Origami Cookies - With Added Foxiness!

Hey all,

This weeks cookie theme is Origami.

Exciting!

My very best friend recently went up to Wellington and stayed with her friend for the weekend, who is the most amazing Origami artist. To say thank you she asked me for some help in designing and making Origami cookies for him.

What we came up with is actually pretty awesome!

I actually used cookie cutters this week, such a novelty, after trimming and handcutting quite a bit lately. I used a Betty Crocker cat face cutter for the fox and a simple 10-point star for the others.

I did hand cut some cranes. See below.

It's possible I forgot to take a photo of them finished. But in all honesty, they didn't live up to the excitement of the foxes. How could they?

So, first plain sugar cookies. SO boring. Then I drew my lines on, as above.

I piped the lines in the browny-orange, filling the cheek and centre piece in shortly after. If you are hyper-vigilant about colours running, you might want to wait until the piping has dried completely before putting the white in.

Likewise, with the pinwheels I did 2 pieces at a time, and then let this dry completely (overnight), filling in 2 more pieces the next day, and then the last piece when they had completely dried.
If you fill any joining triangles before the other is dry, they all run together, and you just end up with a royal icing puddle.

Looking good.

I must say, in this instance, the black piping over top at the end, really made these.
It worked perfectly with the Origami look, and I just really think they are especially adorable.
Next weeks theme is roller skates, so check back in soon!

Lou

Cookie Theme - Coffee with Love!

This week, I used some inspiration AGAIN from sweetsugarbelle.com, as she is so thorough, and the finishing touches on her cookies are absolutely awesome. One day people, one day!

You can find the original piece she did on these cookies here 

So, this is how i did it!

I actually don't own a coffee cup cutter, so used a baby onesie cutter, and chopped the sleeves and bottom bit off. Inverted, it gave a great angled look to my cookie. 

I did cut in the round on the top by hand, just to give a better definition of the lid once completed, and I must say I am glad I did. 

Above, you can see where I have used a food-safe marker to draw out where I wanted to run each section. This is really useful when you are going to be using multiple colours. 

You can also see above the coffee bean cookies, which I hand cut as I just had nothing that I could see that would work. 

Note to self to stop taking photos on our wooden table. Will move to a white background for better colour I promise. 

On the right you can see where I lined the coffee cup sections, using a tan colour I made using mint green, lemon yellow and super red. 

Next, I flooded the tan sections of the coffee cup in. At this point, I let them set for about an hour, so the colours wouldn't run when I added the white mid-section and top. 

 I just used a straight white for these ones, but in hindsight I would have tracked down some Ivory colour to add to the royal icing, just to offset quite how white this icing is. 

There is really only one shop in our city that sells the Americolor brand gel colours and they carry a limited supply, so everything is ordered online. It just means I have to think ahead and stay on top of colours, which obviously didn't happen this week. 

I piped around the top edge and sides before flooding in the white. 

For the coffee beans above, I used a thicker icing in favour of not lining and then flooding, simply filling one half of the cookie, waiting for it to semi-dry, then filling in the remainder, as you can see here. 

Added in some lovely hearts, lined with white, filled with a icing which was a mix of electric pink & super red. 
These found their way to someone who totally deserved some coffee cookies. 

Check in later this week for this weeks theme. ORIGAMI!

See ya then, 
Lou xoxo

Lego Brick & Lego Man Cookies

It's a rare Sunday that I have time to sit down and catch up on blog and coffee, all by myself. Josh has taken Miss 4 to the movies, and Mr 2 is asleep.
Look at me go!

We are off to a friends birthday party for her own Mr 2 this afternoon, and I wanted to contribute some awesome cookies to the festivities. 

So, Lego Brick cookies!
I got this easy, awesome idea from over at here. I am obsessed with her whole website, and her lego men look a lot more clean than mine, but that's ok, practice makes perfect!

I really like them. Next time, I think I will just suck it up and buy Black 5mm beads instead of doing the eyes myself, and I would bring the eyes down a little. But I think they are pretty cool dudes!

The Lego Bricks came together so easily, and although there are some I like more than others, I am really happy with the presentation of them overall. 

Only one test left, and that's to let them all loose on a 2 year old birthday party. 

Miss 4 was my taste tester this morning, and reckons they are "the bee's knees". 
Mr 2 didn't agree, but he's not my sweet tooth, so I try not to take it to heart. 

The plan is to get my portfolio of cookies bigger & better and to start selling over the next 18 months. 

So, if you are on the hunt for cute, quirky, fun cookies then I am the lady to talk too. 

Got some eyes made up and ready to go for another project later in the week! Keep your eyes peeled!! HAHAAA eyes.. 

Peace out. 
Lou

Mother's Day 2014

A perfectly normal, quiet Mother's Day. What more could I possibly have asked for?

We have had a VERY long week in our house, involving sick kids, MRI's for Mr.1 (scheduled, so no big drama) and general havoc. 

It was so nice to wake up this morning (albeit after a largely sleepless night last night with Mr.1) and have a cup of coffee in bed!

We went out for brunch with family, we caught up with everyone and took the obligatory family photos, we drank more coffee (a staple in any family outing!). I chilled out with my kids and watched a DVD, I took Miss.4 to a birthday party (at Chipmunks, so easy work for me) and I got to have coffee with my best friend. 

It's days like today, so lacking in drama and issues and busy-ness that make me feel blessed and peaceful. 

It's a light at the end of the tunnel, after a long week and not enough sleep, I remember why I do it, and if I can walk away from anything on Mother's Day, I am really glad it is that. 

Today, I feel thankful for happy, generally healthy kiddies, a hard-working husband and a great friends & family network. 

A very Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, young & old, new & more weathered, you are all awesome and do what you can, and I think you are swell.