If you’re looking for an easy, summer-themed cookie idea that promises great results every time, I have the perfect suggestion– fondant impression mats. Wilton has this great sea life mold that offers a variety of nautical designs all on a single mat. These impressions are ideal for cookies because the molds themselves are relatively shallow and have a flat back surface. Just attach them on a cookie to add instant color and dimension.

Before I continue, I should preface by saying I had never handled fondant before. I have always wanted to though, because it looked like a lot of fun, just like playing with Play-doh. Because I was a first-time fondant user, I relied heavily on the tips by Marlyn of Montreal Confections. She has an amazing YouTube channel of detailed tutorials on using fondant as well as other sugar mediums. It’s worth spending some time checking out Marlyn’s sugar artistry in action.

Okay, let’s get to it. To make these cookies you will need:

• Basic sugar cookies
• Piping and flood royal icing
• Fondant (I used Wilton’s pre-made white fondant)
• Vegetable shortening
• Corn starch
• Americolor food coloring gels
• Sea life fondant mold

Begin by outlining then flooding sugar cookies with royal icing in the color of your choice. I used one drop of Americolor teal to achieve the light blue color below. I went with round cookie cutters for this batch, but any shape would do. After all the cookies are flooded, set them aside to dry for a few hours.

Now comes the fun part…

With a fluffy, food-only paintbrush, lightly dust the fondant molds with corn starch. This will prevent the fondant from sticking to the mold and will make removing the finished shape really easy.

TIP: Make sure not to leave any clumps of corn starch in the mold or it will leave a bad impression on the fondant. (Leaving bad impressions is never good.) Just a light dusting will do, like it’s barely even there.

Next, grease your palms and fingers with shortening to prevent fondant from sticking to your hands. Then, roll a small piece of fondant into a ball and place it in the mold.

Press the fondant down firmly into the mold with your fingers, pushing it into all the nooks and crannies. Level off the top and remove any excess fondant by gliding your thumb across the top of the mold. (If fondant is sticking to your thumb, grease your thumb with more shortening.) Make sure you can clearly see all the top edges of the mold before moving on to the next step.

Bend the mat back to remove the fondant piece.

You should be left with a nicely defined sea life accent. Remember to dust the mold with corn starch before beginning the process again with another shape.

To color your fondant, simply add a few drops of food coloring gel and knead the fondant until the color is well incorporated.

I should also mention, for the coral and ocean wave molds, I found it was a lot easier to get fondant into those molds if I rolled the fondant into thin tubes first. (shown below)

After making all the fondant accents you desire, leave them out on a flat surface for a few hours to dry and harden up a bit.

After both the cookie bases and the fondant had time to set and dry, it’s time to assemble the pieces. I first planned out a few combinations by laying out fondant pieces on the cookies. Then, when I was happy with my combo choices, I used the same royal icing to attach the fondant to the top of the cookies.

Below are just a few finished cookie examples I came up with. After allowing them time to set they should be ready to party! Easy peasy for realsies.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

If you would like to try these cookies for yourself then you are in for a treat! The awesome people at Wilton are giving away a Summer-themed prize pack to one lucky winner!

The prize pack includes:

• One Sea Life Fondant and Gum Paste Mold
• One Summer 3-pc. Cookie Cutter Set
• One Extra Fine Tip FoodWriters Edible Color Markers

To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below. (Those viewing this in an email or blog reader will need to visit the actual blog post by clicking here. The widget may not appear if you are on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet.) Please allow a few moments for it to appear. Bonus entries are available for following along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Open to U.S. residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post will be a quick one. I just wanted to share with you this batch of cookies I made for Mother’s Day. I decided to go with a mom-and-kids baking theme.

As you might have guessed, I got inspiration while baking a previous batch of cookies. I essentially went around my kitchen looking for items that had large and small versions of itself. After drawing up some designs of what I found, I added some eyes and mouths to resemble adoring kids with their grown up moms.

I know some moms may not be the baker in the family. This set could easily be made for all those dads out there that love to bake, as well. Just remove the eyelashes and swap out the red lips for dad-like mustaches. Maybe change up the color palette, too.

