Cookie Pixie

Art Nouveau Birthday Cookies with Wafer Papers

2014-06-28T16:49:00.002-05:00

In my vintage postcard collection, there are some beautiful birthday cards in the Art Nouveau style. I wanted to turn them into cookies, which was a trick and a half, since postcards are rectangular and I wanted round cookies. After much tinkering, I was able to come up with a gorgeous set, I think.

The wafer papers measure 2" round, and fit a 2.5" round cookie. Most cookie cutter sets have a cutter in this size; my favorite is in the Ateco 4-Piece Round Fluted Cookie Cutter Set. This size is also easy for using a cheat—store-bought cookies! For these, I used Walker's Lemon Thins from the grocery store (they have a lovely scalloped edge). I also use Walker's Raspberry Thins regularly. If you plan on making a dozen, get two boxes—chances are that each box will have a few broken ones, which is a shame on the one hand, but, on the other hand, the baker gets to eat them herself :D The new Newtons Fruit Thins, which come in cranberry, blueberry, and lemon flavors, work as well. Your local store may also have other options, so make a cookie raid!

As per usual, I piped and flooded the cookies, waited until they were rock solid (24h), "painted" the surface of the cookies with corn syrup using a small craft brush, waited 10 mins for the syrup to bead up and become super-sticky, then pasted on the wafers. When they were dry, I piped a border using a #14 star tip with stiff icing in beige, since I knew I'd be gilding the edges. Once the icing was dry (next day), I painted the borders with edible gold "paint" made with Wilton Gold Pearl Dust mixed into some lemon extract. Michael's is a good place to get it locally, if you need it. I prefer it over every other gold dust, because it looks like actual gold, not strange and yellow or brassy. But, enough about the process. You can head to How To Decorate Cookies With Wafer Paper for more detailed directions and photos of the process.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out!

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Octopus Cookies with Wafer Papers

2014-06-21T20:40:00.004-05:00

For lovers of cephalopods, I present: Octopus Cookies! I had long wanted to make another black and white set, and my friend Marnie loves octopi, so when I ran into a 19th-century dictionary illustration of an octopus, I knew it was a match made in heaven. The illustrations are all from Victorian lithographs and engravings, including three I licensed.

As usual, I made the cookies with Sugarbelle's foolproof Sugar Cookie Recipe, flavoring the dough with raspberry extract. I used the 3" cutter from the Ateco 5-Piece Fluted Square Cookie Cutter Set. I piped the borders and flooded with white royal icing flavored with clear vanilla extract. Next day, when the icing had hardened, I covered the iced squares with clear corn syrup, waited 10 minutes for super-stickiness, and pasted on the wafer paper squares. After about an hour, I piped a border to cover the paper edges; I opted for a beaded border, using stiff black icing (colored with Super Black).

This guy was my favorite. I call him "Mad Octopus Is Mad" :D

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Easter Wafer Paper Cookies Redux

2014-04-25T19:18:00.002-05:00

Easter was a busy time, but I did manage to make 133 cookies for the annual Easter Egg Hunt at our house (+ some 20 cookies, which I ate in the process of making them).

Some were old favorites, like these colorful floral eggs:

I also made lots of chicks hatching from eggs:

New for this Easter, I made some bunny rabbit cookies from Victorian (or Edwardian, if we're gonna be sticklers) Stecher postcards, with momma and daddy rabbits with baby bunnies. These were very popular with the under-5 set:

The second new set, musical bunnies playing instruments, was the most popular with the under-3 crowd:

The third new set, vintage bunnies from Victorian postcards, was my personal favorite:

They will all be available through my shop for next Easter.

Dragons and Knights Wafer Paper Cookies

2014-04-11T19:19:00.000-05:00

These cookies were requested by a customer, who needed dragon cookies for her son's birthday party. Even my 3yo, who doesn't really know much about dragons yet, thought them fantastic!

As is my wont, I used Sweet Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe. The wafers come in three sizes and shapes, and the cutters I used were:

The middle cutter (2"x3") from the Ateco 3-Piece Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set;
The 2.5" square cutter from the Ateco 5-Piece Fluted Square Cookie Cutter Set;
The 3" round cutter from the Ateco 4-Piece Round Fluted Cookie Cutter Set.

