Jamie's dresses

this is my favorite kind of order--one that starts with "oooh! you should call katie!" long story short, there have been parties this year featuring my cookies. one guest, former coworker Mary Jo, passed my website along to her daughter Jamie who wanted a fun way to surprise her friends with the big question. she wanted to leave it up to me, citing a creativity shortage on her part, but i said how about a color, or a picture you like, and she sent back one of pastel dresses hanging side by side, and a preference for blue. so i sent back this sketch.
i traced the dress cutter twice, and the mini bell twice for the dress combo, and showed 2 choices for the text. the two have the same motif with the question marks and hangers. once i got a thumbs up from Jamie, i had the big idea to try meringue powder.

my mother and i have been using the same icing recipe since at least the mid 80s. it involves egg whites, and we've never had one complaint about it. raves and requests yes, but not a peep about egg-related dissatisfaction. that said, our plan, once these cookies were done, was to drive them to Mary Jo, who will mail them out to Jamie's friends, as Jamie is in AZ and her friends are all over, like MN. i wasn't exactly worried for the cookies making these journeys, and i mused at those little million-to-one disasters that only happen to your package on the leaky truck, or in the hot weather, and i thought, why not try an alternate to egg whites, because one day we'll need to. this order has intricate piping, travelling, and the deadline was kinda soft, so if i hated it, i could start over. it seemed a good time to dabble.

it took some getting used to. it was a lot thicker, it dried with a glossier finish, and the cookie remained firmer. plus it didn't have that not-quite-dry, not-quite-dense, airiness from whipped egg whites. the meringue powder provided the elasticity, but not the slight fluff. the end result was a little more taffeta than organza, but still pretty with pearl dragees, pearl dust, and opal sugar. Jamie said they were a hit and all 4 ladies said yes. congrats! and thanks Jamie and Mary Jo for a fun order.

i look forward to a few valentines, marriage proposals, etc. it's such a fun way to pass a message. my favorite kind of art has always been the kind that translates and idea. when i was little i cut out snowflakes and papered the windows in wintertime. the view out the window wasn't enough, it had to be a perpetual flurry. in high school i didn't feel compelled to write a script or act it, but i thought make-up and model building were awesome--as important as the acting or writing, it was the visuals that got you there. Jamie could have sent some blank chocolates and a card, but here's the iconic image of the bridesmaid's duty, "The Dresses," all bright and edible and cheerful. there's that moment when your eyes stop seeing icing on a cookie and they see the picture. like when the paper snowflakes in the window become the weather outside. it's a neat thing to conjure up in people. and then they get to eat it! win-win!
ladies, i hoped you enjoyed your surprise, and to all, stay tuned for angels, stars, trees, more stars, snow, and a metagingerbread man.

black-friday, over the hill, triple birthday weekend

hubby's sister, and other sister's husband, and yours truly, all celebrate birthdays within 4 days at the end of november. somewhere in the haze of turkey and door-busters, we manage to gather at least for lunch. this year Dan turned 40, and Kristi's my age (i'll be vague: younger than Dan), so i whipped up a few purses for Kristi, and Dan got, well, Dan.

these were made with the tombstone and candy corn shapes from a Wilton halloween cookie cutter set. funky graphics were flood icing dots dragged with a toothpick. little snap clasps are dragees. these would be cute with matching shoes. maybe hats and dresses too?

Dan's Dan was made from a pretty-old (80's?) Wilton snowman. at least it said snowman on it; it seems more like Frosty, what with being a biped... anyway, i thought, if i can make a leprechaun with it, why not a different beard, and why not a trumpet in one hand? (yep, he plays, and he's a music teacher.) unfortunately, icing isn't the most flattering medium--Dan's nose isn't flat, for instance. but he is Vegas-sparkly. (chuckle) the treble clefs were black on toothpick-swirled blue and white, and the trumpet valves are tiny gold dragees.

Happy Birthday Dan and Kristi! coming soon, a bridesmaid surprise, a girl's night out, and lotsa Christmas.