Here are the cookie pieces I came up with:

For the baking sheet design, I decided to make the “kid” a muffle pan instead, because two baking sheets seemed too boring and flat. Although, it does make you wonder who might be this kid’s father. (A relative of the mixing bowl family would be my guess.)

Below are my favorites of the bunch. I modeled the green stand mixer after my actual mixer. I can’t get enough of that green apple color! I don’t personally own an apron (yet), but I thought one would couple well with an oven mitt. Both are made of cloth material and offer some sort of protection while in the kitchen.

Well, that completes this set. What’s funny is this batch isn’t even going to my mom. She’s diabetic. But! she’s getting an electric toothbrush that she’s been wanting instead. I am, however, dropping these off at a few friends’ homes to help celebrate their special day with their family.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and I hope everyone has a fantastic Sunday!

Just as I did for my Ewoks post, I am providing a printable template to help guide you in the icing process of this Jabba cookie.

You can download the PDF file for this design HERE.

To make the cookie shape, I used the same Easter egg cutter I used for the Ewok head. I just rotated the cutter clockwise 90 degrees and attached the two dough pieces together. The end result should look like a rounded-off heart shape.

To create this Jabba the Hutt design you will need:

• green skin color piping and flood icing (I mixed electric green, ivory, and chocolate brown food coloring)
• orange 20-second icing
• black piping icing
• dark green flood icing

Icing this cookie begins with outlining the main body sections. As I mentioned in the post before, you can use the printable template to help trace the design onto the cookie. Or, if you happen to have a Kopykake, just place the template in the projector.

Step 1. With green piping icing, outline the sections of the main body (see the picture below).

Step 2. Flood the lower body and head sections.

Step 3. After those sections set, flood the middle, man-boob section. (Or, “moobs”, as I like to call them.) Let this base dry completely for a few hours.

After the base body is completely dry, outline and flood the arms. Set this cookie aside to dry.

While the arms are drying, this is the perfect opportunity to create the royal icing transfers for Jabba’s eyeballs. On the PDF printout template, I included oval guides for making the eyes. Place a sheet of wax paper over the template. With orange 20-second icing, fill the ovals onto the wax paper. Use a toothpick and stir the middle to get rid of any trapped air bubbles. Leave this to dry for a few hours.

Once the orange eyes are completely dry, its time to add the details. With black piping icing, pipe a line down the middle of the eye for a snake-like pupil. Then, using a red food coloring marker, draw the iris-detail around the black line. They should resemble parentheses “( )”.

After the eye details have set, peel the eyes off the wax paper and attach them to the base cookie using green piping icing. (TIP: To get the right placement of the eyes on the head you can use Sugarbelle’s awesome push pin trick.) Next, using just green piping icing, draw and fill the eye lids. Just think of them as crescent moons above and below the eyes.

Add the nostrils and mouth with black piping icing. Lastly, add the butt-chin and re-outline the arms and tail with green icing.

I should mention that it is okay if your Jabba the Hutt facial details aren’t perfect. Jabba wasn’t known for having dashing features. Any “flaw” you think your Jabba may have will just add character to the cookie.

At this point in the game, the Jabba cookie should look like the picture below. You could totally stop here and call it good. However, I tend to over-think everything and thought this Jabba was looking a little plain.

I decided his green skin didn’t look wormy enough. So, I tried to add skin texture by painting on darker green icing onto certain spots. Using a clean, food-only paint brush, I mixed a darker green icing with water until it resembled watercolor paint. Making sure the brush isn’t too wet, I started brushing on the color to the edges with inwards brush strokes. Be careful not to overwork an area or the icing will start to pit.

I covered the tail, arms, around the belly, and around the face with this dark green color. It took a few tries to get it right. Below is the finished Jabba the Hutt cookie after the painted sections had time to dry.

I know this Jabba the Hutt design is a little more involved than the Ewoks I showed a few days ago. But hey, it’s nice to have options. Anywho, I hope you all have a wonderful Star Wars Day. If you decide to combine this day and Cinco de Mayo by celebrating with a few Jedi margaritas (like yours truly), stay safe. But most importantly… May the 4th be with you!