All of the images are used under paid license.

These wafer papers are available for purchase here.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Shark Jaws Wafer Paper Cookies

2014-04-02T17:50:00.001-05:00

Between Finding Nemo, Shark Tale, and visits to various aquariums, my 3yo is now crazy about sharks. It was only a matter of time before I made him his very own shark cookies—we had them for a playdate with his best friend, Maya, 4. They were a huge hit!

For the cookies, I used the Candy Corn Cookie Cutter from Karen's Cookies. As usual, I used Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough, making thicker cookies than usual, to make sure they were more sturdy. After the icing was hard, I wafer-papered them by "painting" the whole surface of the shark with cornsyrup and a craft brush, about 3 at a time; when the cornsyrup had sat for about 5 minutes and gotten stickier, I pasted the papers on. This is the better method when you don't intend to give your cookie an icing border, and in high-humidity conditions. There is less curling up of the edges; you still have to tamp down the edges a few times, but you get a pretty decent result.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Happy Thanksgivukkah!

2013-11-25T15:20:00.000-06:00

This week, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah coincide, creating Thanksgivukkah—an event that will not occur again in our lifetime. To celebrate, I made these Menurkey (turkey menorah) cookies and gave them to my mother-in-law; I'm making a second batch today to give to my friend for a happy Thanksgivukkah.

I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!
~Ani

These wafers are available here.

2013 Halloween Cookie Wrap-Up

2013-10-28T10:01:00.000-05:00

In addition to the Poe Cookies and the Zombie cookies, I also made these:

Cute Gray Skulls

Spiderwebs

Fright Bites

Scary Squares
I had so many other ideas, and some sets were even ready to go, but time and energy were lacking. I'm recovering from pneumonia, so I'll just have to be pleased I got any cookies done at all :)

Happy Halloween Y'all!
Ani

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All of the above designs are available at my etsy shop.

Zombie Cookies for a Walking Dead Halloween

2013-10-18T22:16:00.001-05:00

These cookies actually came about from a customer request; a customer in Canada had her heart set on zombie wafer papers, and I wanted her to have them! I made these with Jesicake's Gluten-Free Version of Lilaloa's Chocolate Cookies, which is superb in both taste and in ease of baking, with black food-color to turn them dark like Oreo cookies. I used the middle cutter (2"x3") from the Ateco 3-Piece Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set. The borders were piped in black with a #16 star tip. Gruesomely awesome, right? I'm sending them to my friend Madeline in NYC, who is a huge fan of "Walking Dead".

The wafer papers are available at my shop.

Edgar Allan Poe Cookies for Halloween

2013-10-17T15:49:00.000-05:00

In our series of literary cookies, I finally got around to designing an Edgar Allan Poe set, just in time for Halloween. The set has quotes from his works (The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart, The House of Usher, Ligeia, The Casque of Amontillado,The Masque of the Red Death, etc.) and correspondence, as well as his portrait and signature. I designed them in steampunk style, with a dilapidated, grunge background, and added little images, such as a raven pecking at a human heart, a graveyard, stacks of books, and even a clockwork heart. I'm super-proud of these—I sent them to my friend Risa Bear of Renascence Editions.

I made these cookies with this Rectangular Cookie Cutter (2.375" x 3.5"), which the nice folks at CheapCookieCutters.com made for me upon request. I made them with Jesicake's Gluten-Free Version of Lilaloa's Chocolate Cookies, which is superb in both taste and in ease of baking, with black food-color to turn them dark like Oreo cookies. I piped and flooded the cookies with white Royal Icing and, when it was hard, wafer-papered them and piped a border for them with a #16 star tip with black icing.

The wafer papers are available at my shop.

Summer Stamp Cookies

2013-08-31T00:03:00.000-05:00

Memorial Day and Labor Day bookend summer, don't they? Even though here in Texas summer weather will continue for at least a month, schools have started, and thoughts have turned away from the beach and towards the autumn. To celebrate this, the last weekend of summer, so to speak, here are some Summer Stamp Cookies.

The wafer papers are available at my shop.

