Do you feel more creative when you surround yourself with other creative people? That’s how I feel every time I visit my brother in San Francisco. Man, that city is full of artistic talent! My brother’s friend, Steve, is one of those talents. I recently collaborated with him on a set of cookies I want to share with you.

Steve is an awesome illustrator specializing in artwork that has interesting dimension. He told me a few weeks ago he’s been wanting to switch gears and focus more on 2-D children’s book style illustrations. Our conversation on this topic really piqued my interest. For while, I had this idea for a winter cookie lingering in my mind, so I ask Steve if he wanted to sketch the design for me using that children’s book style he mentioned. I was ecstatic when he said YES(!) and we got to work.

I had in mind a stacked-cookie concept for a snow angel and thought Steve could help me sketch out the details. I had a just few criteria for the design:

• Sketch out a boy and a girl design using the same shape cutout. (Only having to cut-out one shape makes things easy.)
• Don’t get super detailed. (Simple is key for piping a 3-inch cookie.)
• Don’t get super crazy with the amount of colors. (mixing colors wears out my arm. After mixing 6 colors I usually have to take a break and/or take a nap.)

Steve drew up some great ideas and finally came up with two designs that I thought were amazing, yet simplistic.

He sent over a file of the cutout shape and I made a template of it using clear template plastic for quilting. I love this material for creating templates because it’s a great surface to mark on, easy to cut with scissors, and doesn’t get ruined when you place it on buttery cookie dough.

Here are the finished decorated figures. There were still a few small details I couldn’t quite capture in icing that Steve had in his sketches but I still think these turned out pretty great.

After the snow angel figures were finished, I started construction on the base of the cookie. First, I iced a large, round cookie with white flood icing. Using an offset spatula, I spread the icing thin until the cookie was covered. The thin royal icing dries pretty quickly.

Next, I attached each figure to each base with icing, then outlined and flooded the appropriate areas with white flood icing.

After the flooded areas were dry, the snow angel cookies were complete! Here’s the finished boy…

… and girl.

I want to thank Steve for lending me his talents on these cookies. (Keep a lookout for a package in the mail because these cookies are heading your way.) If you’d like to see more of his amazing work, head on over to his Facebook page.

Well, I think this might be the last post from me before Christmas Day. I’m taking a cookie break to finish up a few errands this weekend to get ready for the big day. In any case, I wish everyone safe travels if you’re traveling this weekend and a very Merry Christmas!!