Valentine's Day Cookies

You are my Love bug

I loved the muah cookies so much that I went ahead and made a whole bunch of Valentine's Day Cookies that are on sale via my baking outfit - The Dessert Island. The response to my V-day cookies were so great that I thought why not share them here as well? As always, my designs are simple are something that anyone with an eye for cookie decorating can attempt. I always prefer cheeky and fun V'day cookies/msg's than the sappy ones, so my cookies reflect that, barring a few :) No tutorial this time on these, since this is a just drool post. But I do hope to get your feedback on them. 

So here goes, the one you see on the top is aptly titled you are my love bug and they remind me of the love bug/lady bird cupcakes I had made and shared on my blog a year ago. You can see that post here..

The next on the list is one that is my fav and I call him Mr Lova Lova. The Casanova of the pack, you can't resist falling in love with him... Perfect for those who want to take him home or to gift to your special someone... Side effects include swooning and Shaggy's song playing in your head on repeat. Say it with me, Mr lova lova ♪ ♫ ♩...

Mr Lova Lova

The next one was inspired by one of my favorite songs while growing up. "Though we gotta say goodbye for the summer, but darling I promise you this, I'll send you all my love, everyday in a letter, sealed with a kiss..." 

Muah cookies

Care for a kiss?

Long time no see and yes, it's all my fault. One of these days I'm gonna give myself a shelling over how I've been so irregular with my blog. For those of you who are still around, I am coming up with a project on the blog that will have me blogging more regularly and more importantly, share with you'll some great recipes/designs. So stay tuned and once again, I am so sorry for the long absence. I only hope the adage absence makes the heart fonder applies here :p  But for now, I am making up for that with a step by step tutorial of a cookie design that I fell in love with the minute I saw it. Valentine's Day is around the corner and I don't know about you, but I like cheeky ones rather than sappy valentines and this one has cheeky 'smacked' all over it. It's such a simple design that even someone with no cookie decorating experience can do it with ease and that's why this is the first tutorial of the year. Simple and fabulous, this one's a keeper and I take no credit to the design. Sweetambs is the original creator of this design (as far as I know) and I followed suit and I hope you do too.. 

For this project you'll need - 

• Cookie dough (You can use shortbread or sugar cookie dough for this). Here are some popular links for both - here and here. 
• A heart shaped cookie cutter.
• Or go and buy a ready-made heart shaped cookie  if you are feeling lazy and use that.
• Royal icing (in flood consistency/ten second consistency) - you can find my recipe and details here.
• Red food colour (gel or powder based).
• A toothpick, scribe tool or a long blunt needle.
• Piping bags/parchment piping cones or just a ziplock.

Spooks in a teacup

Spooks in a teacup

I'm going all out on Halloween cookies. Yes, we don't celebrate Halloween in India, but when you get a chance to make cute lil monster cookies, you take it. I chanced upon this idea long back from a picture I had saved some time ago. But not wanting to just give credit to an unknown picture, I dug deeper as I wanted to credit the idea to the rightful owner and after trawling around, I found her. The inspiration behind these cuties is from Meaghan Mountford and her delightful blog - The Decorated Cookie. If you haven't heard of her, head over to her blog by clicking on the link above and go ogle at her creations like I do. But wait, only on one condition. That you come back to my post. My family of spooks in a tea cup need your tender loving care :)

Spooks in a row

These cookie sticks are so easy that you could do them as a last minute Halloween idea. Just be prepared for family to just stare at them and not want to eat them. I know Halloween is supposed to be filled with scary monsters but try as I might, I cant get these to look scary. They look better looking as cute as a button. And if that weren't enough, I made them their very own family. Mamma spook, Pappa spook and two little spooklings who say Boo in unison. Ok, now before I die of cute overload, 

Here's what you will need:

•  Cookie dough (You can use shortbread or sugar cookie dough for this). Here's a link to a good shortbread cookie recipe
• Royal icing and Royal icing candy eyes. You can find my recipe for both here 
• Food colouring of your choice
• Piping bags
• Candy flowers (optional)

Method:

Prepping mummy spook

• Roll out your cookie dough and cut out strips of cookie, approximately 4 inches long and half to 3/4th inch wide.
• Chill them for about ten minutes in the fridge.
• Bake the cookies at 180 C for about ten minutes till the sides are slightly browned.
• Once the cookies are cool, put some royal icing in your piping bag, snip off the end and pipe random squiggles for the mummy cookie. Refer to the pic on the right for instructions. You basically pipe diagonal lines all the way down and then the opposite side. Once that's done, drop in two candy eyes and leave to dry. Viola, you have your mummy cookie.
• For the Dotted daddy, drop in thick dots of icing in any random pattern in your choice of colour and drop in two eyes on the top and leave to dry.
• For the swirly baby, again, pipe swirls, going from the right to left or vice versa. Drop in eyes and leave to dry. Add candy flowers to some if you want to, or leave them as they are.

