Final Four and 30 years old

Jill turned 30 on Tuesday. On Saturday I am attending her party. I decided to take cookies. The theme is basketball because the Final Four games are on. So I came up with these. 

A 3 and a circle.

Used the circle to cut some of the three off. Used it and my offset spatula to mark the lines on the ball/zero.

Did the black piping and let it dry.

Filled in the orange and let that dry awhile.

Frosted the 3 white and when that was dry I piped on a black line and sprinkled it with black sanding sugar.

Also made just basketballs and some glasses of beer.

Survivor - Hamm Party

When my friend Kathy told me she was going to throw a party at her new house for all the friends and family that have helped them survive the past several deeply difficult and painful years, a lightbulb went on in my head. She said it was going to be a survivor party. I looked up the Survivor logo and was so glad to see that it was fairly simple. All I need is oval cookies. Looked through all my cookie cutters (and there are about 500 of them...) but could I find a large oval? No. So I used a large round metal one and shaped it to what I wanted. On the Survivor logo there are the words "outwit", "overcome" and "outlast". Something like that anyway. So I decided that I would use "family", "friends" and "faith". Also the logo has a picture in the background that represents the area where they are (palm trees for jungle, mountains etc) you get the idea.

 So I decided to make a ham to represent them because Hamm is their last name. I made them out of Color Flow icing since I like it best for premade candy that I am going to put on a cookie.

I just put a drawing under my parchment paper and trace and fill around it. I did use a tiny bone from some Halloween decoration confetti instead of making my own. Let them dry at this stage overnight and then added dark brown piping. Not necessary but I just did.

I never use waxed paper to make these on because it sticks to the icing. ALWAYS use parchment. It releases as soon as the icing is dry.

There is a banner across the oval that says "SURVIVOR" on it. So in order to make sure all my letters were the right size and to make the decorating go that much faster, I premade the letters with the dark brown piping.

Super easy and so much better than trying to get it perfect on the cookie.

I let those dry and then put each letter in individual sections of a silicone icecube mold. (as in all the S's go into one section etc.) I use an angled tweezer to place them on the wet icing of each cookie. 

Just had to show them all drying.

I have some stamps that say "faith", "family" and "friends". They have never been used with ink so I am going to color them with cookie markers and stamp those words onto the cookies. Can't wait to see how these all come out.

Now for my favorite part - decorating!

First I drew lines on the cookies so I'd know where each section went.

I did the white banner first and added the letters while it was still very wet.

I use an angle tweezer to add the letters.

Love the consistency I get by making them ahead.

Next I added the outside color and put white dots on it while it was wet, then pulled a toothpick through them to make hearts. Obviously I got caught up in decorating because I forgot to take progress pictures from this point. So...

I did them to this point and let them dry overnight. Then this morning I used a food marker and added the small words and decided to outline "HAMM" so it would show up better.

I made 21. 4 different outline colors.

Spain/Spain's Flag Cookies

Bryan and I are going to Spain with a group of 30 people in June. We are going to work at Springs of Life Camp in Malaga, Spain. I am excited. The Missions Committee is having a bake sale on April 6 to help raise money for that trip. I decided to make some cookies in the shape of Spain, decorated like the flag of Spain. As usual I drew out the design and then realized I had no cookie cutter that would work for the shape so I got out my trusty cookie cutter metal and created one around the drawing I had done. Always fun and always worth the work! 

Very happy with the result. Next I mixed up some icing with color flow powder instead of meriingue powder because when I make a "candy" decoration to place on a cookie it just works much better. I colored my black outline piping and piped all the black lines in the little emblem that goes in the yellow part of the flag. Then I made flood consistency out of red, yellow and light blue and filled in all the parts.

Also a tiny bit of pink since Spain has this cute little pink dragon/lion looking thing on the light blue square.

After the black was dry (I really didn't need to wait but I ran out of time the night before) I piped in the colors and designs. 

I wasn't super concerned about having each little detail perfect. I just wanted to give the general idea. 

But I actually think they will look amazing on the cookies. They measure about 1&3/4 inches square. Amazingly enough, once dry they are very sturdy and able to be picked up easily. I just love making decorations ahead that make the cookies look super detailed!

Now on to the cookies...

The cutter worked so well! 

Today was decorating day so I had taken the cookies out of the freezer last night to thaw.

First I did the red parts.

Then the yellow after the red had dried for about 30 minutes or so.

Then the yellow and while it was still very wet I placed one of my pre-made emblems on with an angle tweezers. Held very gently they won't break.

And just like that! Finished product.

I made 15 but actually making the emblem ahead made these about a 3 minutes per cookie decorating time. Not bad for a very detailed looking cookie.

Sweet Southwest Stencil

My stenciled bear cookies to go with the jewelry ones. 

Sweet Southwest

When we went to Durango, CO in October I found a bear cookie cutter that looked like so many of the jewelery pieces we saw. So of course I bought it. But it has taken me this long to finally use it. I drew up an idea based on looking at some silver jewelery on the internet.

As you will see I didn't follow these exactly but it helped to have a guide of sorts.

I wanted to be able to use the leftover colors for some Easter cookies so kept the colors on the more pastel side.

These really were very easy and I just free handed the designs.

First I outlined the whole bear.

Next I just started drawing in the inside dividing lines with my black piping icing.

First I filled in all the turquoise spaces, then I went to purple. (I forgot to take a turquoise only picture)

Next came the yellow spaces.

Then my red (which I tried to keep more coral colored but it is turning very red but that is fine)

Then the lime green color.

And last, the orange. I love how they turned out. I did do some of the bears in solid colors and plan to stencil a black design onto them. I will post them when they are done. 

Now I just need someone to give these to...

The Lego Movie

If you think that these cookies are for a children's party and going to the movie, you would be wrong.

I have wanted to see this movie ever since I saw the trailer. The fact that it gets great reviews only makes me more excited to see it. So I decided to get a party together to go with me. It's a party of 8 grown women, the youngest having just turned 20 today. We are going on Saturday. Two moms and their 6 grown girls! I decided t make us some cookie treats to take along. Here are my resulting cookies. I used a pair of plyers to revamp a skull cookie cutter that I never used. I used mini M&Ms on the rectangular cookies. Super easy and I had all the colors already made from something else so things went quite quickly.

I patterned them off the main character's face. 

Can't wait to see this movie and eat these cookies.

As usual I got to looking at the cookies and decided they needed dimension so I added to the hard hat. Much better.

When you have hearts and need footballs...

I had made a bunch of hearts for Bryan to take to Dr. Meckel on Tuesday. I didn't need them all but I wanted to make cookies for Sunday and the Super Bowl. So I came up with these. A way to use up some of the hearts. Thankfully the Broncos and Seahawks both have blue as one of their colors. I think they turned out cute. 

Jayme says we can eat the side that loses first. Good plan.