flower was ready to go.

To help speed the drying process along, I put the fondant decorations into my food dehydrator. If you would like to try this, make sure the temperature is set to off. You don't want any heat to melt all of your hard work.

I love trying to find new ways to package treats and decorations. I found a corsage box at a craft store, and these fondant toppers fit in perfectly.

See?

I really enjoyed spending time with my friends from church and participating in the service auction.

What are some creative ways you like to package your sweet creations? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Blue Mini Cake

I made this mini cake for a wonderful lady from my church. She always takes time to listen to others and goes out of her way to serve them. I wanted to do something nice for her, so I made this!



The cake is covered in homemade fondant and decorated with blue royal icing. I decided to decorate the top of the cake with her first initial: J.



The cake ended up being about 4 inches in diameter. I baked a lemon cake in a 9x13" pan, then I used a cup as a template for the little circles for the layers of the cake. I just turned the cup upside down on the leveled cake and cut out the circles using a sharp knife.

I filled and frosted the cake just like I would have a regular-sized cake. The only difference was I had to be a lot more careful when I smoothed the fondant over the cake. It is easy to accidentally pleat the fondant due to the size of the cake. This was really fun to make!

STATS:

White Almond Sour Cream Cake (I used lemon flavor)
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7445/the-original-wasc-cake-recipe

Buttercream
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/vanilla-buttercream-frosting/39107a19-be94-4571-9031-f1fc5bd1d606

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf/comment-page-1#comment-11

Black Cherry Filling

-10 oz. Polaner Black Cherry jam
-4 oz. box of cherry gelatin

Scoop jam into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 30-60 seconds until it's melted slightly and easy to stir. It should be the consistency of a pie filling and nice and smooth. Add the box of strawberry gelatin straight into the jelly and stir until the gelatin powder is dissolved. This is enough filling for an 8" torted cake (filling three layers).

Black and Blue Cookies

I used homemade fondant for the blue circles, a fondant stamp to make the paisley design in the center, and glace icing for the dots.


First attempt at using a stencil to decorate a cookie.



Homemade stencil. I think it turned out okay (and worked pretty well) for using the plastic lid from a Utz snack container. :o)



STATS:

No Fail Sugar Cookies
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/2055/no-fail-sugar-cookies

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
(Minus the corn syrup. I didn't want the fondant to stretch.)
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Glace Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar : 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup : 1 Tbsp. milk
(Adjust amount of milk to achieve desired consistency in icing.)
(I added a little cocoa powder along with brown food coloring to make the brown icing.)

Baby Blue Cookies

Chocolate cake mix cookies with royal icing.


These ones are my favorite: