Santa nesting doll cookies

So finally the Santa nesting doll cookie, and this is where the Christmas nesting doll set all started.

A little over a year ago just after I had posted my original babushka cookies Jody R sent me an email with an attached picture of a nesting doll Santa suggesting I make it.

Which I did, although really it doesn't look like the original picture and it did take over a year, but I have to say it was awesome inspiration Jody so thanks very much.

It inspired me to make a whole set of Christmas themed nesting doll cookies.

I have already posted tutorials for the snowman, nutcraker and the penguin which were also part of my swap cookie set, you can find the the tutorials as well as some other helpful links below:

Snowman Cookie tutorial Click Here

Penguin Cookie tutorial Click Here

Nutcracker Cookie tutorial Click Here

In Australian I got my nesting doll cookie cutters from Bisk-art HERE

In the US I have noticed that Fancy Flours have an ok priced nesting doll set 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 (Click HERE)

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)



You can find similar recipes for vanilla sugar cookies, chocolate sugar cookies and marshmallow fondant on my blog by using the search function :)

Nesting doll news update - while I was doing up the tutorial for Santa I whipped up some little elf nesting doll cookies using the smallest of the nesting doll cookie cutters.

Santa 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 (CLICK HERE for you tube cookie recipe)
Red, White, Skin tone, black and yellow rolled fondant shop bought or home made marshmallow fondant (I used shop bought fondant colored with black americolor gel)*
small oval cutter with ruffled edges(around 5cm or 2ish inch) - I picked this up on Ebay in a set of 4
Medium/Large piping tip (I used #195)
small rolling pin
medium nesting doll cookie cutter (around 9.5cm or 3 3/4 inch)
small sharp knife
clean brush and water
black edible writing pen
pink dusting powder plus dry clean brush
*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 red fondant onto a clean benchtop dusted with cornflour/ cornstarch 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. Do the same with the black colored fondant.

 
Place the red and black fondant next to each other to use as a guide and using the sharp knife cut out boots and a belt from the black fondant, at the bottom of the red fondant cut a matching piece off that will be replaced with the black 'boots'. Use a small amount of water to adhere the red body and black boots to the cookie, using the rolling pin to press into place as necessary. Attach the belt to Santa's middle using a tiny amount of water and press in place.

Roll out a small amount of skin tone fondant and using the large round end of a piping tip - I used a Wilton #195 which is a bit bigger than the regular piping tips. Cut a little bit off the top of the round as per picture, this is where the hat will sit. Using a tiny amount of water attach the skin tone face to the cookie (use completed cookie picture as guide). You will need to roll out a bit more of the red fondant and use the nesting doll cookie cutter to cut out the head area, then use the sharp knife to cut out a beanie/hat and attach it to the fondant covered cookie. Take a little bit extra of the red fondant and  press into a small round to make a mouth. Attach it to the bottom of the skin tone face.

 

Roll out some white fondant and cut out a shape using the oval ruffle cutter. Then use the piping tip to remove the 'face' to make a beard- see the picture. You can then remove a small amount of the top and fit the white 'beard' around the skin tone face which you have already attached to the cookie.
 

Roll out a little more of the white fondant and once again using the ruffled oval cutter make the ruffle on the edge of the hat and the mustache. You will need to cut out the oval and then use the knife to trim a long thin ruffle to make the hat trim, attach it with a small amount of water. Use the same technique to make the mustache and then attach it using a tiny amount of water on top of the red mouth on the skin tone face. Pinch a little bit of the excess skintone fondant shape into a tiny nose and attach to the face right above the mustache.

Roll out more of the red fondant and again cut out the nesting doll shape. Using the sharp knife cut out the arms from the nesting doll shape as per the picture.

The rest is pretty much rolling out the small shapes by hand and attaching them to the cookies. Once again super fiddly like the nutcracker so don't say I didn't warn you.

Take a small piece of black fondant and shape a couple of small mitten like hands and attach them to the cookie at the ends of the arms.

Take a tiny amount of yellow fondant and shape little rectangles to make the belt buckle. If you like you can roll out tiny little ropes and make a more realistic looking buckle like I did for the original cookies but if your doing lots of them it would be easier to do the rectangles.

Take a small amount of white fondant and shape into a small ball for the top of the beanie/hat and attach with a little water and then do the same for a couple of eyebrows and trim on the arms where they meet the black mittens.

Allow the fondant on the Santa to dry a couple of hours and then using the edible pen draw on 2 eyes. If you like use a clean brush to brush on a couple of circles of pink dusting powder to the cheeks.