** graphics used under paid license **

Country Christmas Deer Cookies

2013-08-29T17:32:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know, I'm a crazy person for making a set of Xmas cookies in August :D

In my defense, though, I had a set of cookies all ready-iced, left over from my last cookie-baking, and I needed to make one set of 2" x 3" rectangular cookies. I had meant to make these last year, but never got around to it, so I figured I'd make them now. They were made with strawberry-kiwi icing, so nobody cared they were Xmassy—they got eaten just as quickly as non-Xmas cookies :D

The usual procedure: SugarBelle's cookie recipe, the middle cutter (2"x3") from the Ateco 3-Piece Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set. The borders I piped with a #16 star tip, half in ivory, half in a country red (closer to brick red than a "red red". Par for the course, I'm not sure which one I preferred... maybe the ivory.

The wafer papers are available at my shop.

** graphics used under paid license **

Fire Engine Cookies

2013-08-24T00:23:00.000-05:00

Firetruck cookies! According to my 2.5yo son, not only the awesomest cookies I've made so far, but the awesomest cookies made in the history of awesome cookies. He lost it, when he saw them, when he woke up from his nap. SUPERMOM!

I made them with purchased fire engine clipart; I love it with both backgrounds. When I asked my son which one he wanted to eat, he said, "The red dot firetruck!" They are actually not polka dots, being tiny stars, but that's semantics.

I made the cookies using Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough and the 2.5" cutter from the Ateco 5-Piece Fluted Square Cookie Cutter Set. I experimented with different border colors, all piped with a #16 star tip.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Nautical / Marine Cookies

2013-08-21T14:47:00.001-05:00

My friend Marianne asked me to make some cookies for her mother, for their impending vacation to Maine. I decided to make something nautical, very clean-cut and all-American. These marine postage stamp cookies, in red, blue, and gray, have the kind of "Tommy Hilfiger aesthetic" I wanted. I used purchased clipart to make the wafer papers—the lighthouse cookie is my favorite.

I made the cookies using Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough and the 2" x 2.5" rectangular cutter from the R & M Fluted Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set. They required no border, so were fairly quick to make.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Back-to-School Cookies!

2013-08-20T21:52:00.001-05:00

I've had houseguests after houseguests lately, so I haven't gotten to make many cookies—and those I've made, I haven't had time to post. Apologies!

My tyke is too little for school, but I wanted to send some Back-to-School cookies to my cousin's kids, who are very excited about school starting again. Here they are!

I made the cookies using Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough and the 2nd largest cutter from the Ateco 5-Piece Fluted Square Cookie Cutter Set. I used a strawberry-kiwi extract for the icing, and I think it might be my new favorite, trumping even the cotton candy flavor! I piped and flooded the cookies carefully, because I knew I was going to make them borderless. The images are licensed clipart—there are four different designs, all filled with the fun elements of school.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Almost Madagascar Cookies

2013-07-14T15:09:00.000-05:00

My 2.5yo toddler has become obsessed with Dreamworks' Madagascar and Madagascar 2. Obviously, I can't make him cookies with images from the movies, because that would violate copyright. But, I made him these cookies, cobbled together in Photoshop from purchased clipart, which have the same animals: a lion, a giraffe, a zebra, and a hippo.

I made the cookies with Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough which, as you probably know by now, is my absolute favorite. I flavored the cookies with McCormick Raspberry Extract from the grocery store (surprisingly, as good as you can get). I cut them with the largest cutter (2.5"x 3") from the R & M Fluted Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set, iced them, wafer-papered them, and piped borders in super-stiff white icing, using a #16 star tip.

It was so worth it when he climbed on his Learning Tower to see what cookies I was making, and a breathless "Wow!" escaped his lips. I felt like Supermom :) "Alex! Marty! Melman! Gloria!" he shouted. Convincing him to eat one was another thing entirely. He ate the frosted edges and saved the rest of the cookie.

The wafer papers are available at my shop.

Les Fleurs Animées ~ Flower Maiden Cookies

2013-07-12T15:00:00.001-05:00

Last year, I sent my friend Anna some cookies, and she sent me the loveliest thank-you note with the Narcissus (the top right one in the first closeup). The image was from a mid-1800s French book with gorgeous chromolithographs of these flower ladies— or, as I like to think of them, "the souls of the flowers." I knew these flower fairies were BEGGING to be made into cookies, so I hunted down a copy of the book, Les fleurs animées by Grandville. I spent several months, off and on, editing and optimizing the images in Photoshop by removing foxing (those brown spots humidity has caused over the decades), creases, scratches, etc. Finally, I had my 12 favorites ready to go last month, and set to making the cookies.