This post is linked up to one of these link parties.

Typically, character cookies are the most challenging type of decorated cookie to do. However, my hopes when I put this tutorial together was to reduce any decorating intimidation by simplifying the designs, while using common cookie cutter shapes. To top it off, I’m also providing a printout template of the designs as an aid if you decide to make these treats for yourself. Now lets get started!

For these Ewok cookies, I came up with two designs. The first one is simply the head of an Ewok. To make these head cookies, I began with cookies cut by this Easter egg cutter (shown below).

You can download and print the PDF template of this design HERE.

The first step is to make a tracing template from the printout. I like using clear template plastic as a guide because it’s durable. You can use card stock, a manila folder, or just cut out the paper design and use that as your tracing guide. It’s up to you. Place the template on the cookie and trace around it with a food coloring marker.

NOTE: If you happen to have a Kopykake projector you can skip the tracing steps entirely– just pop the template in the Kopykake and move on to the next step.

Next up, the fur. Using only piping consistency royal icing, outline around the fur sections, then continue and fill the middle areas.

Using a toothpick, swirl the end around the fur section until the area is fully covered. Let the icing set and “crust over” for about twenty minutes, then swirl a toothpick around again. This creates the rough, teddy bear texture.

For the hooded cloak area, you will need piping and flood consistency royal icing. (I mixed super red and chocolate brown food coloring to get the rust color icing for the cloak.) Outline the area first with piping icing, then flood the middle with flood icing. TIP: Use a toothpick to help spread the icing into the tight corners.

Let this set to dry for at least 8 hours (or overnight).

After the cloak area had time to dry, add the details. Use black 20-second icing for the eyes and use chocolate brown piping icing for the nose, the stitching detail, and the bottom lip. After the bottom lip had time to set (about 15 minutes), pipe the top lip. Lastly, go over the edges of the cloak again with piping icing and you are done!

Now, that is just one example of an Ewok design. Ewoks have fur in many colors and accessorize a little differently from one another. Below are a few combinations I threw together. I stuck to mostly earth-tones colors, while accenting the cloaks with tribal features like feathers and bones.

If you are feeling adventurous, here is another simplified Ewok cookie you might want to try. This time it’s a complete Ewok body design. I used a teddy bear cookie cutter from this Betty Crocker set (shown below).

You can download and print the PDF template of this design HERE.

The process for this cookie follows basically the same instructions as the Ewok head cookie above.

Here’s where these body cookies differ from the head cookies. Ewoks have three fingers and three toes on each appendage. To create these with royal icing, pipe every other toe/finger first with 20-second consistency icing. (You can see what I mean in the Step 5 below.) After the icing had time to set, pipe the remaining fingers and toes.

As for accessories, I repeated what I did to the Ewok heads with these cookies, but with some extra accents on the body. I added a utility belt with an axe around the waist on one guy, and a messenger bag/satchel on another for some variety. That’s pretty much all there’s to it. Now these Ewoks are geared up to help the Rebels and kick some Imperial butt!

Hopefully, you enjoyed this theme because I’m about to hit you with another Star Wars cookie design on actual Star Wars Day. That’s this Saturday, May 4th (in case you forgot already). So, if you’re interested in more Star Wars themed treats, please remember to check back in a few days to see what I have to share next. May the 4th be with you soon.

This post is linked up to one of these link parties.

1. Blue tinted Ball mason jars are back! but for a limited time. Typically, vintage blue jars could only be found on eBay or in antique shops. These blue Ball Heritage Jars mark the 100th anniversary of the first series of mason jars by Ball and are sure to be a collector’s item. They also come in handy as a colorful prop in food photography.

2. I hope I don’t get hate mail for saying this… I did not like last year’s Disney Pixar movie. However, Wreck-It Ralph restored my faith in Disney animation. I loved the fun storyline and all the references to arcade games, past and present.

3. I tend to procrastinate on dirty dishes, so an extra bowl to your Kitchenaid mixer is a nice to have on hand. I found this bowl doubles nicely as an ice bucket when you have people over.

