brush embroidery flower cookies

In addition to the champagne glass cookies that I made for the bachelorette party that Cherish was putting together, I also made these floral brush embroidery cookies in striking black and white. We were going for a classy elegant bachelorette party vibe, and thought these would go perfect with the champagne glasses!

For the cookies, I used my favorite sugar cookie dough (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), and used a large round cookie cutter to cut out my shapes. Then I whipped up some royal icing (recipe also in my book!) and used black gel-based food coloring to get a nice deep black shade. I used a small round tip to pipe stiff icing to outline my cookie, and then filled it in with runny icing.

After letting it dry for several hours (I like to let it dry overnight just to be safe), I used white stiff icing to pipe my floral design. As with these brush embroidery teapot cookies and these brush embroidery lace wedding dress cookies, I piped a simple flower outline ...

... and then used a slightly damp (food safe) brush to drag the icing towards the center of the cookie.

Then I did the same for the inside petals of the flower.

To finish it off, I piped a few small dots in the center of the flower. I thought they turned out so pretty!

And I love the contrast of the white on black!

I thought that the design and the color scheme went perfectly with the champagne glass cookies! And The combination of these two cookies would be perfect for a New Years celebration!

Enjoy!

teapot tea party cookies with brush embroidery flowers

 

Sometime last year, my friend Monica asked me to make teapot cookie favors for her daughter's afternoon tea themed birthday party, and after collaborating back and forth over text, we decided to go with pink and blue teapot cookies with brush embroidery flowers!

I started by making my favorite sugar cookies (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!) and cutting out the cookies with a teapot cookie cutter. After baking them and letting them cool, I whipped up a batch of royal icing (recipe also in my book!). Using gel-based food coloring, I tinted a portion of the icing pink (using Americolor soft pink), another portion blue (using Americolor sky blue), and left the last portion white. Then with stiff pink icing in a disposable piping bag and a small round tip, I outlined half of the cookies in pink ...

... and then filled them in with runny pink icing.

Then I did the same with the other half of the cookies except with blue icing. Once the icing had dried for several hours, I was ready to pipe on the details, including the brush embroidery. This is a technique where you pipe an outline with stiff icing, and then use a (slightly damp) food-safe brush to drag the edges of the outline towards the center, giving a cool painted effect.

Here's how it looked with just the outline of the flower and accompanying leaf:

And here's how it looked after I used a brush to drag the edges towards the center. I also added a few dots of stiff white icing in the center of each flower.

After letting the brush embroidery and details dry, they were done!

Enjoy!

pink baby shower dessert table - sugar cookie favors, macarons, mini cheesecakes, and ruffle cake

In addition to the pink ruffle flower cake that I made for my best friend Sue's baby shower, I also made a few other items for the dessert table! I envisioned a girly pink table, with handmade tissue pom poms floating above the table, and some desserts on tiered cake stands beside the cake. In front would be onesie and flower sugar cookie favors, and the table would also include some fizzy pink lemonade in cute drinking jars. Here's the sketch that I made during the planning:

And here's how the desserts turned out!

The first dessert I started on was the sugar cookies a week before the shower, since I would be wrapping them individually as the favors and they keep really well this way. I decided on onesie cookies, as well as flower cookies (click on the links for more details).

I did the onesies in white, with pink outlines...

... and the flowers in pink, with white centers.

Then three days before the shower, I made the strawberry macarons, since they need at least 24 hours to set in the fridge.



Two days before the shower, I made the mini cheesecakes. The crust was made with a combination of chocolate graham cracker crumbs, and regular graham cracker crumbs...

... topped with a creamy cheesecake batter and baked in a water bath to avoid cracks ...

.. and the top was decorated with fresh strawberries and strawberry jam to hold them in place.



Finally, the day before the shower I baked and decorated the pink ruffle flower cake (shown in my my previous post).



During the week I also made these mint ice cubes to put in a cute pitcher of water.