Using Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough (with 1/3 cup of Hershey's cocoa to make them faux-chocolate) and the 3" square cutter from the Ateco 5-piece Square Cookie Cutter Set, I made the cookies, piped and flooded them with white, and waited (with superhuman patience) for them to dry. The borders were piped with icing I colored ivory with the tiniest dab of AmeriColor Gel Paste in Ivory, using super-stiff icing and a #16 star tip.

Needless to say, I sent the cookies to my sweet Anna, who had introduced me to these breathtaking images and inspired me to make them in the first place.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Beige Seashell Cookies

2013-07-10T23:50:00.000-05:00

My mother loves Guylian seashell chocolates; I swear she was addicted to them, when she first discovered them 20 years ago. So, I made some chocolate sugar cookies I was sure she'd flip over; there are shells, a starfish, and even a seahorse.

I used Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough with 1/3 cup of Hershey's cocoa added to make them faux-chocolate. For the cutter, I used the 2.5" sqaure cutter from the Ateco 5-piece Square Cookie Cutter Set. The borders were piped with icing I colored with another dash of cocoa, using a #16 star tip.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Victorian Birdcage Cookies

2013-06-01T23:35:00.000-05:00

As soon as I saw these gorgeous Victorian die-cut scraps of birds in birdcages on eBay, I knew I had to have them. Yes, I know, I was only collecting select postcards, but now, it seems, I'm also collecting some scraps as well. Not indiscriminately, mind you, just the exquisitely beautiful ones I can't live without. Anyway, I just knew they'd make lovely cookies, and I think I was right :)

I made the cookies with Sugarbelle's sugar cookie recipe, using the 2" x 2.5" rectangular cutter from the R & M Fluted Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set and the 2.5" fluted cutter (usable area 2.25") from

the Ateco 5-Piece Fluted Square Cookie Cutter Set. I piped and flooded with white, and piped a border with ivory icing using a #16 star tip.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Victorian Cute Cat Cookies

2013-05-30T18:04:00.002-05:00

These adorable kittens are from Victorian die-cut scraps. I made the cookies with Sugarbelle's sugar cookie recipe, using the middle cutter (2"x3") from the Ateco 3-Piece Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set. The borders I piped with a #16 star tip, with white vanilla-flavored icing.

The wafer papers are available at my shop.

Chinese Double Happiness Cookies

2013-05-26T17:56:00.004-05:00

My friend Anna threw a bridal shower last weekend for her future sister-in-law. Anna wanted to gift her with some cookies that had the Chinese "Double Happiness" symbol or character, to honor the family's Chinese American heritage. The Chinese color for happiness, good luck, and weddings, is red, so color choice was easy. I made a set of twelve, but we trimmed them to eight for the red presentation box, 8 being a lucky number in Chinese culture.

Using Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough, I made the cookies in three shapes:

1. Rectangle, using the 2" x 2.5" rectangular cutter from

the R & M Fluted Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set;

2. Square, using the 2.5" fluted cutter (usable area 2.25") from

the Ateco 5-Piece Fluted Square Cookie Cutter Set;

3. Circle, using the 2.5" round cutter (usable area 2.25" usable area) from

the Ateco 4-Piece Round Fluted Cookie Cutter Set.

They were so pretty without a border, I decided to leave them plain.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Blue Japanese Traditional Pattern Cookies

2013-05-24T14:25:00.002-05:00

Yes, I am on a blue cookie streak. One of my favorite customers, Diane, told me how much she loves all Asian-themed cookies, so when I ran across these traditional blue Japanese patterns, I knew I had to make them as wafer papers for her. These patterns have been in use for centuries in both porcelain and fabric decoration; waves, flowers, intricate squares.

I made the cookies with my favorite, Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough, and used a 1.75" square cookie cutter from the Ateco 5-Piece Fluted Square Cookie Cutter Set. If you wanted to, you could "cheat" and use these wafer papers on Lorna Doone shortbread cookies from your grocery store's cookie isle.

