Learning The Art of Sugar Cookies

              I've been eye-balling sugar cookies for some time. Since my first attempt at baking sugar cookies I have always burned them, miserably. I just couldn't tell when they were done, ya know? With my final weekend working at the bookstore that I have absolutely loved working at coming up, I decided I was going to suck it up and learn to make good cookies. I originally considered making a cake, but a cake is hard to split up into individual "take home" size pieces and keep it looking pretty. Cupcakes were another option, but with cookies you can make them beautiful, bag them up, and send them on their way still looking beautiful.

            Cookies became the forefront in my mind when I ran into a photo of Star Wars cookies on Pinterest. They were made by Sweet Sugar Belle. In case you're wondering, this is where I became OBSESSED with making a beautiful cookie and icing it to my heart's desire. Last year, I acquired a 100 piece cookie cutter set from Bed Bath and Beyond for $10. Awesome deal, right? I still haven't used any of them. When I decided to make these cookies, the cookie cutters where still being store at my mom's house and I'm too lazy/procrastinate-y to go pick them up. So I improvised, since I wanted a fairly simple shape.

A "TiVo" cookie cutter

 The only large cookie cutter I had on hand (I did have some small hearts and leaves for fondant but that didn't fit the bill!) was this bizarre TIVO TV cookie cutter my mom found for like 30 cents at goodwill. It had little legs like their logo, but I straightened those out for a more rectangular shape. I also used pre-mixed cookie dough but I was careful dough, but I was careful to let my egg and butter come to room temperature (Seriously, go read every article at www.sweetsugarbelle.com! She has amazing tips, techniques, hints, all that good stuff!) before mixing. I cranked the oven to 400 degrees, and put my smaller set of cookies in for 7 minutes. I smelled the burning before I saw it, whoops! I didn't think they'd burn that fast. Anyway, on my second set of cookies (my "real" cookies) I baked them for seriously, about 5 minutes and they came out beautifully. 

Whoops (7 minutes in my oven)

Royal Icing

A better baked sugar cookie (5 minutes in my oven)


After the cookies had cooled overnight, I mixed up some Royal Icing then split it into bowls for coloring. I knew I wanted the background white, black writing, and pink for the Breast Cancer Ribbon, as these are all part of our logo.
I used the Shpritz method from One Tough Cookie to make different consistencies of icing. It almost seems unfair, they made it so easy for me the first time around in making cookies I feel like I have a head start over those who have worked on them for years! Not like I'm anywhere NEAR that level yet, but now that I'm on the road... who knows ;) . 

Clean Lines

   My outline started out pretty shakey, but by the time I approached my fourth or fifth cookie (why did I move on to the burned ones AFTER the pretty ones and not visa versa? Who knows) my lines where looking mighty pretty! I let those dry about ten minutes, then took the piping icing out of the bag back into the bowl, where I thinned it down with some spray bottle water and turned it into a "flood" icing (I'm telling you, read everything Sweet Sugar Belle has written. Then you can join my lingo for this post!) . I went to the cookies and began "flooding" their middles with the icing. It wasn't as runny as I had hoped, but I used a warm spatula (Think "Smoothing out Buttercream Frosting" method here) to fill them in more consistently.

I was a little low on the white (whoops, didn't think THAT through) so mine were not as "filled" as I had hoped, but it was enough to give a nice white background. I let those dry for about 15 minutes (I should have given MORE TIME, my black icing bled onto my cookies and I'm suspecting that is why!) and wrote "Sue's News" on the cookies. 

Finally, I added the Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon to each cookie, and it became the WHOLE design for one cookie because I forgot to write the store name on there, whoops! It was a happy accident, though. 

There's alot of words here, I hope it doesn't take away from the fun of decorating cookies! Get out there and give it a shot! I'm sure mine will only improve from here, and I hope yours do, too! 

  

"Read" Upcycled Art

Supplies:

• Newspaper
• Scissors
• Hot Glue
• Cardboard (circle, for back of flower)
• Cardboard boxes (For "Canvas)
• Tissue paper in blue, green, and white
• Floral pins and (optional) floral staples
• Stapler

   I made this for an independent bookstore that I work at. I'm always working on something (or, rather, I was, but we are currently going out of business. BOO!) to brighten up the store and add a little character. Originally, I made this Newspaper Dahlia by following the steps using This Lovely Design at Vively Online for her Paper Medallion.
             It took alot of cutting, rolling, and gluing! I was initially going to make two but... this is more of an "at home" project because it was getting pretty messy. I was going to make one for each side of our TV display screen, but when I held up just the Dahlia against the wall...well, it looked almost dangerous. I'm guessing the newspaper colors against the naked wall made it look pretty sharp? Either way, I thought it needed a little more OOMPH! I decided to take two empty snapple boxes (really, any rectangular semi skinny box would do, I just had snapples on hand and they are a great shape) and I attached them together using hot glue and some floral staples that I had from a different project. I added those for reinforcement.


Lay out a double layer of blue tissue paper, and attach to the inside of the "canvas" using stapler (out of sight). Choose location for the flower, then glue generously onto the back and place on the "canvas". After this has dried, use floral pins and staples through insides of flower petals, pushing pins from the front of the canvas, through the cardboard, and bending them in the back. This should keep the tissue paper from ripping and should keep the flower attached with more stability.

Roll the green tissue paper into a "stem" shape, making sure the bottom tucks inside the back of the canvas, and the top end is hidden under the flower petals. Staple the bottom on. While the rest is still loose, cut out the leaf shape from another piece of green tissue paper and dab glue on it, beneath the stem, then again at the tip of the leaf (do not glue too much, just enough to attach it, but still have it look "leafy"). Attach the stem over the raw edge of the leaf with a bit of glue, then attach with glue under the flower petals.

For "READ": Roll up a thin piece of white tissue paper, lay out the shape of your letter, then put a thin line of glue on the back of the paper. Make the shape and, as the glue is still wet, use floral pins through the white tissue paper and all the way through the back of the cardboard. Use as many of these as you'd like, they add a bit of charm AND stability to your letters. For safety's sake, take some pliers and bend all of the floral pins to keep them from stick straight out (like this ones on this piece of art do, whoops!).

It's very lightweight, so hang wherever you need something pretty in your life. I hope this inspires you to make your own variation! If so, let me know! =) Thanks for stopping by.