 

The End 

Nutcracker nesting doll Christmas Cookie

OK - I'm going to have to admit something kinda embarrassing here.

I only know the story of the nutcraker as told by Barbie and even then I have pretty much failed to sit through the whole thing.

But I do know that nutcracker decorations are totally cool, and cookies doubly so, which meant when I was making up the Christmas cookie swap set of nesting cookies I posted over to Kiss Me Kate I had to include a nutcracker cookie.

In case you have missed my previous posts I was involved in a lovely Christmas cookie swap a few weeks back with some very talented cookie artists. It was super fun and I have posted most of the cookies from the swap in this post HERE.

I have already posted tutorials for the snowman and the penguin which were also part of my swap cookie set, and as far as fondant cookies go they are pretty simple, in fact way simpler that the one below for the nutcracker. I would recommend starting with one of them first if your not overly confident with fondant cookies:

Snowman Cookie tutorial Click Here

Penguin Cookie tutorial Click Here 
In Australian I got my nesting doll cookie cutters from Bisk-art HERE

In the US I have noticed that Fancy Flours have an ok priced nesting doll set 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 :)

Nutcracker 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
Red, White, Skin tone, black, navy and yellow rolled fondant shop bought or home made marshmallow fondant (I used shop bought fondant colored with black americolor gel)*

small square cutter with ruffled edges(around 2cm or 3/4 inch)

small rolling pin
medium nesting doll cookie cutter (around 9.5cm or 3 3/4 inch)
small sharp knife

clean brush and water
black edible writing pen
gold non toxic food glitter (optional) plus dry clean brush
pink dusting powder plus dry clean brush

*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 red fondant onto a clean benchtop dusted with cornflour/ cornstarch 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. Do the same with the navy colored fondant and the  skintone colored fondant (the navy you can just cut out the bottom half of the shape and the skin tone you can just cut out the top half of the shape).

 
Working very quickly lay the skin tone on top of the red and cut along the neckline to make the head. Remove the excess skintone and red fondant.

Then lay the navy fondant over the red fondant and cut out the legs. Remove the excess navy and red fondant
.

Lightly brush a cookie with water and place the 3 different fondants onto the cookie, using the rolling pin to lightly press down to adhere the fondant to the cookie. You don't really need to worry about the joins looking perfect as they will be covered with other details.

Roll out the black fondant to a couple of mm (1/18th ") and cut out the nesting doll shape again.

Place it next to the fondant covered cookie to use as a guide and using the sharp knife cut out boots, a belt and a hat as per the picture. Use a small amount of water to adhere the boots and belt to the fondant covered cookie.

 
Roll out some white fondant and cut out the nesting doll shape using the cookie cutter (you will only need the top half. Take the square cookie cutter with the ruffled edge and cut out 2 side pieces of hair as per the picture. Place the black hat on top of the white hair pieces and using the sharp knife trim off any of the white fondant that will be under the black fondant hat. Adhere the hair to the fondant covered cookie and then adhere the black fondant hat on top of the hair.

Roll out a little more of the white fondant and once again using the ruffled edge of the square cookie cutter cut a small rectangle which will be the nutcrackers beard. Adhere it to the fondant covered cookie with a tiny amount of water.

Sorry about this super blue photo umm it's the best I could do tonight (shrugs shoulders)

Roll out more of the red fondant and again cut out the nesting doll shape. Using the sharp knife cut out the arms from the nesting doll shape as per the picture.

The rest is pretty much rolling out the small shapes by hand and attaching them to the cookies. I know super fiddly don't say I didn't warn you.

Flatten a small piece of red fondant and adhere it to the face right above the beard for the mouth.

Take a small piece of black fondant and roll out a couple of short thin logs to make the mustache and press them onto the face on top of the red mouth. While you have the black fondant out shape a couple of small mitten like hands and attach them to the cookie at the ends of the arms.

Roll out a very small oval of skin toned fondant and attach it to the face above the mustache to make a nose.

Phew nearly finished take the yellow fondant and shape little ovals to go onto the shoulders and thin straps for the wrist and attach them carefully with the tiniest amount of water. Roll out a couple of very thin logs of the yellow fondant to make the details on the front of the jacket and attach using the picture as a guide. Make 6 small rounds and attach them to the end of each short log. Shape a final round a little larger than the buttons and adhere it in the center of the black fondant hat.

Brush on a very tiny amount of water to the yellow details and using another clean dry brush dab on the non toxic food glitter.

Allow the fondant on the nutcracker to dry a couple of hours and then using the edible pen draw on 2 eyes and eyebrows. If you like use a clean brush to brush on a couple of circles of pink dusting powder to the cheeks.

