little puzzles

here's what i love doing lately: using one cutter to remove a section from another cookie, fitting in a whole shape in the missing space, and baking them together. they stick, but their border remains distinct so you can pipe the shapes without guessing. above, you get "a is for apple." below i used a spider and gingerbread man to make an alien, a palm tree and squished metal christmas tree cutter to make a carrot, a short cross and a crown for a big "king of kings" cookie (the removed cross bottom was reattached under the crown for a longer effect) and my last name in multi colors.







also have another look at the slideshow--the rose and heart combo, the plate of fruit, the trick or treaters, cinderella's shoe with a clock, the pink "10s", the st patty pots of gold and shamrocks and the tractors were all made with more than one cookie cutter. someday i'll do a huge mural... :)

teeny cars

sometimes when i make cookies i end up with a lump of dough at the end that's been re-rolled too many times--a cookie made from it would turn out tough. so i roll out a few to practice on. i usually get about 3 cookies out of it, unless i go mini, like these cars. the larger car is about 3 inches, the little ones are about 1 and a half(?) rather than dabs of icing for the head and tail lights, i used big nonpareils in yellow white and red.

here's a close up of a little one. aaawww...


i'm looking forward to a project entirely of highly detailed mini cookies. (of course i have too many to choose from.)

cute-a-saurus rex

little evelyn turned 2 and likes dinosaurs. "but that's not girly," you say? well now they are, with pretty pink and teal, and the coat of sugar before they dry makes them look like they're cut out of felt. her mom said they were just right; not like the dinosaur cakes for sale, with snarling lizards on them... i also got pre-easter practice with some swirly dinosaur eggs. and dontcha just love the little purple eyes?

heavy metal cookies!

i was asked if i could make yellow tractors. [sure!] or anything with wheels [you bet!] and in no time at all [couple hours, actually] karin had a plate of heavy haulers for her little boy's birthday. i threw in 2 kinds of cars for good measure, made half the tractors green too, and the truck came in all 4 colors.

and how did i make a tractor when i have no tractor cookie cutter?



fyi, if your cookie sheets don't look as cooked as mine, get baking!

happy st. patty's day!

March means St. Patty's Day! this month Eldra got leprechauns, shamrocks, and pots of gold. once again it was adventures in piping (check out those 'jazz hands') and splicing shapes. would you guess that the pot is a cauldron with a doctored circle segment? or that our little friends were made with a cutter labeled 'snowman'? these were fun, and are delicious with green beer!

the refrigerator

i've encountered SO many cookie blogs since starting my own. all share the enthusiasm, many are selling, many others include the how-to. this little blog is a little different. i probably wont be including my how-to's here. not yet at least, i like having my secret techniques. while i do sell, i don't have a set-in-stone pricing system--$15 per dozen and a nearby address will get you the kind of work i mostly show here, but order size, design difficulty, etc are factors too. like i mentioned, i'm a freelancer. what i wanted this blog to be amounts to vanity. when you're little and you draw a picture, mom puts it on the fridge. age 30 years, and simple crayon drawings don't impress all that much. draw someone a picture of a chicken and you get a polite (and confused) smile, but bake and decorate a plate of cookies shaped like chickens, and people go bonkers. they clutch their hands under their chin, make little high pitched sounds, and take forever to eat them because "they're too pretty." well i say eat 'em, and i'll let you look at them here. ...'cause i can't hang them on the fridge. :)
and in the meantime, look forward to baby-girl dinos, more produce, trucks/cars/tractors, aliens, st patty's day...