The family that spooks together sticks together

You can experiment with different colours and designs. Let me tell you an little secret. Spook cookies are messy little things, so this is something even someone with no cookie decorating experience can do. The messier the better, it adds more character to your cookies. So put on your baking gloves and bake and decorate these 'boo'tiful cookies.

Happy Halloween in advance to you'll and go ahead, Get, Set, Bake!...

Naughty cookies

Bachelor party favours

My friend's getting married and I couldn't resist making him cookies since they are soon becoming my USP. And since he was getting hitched soon, I HAD to make them naughty. These lil cuties are PG 13, but naughty anyways.. 

Packaged and ready to be gifted

I had seen similar ones on one of my Internet trawls and had wanted to make them for some time and I'm so glad I got to finally make them for a friend. I don't remember the website i got inspired from for these, would've shared a link otherwise.. The design is self-explanatory for those wanting to try their hand at it. It's a vanilla bean cookie, decorated with royal icing. I used heart cookie cutters since I didn't have all the fancy body shape cutters. For those who want them and don't wanna try making them, give me a holler and I'd be glad to supply you with a bunch of these, customised to match your design. For now, gaze at these polka dotted naughty cookies :)

Try your hand at experimenting with different patterns and designs and, like I always say, Get, Set, Bake... 

Oranges and Lemons

Oranges and lemons, sold for a penny,

Oh, those school girls are so many!

The grass is green and the rose is red,

Remember me when I am dead-dead-dead-dead-dead!

Most of us have grown up singing/playing this rhyme and the game. Everyone holds hands in a circle, sings it and everyone falls down at the end of it. A simple, mindless game that has been an integral part of our childhood. But why am I mentioning it here you might ask?

That's because I have been on a cookie decorating spree lately and as always, I have to share my creations with you guys :) I found inspiration for these online, thanks to Google images, so I can't take credit for the idea, just for the inspiration and execution. Regardless, I'm glad that they turned out so well.. The oranges immediately reminded me of this rhyme and took me back to school days, playing with my friends in school :) Sigh!...

I made the baby feeding bottle cookies for a friend who is expecting and I'm mighty pleased with the results. Not too bad for a first time effort I would say, at the risk of blowing my own horn :p Jokes aside, currently, I feel there really isn't a greater joy than baking for loved ones and seeing their joy on receiving them. I packed a few goodie bags with these treats among others and hearing the gasps of joy made my day :) For all my guinea pigs out there, oops, I mean friends :p, many more goodie bags to follow. I've got a baking itch that just won't go away.

Do give me your feedback on them and also share any other ideas that you would like me to execute on a cookie.

As always, I have used a simple sugar cookie recipe (added orange and lime zest for the fruit cookies to give them that added flavour) and designed them using tinted Royal Icing. For the feeding bottle cookie, there's no tutorial as such, as it is self-explanatory. I made them without any fancy cookie cutter, it was completely freehand. The oranges and limes take a bit of know-how, so if you are interested in replicating them, do contact me if you have any queries, I'll be glad to help. I can make a step-by-step tutorial like I have done earlier and post that too if I get enough queries for the same. 

If these have inspired you, like I say always,  Get, Set Bake.

Black Sheep Cookies

Counting sheep?

