500 Facebook Fans Giveaway

***GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED*** Winner announced below on the Rafflecopter widget.

To celebrate reaching 500 Facebook fans I'm having a giveaway. I'm a little late with this giveaway as I now have 571 fans but I had a very trying week and I'm just now starting to feel like myself again. I started my Facebook page in January. In only three months I've reached another milestone. Thank you to everyone that follows me. I truly appreciate each and every one of you.

Do you remember when I shared how I stored my icing colors in a craft toolbox? Would you like one of these boxes to store your colors in?

Do you remember when I shared how I store my icing tips in a storage container with compartments? Would you like one of these containers to store your icing tips in?

What else can you win? You could win a package of twelve Wilton 12" disposable decorating bags, a package of 4 Wilton couplers, 2 Wilton #2 icing tips, 2 Wilton #3 icing tips, 2 of my favorite decorating squeeze bottles, 2 yellow sticks (aka boo-boo sticks), 5 Americolor icing colors (black, white, deep pink, lemon yellow & leaf green) and finally a cute little cupcake bank I found while shopping.

I'm giving Rafflecopter a try for this giveaway. I hope I like it and I hope that you like it as well. You can read the terms and conditions of the giveaway on the Rafflecopter widget but I will say that this giveaway is open to U.S. residents only (sorry my international friends but international shipping is just too much for me right now) and it will end on Sunday, May 6th at midnight EST.

Skull & Crossbones, Pandas & Party Penguins

Skull & Crossbone Cookies:

The skull & crossbone cookies are a simple design but I wanted to show you how they came together. One of my favorite decorating techniques is using another cutter to make an impression on a cookie before you bake it. This leaves you guides for decorating. I learned this technique from the amazing Sugarbelle here.

I used two different sizes of heart cutters to leave impressions of the eyes & nose on the cookies.

Next, I outlined the cookies with black piping consistency icing and allowed the outline to dry completely. Then I flooded the cookies with white flood consistency icing.

To avoid bleeding I let the white dry for several hours before filling in the eyes & nose with black flood consistency icing. Finally, once the cookies were completely dry, I used a small paint brush and black gel food coloring to paint on eyelashes. I learned this technique for Sugarbelle here.

My sister had to point out to me that I did not do a mouth on the cookies. This was done on purpose. I wanted the design to be all about the eyes and nose. I wanted a girlie cookie without making it look like a Monster High cookie. I think the hearts and lashes gave me just the right amount of girlie.

Panda Cookies:

To make the panda cookies I started with cookies that had already been outlined & flooded white and were completely dry. I used my Kopykake to trace an image I found online onto the cookies with a black edible marker.

Next, I used black piping consistency icing and a #1.5 tip to go over the traced image. I allowed the outline to dry completely before filling in with black flood consistency icing. In hindsight, I did not like the way I did the eyes. The white spaces did not come out how I wanted them to because the areas were too small.

I fixed the eyes by going back over the areas that should have been white with white piping consistency icing and a #1.5 tip. Then, I used black piping consistency icing and a #1.5 tip to add details to the feet. Mistakes can happen when you decorate but all that matters is how you fix them. I'm pleased with how the little guy came out.

Party Penguin Cookies:

I won't go into too much detail about the penguin cookies because they have been done before. My Valentine's Day penguins were created after seeing this great tutorial by The Bearfoot Baker. I love this penguin cutter and it is the best 99 cents I have ever spent (got it on clearance at Michael's Craft Store during Christmas). Who says a seasonal cutter has to only be for that particular season? These penguins made their way from being cold weather penguins all snuggled up in their hats & scarves (still my favorites Lisa) to Valentine's penguins still wearing hats for the cold but finding warmth through love (I know cheesy). Now they are party penguins ready to celebrate a birthday. These could be baby shower penguins too with little beanies on. Just saying.

Anyway I lost track. Let's get back to the party penguins. The pictures below show you the steps I took to make the cookies. I'm not the best at free handing so I used an edible marker to mark the penguin's belly. I found an image of a penguin that had a belly I liked and I projected it on the cookies with my Kopykake.

I outlined the cookies black and let the outline dry completely before adding the white outline. I allowed the white outline to dry completely before flooding the body and the hat.

Finally, once the cookies were completely dry I added the streamer details on the top of the hat and the eyes, beak and feet. I did not intend to flood the feet black. This was an oopsie but I fixed it by piping the feet details on top of the black. Looks like I meant to do it that way all along.

