tiny dancers!

Simeren and i are friends from way back in grade school. the school district's boundaries and personal aspirations meant we weren't always in the same school doing the same thing, but now the whole world is on facebook, so it's like no one went anywhere. way back in 6th grade we were in a particularly strenuous reading class. i mean i was an honor student, and Simeren more so, but this guy liked giving us essay questions, huge vocabulary words, and involved projects. we spent one afternoon at her house making [pre-Disney] Beauty and the Beast stick-and-paper puppets so we could put on a show for a kindergarten class. this was an actual assignment--the kindergarten teacher actually had to sign off that we performed. but our teacher was the fun teacher too, and though i wasn't over-joyed to be on stage, i was pretty content to draw some characters and put them on a stick. we even made a rose with a bobby pin so one character could hand it to another. we were geniuses.
nowadays i'm still at it: Simeren emailed me asking if i could make gluten-free lemon-flavored luau cookies for daughter Ava's 3rd birthday, and can they be cookie pops? the art she sent me (the graphics on the invites etc) inspired hibiscus and hula dancers, so once again Simeren and i are entertaining kids with ladies and flowers on sticks.
i used the gingerbread girl shape, for the skirt or course, but the shape of the arms allowed for her different arm postures. her hair flower is a fondant cut out. i didn't bake the sticks into the pops, otherwise i'd only be able to bake like, 4 at a time, so i taped the stick to the inside of the bag, then slid the cookies in head first and tied them at the feet. then no one had to bite into a stick!
i get nervous when i have to do people shapes, but i always end up liking them. i think i may have to do some witches this fall. also 3 September birthdays are on the way--stay tuned...

maggot cookies!!

i took: The National Restaurant Association Servsafe(R) Sanitation Manager 15 Hour Certification Course, followed by: The Illinois Department of Public Health Food Service Sanitation Manager Certification Examination. i'm awaiting word from the state, but i'm sure i passed. when i hear from the state, i'll also be asked to mail back the fee for my copy of my certificate, which i'm eager to have for 2 reasons:

first, it's required of home bakers that will want to partake of the recently passed IL Cottage Food Law. it takes effect next year and allows unlicensed home bakers like me to sell their wares at farmer's markets, so long as they have the sanitation certificate, and the food is labeled as being homemade. the language of the bill says that it will allow potential small business owners, who haven't been able to start up yet, to test their product. amen, sister! this recession really stinks, and to have your own business, you either need a fat loan to open a shop, or enough money lying around to rent commercial kitchen space, pay for insurance, advertise... it's involved. but i know i can make a couple hundred cookies and sit in a booth on a Saturday. and if i sell out by 10am, i'll know i'm on to something, and if everyone turns their noses up and walks away, i know i'm not destined to sell in bulk. but i have a feeling that if my cookies were available to a wider audience, there would be enough demand to keep me busy.

which brings me to reason #2: it'll show a potential employer that i'm not kidding about wanting to work in a commercial kitchen. i technically don't need one just to work in a kitchen, but without the certificate, i'd need to be supervised and monitored because i might not know how to properly refrigerate eggs, etc. but now i do! plus i haven't taken any other classes. never took a Wilton cake or cookie class, never went to pastry school. my big claims to "experience" and "education" are years as a cookie hobbyist and ceramics class student, the latter actually involving bread mixers, dough rollers, dry ingredient scales, and large ovens. i'm an art student who ended up using food, not a food student who ended up using art. i need some kind of credentials.

the class was interesting, and fun, and it turns out i knew a lot already and kept sharing my own little anecdotes about my food-employment experiences. i even knew the answer when the instructor asked if we knew the color deemed least appetizing--it's blue. so when i knew it was ok to bring cookies for day 2 of the class, i decided that larvae in an unappetizing color was the way to go--everyone got the joke. i made them the night before and they were so fresh that when i laid one worm over the other to fit in the cellophane bag, the top one drooped and cracked. (but they got the idea) i used meringue powder for these too, and mixed 2 different consistencies so the light blue area was smooth, but the dark blue made little bumps on their backs. eeeeew. :)

on the way, hula pops, and three more birthdays...

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...

cookies that make you go hmmmm

if the Food Network ever did a Cookie Challenge (just a baking and art challenge, like the cake challenge used to be) i think i'd at least place. you might say "well you do nice work, but these are pretty unextreme." well yeah, but most of these are shapes that i'm doing for the first time. and if i've done the shape before, i'm designing them a whole new way the next time. so you're seeing a lot of prototypes. and i think even for prototypes, some are darn adorable.

and if you don't believe me, ask my mom.

no really, ask her. my mom marvels that i can design and produce hundreds of cookies, then with equal mental dexterity, turn around and explain the techniques, physics and chemistry involved in creating it. now, mental dexterity is kind of in the eye of the beholder, because i think i'm kind of a screwball who just knows a lot. but Mom would say i'm capable of handing people parts of their world in ways they didn't see before--which is the magic i attribute to cookies, or any art that accompanies a story, which is the bigger artistic umbrella i've always been working under. i'm an *illustrator*.

but when i was 9 i was feeling down, and had a moment of psychological clarity and maturity, and i said, "at home i'm a superkid. out there, i'm a nobody. or worse, they're just mean." and i think that sentiment explains how i can brag on my cookies in one paragraph, then in the next i'm apologizing for their errors. for all i know, these things look terrible to you; i mean, you're not my mom...

long story short, i made my mom a dozen birthday hummingbirds which i thought turned out exceptionally well, and she thought were just awesome. Jeff even felt compelled to walk them in to show his coworkers when we stopped for coffee for the drive downtown--he relayed that multiple jaws dropped. the kiddo even ate 5 of them. self-confidence restored.

back to the Food Network Cookie Challenge--i'd probably recruit Mom as my assistant. not only because she thinks highly of me :) or because we've been decorating cookies since i could see over the table, or because she's driven to see me succeed. those are the big ones. but the one that makes me grin is how we are in a kitchen. when i lived at home, and 6-10 people abandoned the Thanksgiving table for pie and TV, Mom and i could break down that kitchen in 15 minutes and not have to say more than "washcloth" to the other.

i'm suddenly reminded of things that are light, quick, graceful, and operate with a kind of hum... (chuckle) Happy Birthday Mom!

coming soon, dinosaurs, mer-mares, the great big luau, and blue larvae.

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.