Far cry from Elaine!
Elaine and her mastery of cookie decorating is like those HGTV shows that make you feel like of course it must be really easy to refinish a deck in 30 minutes by yourself. She makes it look and sound so easy, and her product is so beautiful, that you think OF COURSE I can do that too. Right.
After seeing her ridiculously pretty holiday cookies, and then the outrageous Jer wedding cookie (SO easy she swears), I got the bug. So first things first I had to go out and arm myself with all the toys. Well, first lots of blog reading to see others designs to get some inspiration. Then to the shopping: cutters, piping bottles, gel colors, non-pareils, meringue powder--it was tough to stop.
Then I needed an occasion. Since our own little Kaoru is bringing forth a life soon, could there be any better need than the shower, surrounded by ladies sipping tea? I decided on a sugar cookie recipe from one of the blogs, for some reason. I should have stuck with Elaine's butter cookie recipe. Problem 1. Problem 2-- I unknowingly used whole wheat all purpose flour instead of my regular (unbleached) all purpose flour. Hmm. Problem 3-- I forgot one tiny detail. I have NO artistic talent. There is a reason I'm in finance.
I had visions of delicate baby boys (denoted by their blue onesies) with lovely rosy cheek faces, on a crisp delicious cookie. My version came out more like stick men on a wheat cracker but they were still sorta cute, in a kindergarten effort sort of way.
And those little plastic bags and a ribbon go a long way towards somehow making them look more presentable. They are like the glamour shots lenses, they sort of blur everything in just the right places :)
Oh well. I had fun with the process, and the ladies were all polite enough to ooh and ahh. I did really enjoy the creative time and just playing with colors and painting and such-- made up for all those art classes my parents eschewed. ("not practical, what's the point, how's that going to get you a job?" said to elementary schooler. All the immigrants out there know exactly what I'm talking about!)
With the extra dough I decided to take a few practice runs at what I could do for Elisha's birthday in September. From one blog I got this monogram idea but it is a little much for a 2 year old.
So taking inspiration from Elisha's favorite things (the color yellow and "her" letter) I came up with this.
Still some sloppy execution, but I like the design so I think I'm going to attempt to make 60 of these for her birthday party next month. I'm switching to Elaine's Poilane butter cookie recipe, and in fact, already made the cookies--they came out delicious. Light, crisp, buttery. Elisha gave them two thumbs up. They are sitting happily in the freezer waiting for their decorating session. Wish me luck!
After seeing her ridiculously pretty holiday cookies, and then the outrageous Jer wedding cookie (SO easy she swears), I got the bug. So first things first I had to go out and arm myself with all the toys. Well, first lots of blog reading to see others designs to get some inspiration. Then to the shopping: cutters, piping bottles, gel colors, non-pareils, meringue powder--it was tough to stop.
Then I needed an occasion. Since our own little Kaoru is bringing forth a life soon, could there be any better need than the shower, surrounded by ladies sipping tea? I decided on a sugar cookie recipe from one of the blogs, for some reason. I should have stuck with Elaine's butter cookie recipe. Problem 1. Problem 2-- I unknowingly used whole wheat all purpose flour instead of my regular (unbleached) all purpose flour. Hmm. Problem 3-- I forgot one tiny detail. I have NO artistic talent. There is a reason I'm in finance.
I had visions of delicate baby boys (denoted by their blue onesies) with lovely rosy cheek faces, on a crisp delicious cookie. My version came out more like stick men on a wheat cracker but they were still sorta cute, in a kindergarten effort sort of way.
And those little plastic bags and a ribbon go a long way towards somehow making them look more presentable. They are like the glamour shots lenses, they sort of blur everything in just the right places :)
Oh well. I had fun with the process, and the ladies were all polite enough to ooh and ahh. I did really enjoy the creative time and just playing with colors and painting and such-- made up for all those art classes my parents eschewed. ("not practical, what's the point, how's that going to get you a job?" said to elementary schooler. All the immigrants out there know exactly what I'm talking about!)
With the extra dough I decided to take a few practice runs at what I could do for Elisha's birthday in September. From one blog I got this monogram idea but it is a little much for a 2 year old.
So taking inspiration from Elisha's favorite things (the color yellow and "her" letter) I came up with this.
Still some sloppy execution, but I like the design so I think I'm going to attempt to make 60 of these for her birthday party next month. I'm switching to Elaine's Poilane butter cookie recipe, and in fact, already made the cookies--they came out delicious. Light, crisp, buttery. Elisha gave them two thumbs up. They are sitting happily in the freezer waiting for their decorating session. Wish me luck!
posted by Julie at 11:38 AM
5 Comments:
Those little boy cookies are adorable. Very impressive!
They were adorable and very delicious, in spite of the wheatiness! I've never felt so healthy eating a cookie before! And Jul, I LOVE those E cookies. Very, very cute.
How did you make those little swirls around the blue E cookie that look like what they do on top of your latte at Peet's when you order a latte? Love that blue and white combination.
The little swirls is same technique you can do with sauces and such. Basically you make little drops and then you run a toothpick through them and it drags the point down and out the bottom making a little heart. For a circle you just make the drops in the circle and run the toothpick through continuously. It was very hip in the 90s with dessert sauces, but I still think it is cute (or I'm stuck in the 90s!)
The shower cookies were so yummy & really cute! Everyone loved them and I am incredibly touched that you spent so much time & effort making them. Thank you again!
Post a Comment
<< Home