Earth Month Cookie - pt 2

I donated this cookie tray to a silent auction at work. It went for $50 - raising money for Aveda's Earth Month campaign. The smaller cookies represent some of the different activities employees and groups organize and take part in throughout the month.

Earth Month Cookie - hand painted

I tried my hand at painting on cookies today - it is not as easy as it looks. You should probably have at least some small skill in painting or drawing if you want to paint on cookies. I don't have that skill so don't judge me too harshly, ok?

To paint on cookies you need a cookie already covered in Royal Icing that has dried for quite a while (12 - 24 hours). If you try to rush and your icing hasn't dried enough the moisture from the paint/water will eat right through the base and you will have an ugly crater. Mix your gel food color with some water/clear extract/vodka in a small bowl or paint pallet. You should use approximately equal amounts of food color and clear liquid (at least that's what I did - someone else may know better).

Aveda Earth Month cookie

The embossing effect looks neat!



This cookie is based off the Aveda Earth Month 2012 poster which is comprised of the drawings of children in India that have benefited from Aveda's association with Global Green Grants. The community now has access to clean water and the children drew these sketches as a "thank you" to the Aveda tribe.

Fun with Chocolate!

Today I decided I was going to make cupcakes for my grandma and to finish them off in grand style I would make the chocolate butterflies I've been contemplating making for ages. I think there's a reason it took me so long to make them - basically because working with chocolate is not fun for me. It is kind of a pain in the butt and I haven't developed the skill and patience required to actually enjoy it. Chocolate is kind of finicky and my patience level isn't that high.

As I was getting ready to clean up I started thinking about what to do with my extra chocolate and "discovered" you can make your own homemade chocolate chips. I don't know how well these would bake up in a cookie but I'll find out soon! Or we'll eat them before I get around to making something and I'll have to find out another day. We'll see.

I'll post the cupcakes another day but here are a couple pictures of the butterflies and chips.



Easter Cookies - a little late

Here are some of the Easter cookies I did this year. Yep, just a little bit late.

Peeps!

A friend asked me to make Easter cookies for her daughter and nieces.

Close ups:

Lamb #1

Lamb #2

Butterfly

Chick 

Bunny 

Tulip 

Daisy 

All together and wrapped up.  

Cookie Monster!

Me want cookies!

Cookie Monster was a hit with pretty much everyone.

These are jumbo cupcakes - I used the Hello Cupcake recipe for Devil's Food cake mix to get a rounded top. I did not love the cupcake itself but it was well received. Cookies are store-bought since I didn't think homemade would stand up well to the moisture from the cupcake. Eyes are white candy melts attached to toothpicks with melted candy. I used black candy melts for the eye detail, you could also use small chocolate chips or other small black candy.