"Cookies make me happy" rice paper decorated flower button rosette cookies

A little while back I started naming all my cookies, you know just to give me something to do. Have y'all noticed?

I've called this design 'Cookies make me happy'....yep that's pretty self explanatory.

Anyway there is a little more to the name story. It's actually what the words say on the rice paper I have used as decoration. I was writing little sayings across the paper with edible pen, just whatever came to mind and this is what happened to be on this batch.

I though for a moment, hey what happens if I write something else next time I make them, then the name won't make sense, but in the end I decided just to go with it as - you know......these cookies make me happy.

They are little blossom cookies covered in fondant with flower rosettes using rice paper I have decorated with different methods.

They were an experiment for something else I am thinking of doing just to see how the rice paper idea would work out.

Now the really weird thing about this is that I am not a crafty person....not at all. I am not even sure why I have the cutters I used to make these cookies or even the couple of crafty items I used as props in the photo's. I won't even embarrass myself any further and talk about the boxes of items I have wasting space in my cupboards from Spotlight (Australian Craft store) I don't know what is going through my head when I walk out the checkout except I must get out of here before I lose the kids in the fabric section again.

Well I guess all I can say is finally some good has come of it.

Hope you love these cookies, they made me very happy.

"Cookies make me Happy" tutorial

Step 1 decorate rice paper
 

Ingredients and Equipment
Rice paper
edible writing pen (I picked up a pack online at Inspired by Chocolate)
small dish with a mixture of coffee and sugar mixed with a tiny amount of water
large bristled brush
Small amount of thick royal icing (or icing sugar mixed with a tiny amount of water)
Gel food colour

Rice paper with writing - using the edible pen write words across the paper. I wrote the same small sentence over again and started at a different part of the sentence each line to give a bit of variety. As a starter here are a couple of the lines I wrote....'Cookies make me happy', 'Fairy wishes and Butterfly kisses', 'I love you'. We read a lot of my little pony at the moment, these are the types of things we say around here feel free to come up with your own not so sugary sayings. Set aside to dry.

Brown brushed rice paper - using the large bristled brush with uneven stokes brush the coffee and sugar mixture onto a piece of rice paper until the sheet is covered roughly making sure it does not get too soggy. Set aside to dry. You could just use brown food colour if you prefer but I wanted to give a little hint of flavour. Also I used some crystalised sugar which did not dissolve for a little bit of texture.

Brown and red brushed paper - follow instructions for brown brushed rice paper, you do not need to wait for it to dry. Mix the royal icing (or icing sugar) with the food colour until the colour you desire is achieved and then using either a brush or your gloved finger brush on the colour mixture just wherever you like. Bring out your inner abstract artist.

Ok you can stop now....not to much. Set aside to dry.

Step 2 -Bake cookies

Click here for chocolate cookie recipe or here for vanilla sugar cookie recipe links

Make up a batch of cookies as per instruction and bake. I used a small blossom shape cookie cutter.

Step 3 - Decorate cookies

Ingredients and equipment

Cookies
decorated rice paper
ready to roll fondant (I used bakels) or marshmallow fondant in at least 2 colours I used white and red
scissors or craft cutter
small blossom cutter same as cookie
water and brush
small fondant rolling pin
small amount of royal icing (or icing sugar mixed with water just for a little sticking)
toothpick or fondant decorating tool (to make indents for button)

Roll out white fondant until quite thin with small rolling pin on a bench dusted with a little cornflour and cut out blossom shape using the cookie cutter. Adhere fondant to cookie using a teensy little bit of water brushed onto cookie and smooth out by using the rolling pin gently.

Cut out rounds of decorated rice paper - I used a craft cutter but you could easily use scissors. Gently scrunch the rice paper rounds up in your hand to give a crinkly effect. With some of the rounds snip into the rounds to give a kind of petal effect.

Using a small amount of royal icing just in the middle attach the rice paper rounds to the cookies. You can just use one piece of rice paper or layer a few. If you are using more than one layer just repeat the process by adding another dab of royal icing and popping the rice paper round on top.

With a small piece of contrasting fondant shape a round to represent a button and then using a toothpick or some other pokey object make a couple of indents to represent the holes in a button. Adhere the button on top of the cookie in the center with a little royal icing.

There you have it, rice paper flower decorated cookies. I have used this method to make quite a few items and I'm really hoping to share some more with you all soon.

Xx