Wedding Shower Hearts

Here's the last cookie I made for the wedding shower last week.  I was asked to make hearts with the bride and groom's name, which really stressed me out.  I wasn't so sure I could consistently write the names on that many hearts to my liking.  It's hard to do pretty writing on cookies.  So when she brought me the invitation, I saw a pretty design on the top of the invitation that I thought would work well on the heart.  I was also given some creative license, so I thought that as long as it was pretty, she wouldn't mind.  Here's the design:

I made my own stencil of the pretty curvy design and used a marker to draw it onto the cookie, which I used as a guide to pipe it in brown icing.  I also decided that in order to ensure fancy writing, I would use royal icing transfers.  I made a ton, which was good because a lot of them broke since the lines are very thin.  So in the end, it was still a lot of work, and it may have even been easier to just write the names on a plain brown heart, but I like how they turned out.  And she said she'd order cookies from me again, so she must have liked them, right?

And here's the whole order:

Robin Legos Themed Cookies

These are the cookies that included the dreaded royal icing transfers.  When I first heard about the concept, it sounded pretty easy.  So I made the transfers ahead of time.  And of course sometime between the time I made them and the time I needed them, half of them broke.  So I made more.  Then yesterday I flooded the cookies and applied the transfers, and they looked great...at first.  As they sat though, I started to notice that the red icing was starting to show through the yellow part of the transfers in a major way, which was something I had definitely not anticipated.  Here's a picture of them.  It's hard to see in the picture, but it was pretty noticeable.

So I tried a few things before finding something that worked.  First, I tried flooding an extra layer of yellow over the 'R'.  But it spread too much as it sat and it turned into a very bloated 'R'.  Next, I tried using a brush to paint yellow icing over the red parts, which made it look leprous.  Finally, I remembered seeing on a post on Dina's blog (here) about how to fix a poorly flooded cookie, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  It turned out pretty well.  Not the original plan, but I think it'll work.  We named it the bedazzled Robin cookie.

Here's some pictures of them with the legos.

Sad News

I have some sad news.  Here's a picture to illustrate just how sad:

Do you feel how sad it is now?  Are you with me?  Ok, I guess I can share with you the tragedy of wasted time and effort.

Yes, 3 of the 6 royal icing transfers that I made have broken.  One from my own clumsiness, but I don't know how the other two happened.  It's almost as bad as the numerous times when I've just finished a beautifully detailed cookie to lose my grip on it as I'm moving it to its drying location and have it fall facedown on my cookie drying rack.  It just breaks my heart. 

At least I still have enough time to make more before the order is due, but it still makes me sad. 

Royal Icing Transfers

I have an order coming up for a birthday party with a Robin (of Batman and Robin of course) Lego theme.  We decided to go with legos cookies and I was told there was apparently an "R" logo for Robin.  So I googled it and realized that there was no way I was going to be able to do that cookie freehand.  I just do not have the piping skills to pipe it directly onto a cookie.  Then I saw The Vanilla Bean Baker had made Batman cookies using what is called a royal icing transfer, and I realized that I could totally do that for the Robin logo.  So I've made up a few, and I think they turned out pretty well. 

Now comes the tricky part though, the part where I have to remove it in one piece, center it on the cookie, and get it to adhere to the icing without breaking it.  I'm a little afraid, but I only committed to the legos cookies, so these will just be a bonus for her if they turn out.  Wish me luck!