Thanks for stopping by today! I'll see you again soon with another creation.

Rag Doll Bunnies aka Dead Bunnies

Are you ready to make rag doll bunnies (I hate calling them dead bunnies but that's what my friend wanted)? They are easy to make so let's get started. 

First you cut gingerbread men shapes and use the bunny head to cut off the heads of the gingerbread men so you're left with the body. Next cut your bunny head shapes and place them together with the body. I gently rubbed the two pieces together at the seam to help them adhere to each other when baking. I would suggest leaving the cookies on the pan to cool completely before moving them. Also, I like to decorate day old cookies because they are less fragile. I won't lie this cookie was a little frustrating to piece together because the ears kept wanting to break. I didn't freeze the dough when I did it. Freezing probably would have made it easier.

I prepared the eyes by rolling out black fondant to about 1/8 inch. You could roll it thinner but I wanted a little thickness for stability. For the large button I used a Wilton 1M tip, a Wilton #12 tip for the indentation and a Wilton #3 tip to make the holes. For the smaller button I used a Wilton #12 tip, a small round cutter for the indentation and a Wilton #2 tip for the holes. I allowed the buttons to dry overnight. When fondant hardens it will have a bite on the outside but be soft on the inside.

I outlined and flooded my cookies white and allowed them to dry completely. Then I used sugar glue to adhere the buttons to the cookies. Sugar glue is made by mixing 1/4 tsp of tylose powder to 2 tablespoons of warm water and allowing it to sit in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. If you do not want to use sugar glue you can use piping gel or even a small dot of royal icing. Allow the buttons time to adhere to the cookies before moving on.

Then with black piping consistency icing pipe the stitch details on the buttons and make a nose. Finally, I used a Wilton #103 tip to make a ruffle collar on the bunny. You can find a great tutorial on making ruffles here.

There you have it. Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. By the way, here is my inspiration. It's an image that I found online.

I would not recommend making a cookie like this for shipping. It's a fragile cookie. When I packaged them I said a little prayer. Thankfully they were just making a short trip to my friend's job.

Eclectic Cookies

I had trouble naming this post because these cookies do not fall into one particular category. A friend asked if I could make some cookies for his daughter's birthday. She is graduating high school this year and will be leaving for the Air Force. He told me that she loves penguins and pandas. I had this cute girlie idea in my brain for how I was going to decorate them. Well the idea changed when he asked if I could throw in some skull & crossbones and dead bunnies (yes I was thrown off by this). He wanted the cookies to be cute but not too girlie. He also said absolutely no pink and requested the colors black, white, blue and purple.

I'm not sure if my friend's daughter would label herself goth but she has her own unique style. When I was in high school the "different" kids were called "alternative" and I was one of them. I used to wear combat boots with dresses. This is why this set of cookies was something I wanted to do and I found the theme quite interesting. This is what I came up with. I hope she likes them. I think they're cute and girlie but not too girlie (in hindsight I probably should have made the purple and blue darker for an edgier feel). The bunny is not so much a dead bunny but more like a rag doll bunny. I'm not really into gruesome.

I'll be back with tutorials for these cookies tomorrow.

***Update*** She loved the cookies!! :-)

How I Like To Ice A Cake

I am a very impatient person. I just hate to do things that take too long. It still baffles me how I like to decorate cookies because of all the time spent waiting on the cookies to dry. Go figure. Somehow decorating cookies centers me I guess. Cakes, on the other hand, are a different story. On the few occasions when I make cakes I want them to be done quickly. Today I'm sharing with you how I like to ice a cake. Personally I don't think there is a right or wrong way to ice a cake (cake experts might gasp right now). I think it comes down to finding what works for you. Traditionally you should level your cake and then dam and fill it. Then you would crumb coat it and allow it to settle before doing your final coat.

This is how I like to do it. I level my cake and then I dam it and fill it. Next, I squish the cake down pretty firmly for quick settling. Then I take some icing with an offset spatula and firmly press it into the sides of the cake to prevent air pockets from forming.

Now I'm ready to get on with the show and ice away. I put a huge glob of icing on top of the cake and then using an offset spatula I spread it around & let it start falling over on the sides. Then I ice the sides and use my spatula to lightly remove excess icing. 

Next, I'm ready to get this cake smooth. I use a bench scraper to gently start removing icing from the sides of the cake. I go around and around removing small amounts of icing until I'm satisfied with how the sides look. In case you accidentally take too much off then just add more icing and smooth again with the scraper.  