4. I’ve been loving my airbrush machine lately. I try to incorporate airbrushing on cookies whenever I can now. That said, these additional sheen colors are nice to have in your airbrush arsenal. Maybe pick up these terrific electric colors too, which add a bright kick to your cookies!

5. Kitchen Papers can easily dress up any table setting, while making cleanup a cinch. I’m particularly fond of these blueprint placemats I found at West Elm, but check out the Kitchen Papers by Cake website for other awesome table runners, cake stand covers, and cheese boards options.

6. Taking better photos is an on-going process for me. I noticed that process improved faster than expected thanks to Pinch of Yum’s Tasty Food Photography eBook. I finally understood how to attractively compose a shot after reading through the book’s beautiful examples. The step-by-step instructions on how to properly post-edit your photos in Photoshop or Lightroom were also a major help.

7. Paper straws have been all the rage on food blogs for a while. I love this multi party pack, especially for food photography. There’s an array of colors included in each pack. The patterns are in stripes and dots, suitable for staging photos of any cookie style.

8. Stenciling is becoming very popular in the cookie community. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could create your own custom stencils? The Silhouette Portrait is the newest model in the Silhouette brand of electronic cutters. The Portrait is smaller and cheaper than its counterpart, the Cameo. It’s 8-inch cutting width is the perfect size for cookies at a fraction of the cost.

9. I’ve been looking for a camera bag that could also house my iPad when I travel. The Incase Sling Pack was the perfect bag for me. I love its clean lines, which doesn’t make you look like a camera-toting tourist or like you’re heading to the airport. It’s hip and stylish, yet also discreet.

10. I picked up Maria Semple’s Where’d you go, Bernadette? after a friend’s recommendation. I’m so glad I did! It’s a great read and brilliantly funny. The way she pokes fun of Seattle’s idiosyncrasies I found so relatable. It’s what drew me in the most. If you like the TV-show, Portlandia, you’ll like this book. The movie adaptation has already been announced. (So it must be good, right?)

11. Having the skills to draw awesome cartoons is a definite advantage in the world of custom cookies. Paris Christou’s ToonBox Studio is a host to a bunch of online cartoon drawing courses. I purchased the “How to Draw Cartoon Animal Characters” course and saw drastic improvements on the way I sketch. Paris teaches you the basic formula of the “ToonBox head,” and after nailing that down, the possibilities are endless.

12. This last one might solidify my status as a dork, but I wave that dork flag proudly because this item is a lot of fun. I probably spend about a quarter of my free time playing StarCraft 2. It’s a real-time strategy game and the games themselves last about 20 minutes. You can get your quick fix and then get back to living a normal life. This game decompresses me. Sometimes after a long, hard day at work, I like to just come home, relax, build my alien army, and annihilate my opponents! It’s how I unwind.

Everyday, throughout the whole month of April, be sure to check back at Kim’s blog to see what a new guest blogger will share for Autism Awareness Month.

A few months ago, I was getting tired of seeing my boring, dark, dining table surface in my photographs. I wanted some realistic variation in my photos without having to buy actual tables to clutter my condo. I searched on Pinterest for ideas and came across a nifty tutorial from Confections of a Foodie Bride (who got inspiration by a tutorial from Love & Olive Oil). It was a how-to for a double-sided, wooden table top, about 2 feet square in size.

It was exactly what I was looking for, so I took a trip to The Home Depot to get the supplies.

(For a more detailed list of supplies and the step-by-step instructions, please visit the tutorial at Confections of a Foodie Bride. My plan is to show just a glimpse into the construction process, while sending traffic their way of anyone interested in doing this themselves.)

I had most of the supplies already, with the exception of the wood planks and paint. The paint sample was just $2.94. The wood I found was only available in 4ft planks that I cut in half with a handsaw. The cost of those planks were around $30. So it came to about $35 for two food photography surfaces. Not bad!

Here’s a pic of the gluing process:

And here’s what the finished surface looks like after being weighed down by heavy objects and set to dry overnight:

After posting a few cookie photos, I was really impressed how the board surface looked in my final shots. I decided I needed to make a second one just to have a few more background color options. The hardest part was definitely picking out what colors to paint the boards. If you’re interested, here are the color samples I ended up choosing.