 

The End

Penguin nesting doll Christmas Cookies

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.

Using the sharp knife cut them in half to make little feet. Adhere 2 feet with the flat edges parallel with the bottom of the cookie with a small amount of water.

Allow the fondant on the snowman to dry a couple of hours and then using the edible pen draw on 2 eyes.
 

Snowman nesting doll Christmas cookies

One of my favorite cookies ever is the babushka doll (nesting doll) which I first posted on this blog about a year ago here and then an even prettier version earlier this year HERE. After I posted tutorial instructions one of my lovely readers Jody emailed me a picture of a set of Santa nesting dolls suggesting they would make a great set of cookies to which I totally agreed and ever since I have had it in the back of my mind to do just that.

So when I was thinking of ideas for the Christmas Cookie swap I was part of,  Santa nesting doll cookies was one of the first things I thought of. But I needed to make a set and so this snowman was the second thing that popped into my head.

Snowman cookies are nothing new, but this version with the nesting doll cookies is cool as you can easily make a family, and once I post the instructions for a couple of the other cookies in the set you can make quite a few Christmas themed cookies using the one basic shape.

Plus anything that uses nesting doll cookie cutters is just really neat!

If you don't have a set of nesting doll cookie cutters, you could follow these instructions and use a regular ole' snowman cookie cutter and they would look just as cute. Well almost.

Over 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.

Snowman 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
white rolled fondant shop bought or home made marshmallow fondant
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 rolling pin
nesting doll cookie cutters
small sharp knife

clean brush and water

Roll out the white fondant onto a clean benchtop dusted with cornflour/ cornstarch. 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.

Repeat with remaining cookies.

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 snowman cookie as shown in the picture using a very small amount of water and pressing down lightly with the rolling pin as needed.

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. 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. If you like you can roll a small ball of white fondant and adhere it to the top of the hat to look like a little pom pom.

Repeat for remaining cookies.

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 snowman.and cut any overhang at the neck off using the sharp knife.

Shape a small nose using the orange fondant and adhere to the middle of the face with a very small amount of water.

Allow the fondant on the snowman to dry a couple of hours and then using the edible pen draw on 2 eyes and 5 dots for the mouth. I find starting with the center dot and working my way out makes for a more even smile.
 
Now for some great news (well for me anyway) it seems some of the online book shop warehouses have started receiving my book and have emailed people on the waiting lists to say the book is on its way soon. I had a few copies delivered during the week and I'm so happy with how it turned out. Remember it's a US release book and the weights and measurements are written accordingly although there is a conversion chart in the back of the book. It's available lots of places, here is a link to Amazon:

Babushka Cookies for Polkadot Prints printable range

All photos by Naomi V Photography

EDIT - I now have a tutorial for these cookies on the blog CLICK HERE

Babushka doll , matryoshka doll, Russian nesting dolls, they have so many different names but one thing is for sure they sure make cute cookies and also printable invitations as well for that matter as you'll see.
 
I know I've done the whole babushka doll cookie thing before, but I love them so much, they really are one of my favorite cookies so when I had the chance to make a new version of them I couldn't wait..

I already shared the cherry and the Tiffany cookies I did for Jordan from Polkadot prints, but I have to tell you this set were the ones I loved doing the best.

It's kinda hard to tell from the photo's but I made 2 different sizes using the medium size and small size from my bisk-art cutters and trying to match the design in with the ones on the invitations.

 

How awesome are the photo's that Naomi took?

The ones in the photo above at the back that are part yellow background (like the below photo) are the medium size and the pink ones are the small

The are a sugar cookie covered with fondant, decorated with a variety of fondant flowers (carnation, daisy and blossom cutters) and a few dots of royal icing. I've already have a tutorial for Babuskha cookies (Click Here) on the blog I did up about a year ago, if you follow that tutorial it should give you the basics so you can build up your own babushka masterpiece.

Oh and you all know I love square cookies at the moment so I couldn't help but do up a couple in a matching design as well.

Jordan has done a post over on her blog here as well, awe and she was so nice about my cookies I'm still blushing a bit. She is lots of fun and full of creative ideas, make sure you pop over to check out her blog :)

Printables by Polkadot Prints

Photography by Naomi V Photography

Babushka Cookie Cutters by Bisk-art

Babushka Cookie Tutorial by Bubble and Sweet

Here is a link to my book Sweets on a Stick due out in December, the recipes and ideas in my book are kid friendly and not a difficult as the cookies pictures above. It's a collection of my favorite recipes and ideas for sweets on a stick that I enjoy making with my kids