In Australia it's pretty much the middle of summer in Christmas. I live not far from the Gold Coast (popular touristy beach) and growing up Christmas parties consisted of swimming, BBQ's ,seafood platters and pavlova's. I'm pretty sure I mentioned it last year when I made up some 'prawn' Christmas cake pop (as a joke, not for real).
As you no doubt have noticed the Christmas decorations have been out for a while and more than once I have overheard fellow shoppers while picking up glittery cupcakes and highheel shoe ornaments asking their friends kinda loudly what on earth do THESE have to do with Christmas.
Everytime I smile to myself thinking well kinda as much as the snowflakes and holly leaves do in our weather......
But regardless I have the same weird belief that all things snowy stand for Christmas and for the second cookie off the rank for my Christmas swap cookies I'm going with a penguin with a scarf and beanie once again made using my good ole' babushka cookie cutter set.
I mentioned it before but people always ask so here in Australian I got my nesting doll cookie cutters from Bisk-art HERE
In the US I have noticed them at Fancy Flours and Ecrandal have a super pretty copper 5 set.
The cookie recipe I used is from my newly released book Sweets on a Stick available here at Amazon, the book also has a recipe for Marshmallow Fondant.
Or the book depository UK (Click HERE)
Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)
Or you can find similar recipes for vanilla sugar cookies, chocolate sugar cookies and marshmallow fondant on my blog by using the search function :)
and don't y'all go worrying your pretty little heads, I AM going to do the nutcraker cookie tutorial, I'm just workin' my way up to it.
Penguin nesting doll cookies
These instructions use the medium nesting cookie cutter, follow the exact same instructions for small or large nesting doll cutter. Sugar cookies made using medium nesting doll cookie cutter
black rolled fondant shop bought or home made marshmallow fondant (I used shop bought chocolate flavored fondant colored with black americolor gel)*
colored rolled fondant any colors (or home made marshmallow fondant)*
small amount of orange rolled fondant (or home made marshmallow fondant)*
black edible writing pen
small round cutter (around 2cm or 3/4 inch)
oval cutter (around 4.5cm or 1 3/4inch in length)
small 6 petal flower cutters (13mm or 1/2 inch)
small rolling pin
medium nesting doll cookie cutter (around 9.5cm or 3 3/4 inch)
small sharp knife
clean brush and water
*Fondant dries out very quickly. Use small amounts work quickly and when not in use place the fondant in an airtight container or ziplock bag to minimise the chances of it drying out and cracking.
Roll out the black fondant onto a clean benchtop dusted with cornflour/ cornstarch, or you can rub on some crisco or spray a little oil (this method is good if you have trouble with the white flour showing up as dots). Roll out until a couple of mm (1/8") in thickness. I like to lift my fondant frequently and turn it like pie dough to ensure it does now stick to the bench while rolling it out.
Use the nesting doll cookie cutter to cut out a shape. Lightly brush a cookie with water and place the fondant over the cookie, using the rolling pin lightly press down to adhere the fondant to the cookie.
Roll out some white fondant and cut out a small round face and an oval tummy, attach them to the black fondant coloured cookie, the smaller round in the face area and the larger oval in the tummy area.
Ooops used the wrong oval cutter in this picture it should be quite a bit bigger than the circle
Roll out a small amount of the colored fondant on a cornflour/ cornstach dusted workbench until a couple of mm (1/8") in thickness and using the nesting doll cutter cut out the head, then using the side of the nesting doll cutter where it curves at the shoulder section press down about .5cm from the top of the head to make a little beanie/ hat. You can make the hat bigger or larger as you like. Adhere the hat to the penguin cookie with a small amount of water ensuring the rounded edge of the beanie is in line with the top of the penguin 'head' and the bottom of the beanie will overlap the white round face.Press down lightly on the beanie with the rolling pin as needed to secure.
Still using the curved side of the rolling pin, press in down lightly about 1mm from the bottom curved edge of the hat to make a small decorative indent. Using the knife work your way along the beanie rim you have just made making small indents about 1mm apart. If you like you can use the square corner edge of the cookie cutter to make more decorative indents in the hat to look like knitting. Roll a small ball of white fondant and adhere it to the top of the hat to look like a little pom pom.
Make the scarf by rolling out some more of the fondant and using the sharp knife cut out 2 strips around .5cm wide and 3-4cm long. At one end using the sharp knife to cut a fringe around .5cm long with about 4 to 5 pieces as per the picture.
Using a small amount of water adhere the scarf pieces around the neck of the penguin.and cut any overhang at the neck off using the sharp knife.
Shape a small nose using the orange fondant and adhere with the pointed end pointing down to the middle of the face with a very small amount of water.
Roll out some more of the orange fondant and cut out a couple of small flowers using a 6 petal fondant cutter.
Allow the fondant on the snowman to dry a couple of hours and then using the edible pen draw on 2 eyes.