"gobble gobble"

got a call from Lois from church, wondering if i had some time to make a few cookies for a the yearly bake sale. i always have time for cookies, plus i had an incomplete set of 2nd hand, brown, hand-glazed plates that i didn't need. 4 big plates, 2 small plates, and 3 mugs, all unfit for the microwave, and ultimately doomed to be dropped over the years. i'm a clutz. i buy my plates at the dollar store. anyway, i picked corn, leaves, apples, and mini pumpkins, leaves and acorns. then i arranged them all nicely in/on their mug/plate, wrapped with cellophane, and put the 12 or so extras in favor bags. i'm told they sold out. (yay!)
in the meantime, they caught Dian's eye, and she ordered more corn and leaves for thanksgiving. this time i added a few purple kernels. i love how any color works--this shape is definitly in my top 10 favorites. thanks Dian!

('hey katie, your pictures are starting to look a little fuzzy.' yeah, as it gets darker and colder, i'm working with poorer light, plus i just recently got new contacts, and it turns out i really needed them! moving on...)


then mom remembered the turkeys i made for Eldra last year and wanted 2 dozen made the same way. i wrecked about 6 before i remembered how i did the tail last time. these little guys drove with mom and dad to thanksgiving at my brother's in indiana.

and then for fun, i made these for Andrew and Grace. one lost a head en route. :( but i'm sure he was delicious.

petite periwinkle pachyderms parade preposterously-proportioned petunias to party in PA

Sharon from church was planning a trip to her granddaughter's 1st birthday and asked if i could whip up 2 dozen. this was an "up to me" order, but i asked if she had any art to reference, colors to pick from, the usual questions to fine tune the dials on my thinking cap. Sharon replied that her nickname for Lucy is "Lemondrop," and that there are elephants in her room.

it usually comes to me as i'm sitting on my living room floor, surrounded by zip lock freezer bags full of cookie cutters. remember those spatial relationship sections of the standardized tests, where you have to look at 6 joined squares and determine if, when folded, it would make a cube? we were actually allowed to use paper and scissors, which i refused to use since that would only test cutting and folding, not whether our brain could think of a solid object when looking at a flat one. turns out i aced that section. and now i sit on my floor, holding pieces of plastic together, and figuring out how to make baby elephants holding giant flowers. (and while i'm great at spatial relationships, the guitar baffles me, and i stink at subtraction. brains, huh?)

i made the flowers lemon-yellow, so "lemon" and "elephant" were both present. the technique of only frosting part of the elephant, letting it dry, and doing the next, made a nice bas-relief effect on the ears, and trunk at the stem. large white sprinkles were dotted and eye-lashed with black food coloring. they were met with Sharon's approval, and good feedback on the grapevine prompted another to request 2 dozen for thanksgiving, coming soon. (thanks Sharon!!)

also on the way: turkeys, birthdays, bridesmaids and the bake sale. plus i finally give meringue powder a try (spoiler alert: i won.)

my halloween disguise: fondant master!