As you can see a small lip formed on the top of the cake. I take my scraper and start smoothing it down. I'm not the best at this step but I do it well enough for my liking. I'm not trying to be a professional. 

After I get the top where I want it I clean up my board and then leave the cake to sit for about 10 minutes so the icing crusts over. Oh yeah, I forget to mention that my icing is a crusting buttercream. After about ten minutes I gently touch the cake and if no icing is coming off on my finger then it's ready for the final smoothing. I use a Viva paper towel and a fondant smoother to smooth the tops and the sides of the cake. Smooth away until you're happy with it.

You may have noticed a crumb in the icing. You can gently remove it with a toothpick and then smooth over the spot. If you have several crumbs it's okay because you can do some creative decorating to cover them up. This is what the cake looks like after smoothing. Not bad for bypassing the crumb coat. This is what works for me.

Here's the final cake all dressed up. Thanks for stopping by! I'll be working on some interesting cookies next.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Remember the Easter cookies I've been showing you in my last couple of posts? Are you ready for the big reveal of my Easter project? Well here it is.

I have seen cakes on Pinterest and Facebook with cookies as accents. I got to thinking that I make cakes and I make cookies but I've never put the two together. I thought Easter would be the perfect opportunity to try it. I have a lot to do tomorrow so I had to get this project done today. I have no idea if the cookies will stay on until tomorrow since I've never done this before. So far so good. Let's hope & pray that it all works out.

Here's the bunny in egg by himself. I didn't want to show him off before this reveal because I thought the baked in toothpicks would give away the surprise.

The cookie cutter is the bunny in egg cutter from SweetDaniB available at Copper Gifts.

I hope everyone has a great Easter tomorrow! I can't wait to dig into this cake!

Mr. & Mrs. Easter Bunny

Today's another quick post to show you the next set of cookies I made for Easter. Meet Mr. & Mrs. Easter Bunny. They're simple but fashionable bunnies. Always ready for a night out on the town. LOL!

I wanted to keep my Easter designs simple this year. These bunnies are so easy to make. You simply pipe and flood your cookie and while the cookie is still wet drop in black candy beads for the eyes. For the female bunny I dropped in pink sugar pearls to give her a pearl necklace. I let the cookies dry overnight and then added the tails, noses, bow tie and eyelashes. Thanks Sugarbelle for the tip of on making eyelashes.

I've got one more set of bunnies to show you but I'll be posting those this weekend when I unveil my project. Hopefully this project lives up to the hype.

I'm sorry I haven't done any tutorials this week but I've been suffering with bad allergies and I get brain fog.

Easter Eggs & Sheep Cookies

I'm not a big holiday person. Maybe it's because I was born on Thanksgiving day. I don't know what it is but when holidays roll around I really don't get too excited about them. When I became obsessed with cookie decorating this mindset started to change a bit. How can you not like holidays when you decorate cookies? Some of the best cookie designs I've seen are done for holidays.

This year I'm working on an Easter project which I will reveal on Saturday if all goes as planned. The first designs I have to show you are Easter eggs and sheep.

The egg with the flowers was made using the wet on wet technique which I demonstrated in my last post. The other eggs are also a wet on wet technique called marbling. Sweetopia has a great video on marbling here.

Look at these little sheep. I love them! I decided that my sheep needed to be festive so I decorated them in spring/Easter colors. After I made them I thought these would be great for baby showers. I purchased the cutter at Copper Gifts. It is designed by SweetDaniB who was my inspiration for the design. Who better to model the design after than the creator of the cutter? You can watch her decorate a sheep here.

Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned for more cookies.

Piping, Flooding & Wet on Wet Technique

I was overwhelmed by the response that I got from my April Showers collection. It really warmed my heart to know that so many people liked my design. There were a few questions about how I made the flowers on the boots and umbrella. The flowers were made using a wet on wet technique. This is simply where you drop flood consistency icing onto a cookie that has just been flooded and is still wet. I learned this technique from Sugarbelle here.

I'm using this technique again for my Easter cookie designs and I thought I would film myself doing it so that you could see it in action. I forgot that Sugarbelle had made a video on wet on wet & I realized it when I was writing this post and linking to her sight. Now you'll have two videos to watch. :)

In the video you will also see me pipe and flood a cookie. Hope you find this video helpful. Have a great week everyone!