The secret to getting the mint leaves to stay in the middle of the ice cube (instead of floating on top) was to fill the ice cube trays halfway and then place the mint leaf in the tray, freeze it to keep the leaf in place, and then fill the rest of the ice cube tray to trap the leaf perfectly in the middle!

Oh and I forgot to mention the handmade tissue pom poms! I started on them about a month before the shower - I would make one or two whenever I had some free time, using this tutorial at Martha Stewart. I ended up making ten poms (five above the dessert table, and five above the food table), and they turned out super cute! I ordered tissue paper in various colors from Amazon - pale pink, darker pink, and two different shades of gold.

I also bought cute pink stripe paper straws, wooden utensils, and cute paper plates and napkins on Amazon.

Sue loves afternoon tea, so the girls and I had decided to make that the theme. We made various tea sandwiches, deviled eggs, scones, tossed salad and fruit salad, and had a cheese and crackers platter as well. We also had four different flavors of tea at the drink station, as well as the mint ice water and more fizzy pink lemonade.

Everything turned out lovely and we had such a great time celebrating Sue and her baby girl on the way!

Happy baby shower, Sue!!! We love you!

bridal shower cookies

Two years ago, I made these "H" and "M" cookies (in the picture below) as favors for my friend Helen's bridal shower - "H" for Helen, and "M" for her husband Mike.  

I decorated them with yellow and navy royal icing to match the color scheme of their wedding.  Then I wrapped them in cellophane bags, and tied them with raffia and a custom favor tag.

Helen liked the cookies so much that she asked me to make them again for her out-of-town wedding guests and wedding party - she was putting together a welcome package for all of them and wanted to include these cookies.  So I made the cookies again for her out-of-town wedding guests, and slipper (flip-flop) cookies for her wedding party.

Recently, Helen asked me to make cookies again, this time for a bridal shower she was planning for her friend Irene.  She initially wanted "I" and "I" cookies (for Irene and Ivan), but after I saw their wedding website, which had a floral theme, I sent Helen a picture of my flower cookies which I had just made for a friend's daughter's birthday party.  We decided that I would do half of them flower cookies, and half of them "I" cookies, in the bride's color scheme of vintage pink, cream, and yellow.

When the time came to make the cookies, I got out my alphabet cookie cutter set and searched for the "I".  To my dismay, it was not the kind of "I" that had top and bottom lines - instead it just looked like a long, skinny rectangle!  I immediately asked my husband if he could make me a custom "I" cookie cutter.  Lucky for me, he made it (out of a soda can) that same hour!  (Thanks hubby!  You're the best!)

After I finally baked the cookies, I decorated them with pink and cream royal icing, and added my accents - yellow centers for the flowers, and tiny yellow hearts on each "I".

I hope Helen and everyone at the bridal shower liked the cookies!  Congratulations Irene and Ivan!!!

flower sugar cookies with royal icing

I recently reconnected with my friend Vicky from high school, and with her daughter's first birthday party coming up I offered to make cookies for the favors.  Since she had planned a flower theme for the party, we decided that I would make flower cookies in her color scheme of light-aqua and yellow.

I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe, and a Wilton cookie cutter to cut out the shapes.  Then I whipped up some royal icing (recipe from the same book), and decorated half of the cookies with white icing and the other half with a light-aqua icing, with yellow centers for both.

I like to decorate my cookies by first piping an outline with stiff icing, then filling it in with runny icing of the same color.  Once that dries for a few hours, then I like to pipe another border on top, and then pipe on any extra decorations (in this case, the yellow centers and the white accents).

After letting the icing dry overnight, I placed two cookies in each cellophane favor bag, and tied them with raffia and custom tags that I had printed out on card stock (similar to the baby shower cookies that I made back in January).

The party was held at a park, and everything was beautiful!  It was a perfect warm sunny day, and Vicky had decorated the trees with adorable aqua and yellow tissue pom-poms.  She had yellow flower plates and napkins on aqua tablecloths, and even a station where kids could decorate little terra cotta pots and plant yellow flowers.

We had a great time, even though we had to leave early and missed the cake cutting!  Thanks for inviting us Vicky!  Hope everyone enjoyed the cookies!