i recently had an opportunity to apply for a cookie decorator position (i know, can you believe it?) and was asked if i had any pictures of my work with fondant. (i know, can you believe it?) they were really looking for cake decorators who also probably did cookies. i'm finding a sort of friendly bias against cookies among the pretty-dessert fans. i get that a monumental wedding cake, or a complex scene around the birthday cake is no small task, (believe it or not, i watch all the cake shows for ideas. i figure anything they can do vertically, unless it involves motors, can certainly lie flat on a cookie, right?) and that the magic that a cake creator is conjuring involves all the party goers all getting a chance to admire the piece, exclaim that they cant believe it's edible, and what hours it must have taken, and to let all that wonder seep in like they're looking at the thing itself, not the 3 foot recreation in devil's food, ganache and (you know it) fondant. i get that it's about the big ta-da. cookies are more one-on-one, but a cake is for the group's visual pleasure--then the party-goers relinquish its beauty to the knife, and everyone is served something that is only as wonderful as the execution of its recipe. in fact, their portions of the fondant shell are peeled off by those who know, or sampled, then peeled off by those who just figured it out: fondant is just for show.
a funny thing is happening to cakes though--they're shrinking into cupcakes. photorealist painter Audrey Flack (check her out) wrote about how culture is transported over time and space more by the small things we can carry--our totems and ingots and trinkets--than by the megalithic structures that are eventually abandoned or built over. economic pressure makes people take what's easy to carry. and i'm betting that during a recession, a box of cupcakes is way easier to drive around than a cake. they're also way-easy to make at home since a) you can fake it with a boxed mix and b) decorating is more about alluding to the flavors (a sexy swirl of chocolate drizzled with caramel, etc) rather than making the cupcake look like a frog (though the team behind Hello Cupcake are geniuses at that.)
plus, cupcakes are perfectly suited to that urge in humans to have something special all to themselves. that big 3-tiered cake is not yours alone, you have to share it. you only get a piece of it, with a fondant remnant stuck to the side. but a cupcake, with it's flourished whipped peak, and dazzling sprinkles, and perfect gooey bite of something in the middle--that is the essence of a full cake contained in a single serving art-form that you can take your selfish time enjoying.
but cupcakes are more like cake-meets-truffle. when i say "decorated" i mean "to look like something." frosting and sprinkles, though decorative, is really just "frosted and sprinkled." i like the illusions that people are inventing with cake. and if it must be wrapped in fondant to look like a giant birthday frog or whatever, so be it. but what if it could look like multiple whatevers, and be personal servings, and stackable and transportable, and didn't have fondant at all? (pointing obnoxiously to the cookies)
i must wait for this idea to gain momentum. until then, i must make friends with fondant.
i've worked with kneadable media. ceramics mostly, modeling clay, marzipan, all delightful. fondant has been my backdrops for my little scenes, but only as a canvas for icing and sugar. fondant on cookies seemed unnecessary, unless you want texture rolled into the surface, and i've even seen a neat printed effect, but both involve cutting out the same shape in fondant, then attaching it to the surface of the cookie. the whole surface. what do you do when that dries? scrape the cookie off the back with your bottom teeth? or try to look cool while you eat a big mouthful of fondant? maybe, i thought, since it is edible, if not exactly palatable, it were just tiny little bits that you might not notice? so i made a few prototypes. forgive their smudges, these were only for practice...


if you popped in yesterday, you saw my brother's over-the-hill cookies. i thought roses looked more mournful, but during the practice run i made a pumpkin patch. those stems are individual chocolate jimmy sprinkles.

this was a mini fondant ghost on a mini tombstone. i rolled the fondant paper thin so i could almost see through it, and so that it tore lightly at the bottom like a little sheet. a fine tipped brush and food coloring did the details.

paper-thin ribbons were cut and placed on wet white icing. the white icing on top made me think the fondant wasn't necessary, unless you didn't want to make time for layers of piping to dry. the red eyes are fun though.



a worm in an apple.










ruffles on some high-heels.








this was 3 colors of fondant rolled together, cut with a tiny leaf cutter, smooshed a little into a curve, dusted with bronze pearl dust, a little vein line painted with food coloring, then adhered to the "tree" to let the "moon" peek through.

hubby brought these to work. reviews were all positive. i ate a tree, and didn't hate the level of fondant, but i did prefer it picked off. would i do it again? sure. all the time? no. "can i work with fondant?" you betcha.

in "dog years" he's dead

i remember it this way: John was about 11 and drew a line drawing of his room. i was 3 and didn't get it because i only saw outlines. cartoons were colored in; you could tell Tom from Jerry, Bugs from Daffy, but in his drawing, i couldn't tell window from bookshelf. then he colored in the lamp. suddenly i had a point of reference, some context for scale and the like, and the rest of the picture fell into place. it fell, it so happens, during dinner while i stared at it, hanging on the fridge. i was like that guy in Mallrats looking at the sailboat. suddenly someone asked me a question, probably about the dinner conversation topic, as though no conclusion was being reached and the 3-year-old might have some insight, and i pointed to the fridge and replied "i look at the light." laughter ensued, and it became a catchphrase in my family, meaning, loosely, "i'm no longer paying attention to you and would rather stare at the light fixture," a preschooler's proto-"talk-to-the-hand."

but i wasn't dismissing them, i was meaning to say "sorry, i wasn't paying a bit of attention, you see that scribble that John made this afternoon suddenly makes sense to me, and my golly, that's his funky yellow metal 70's desk lamp right there!" then i noticed the outlines in cartoons, always a thin black ink line like comic books. then i got into coloring books--more lines. then i noticed nothing around me had lines. then i just had to learn to draw.

