Cookie Stencils

Have you ever seen cookies that a beautiful design that is so detailed you wonder how they decorator created it? I've seen them too and learned that some decorators use stencils to create their images so of course, I had to try it too.

Stencils can be used on cookies or even cakes such as the gorgeous damask cake from my friend Martha...maybe you've heard of her? We're pals but please, don't spread that around. I don't need any crazed fans hounding me for an intro.

Photo of Martha Stewart Damask Cake from Martha Stewart Weddings & Culinary Stencils

These stencils are made from food grade plastic and can be used on BC or fondant covered cakes using an off-set spatula and stiff royal icing. I tried stencils recently on 2 different projects, with 2 completely different results.


Project #1 - Cookies for a friend's event, using her company name.



I used a metal stencil for the hula dancers. Definitely very sturdy and easy to use. Since the metal didn't bend, I had crisp outlines as long as my stencil was clean of any other icing.

Project #2 - Wedding favors

These cookies were made using the plastic stencil below. Obviously I need a lot more practice with this type of stencil (sorry Tiff!) I don't know if it was the way the cookie was iced or because of the font on the stencil which allowed the upper right portion of the S to wiggle (and was probably just my own inexperience) which made it hard to keep the stencil from moving.

The cookies look good from a distance but when you get closer, you can see that the edges are rough. Note to self - ask CookieMookie for tips since she is the stencil guru...



Regardless, I have an amazing cherry blossom cake stencil that is just begging to be used on a stacked cake so I will definitely need to practice again...after my next few projects of course. Next up - gumpaste!

Wedding Favors!

In case you've been wondering what's been keeping me away, take a peek into my freezer.


If you're wondering what's hiding in there I can put you out of your misery right now. Those containers hold 498 wedding cake shaped cookies. Frozen dough, not baked or par-baked cookies (I prefer to bake my sugar cookies frozen.) The containers represent what I have been focused on for the past 3 weeks. Remember the easy plan that I had? To cover the cookies in MMF with Fondarific accents? The ones that would have taken me 5 minutes per cookies? Yeah, these aren't them. These are the result of my insane thinking process that took me from easy to disaster. The end result?




3" cookies flooded with Antonia74's royal icing, then painted with gel color. FYI, these are more like hours. Not minutes to complete. We ended up losing a few...maybe about 30 give or take a few, but my boss lucked out since he got to eat them. There was a bit of a disaster with a good portion of them smudging their color onto the bags once the were sealed. I saved what I could, tossed a few more, and am chalking it up to a learning experience. As in, do not paint cookies ever again! LOL


Now cross your fingers that they survive the plane ride tomorrow because the wedding is on Saturday and I am not packing any supplies to remake these cookies should something happen. Foolish? Yes, probably so but what can you do? Besides cross your fingers, of course!

Oh, and someone check on that pilot okay? Tell him no partying tonight because he's transporting important stuff in the morning!

Wedding Favors

A couple of months ago a good friend of my husband's asked me if I knew of anything she could do bake and make herself as a wedding favor. Since she is the bride, I couldn't very well just let her make all of these cookies herself when she also had a new baby at home. She is having an Asian inspired wedding and asked for a cookie with 3 tiers and flowers. Simple, yes? I drew up a design and scanned it over and we settled on a cookie with different sized flowers scattered across the cake and "ribbons" at the base of each tier. I didn't really want to pipe and flood all the cookies (hey, it takes FOREVER...and I'm not very good at it yet) so we also decided on MMF instead of royal icing and the accents would be made out of Fondarific. Good? Good! So this is what we came up with:


This was the size comparison - the left is a 3" cookie, and the right is 4". I like the tiers better on the larger cookie myself but the bride likes the 3" cutter, though so that is what we are using. It's by Wilton if you are interested and comes as a set of 4 wedding themed cutters.

However, genius that I am (this is being typed with a hugely exaggerated eyeroll,) while shopping recently I found something that I like better and have now pretty much scrapped this entire plan only to replace it with a much more time consuming cookie. Ugh. Someone shoot me. I need to know when to just leave it alone. I mean, these cookies are cute, right? Of course, these were just playing around so the actual favors would have been much neater and more consistent. I am now going back to the drawing board to figure out how long these new cookies are going to take me. BTW, yes, I do have issues but the new ones really look good!

To be continued...