Rambo meets Rainbow

i'm doing family birthdays all year, and i did a couple dinosaurs for nephew Andrew (pics coming soon) and will do a couple [something] for niece Grace next month, but s-i-l Heather throws a co-birthday party every summer for both kids, and each year i make a platter for the party. i did ice cream cones in '09, candy in '10, and this year i did 2 kinds for twice the challenge.

these are the same shape as Taylor's ice cream trucks from last month. Andrew first requested army guys, but of my cookie cutters that qualify as "guys," none were really the right size and shape. the gingerbread man shape looks like they would all be doing jumping jacks, which is kind of ok, and the just-standing one i have is a mini. so i asked if i could do another army shape like grenades, and he was fine with changes. in the end it was a convoy with gold stars.

i lamented in my last post that food-writing markers aren't that spectacular, but they seemed to be alright for that tarp thingy on the back of the truck. i don't trust them yet for words and intricate details.

the other side of the plate was "My Little Phonies," the unicorn edition. i did blue and purple ponies 2 years ago, and ponies were requested again this year, but i had to change it up a little. i made the hair more flowing, the candy-butt-picture larger (that's a snowflake and 2 stars, can you tell?) and i went with pearl dust instead of sanding sugar. again, the markers were hit and miss, but once i find sharper ones, i'll be doodlin' all over the place.

both of my "clients" were very pleased with the results, and the party-goers polished them off in less than an hour. i think i'm really starting to like that fact--that i can spend hours decorating cookies, and if i did them right, all you'll have left is pictures and memories.

coming up, Grace's birthday, Mom's birthday, and Ava's non-allergenic luau.

this is *only* a test

i got some Wilton food-writing pens. i don't like them that much. when i make lines with a paintbrush, though they can be shaky, they're much thinner than what the pens can do. why? the tips of these markers are chubby like Crayola markers. i need teeny-tipped markers. also they're meant for fondant--after a few cookies, the tips were getting worn out and fuzzy from being dragged over a sugary surface. anyway, here are some tests. when i get done with decorating, i sometimes make royal icing puddles on wax paper and let them dry. then later when i need a practice surface i don't need to make extra cookies.

here's yellow on black, dusted with gold pearl dust.










i drew circles, then added a little line of a 2nd color, then blended them with a wet paintbrush. got a bunch of different colors--then brushed with white pearl dust and outlined in black.


this is the same technique, but with single colors.










same technique with the paintbrush, but no pearl dust. the Chinese characters were copied from a tea tin; i don't know what it says. :)




also a pen and paintbrush effect, but with a layer of brown sanding sugar, then regular piping/sugaring for the snow.













this is one reason why i don't do trademarks--yeah, you can tell it's the stooges, but really, unless i'm using edible paper and printing out the images, no trademark or logo is ever going to be totally precise. it's a cute attempt at best. and the way i see it, if you want trademarked cookies, call up the company that makes the product. i did this by piping onto wax paper, laid over the image. i think if i were really doing a 3 Stooges party, i'd create some pie-in-the-face image.

my next post is trucks and ponies, and i used the black marker for both, but when i got done i took a razor to the tips to see if i could taper them more. we'll see if that helps. or i'll find a different brand. or i just won't let my pony cookies have eyelashes anymore...

and coming next month: 6 dozen gluten-free, red-dye-free, luau cookie pops. no problem.

ice cream, u scream.

i use a royal icing recipe that's a little less awesome in humid weather. for comparison, and probably a better looking cookie when shipped, i tried meringue powder again and misread "tsp" as "tbs" and then i didnt fix it correctly, so i had to start over. finally, i made my neice Taylor her birthday cookies.
she turned 12. i don't remember being 12 with any sort of fondness, and 13 was worse. and in thinking about jr high, and its suckiness, i tried to think of some delightful childhood image for Tay's last hurrah before being a (gulp... i'm old...) teenager. we have pictures somewhere of her 2nd birthday, with ice cream from the ice cream man all over her Blues Clues pajamas. that i do remember fondly, so i grabbed my truck cookie cutter.
you may notice that if these were real trucks, driving on American streets, the window is on the street side. oops. the tinier piped details got a little blobbish, my new food writing markers were so-so... but i like the little "popsicle" pictures.

then Dad's birthday is 6 days after, so he got ice cream too. things i like: the "cherry" on top and the color of the "chocolate" ice cream. things i don't: the "cherry" is cinnamon flavored, the humidity still effected how neat my lines were, and i wish i used a different sprinkle to accentuate the contours of the "whipped cream" on top. i piped it in in sections, letting them dry in between for a piled-up look, but the patriotic jimmies kind of hid that. next time, nonpareils.

in either case, i hear they didn't last long. now, does that mean they were too delicious not to eat, or not too pretty to eat? (grin, doesn't matter.) happy birthday Taylor and Dad!

coming soon, an army convoy, a my-little-phonies unicorn edition, some better results with markers, dinos, and a luau.

summer montage