and so here i am, still making outlines and coloring them in. and my big brother (whose first word was seriously "cookie") turned the big four-O today. and whether or not the baby boomers are right, and 50 is the new 40, i marked the milestone with a snarky little graveyard.

light gray was piped just after the darker gray was applied so the designs were flush, then coated in table sugar for a stony texture when dry. the roses are icing stems and leaves with fondant flowers.

here's a closer look, and truer to color, in different lighting. that's my pinky in the foreground, so you can see those roses were tiny. i'll have more about fondant on cookies tomorrow. look forward to shiny shoes, leafy moonlit trees, a mummy, ghosts in the graveyard, a pumpkin patch, and wormy apples. mmmmm.....

and coming soon, lil' Lucy lemondrop turns 1. till then happy birthday John, everyone check out his blog (see link on the right, "Conan's Fiero") and happy Halloween-'een everyone!

Supercookie

the first time i painted, i was 2. dad was painting the living room wall, and i decided to paint the living room rug. at 5 i was still coloring outside the lines, but i knew that i wanted to be an artist. i colored, sloppily, made mud dishes in the garden, cut out hearts and snowflakes. i tried every art and craft. my poor mother had glitter embedded in the rugs till i moved out.
i'm somehow the artist-child of 2 people who'll probably tell you it skipped a generation. dad's mom crocheted, mom's mom sewed and did needlepoint. i have some of their (many!) pieces--they were good. but my parents didn't take up an artsy hobby. they're skilled though--mom can sew, though she follows patterns. i'd take the scraps and make barbie clothes. dad can rewire a house and install a pool, but i've never seen him doodle, and i can't go to a hardware store without a long imaginative pause at the paint samples.
my parents weren't without art appreciation (and not just the pictures i'd hang on the fridge). dad had a pretty-darn-big comic book collection, and he did read them; and mom would dutifully bake and decorate, with the help of yours truly, Christmas cookies. hmm... illustrations and cookie cutters...
so i asked before what do sunflowers and Superman have in common, and the obvious answer is that they both get energy from the sun. (nerd grin) but the alternate answer is that they both look really cool with an "ink and paint" look. most of cookie decorating is to outline a field of color and fill it in. but if you were drawing a comic book, you'd sketch an outline, paint in color, then add the outlines and shading with ink. on a cookie, you'd use food coloring.
first ('cause i still like coloring outside the lines) i removed little sections of the regular symmetrical flower shape with a leaf fondant cutter, and replaced them with whole leaves. larger leaves and a strip of dough made the stems and it all baked into a wind-swept sunflower shape. after the icing was dry, i painted in lines with thinned brown food coloring and ta-da, once again, a delightful marriage of cookies and comic books results in a masterpiece. (bigger nerd grin) don't worry, the fantastic-character and baked-goods genes will live on--my son's alter ego is Cookie Monster.
and why are sunflowers my favorite? in addition to being huge and bright and cheerful, they take a while to get that way, and are worth the wait. if i could combine all my favorite colors, i'd just call the palette "September."
now onward to fall--there will be tractors, and i predict some over-the-hill cheekiness. stay tuned, super-friends...

Bob (heart) Nancy x 50!

Judy from church called and asked if 4 days was enough time to make 4 dozen cookies for her parents' 50th anniversary party. (i did 18 dozen for my own wedding in 3 days--woo!) and did i have any shapes that would work for such an occasion? (hundreds, i tell ya!) i accepted the mission and suggested a 5 and 0 baked together, gold pearl dust, gold dragees, hearts, wedding stuff... she left it up to me. so i revived my heart/rose combo and added the 50 by stamping the heart with number cookie cutters before baking. the lines remained, so all i had to do was follow them with the piping bag. some sugar and gold and a favor bag for each, and these little lovelies were off to the ball.
(if you were here in february, you may remember the same shape with animal prints for valentines day.)
Judy said they were just the perfect touch. i hope so, 50 years is a long time to wait for such a great cookie.
:-D
coming soon, how is a sunflower like superman?

