Fancy Smancy Pink Mask sugar cookies

Pretty pink mask sugar cookies I cooked up for a bunch of pretty little girls.

Think I might call them Harlequin Heart (white and pink),  Diva (pink and gold) and Swirling Heart mask (pink and red).

I'll be doing up a tutorial for one of these and would love to know which one you would prefer the tutorial for?

Let me know in the comments.

Red, White and Blue Patriotic Pinwheel cookie pops

Edible Patriotic Pinwheels made out of Fondant

I've had these in mind for a while now....probably coming up to 12 months just after I missed the boat last year.

They're decorated on both sides....in different designs, which is a pretty cool idea if I do say so myself.

Also not as tricky as it seems.

and just to put some ideas into your head while your whipping some up you could use these fondant pinwheels to decorate anything. Cakes, cake pops, pies (my latest obsession). Yes if you can eat it you can pretty much stick one of these twirly whirly babies on it.

Plus you can make them any pattern you like, and if your not really into the whole double sided fondant thing you could just decorate one square of fondant with some edible food writers and draw on any design you wanted.

But before I get into the how to make these sweet pinwheels I have to say my camera is driving me CRAZY. I must buy a proper one so that I can get some lovely shots for you all. I may have mentioned it before but I am completely hopeless when it comes to anything remotely technical so ANY suggestions would be most welcome.


Oh and those cute 'ole stripy sticks holding up the pinwheel cookies are actually paper straws cut to size and popped over the top of the paper lollipop sticks.

Ingredients & Equipment to make Patriotic Pinwheels

White fondant
Red fondant
Blue fondant
Small rolling pin
Square cookie cutter
small star ejector cutter
pizza cutter  (or sharp knife)
Sharp knife
cornflour (cornstarch)
small dish of water and brush
Parchment paper cut into squares a couple of inches larger than your square cutter

Roll out the white fondant as thinly as you can and cut out square shape. Working quickly roll out the red fondant as thinly as you can and cut out square shape. Use the pizza cutter to cut the square into thin red stripes.

Using a tiny amount of water adhere the red stripes onto the white fondant square leaving an even amount of white showing between each red stripe. Gently roll over the top of the red and white stripe fondant with the rolling pin. Place the fondant square stripe side down on the parchment paper.

Still working quickly roll our the blue fondant as thinly as possible and cut out a square shape, use a small amount of water to adhere the blue square to the back of the red and white stripe square (ie the all white side).

Roll out some more white fondant and using the small star ejector cutter cut out enough stars to place on the blue fondant, use a little water to adhere if necessary.

Gently roll over the top of the blue and white star fondant square with the rolling pin. Use the sharpe knife to even up the edges and ensure the red and white stripe side and blue and white star side are flush and even, discard any excess fondant.

 
Using the sharp knife cut from the edge of each corner towards the middle slicing through both layers of fondant. Leave an area about 1cm (1/2inch) in diameter in the center that you do not cut through.

Take one of the corners of fondant and carefully pull it down towards the center, looping the fondant over, repeat for remaining 3 corners ensuring that the loops all go in the same direction.

Break off small sections of plastic wrap and scrunch into small balls to stick inside the pinwheel loops while the fondant dries. Leave a day or so until set.

Then make some round cookie pops, cover with fondant and stick the pinwheels on with a little bit of royal icing. Click here for my previous post on snowflake cookies for instructions on  how to make and cover cookies.

Tim Tam rush pops

If you follow me on facebook you've probably already seen this photo, but what you might not have seen is that this is not just a normal everyday white Tim Tam truffle cookie pop, it's a Tim Tam Rush pop.

Or maybe when you were growing up they were called a Tim Tam Slam.

Or maybe you think I'm a little weird and you don't know what I'm talking about.

It's when you get a tim tam and slurp your coffee up through it and pop the whole lot in your mouth. I was never a huge fan back in the day but when I was growing up they only had original tim tams. Maybe if they had white tim tams I might have been a convert.

Although I'm not so sure, never was a big fan of soggy. But with these pops you get the yummy coffee/tim tam flavour and none of the unpleasant sogginess. Really the best of both worlds don't you think.

Waiting to be made into pops, the coffee ones at the front and plain old white tim tam at the back

I am a convert now and once you try them you might be too.  Recipe after jump.

Triple Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies

Triple chocolate cookies masquerading as Christmas puddings.That's my kinda cookie!

Also yummy, give me a choice between a decorated cookie and a chocolate cookie and I'll pick the chocolate one nearly everytime. This way I get the best of both, decorated sweetness and chocolate yumminess.

and look you can even make them into pudding pops.