In order:

1. Varathane’s “Weathered Gray” wood stain
2. Behr’s “Sea Life” paint
3. Behr’s “Glacial Tint” paint
4. Varathane’s “American Walnut” stain

Tip: I wanted the wood grain to still show through after painting, so I wet my foam brush with water before applying the paint on the wood. Then I immediately wiped away the excess with a paper towel.

That’s pretty much the entire process of making these wooden table tops. Pretty easy, if I say so. Here’s a pic of my photography setup using these new wood surfaces:

If you’re wondering what those white, light boxes are on each side of the wood board, I wrote another DIY tutorial about them here. I mostly (almost always) shoot at night due to my work schedule and they are a tremendous help. Here’s a shot of the setup with the lights turned on:

Now, here are some of the actual shots with the wood table top backgrounds:

If you like what you see and feel up to a little DIY weekend project, I encourage you to head over to Confections of a Foodie Bride’s page and build one for yourself.

If you’re not up for making something or just don’t have the time for a DIY project, I totally understand. There are other simpler options that give you similar results. Melissa over at The Baked Equation shows you her food photography setup. She uses no-fuss, vinyl backdrops from Ink & Elm in creative ways. It’s worth checking out.

Now that Easter has come and gone, Spring is officially in full swing. I figured a Spring-themed throwback might be in order. Last week, I found this flower pot cupcake kit at Wal-Mart in the seasonal Easter section. The cupcake cups are made of non-stick baking silicone that look just like terracotta clay pots. If you’re interested in this kit but can’t find it at Wal-Mart, here’s a link to a similar product on Amazon.

I really wanted to use these cupcake cups for a cookie idea. When I was brainstorming “throwback” and “plants” ideas, the first thing that came to mind was Cabbage Patch Kids. So, I got to work.

In retrospect, I guess I could have possibly worked with a Strawberry Shortcake idea as well. (Maybe next time, Huckleberry Pie. Maybe next time.)

To make the Cabbage Patch Kids cookie topper, I used a football-shaped cookie cutter. I think a lips-shaped cutter (that you’d typically see around Valentine’s Day) would have worked too.

The flower pot cupcakes were made with the chocolate cake mix included in the kit. I baked the cake mix directly in the silicone cups and then covered the top with chocolate frosting. I crumbled up an extra cupcake, then covered the frosting with those crumbs for a potting soil look.

I found flat bamboo skewers (pictured above) at World Market that I used to help the cookies stand upright on the cupcake. I loved the flat surface of these picks because you can easily add a touch of royal icing and it attaches flat behind the cookie.

Growing up, my siblings and I never owned a Cabbage Patch Kid but I do remember those dolls were everywhere. Most of my friends had one. If some kids weren’t into the dolls, they more than likely collected the parady trading cards, Garbage Pail Kids. Do you remember those cards? They were very popular in my school because of their naughty and gross images– an ideal combination for most 3rd-graders. Did you ever see the live-action movie based on those character cards? (If not, you aren’t missing much.)

Oh, the 80′s. What an era.

This post is linked up to one of these link parties.

Are you a fan of the show, Game of Thrones? If so, you probably are aware the Season 3 premiere airs the night of Easter Sunday. I’m stoked and cannot wait. To commemorate this special event I wanted to combine both occasions by making Game of Thrones dragon egg cookies.

[SPOILER ALERT] If you haven’t see the show or aren’t currently caught up, this post has some mild spoilers. So, if you don’t want any story lines to be given away, read no more and just skip to the pretty pictures at the bottom of the post. [/SPOILER ALERT]

These dragon eggs were a major feature during Season 1. Daenerys Targaryen, a.k.a. the Mother of Dragons, was given these eggs as a wedding gift. Daenerys is probably my favorite character because after she got the title of Khaleesi she also became a badass dragon whisperer. That alone seemed to overshadow all the other characters in the show for me.

To make the eggs, I began with sketching out the design. At first, I thought simple scalloped rows across the egg would do the trick. But it didn’t look right at all. The egg just looked flat and boring. So, then I tried to sketch a grid guide that showed dimension and some sort of rounded perspective. It was harder than I thought, but after a few tries (seven, actually) I had a grid I was happy with.