how ya like dem apples?

sometimes, for no particular reason, i'll take up my art supplies and paint a picture, or sew a patchwork pillow, or crochet a hat--something to do with my hands while my brain is deep in thought and spinning like a hamster wheel. but my favorite art is cookies, and recently i whipped up another batch to play with. this time, for no particular reason, i made gold apples.

i have red and green pearl dust too--i could have made a variety--but it was such a nice day for yellow. the whole month, in fact. and while they may not be juicy, they are "golden delicious." ;)

Corby (heart) Melisa, part 2

i couldn't resist making a cookie that played on the happy couple's now-shared name, West. i did these in the same colors as the bridal shower cookies, also with pre-piped letters.














i got this fabulous red color by pre-piping the heart in the same lavender icing, but when dry i brushed on red pearl dust.

the heart and gift box cookies for the shower totaled 4 dozen, but i made just 2 of these to tie onto the shower gift--the bride said they were her favorite. congrats again!



coming soon, more love, more gold, and my favorite flower gets a comic-book moment...

Corby (heart) Melisa

Then my sister-in-law Kristi's best friend Melisa's mom Barb called and asked if i could make cookies for Melisa's bridal shower. sketches were sketched, and the final pick was purple hearts with pre-piped ivory initials, and gift boxes with toothpick-dragged hearts and purple bows.














pearl dust was brushed on both for that sparkly romantic look. and what did i get the bride? ...cookie cutters. :)

Steve (heart) Bailey

so my former-coworker friend Lisa's cousin Cassie's friend Bailey has accepted Steve's proposal, and it called for a shin-dig worthy of custom cookies. Cassie emailed me with a bunch of ideas, so i emailed her a bunch of sketches. about 8 emails later we narrowed it down to flowers in purple tones, and circles with their initials, butterflies somewhere, pearl dust, and a particular shade of green.
this order was awesome. usually i get told "you're the artist, just do whatever" but this one challenged me--in a good way. the end result, as described by one guest with lots of exclamation points, was gorgeous and tasty:


letters and butterflies were pre-piped on wax paper, raw sugar provided the ivory border for the circles. periwinkle, lavender and raspberry-sherbet toned icing was brushed with white, purple, and red pearl dust (respectively). i imagine if they were real flowers, they'd be tiny, shade loving, and vanilla scented. :)
best wishes to the happy couple!

once upon a time...

...i was looking at my cookie cutters and thought, "i gotta do something with this chick and this acorn," because cookies based on storybooks are the cutest of all. we already recognize and love the characters. it's doubly delightful to bake and decorate them. ladies and gents, here's chicken little.

when i take out henny-penny and the rest of the bird bunch, the background still makes a darn good farm scene!












also check out the slideshow--i'm trying out 2D backgrounds made of fondant, like the "backdrop" behind chicken little and the tree. i'm working on a night scene next, but i'll let you guess...

you can even eat the wrappers!

my sister-in-law Heather has the right idea: 2 kids, 2 summer birthdays, 1 party. last year i brought ice cream cones a la cookie, this year it was candy.

this is one shape that i might go back to for flavored-icing experiments. maybe a vanilla mint green swirl, or lemon yellow. or tie-dyed tootie-fruity. :)
happy birthday Andrew and Grace!

Christmas in July!

i know all the cookie greats are beginning their holiday dazzlement now--what you'll see in this season's catalogs, magazines, how-to shows, and high-end bakeries, is coming together in crazy minds like mine, and prototypes are being baked in this terrible heat. yes, we suffer for our craft. :)
my yearly Christmas-cookie-night with Mom is incomplete without some Perry Como playing in the background. the first track on the perennial set list is a reading of "The Night Before Christmas," with all the glitzy, yet cartoon-like, big band accompaniment. it's actually one of my favorite poems, and if i could cookie-tize the whole piece i would, but here's one scene, when "away they all flew like the down of a thistle."


a little zooming in, and you have "the luster of mid-day to objects below" (i did those buttons with a toothpick!)
i think i'll make this one my family's 2010 Christmas card. then again, i have a growing list of holiday imagery that i want to try. maybe i'll make a whole set of cards...
coming soon, a nursery classic, candy, and bride's-to-be and their love of purple.