Is there any baked good that doesn't look cute on a stick. I just popped 8 inch sticks into the cookie dough before baking and allowed them to cool on the tray a little longer.

I like this version with the mini red m&m's in the cookies as well, even though it looks a bit like a weird face with a pudding hat.

I didn't come up with this idea, I was inspired by a picture of a little similar one on Flickr and thought it was so cute. The instructions for my version are after the jump.

Bee cake pops (well ok they're Bee Oreo Pops)

I've been busy as a bee in the kitchen lately and one of the things I have whipped up is these bee Oreo cookie truffle pops.

Based on Bakerella's instructions and tweaked a little for those who are piping impaired like me.

Mwahhhh, kiss, kiss - stamping cute decorations

Quite a few people asked me about the little lips I used to decorate my tim tam cookie pops with so I'm going to quickly share my secret with you.

Stamps......

Cute little lip stamps that I picked up as part of a 6 pack with other cute stamps from Typo (Australian stationery shop).

 Then I just rolled out fondant (or gumpaste) and cut out a circle.

Popped a tiny amount of gel food colour onto the stamp and started stamp'n. 

So little effort for such a lot of cuteness.

Try to only get it on the lips (or what ever it is your stamping) otherwise you might end up with a messy one like this........

I have a bunch of these here dabber things so you can just put just a smidgen of the food colouring onto the stamp.

and to get the glittery heart look, just sprinkled on some non toxic food glitter straight after stamping while the food colour is still wet,  after it dries brush off the excess with a soft paintbrush.



Oh and make sure your equipment is food safe if someone is going to be eating it and definitely only use it for foodstuff (ie no real ink or paint).

Mwahhhhh, bye for now.

I heart sweet cookie pops - Tim Tam Cookie Pop recipe

Not so subliminal message -  I heart sweet cookie pops

I'm on a cookie pop binge at the moment.

I am giving myself a baking breather and cookie pops do not require any real cooking and satisfy my super sweet tooth, and they are fast. Yup ready to eat within an hour.

After those delicious Oreo pops the other day, I thought I would try out some Australian brand cookies and so obviously one of the next cookies of the rank was the Tim Tam.

If your not from Australia, Tim Tams are a grocery store biscuit (that's what we call cookies here) with 2 chocolate rectangle biscuits iced together with a chocolate cream and covered in........chocolate.

Ok not a lot of thought went into that flavour combination there, but it seems to have served Arnott's well as they are a bit of an Aussie icon.

And these pops don't just taste sweet and look sweet, they SAY sweet. Boy I'm as bad as Arnott's not much thought process going on here. My only thoughts are of sweeeet, sweeeeet cookie pops.

I tweaked this recipe by using my Oreo cookie recipe and checking out Not Quite Nigella's post on her Tim Tam pops.

Try these out, if you like Tim Tams I think you'll like them.

Tim Tam Cookie Pop recipe and instructions makes 10 cake pops

1 packet Tim Tams, 200grams (7  1/8 ounce)
80 grams cream cheese softened to room temp (2 7/8 ounce)
150 gram chocolate melts any flavour (5 3/8 ounce) I used white

1. Crush Tim Tams finely in food processor

2. Add cream cheese and pulse until mixture is smooth and comes together in a ball.

3. Shape mixture into balls and roll round in between your palms to shape. Mine are about 25g (7/8 ounce) each. Chill in fridge for a short time.

4. To secure sticks for dipping, melt some of the chocolate melts (I just do mine in the microwave for short bursts on med low) and dip the end of your sticks/pops in the chocolate and push into the firm truffles. Return to fridge.
5. Melt remainder of chocolate, make sure it is completely smooth. Holding the stick/pop dip truffles into the melted chocolate, allow excess to drip off and then place into a holder to set. I use blocks of styrofoam covered in plastic wrap.

Sweeeeeet!

These pops are decorated with some round fondant I cut out using the top of a large piping tip which I then decorated by hand prior to placing them on the pops.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Here is the link for instructions on how to stamp the decorations

Fairy Wand Cookies

These Fairy Wand Cookies I designed and made for my daughter's 6th birthday were inspired by the Funky Fairy cake I recently made at the Debbie Brown workshop. I thought that a smaller and simplified version would look amazing on some wand cookies.

The cookies were loved by all, and because all the little girls had already had enough to eat at the high tea, I wrapped them in plastic cello bags with a ribbon to take home. They looked sooo cute.

