This month, one of my cookie idols (and everyone else's too), Georganne of
LilaLoa, set up a
Cookie Challenge. The idea is to "think outside the cutter"—take a perfectly ordinary cookie cutter and reimagine it, use it for something quite different than its original intent. The cutter for this month is your run-of-the-mill engagement ring cookie cutter, which you can buy just about anywhere on the web:
I haven't done any, and I mean ANY, traditional cookie decorating in over a year—I never had much skill to begin with, and, after I discovered wafer papers could make me LOOK like I had MADSKILLZ, well, I haven't made a non-wafer paper cookie since (with the exception of Oatmeal Raisin, yesterday). But the second I looked at that cutter, I *SAW* what it "had to be", and despite being really scared, or perhaps
because I was scared, I thought I needed to take part.
I ordered my cookie cutter and printed out a few outlines of the cutter so I could sketch what I saw in my head. Now, I've said before and I'll say it again: I cannot draw or paint to save my life. People usually scoff in disbelief when I say this; once they see me try, they embarrassedly agree. Sort of like when I say I can't dance. I can't, but that's another story. Here is what my sketches looked like:
See, now you believe me.
The first outline, my piping icing was way too stiff; I thinned it, and this one was a bit too loose, but by then I was sick of futzing with water and powdered sugar and black icing everywhere, so I just went with the looser border. You should've seen my kitchen, when I was done mixing all the different colors of icing! It was fun. They aren't perfect by any stretch—I couldn't paint the faces very well, and I schmutzed the jawline of the little dutch girl as I was painting her pink cheeks. But, I'm still pretty proud of them and proud of myself that I actually went through with the making of them, instead of just planning and procrastinating (and chickening out). :)
I should've waited until tomorrow, to get midday photos without long, evening shadows, but I was too excited and impatient to post these :)
The challenge runs until the end of the month, so you still have time to enter! Visit
LilaLoa's Cookie Challenge for more details and to see all the fun entries!
Happy Decorating!
Ani
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Anniina is a cookie decorating hobbyist and mom of a toddler.
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