After piping and flooding the cookies, I let them harden for 24 hrs, then wafer-papered them. They were such dainty cookies, I felt they required a delicate border; I piped round "pearls" in a string for a beaded border, using a #4 round tip in an icing consistency a bit thicker than regular border-piping icing, but not as stiff as if I had been making a border with a star tip. This is really more trial and error than anything else; roughly 8 second icing. I often have to remix looser, if my beads have a sharp tip that won't absorb, or thicker, if the pearls turn into shapeless blobs.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Blue Chinese Porcelain Cookies

2013-05-24T00:11:00.000-05:00

Last week, my neighbor Marcia's Delft Blue Porcelain Cookies, which I'd made for her nearly a year ago, finally met their demise; she had saved them on a platter in her dining room, but wafer paper is fragile and very susceptible to humidity, and its shelf-life is only about a year. After a year, the humidity here in Texas finally made the wafer papers bubble and curl, and she agreed to throw out her cookies. To replace them, I made her these blue Chinese porcelain cookies.

I'm not familiar with Chinese iconography and symbolism, so I couldn't tell you if the bird is a pheasant, a bird of paradise, or a phoenix; not whether the mandala-looking pattern is a lotus flower or a symbol of something else. Whatever the case might be, there is no question about its beauty and appeal. I bet she's going to keep these a year, too.

For dough, I used Jesicake's Gluten-Free Version of Lilaloa's Chocolate Cookies. I cut the cookies with the 2.5" round cutter (it's more like a 2.25" usable area, because of the fluting) from the Ateco 4-Piece Round Fluted Cookie Cutter Set, but any 2.5" fluted round or 2.25" plain-edged round cutter would do for the images. Iced with white, border piped with a #16 star tip using super-stiff icing.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Victorian Dog Cookies

2013-05-23T15:20:00.000-05:00

One of my aunts is a dog-lover to the extreme, so I made her these dog cookies. The images are from Victorian die-cut scraps. The baby (he's 2.5, but I still think of him as "the baby") liked the little white terrier and the border collie. I like the little cairn terrier and the yorkie... and the Jack Russell (if that's a Jack Russell, I'm not sure). My aunt will doubtless like the long-haired dachshund, because she had a mix who looked very much like him.

I made the cookies with Jesicake's Gluten-Free Version of Lilaloa's Chocolate Cookies using a 2.5" round cutter (it's more like a 2.25" usable area, because of the fluting) from the Ateco 4-Piece Round Fluted Cookie Cutter Set, but any 2.5" fluted round or 2.25" plain-edged round cutter would do for the images. Iced with white, border piped with a #16 star tip using super-stiff icing.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Coffee Cup Cookies

2013-05-22T22:57:00.000-05:00

My friend Brian has been on my "to-be-cookied" list for a long time and, since I finally found a good gluten-free cookie recipe, it was his turn. He is a coffee fiend, so coffee cup cookies were a natural choice.

I made the cookies with Jesicake's Gluten-Free Version of Lilaloa's Chocolate Cookies, which is superb in both taste and in ease of baking. I used a 1.75" square cookie cutter from the Ateco 5-Piece Fluted Square Cookie Cutter Set, but if you weren't worried about gluten, you could "cheat" and use these wafer papers on Lorna Doone shortbread cookies from your grocery store's cookie isle.

After piping and flooding the cookies, I waited the requisite 24 hrs for them to harden, then wafer-papered them & piped a border with vanilla icing (colored light brown with Hershey's cocoa powder) with a #14 star tip. Brian and his wife loved them :)

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Asian Flower Porcelain Plate Cookies

2013-05-19T21:59:00.000-05:00

My godmother was long overdue for cookies—but I had to wait until I had figured out which gluten-free cookie dough was actually tasty, and not like cardboard, before making hers. Since Jesicake's Gluten-Free Version of Lilaloa's Chocolate Cookies was excellent, my godmother has cookies on the way. She is a lover of porcelain and of flowers, so I made her this set of Asian porcelain flower plate designs from the late 1800s.

I used the 2.5" round cutter (it's more like a 2.25" usable area, because of the fluting) from the Ateco 4-Piece Round Fluted Cookie Cutter Set, but any 2.5" fluted round or 2.25" plain-edged round cutter would do for the images. Iced with white, border piped with a #16 star tip using super-stiff icing.

The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.