For display at the dessert table I  popped them into these mini tin planter like things I got from The Reject Shop (local thift store) for $3, stuck a couple of weights in the bottom (the type you tie balloons to for center pieces), some floral foam and some shredded wood. Viola stylish cookie pop stands.

Special cookie sticks which are food safe and ok for baking in ovens are available through specialty baking stores and cake decorating shops.

Not just cookies, fairy wand cookies are for playing make believe games with as well.

Instructions after jump.

Lollipop, lollipop, oh oh lollipop - More Lollipop Cookies

If you have been following this blog you might have seen the gorgeous Giant Lollipop cookies I made for my daughters a while back. They were huge and sugary and way too much to eat in one sitting although they certainly did try.

Click here to link to Giant Lollipop cookies

Now don't get me wrong they were perfect for the purpose of the photoshoot I made them for, and any kid would be delighted to receive them, but everyday eating they are not. So I thought I would try to come up with a midway compromise that both the kids and I could be happy with.

Here it is, a recipe and instructions for regular sized lollipop cookies without all the fondant icing.

Special Equipment Required - lollipop sticks which are suitable for baking.

Lollipop Cookie Dough

225 g (8 ounces or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup caster (superfine) sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp raspberry flavor (optional)
2 1/2 cups plain (all purpose flour)
1/2 tsp salt
red food colouring (I used Sugarflair Red Extra gel colour)


Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla. Add and mix at low speed until well combined sifted flour and salt.

Remove half of dough to another bowl.  Add the remaining dough enough food colour to make the desired colour and the raspberry flavor and mix well.

On a board roll out a piece of the red dough into a long thin log and repeat until you have used all the red dough. Do the same with the white dough. Chill logs in fridge for 10 mins.

While dough is chilling preheat oven to 165 C (330 F). 

Carefully wrap the logs together and roll around like a snail shell.

Press down lightly to make a lollipop shape and insert a lollipop stick suitable for baking.

Arrange on baking trays covered with parchment paper and bake for 12 to 15 mins until just lightly coloured. Allow to cool for 5 mins and transfer to a wire rack.

We Heart Cookie Pops

It's official I ♥ cookie pops.

What's not to love about these super sweet pops.

Once again I took some basic sugar cookie recipe and cut out the shape I wanted. I didn't have a heart cutter large enough so I made a template out of some cardboard just drawing a freehand heart the size I wanted.

Insert the stick before cooking (these are specialty sticks I purchased at a kitchen supply store), bake and wait until cool.


These ones were covered in Marshmallow Fondant, which I rolled out with a rolling pin and then cut using the same Heart Template as the cookies. I stuck my fondant to the cookies using a tiny bit of water.

I mixed up my royal icing a little wet to pipe the way I intended. So with these it's just an outline and then I popped on some of that Donna Hay cake bling (the little coloured balls).

OK now the bit I'm not the best with - the writing. I used an edible writing pen to write my cute phrases with. These are available from cake decorating specialty stores.

I have a set of Wilton letters which you press in to make an impression. Next time I would use them and then ink over the impressions which I think would look way more authentic (and neater)


Then I made simple ribbon roses out of the marshmallow fondant and some matching leaves and adhered them with royal icing. Finally I finished off with a ribbon.

I really need one that says I'M SWEET don't you think?



Once again all the lovely photos with the kids are from the lovely Terri Vandermeer Photography and the gorgeous outfit at the top of the page is from http://www.latoriana.com.au/

Lollipop cookie pops

I love cookie pops.

Decorated cookies are cute, but put them on a stick and it takes the cuteness to a whole new level.

Look at these lollipop cookies I made.


I used a basic sugar cookie recipe, cut large round shapes, insert the cookie stick (these are available online or from baking specialty stores) bake as per recipe and allow to cool.

To decorate I used Marshmallow Fondant which I colored using gel paste colours (available online or from baking specialty stores). Roll each color into a longish log on a surface lightly dusted with cornflour. Twirl/ entwine the different color logs together and roll into a longer shape until it resembles the pattern you desire. You might need to carefully use a little water to stick the different colors together.

Roll the log up like a snail, gently flattening the log as your go until the fondant shape is the same size as your cookie. Adhere the fondant to the cookie using water or edible glue.



and there you have it, cookie lollipops. We used these ones for a photo shoot (photo by Terri Vandermeer photography)- way less sticky than regular lollipops and the kids loved them.

Cuteness all around.

Update - a couple of people have asked where the girls pretty skirts come from - so here is a link to Princess Ratbag maker of beautiful Pettiskirts.