extinct, mythological, delicious!

so i mentioned that Andrew and Grace have a co-party in July, but their birthdays are in June and August, respectively. and though i made a platter for the party, i also made a few to celebrate on the day.

i don't care for this series of dino cutters. they're a little too simplistic. they're nice if i'm making fuzzy pastel baby dinos, but the carnivorous wrath that i expect from a t-rex just isn't there. Jeff's aunt gave me a few orphan cutters, a few of which are really excellent dinosaurs--whipping tails, gnashing teeth--next time i'll use them. with these (shrug) hey, the colors are great...

and Grace got sea horses. get it, horses? she's crazy about horses... but i'm in a picky mood, so i have to point out that the seahorse cutter is correct for seahorses, but that head-bump on top probably should have been converted to a unicorn horn--it's a little off for an ear. not that anyone noticed, they were dispersed and eaten in 2 minutes. again, i love the colors. what would you call these--"Aquastrian"?
i'm also not completely down with meringue powder yet. i can make royal icing with egg whites in the dark and it turns out perfectly (and safe!). but every time i make royal icing with meringue powder, it's a little different, and a little unpredictable, each time. with the seahorses, it kept it's fluffiness and didn't flatten out much (notice how flat the dinosaurs are). but i need the practice--the IL Cottage Food Law passed this week (woooo!) so i'll be able to sell at farmer's markets next year (woooooo!), and i'm sure the public would appreciate not having to concern themselves with egg safety in the first place.

still on the way, gluten-free hula dancers, chubby grubs for my food safety class, and 2 more birthdays...

'cause that's how i roll...

i've been doing stars since i was very little. they're the easiest. icing, sugar, done. to do hundreds of them is, really, to learn about color mixing and having a steady hand. when i do stars, they're uniform, bright, simple and lovely, just like if i've been doing them for 30 years. many of the designs you're seeing now are first attempts. while the sea horse to your left is pretty darn cute, be assured that my next batch of sea horses will be an upgrade. same with all my designs. i'll try to post my latest and best work for each shape.
some other noteables--if you need party favors, i can individually [cellophane] bag the cookies and tie with ribbon. otherwise if i'm delivering them, they'll be on a plastic plate which you can keep, with the whole plate-and-cookie-pile wrapped in cellophane, gathered at the top, and tied with ribbon. if i'm invited to the party, i'll put them on a glass plate, but i'll take the plate home. :)
i have no interest in doing "cookie pops" or bouquets.
lastly, i can't do licensed characters for 3 reasons. 1, i dont have licensed-character cookie cutters. 2, if i did, or if i could fake the designs, i'd technically be making money with someone else's intellectual property. 3, i consider someone else's characters to be someone else's art. to make a tinkerbell cookie is, for me, to just be the last step in disney's cookie business. i enjoy making my own pictures. an exception to this is if the character is ubiquitous/ generic/ public domain. everybody can recognize dracula, the froggy prince, santa, little bo peep, etc, without it being specific to a copyrighted image. so if you're having a sesame street party, i can't give you big bird, but i can do a rainbow of ABC's; hanna montana can have pink stars; batman can have a flock of multi-sized bats--you get the idea. there's a cookie for every party.