baby Ivy's shower

Kate is having a baby girl! rubber duckies were requested, with "baby Ivy" piped in. i added the bubbles. the whole time i was decorating them i was singing Earnie's 'rubber ducky you're the one.'
shipping them to WA was an experience--the p.o. says "if it fits, it ships" but the express box they give you is better suited to ship something shaped like a laptop. 8 of the 36 little guys didn't make it. the ones that did, i'm told, were a hit. (Katie and Kate share an interstate high 5!) now go have that baby, lady! and send pictures!

little cookies, big thanks

i've been unemployed and seeking a job more cookie-related and less spreadsheet-related. i came upon a chocolate shop where, i learned, an independant vendor sold her cookies. so i took a business card and emailed Julie, the manager, a few questions adding that if she were to answer, i'd happily bake her cookies.
turns out that having a business license, renting retail kitchen space, etc, is what it takes to be such a vendor, and is more than i have time or cash to start up. this sounds like a setback, but it was actually very reassuring--a whole catagory of my employment quest could be crossed off, leaving me that much more able to focus on my other opportunities.
so, super-pleased to be on my way again, i baked her these:

i delivered them, and she seemed surprised that i bothered, but happy too--who doesn't like hand-delivered cookies?

speaking of frogs...

Brenda wondered if i could help her out with her some thank-you cookies for her daughters' teachers. 'something for summer' with frogs and fishing specified. after falling in love with how i make frogs (see the previous post below) i was happy to do another round of froggies. plus the fish, some leaves with a little beetle, orange monarchs, daisies, and my other favorite, strawberries. Brenda reports that all feedback was positive.
"my work here is done," i said as i shook hands with the townspeople and rode into the sunset... but there i was being narrative again. no, Brenda's cookies didn't end there. these cookies were characters and scenery meant to evoke feelings of summer at the lake. while in parts, they're adorable cookies. when en scene, they're quite a little picture, worth a thousand words. so i baked a handful of extras and made another scene, like "planet cookie" ...maybe "cookie lake"?

i enjoy making these. if i did it for a living, i'd make one every 3 days. i probably could with the ideas that keep popping up in my head. the current one in progress will be for christmas. the next one... suggestions? perhaps something literary. i'll daydream on it.

Eldra's year of cookies.

a year ago last month, i offered my cookie services to a silent auction for Trinity Lutheran. the winner was Eldra, who received a dozen cookies every month for a year. May was her last month, and i asked if she had any requests, after a year of cookies of my choosing. she said, "can you make frogs? my son just loves that 'frog prince' movie."
i smiled and said, "oh yeah, i can make frogs." and made a dozen of these:

i LOVE these. i've wanted to do the froggy prince for well over a year. ask the hubby, i was doing little happy dances as these came together. much thanks to Eldra for putting me to work, every month was a blast. plus it was incentive for starting this here lil blog.
~coming soon: a baby shower, an engagement party, 2 thank yous, a birthday, and a trip to a pond.

oh yeah... i did it...

i watch too much food network. i'm intrigued by the competitions using crazy ingredients. i thought, if they can make ice cream in flavors like maple-bacon or bleu cheese... why not a cookie? so i did. the cheese variety needs a tune up, but believe it or not, the maple bacon one was pretty good. i still think a mini is a good idea for a strange flavor, less to commit to if it's too weird. but next time i'll leave out the icing--doesn't need it--and find a mini piggy cookie cutter. btw, i have extra dough in the freezer. anyone adventurous?

better than jelly beans

Eldra's April installment of her year of cookies was delivered Easter Sunday. i'm super pleased with the fluffy sheep and colorful egg, but the camera just couldn't capture the shimmery ivory color of the cross. trust me, it was lovely. back to the sheep, it's the same technique i use for clouds. time consuming, but worth it--dontcha just want to pet them? stay tuned, her final installment was for May and just might be my favorite.

a sweet side to health care

Jimmy does business with doctors' offices and wanted to bring something special for nurses appreciation week. first thing to pop in my head was the old-fashioned nurse's cap. (can you tell it was a crown with the middle 2 points pressed together?)