Cookie Crazy

I went cookie crazy this weekend. I discovered a cool cookie website called bake at 350

http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/

I was amazed at how willing the sites author, Bridget, is to share her ideas, recipes and process of making cookies. She also has a spin off website called university of cookie where she and her cookie professional friends post tutorials on how to make great/decorate beautiful cookies.

http://www.universityofcookie.com/

All the cookies I made were shown on the site or inspired by cookies on the site. I was practicing their method of flood icing. Basically you use regular royal icing to pipe an outline for what you want. then you go back after it has set and fill in the empty spaces with runny royal icing. It was messy but fun to have a chance to be creative.

Pink Roses-I piped the edge of the flower, then filled the whole thing in with flood icing (I found that if the icing isn't filling in the area right you can use a tooth pic to spread the flood frosting.) After that dried, I came back and piped on the dark pink spiral and the green leaves. (Next time I think I will do fondant leaves or pipe the leaves on curved parchment paper and apply them after they dry to give the cookie a 3 dimensional look.

Daisy in the garen-I piped out the flower center, petals and green outer edge. Then filled them all in with the flood icing. After it dried I added the white dots. (On the links above there are some cool examples of feathered frosting techniques that I tried with some of these but I think I need some more practice with it.)

Sea Shell cut out-I drew a sea shell on some heavy paper, cut it out and then used it as a template on the cookie dough. I cut the cookies out with a knife. I thought this was a cool idea because you don't need to have a million cookie cutters to be able to make a variety of cookies.

Lemon slices- Right after I piped the outline and the segments I put some yellow sugar sprinkles on a plate and dipped the cookie into it. After that dried, I went back and filled each section in with the flood icing. Next time I think it would be fun to add some lemon flavoring to the frosting.

I hope bake at 350 and university of cookie inspire you as much as they did me and you have a fun time making your cookies. I stayed up until midnight enjoying the process and doing it in peace with kids asleep in their beds.