Engagement Cookie Overload

Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

While everyone else in the good old US of A was preparing for their Thanksgiving feast, I was hunkered down assembling and decorating a hundred engagement cookies!!  Why oh why did the bride-to-be schedule her party on the Saturday after Thanksgiving?

I had planned ahead and baked, partially decorated, and froze the cookies a few weeks prior, but on the day before Thanksgiving I was madly making fondant flowers and embellishing my mini masterpieces.

I experimented and made a few cookies using 4 different plaque/frame cutters.  One frame cutter by Ann Clark had a long, narrow shape that was perfect for writing out a message.

The other plaque cutters came in a set of three that were also very cute.  BTW, the bride's color is blush.

I had some cookies in the "Stick Couple" design...

And some in the "Save the Date Design"...  Oops sorry I didn't take a picture of that one.

I had some Snuggling Doves...

And some Mini Wedding Cakes.  Actually a lot of mini cakes.  When I was planning the cookies I thought these were the cutest design, but my finished minis didn't turn out as precious-looking as I had hoped. 

I guess in the end my favorite turned out to be a simple round cookie decorated with a bouquet of flowers.  

Simple and elegant.  Not too busy and not over the top.  If I every have to make another batch of engagement cookies, I just going to make these.

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Easy Fondant Ribbon Roses

Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
 
A simple way to make elegant, decorated sugar cookies is with the Fondant Ribbon Rose.  These ribbon roses are so much quicker and easier than buttercream version, and best of all there is no mess!

To begin simply roll out the fondant as thin as you can.  I'm using Via Roma Bakery Fondant on this cookie, but any kind will work.  The only advantage of the Via Roma is that you can roll it extremely thin, and it stays soft for a long time.

After you roll out the fondant, cut off the ragged edges using an x-acto knife, and then slice into strips.  The size and length of the strips will vary depending on how large you want the finished rose to be.  I cut my strips short and narrow because these roses were going on small, round cookies.  And don't worry about getting the strips even and uniform.  Remember - there are no straight lines in nature.

To start the rose, just start rolling up the strip of fondant...

Keep rolling, but as you move away from the tight center of the rose start adding little crimps or folds at the bottom of the strip/base of the rose.  Also gently squeeze the base as you roll.  All the crimping and squeezing will give the rose petals some life and keep the finished rose from looking too compact.  The crimping will also help to open up the top edge of the rose and give it a more flared and natural look.

When the strip of fondant runs out, just fold the trailing edge down toward the base of the rose.  

All that rolling and crimping will give the rose a large, bulky base, so just cut it off with a scissors. But be careful that you don't distort the shape of the rose as you cut.  If my fondant rose is too soft to handle I will set it aside for a few minutes and allow it to firm up before I attempt to cut it.

After the cut...

And that is all there is to making a fondant ribbon rose.  In a few minutes you will have enough to decorate dozens of cookies.

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Snuggling Lovebirds - Engagement Party Cookies

Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

I needed to make some cookies for a friend's engagement party, and I saw these precious little snuggling Lovebird cookies.  They didn't look too complicated, so I decided to give them a try.

Now I'm not an experienced cookie decorator, so it was a painstaking and time-consuming task for me...

I used Toba Garrett's Glace Icing (Royal Icing with equal parts milk and corn syrup) as described in her book Creative Cookies, and I used Wilton Icing Gel for the teal color, and AmeriColor gel for the bright white and black.

 In this closeup you can see that the teal blue flooding glaze is a little splotchy.  I actually made these ahead of time and froze them.  The freezing worked great except for the splotchy-ness of the blue.  I don't know if the problem was the type of glaze used (corn syrup), the thin, flooding consistency of the glaze, or the type of color (Wilton).  I will have to do some experimenting to find out what is causing the problem.

But the splotchy blue was not that noticeable so I kept decorating.  Pink cheeks, brown branch, orange nose and tiny orange toes.  All of these were colored using Wilton gels. 

And after a few grueling hours ;-) I managed to churn out eight cookies.  But they still looked a little plain. 

So I took some little fondant flower I had made for some other cookies and gave the bride dove a little bouquet.  Now that looks better.

I just hope the bride-to-be likes them.  But hey, what's not to like about snuggling lovebirds?

Happy Decorating,

Carol