I've been bitten by the baking bug hard! LOL! This time around though I've been a bit more... obsessed with sugar cookies!
Yes, it all started with the Halloween cookies...probably coz I was pressed for time and what not, it was painful for me. And that's just the test run cookies!!! The real deal was actually for my neighbor, who wanted sugar cookies as her baby's full moon gift for her students. She showed me a photo of a design that she'd like from another blogger who made LOVELY cookie, and asked me if I could replicate that. I told her I'd certainly try but I can't guarantee that I would be able to make the exact same thing. But put to work I did, and while I'm still not satisfied with my 'handiwork', she loved it =)
Yup, she wanted baby face cookies...pink for her baby girl. I made Annie's Eats sugar cookies and used I Am Baker's lovely glaze icing for decoration. Loved the taste of the cookies! Again, can't say much about my 'drawing skills'. My hands are not that steady using a piping bag to draw on a cookie, and while the photo looks okay, I still think I need loads of work =P
The packaged cookies...I heart the pink ribbons with it. Usually I'm not a pink person but the pastel pink is cute =)
My next 'project' was also another order from a friend. After I'd posted a photo of the baby face cookies on my Facebook, she commented that she would like to order my sugar cookies! Previously, she'd tasted the cookies at the Halloween party and she told me she loved them (YAYY!). At first I thought she was joking...I DID have another batch of cookie dough that I'd thought of just playing around with the icing, so I jokingly told her I could have the cookies ready in a day or two if she's interested. And she said YES! Wow...it was so cool that I had another sale! A few PMs over FB later, I ended up with these:
It's for Hari Raya Haji, and she wanted to share the cookies with her family who's coming to her place to celebrate =) Initially I had thought about just using a crescent and star cutter to make different shapes, but I couldn't find a crescent cutter in time, so I just made these. Played with some sanding sugar too...silly old me didn't know how to use it and I almost botched the cookies making the sugar part in the same layer as the background! The shapes were not visible at all, given that it's yellow and white...so to try and 'save' them, I outlined the shapes again after the icing had dried. Thank goodness they came out alright!
As you can see, the drawings still need work, but I found out that the consistency of the icing also helps with the drawing. Previously I had made the outline icing a little too hard, making it so difficult to pipe (and I almost got carpal tunnel from all that squeezing! Eep!) so the second time around, I tried making it SLIGHTLY more liquid-y, and it worked!
Hahahaha...this was some leftover cookie dough and glaze icing. It looked like a skull when it came out from the oven, so I tried to make it look like one. Fail! LOLL! =P
Further inspired, I made these chocolate sugar cookies. I didn't have my usual gel food coloring, so I used a water base food coloring...boy, did it ever look weird! As you can see, they didn't cover the chocolate cookie base well. *sigh* Quality never does come cheap, IMHO. Cheap food coloring = bad coloring results.
I am still rather determined to make these work though, so I managed to get some red food coloring from my aunt (who also makes cakes for sale) and have made some more dough to be baked. *grins* Meantime, I had stalked I Am Baker's lovely designs and am very very inspired to try them out and practice my icing....hehe! These two sales got me hooked! Not sure if there will still be more sales from here on out, but I DO find that I like decorating cookies...even though it is time-consuming and all, if I can get the end result SOMEWHAT similar to the original ones, it's a great achievement for me coz I'm still a noob at this. Hopefully with more practice I'll be better *crosses fingers* Will post more photos of my 'practice cookies' next time!
Your drawing skills are getting better and better Audrey! The chocolate sugar cookies look awesome. Great that you get a few orders already. Wish I can get my hands on trying to make these cookies soon ;) Keep it up!
Hehe, thanks Vivian! The chocolate sugar cookies didn't require any drawings at all really :P Just dot a few dots on the wet icing and use a toothpick to drag out the colors to make a heart shape ;)
The cookies are quite easy to make...it's just the decor part that I'm still working on. Hehe! We should do a baking session together! :D
Yaya!!! I think we will have lots of fun baking together :D When when??
I did try to make the cookies the other day.. I used the recipe from i am baker (Amanda's most amazing sugar cookies recipe) but it was very very soft leh. I put the dough in the fridge overnight, after a few rolling the dough turns soft again.. Very hard to transfer the cookies to baking sheet. The shapes all cacat d :s Then I duno how long to bake pulak.. The cookies is memang soft isit? Haven't try decorating it coz I scared the cookies duno ngam onot