I love using tracing paper sometimes for sketching because if I want the design to be symmetric, I can just fold the sheet down the middle and trace the pattern on the other side. Also, tracing paper made converting my diamond grid into a scale surface really easy.

I first began by texturing the bottom using Haniela’s plastic wrap method. After piping the outline and flooding every other scale until it was complete, the dragon eggs still looked off. The pattern seemed right but the cookie still looked too flat, dull, and plain.

That is, until I revved up my airbrush gun.

With an airbrush food-coloring mixture of Earth tone colors, I did a super light coat over the entire cookie. Then, I went over the left and right sides with a heavier coat. This gave the cookie the illusion of being more rounded. Also, the darker shading added a nice gritty, aged look to the eggs.

And there you have it. The finished dragon eggs. Hopefully, these cookies carry the Targaryen stamp of approval.

What do you think, Daenerys?

“WHERE ARE MY DRAGONS?!?!”

Calm down, Khaleesi. Did you check the kitchen? I pretty sure I saw them in the cookie jar. :-P

If you’d like to try airbrushing on cookies but don’t know where to start, I recommend heading over to Lisa at The Bearfoot Baker. Lisa has a whole slew of tips and tutorials on everything you need to know about airbrushing cookies.

If you’re looking for more Game of Thrones sweet treats, Jennifer at Not Your Momma’s Cookie has some awesome GoT-themed dessert ideas you have to check out for yourself.

This post is linked up to one of these link parties.

It’d be so awesome. With luck you would always get green lights at intersections, find 20′s in your jacket pocket when you’re short on cab fare, and you’d totally win if there was a real-life version of the Hunger Games because the odds would always be in your favor. Just to name a few.

Unfortunately, luck doesn’t come naturally to me. I have to rely on charms to boost my good luck potential. So, when my fellow cookie blogger friend, Melissa of Simply Sweets by Honeybee, asked us to cookie-fy a good luck charm I just had to look to my bookshelf by the window for inspiration. I decided to make a money tree cookie.

Sadly, yes, that’s a random stock image of a money tree. I would have posted an actual picture of mine but it’s in bad shape and I’m a little ashamed. (Damn you, dark Seattle winters! *shakes fist in air*)

Luckily for me, money trees are always in stock at Ikea. I’ll head over there and pick up a new one in the Spring when I’m ready to part with my current one. My mom is a firm believer money trees bring good fortune. That’s one reason I try to always have one in my house– for those few times she visits. I don’t know if I am as firm of a believer as my mom, but I like to have a money tree around in the chance it does up your luck. It also helps that it’s an attractive indoor-plant. (when it’s not suffering from my neglect :-\)

Oh, one side note. What do you think of the picture above? LilaLoa is challenging us to change up our photography. It’s definitely been a challenge for me. Typically, after I finish a batch, I throw them on a white plate, take one side angle shot and one bird’s-eye-view shot and call it good. But lately, I’ve been more conscientious on trying different ways to take photos. I bought some props, cut up a brown paper bag, and poured some iced tea to make this set a little more interesting. I think I was going for an overall “earthy” tone for the shot. What do you think? Any suggestions?

Well this project was a lot of fun to do and I want to thank Melissa for inviting me to participate. (Thanks, Melissa!) Please check out the other “charming” cookies for this project.

1. Opal Ring by Tami Rena’s Cookies
2. My Children by Kookie Kreations by Kim
3. Hamsa & Evil Eye by Not Your Everyday Cookie
4. Wonder Woman Shirt by The Cookie Puzzle
5. Attitude is My Good Luck Charm by Pink Little Cake
6. Cookies Are My Lucky Charm by The Baked Equation
7. Good Luck Money Tree by Me :)
8. Security Blanket by Ellie’s Bites Decorated Cookies
9. Lucky Number 32 by Cristin’s Cookies
10. Always With Me by The Cookie Corner AZ
11. Leprechauns by Trilogy Edibles
12. Good Luck Elephants by Simply Sweets by Honeybee