I love decorating cookies. Till a while ago, cookies to me conjured up images of either standard cookie-shaped biscuits or plain round mounds of yummness, occasionally spattered with chocolate chips, fruits etc. But all that changed the day I discovered cookies decorated with royal icing. Soon I realised cookies can be a work of art by themselves. 
While mine are nowhere near art, yet, I do manage to have fun with them and hope to inspire you to do the same. I recently joined a group on FB that gets all 'black sheep' together in a forum. The ones who paved their own path, didn't go with the flow and followed their heart. Admit it, we all have a bit of a black sheep in us :) If you think you are a fellow black sheep, do join the group on FB here
For the very first meet (oh the stories and people, I felt more grey than black compared to some of the amazing people I met and their adventures :) ), I wanted to bake the members something. Any excuse to try and make something yum I tell you :)
I wanted to make cupcakes and decorate them as black sheep, but kept that for another day thanks to transport issues. So cookies they were and I came up with this:

Black beauties

 You can personalize your cookies any way you want. For instance, I used a basic sugar cookie recipe and baked the cookies. After that, all I did was flood the cookies in black Royal icing (recipe here) and then once it dried, I piped white dots on the edges and the lettering to commemorate the event. You need not be a piping expert for flooding and dots. The text requires a lil bit of practice, but if I can do it with no training whatsoever, so can you :)
Happy cookie decorating folks. 

Eye Candy

'Eye' got candy

I have been wanting to do a step by step tutorial for long now but kept pushing it off for lack of time. Today, I decided to stop procrastinating and get down to it. Today, I am going to show you'll something that is very simple to make and so versatile in its uses. I came across this idea a long time ago, but it wasn't until I got an order for them that I got down to doing it. This is a great exercise that you can indulge in, come summer, with your kids as they will have a good time making them and an even greater time playing with them, of course, most of them will end up in their tummies before going on dessert projects :)
So without further ado, here they are. I have used them on smiley cookies, but their applications are endless. After all, a couple of baby blue eyes can up the aww factor of almost anything. 
First, lets get started with the basic recipe for the icing. I use royal icing as it sets hard and lasts for a long time, some, almost a year if stored properly. I used the basic recipe found on Joy of Baking and tweaked it a little to suit me. You can experiment with the host of recipes available online once you get comfortable with it. I prefer to use meringue powder rather than raw egg whites as many debate the factor of raw egg whites containing food-borne pathogens such as salmonella. Better safe than sorry right. Here's the recipe for the Royal Icing:

Ingredients:

1. One cup icing sugar
2. 3/4 tablespoon Meringue powder
3. One teaspoon vanilla extract
4. 1/4 cup warm water 
5. Food colouring in baby blue and black

Blue-eyed treats

Method:

• Whisk the sugar and meringue powder.
• Add the vanilla extract and the water, bit by bit, whisking as you do so.  (Even though the recipe calls for 1/4 cup of water, you might need much lesser depending on the consistency, so add a little at a time)
• Beat the mixture on medium speed for about 5 to 6 minutes. You will notice that the consistency is runny at first, but stiffer as you beat.
• You can test if the icing is ready by using the ten second rule. You do so by lifting the whisker and letting the icing drop back into the bowl in ribbons. If the surface of the mixture becomes smooth in 10 seconds, you are good to go. If it is quicker than ten seconds, the icing is too runny and you need to add more icing sugar and if it is much longer, add a bit more water. 
• Divide the icing in batches and colour them accordingly.  You will need more white, a little less blue and much lesser black.
• Fill them into your individual piping bags. I use butter paper, roll them into cones and pipe away, but you can use various icing tips available. Make sure it has a small round opening for this recipe. Here's an example of a good tip from Wilton.
• Line your counter with butter/parchment paper and start piping like so:

Leave the candy eyes on the counter-top to dry. They might take anywhere from 4 hours to a day or so depending on the humidity of the area you are in. Once they are completely dry, peel them off carefully and store them in an airtight container. To attach them to cookies, dab a tiny dot of royal icing on the backside of the cookies and stick them where you want. 

For instance, for the smiley face cookies, flood the cookies with your choice of coloured royal icing, once they dry, attach the eyes, pipe out smiles, a nose and eyelashes if you please and there you have it, a smiley face cookie.Experiment with consistencies according to your design.

Cookie Mania

Melon mania, inspired from this link from pinterest

My latest obsession is designing cookies. Chanced upon a blog on the most amazing cookies ever. These are nothing short of works of art and this is where I found my new-found love for cookies decorated with royal icing. Marian is a cookie goddess and if you do manage to come back after ogling at her goodies on her site, do check out my humble beginnings in the cookie decorating field :)

Swirls galore

These cookies are made using a basic sugar cookie recipe and have been decorated using tinted royal icing. 

I heart cookies

Do give me your feedback on them as this is the first time I have attempted them. Be sure to see more of them in the near future on my blog.  

Three's company too