Showing posts with label matroyshka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label matroyshka. Show all posts

Friday, October 26, 2012

Munchy Mummy Cookies


These munchy mummy cookies were hands down the kids favorite from the Halloween Babushka cookies I made up.

In case you've missed the last few posts I have a set of terrifying adorable babushka Halloween cookies that I whipped up and am trying to make my way through the tutorials before the 31st of October.


So far I have posted the instructions for:

Evil Ghost (Click here for instructions)
Screaming Ghoul (Click here for instructions) and
Cute Monster (Click here for instructions)

Tip - If you make these munchy mummy's try to roll out the fondant as thin as possible as there ends up being a bit more than I usually use due to the double layer.

You can either use a beige look 'bandaid' wrapping like I did in the picture or the plain white fondant would look just as good.

I was even going to make up a pink version before I ran out of time and had to pack the kitchen up.......maybe next Halloween.

GIVEAWAY

Don't forget if your in Brisbane I have  giveaway  for a double pass to the Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show. The pass will be for a Flavour Session and one day general admission to the show.




The Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show is on from 9 - 11  November at the Brisbane convention center and are lots of super exciting things to do including celebrity chef sessions, exhibitor stands, masterclasses and Chef's Book signings. Pop over to the official website HERE to see all the important information. I will be along one day to check it all out and can't wait.

To enter the competition simply follow the instructions on this Rafflecopter giveaway, it's open until Sunday night.

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

CHRISTMAS COOKIE DEMONSTRATIONS IN BRISBANE


and also if you are in Brisbane don't forget that I have another Christmas Cookie demonstrations on the 17th of November as part of Hands on Brisbane. I will be demonstration how I roll out the cookie dough, how I get an even finish and then decorate a range of cookies from elegant snowflakes to cute babushka snowmen and penguins. The demonstrations are very interactive and limited to 15 people so you can feel free to ask me as many questions about cookies or blogging that you would like. The sessions are on from 10:30am to 12:30 at the Bleeding Heart Cafe Brisbane and are $30. Tickets are available HERE.


Munchy Mummy Halloween Babushka Cookies Instructions

Ingredients and Equipment
Babushka sugar cookies (baked and ready to decorate I used the recipe from Sweets on a Stick)
Babushka cookie cutter 
Beige or white Ready Roll Fondant
Black Ready Roll Fondant
small rolling pin
clean food safe brush and water
Sharpe Knife
cornflour (corn starch) or crisco/oil for rolling out fondant
Edible Eyes - shop bought or make your own from Royal Icing CLICK HERE

1. Knead the beige (or white) fondant until pliable. Dust the workbench with cornflour (corn starch) or rub on a little crisco/oil and roll out the fondant until a couple of mm's (1/8") thin. Using the cookie cutter, press down and cut out a babushka shape.

Brush the cookie with a small amount of water and press the fondant onto the cookie. Use the small rolling pin to adhere the fondant to the cookie by pressing down lightly, if necessary gently roll out the fondant to the sides of the cookie by lightly rolling the rolling pin towards the edge.

2. Roll out a small amount of black fondant in an uneven circle and attach to the face area using a small amount of water.

3. Cut some of the remaining beige fondant into thin bandaid strips using the sharp knife.

4. Brush a tiny amount of water onto the fondant covered cookie, avoiding the black face and then adhere the bandaid strips in a random fashion, leaving a stripe of black face showing. Use the sharp knife to trim the excess bandaid strips away from the cookie.

5. Brush a little water on the black strip and adhere a set of eyes to the face area.

** The cookie cutters I used are from Bisk-art and the easy vanilla sugar cookie dough recipe I used is from Sweets on a Stick.



Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Screaming Ghoul and Monster Babushka Halloween Cookies

Screaming Ghoul cookie

OK this past week did not go exactly as planned.

Nope not even close.

I was supposed to post tutorials for these 2 cookies during the week and be up to a new one today. Real life can be so time consuming sometimes.

My new kitchen is almost finished, tomorrow they pop on the finishing touches and then there is just the painting to go.

Oh and install lights, which sadly will not be the chandelier that I bought and had to return due to the fact that Mr Sweet could not actually walk through the room without ducking.........Oh my goodness I am so dumb sometimes I don't think about that stuff.......next house for sure.

Nervous Monster Cookie, or maybe he is super scary but needs to pee....

Anyhoo I am trying a new tutorial style today to save me a bit of time and plus these particular cookies are pretty simple so I hope y'all like it.

CHRISTMAS COOKIE DEMONSTRATIONS IN BRISBANE

and if you are in Brisbane don't forget that I have some Christmas Cookie demonstrations on the 27th of October (yup next weekend) and the 17th of November as part of Hands on Brisbane. I will be demonstration how I roll out the cookie dough, how I get an even finish and then decorate a range of cookies from elegant snowflakes to these cute babushka snowmen and penguins. The demonstrations are very interactive and limited to 15 people so you can feel free to ask me as many questions about cookies or blogging that you would like. The sessions are on from 10:30am to 12:30 at the Bleeding Heart Cafe Brisbane and are $30. Tickets are available HERE.



GIVEAWAY

Plus also for those of you in Brisbane I have  giveaway  for a double pass to the Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show. The pass will be for a Flavour Session and one day general admission to the show.



The Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show is on from 9 - 11  November at the Brisbane convention center and are lots of super exciting things to do including celebrity chef sessions, exhibitor stands, masterclasses and Chef's Book signings. Pop over to the official website HERE to see all the important information. I will be along one day to check it all out and can't wait.

To enter the competition simply follow the instructions on this Rafflecopter giveaway, it's open until next Sunday...Ummm I'm a little unsure of the actual time due to timezone difference but the Rafflecopter has a countdown thing going on.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

OK and for everyone even those not in Brisbane......on to the tutorials. If you totally hate this new collage style I have done up let me know :)


Screaming Ghoul Babushka Cookie
Ingredients and Equipment
Babushka sugar cookies (baked and ready to decorate I used the recipe from Sweets on a Stick)
Babushka cookie cutter 
Black Ready Roll Fondant
small rolling pin
clean food safe brush and water
cornflour (corn starch) or crisco/oil for rolling out fondant
Small amount of white fondant

1. Knead the black fondant until pliable. Dust the workbench with cornflour (corn starch) or rub on a little crisco/oil and roll out the fondant until a couple of mm's (1/8") thin.

2. Using the cookie cutter, press down and cut out a babushka shape.

3. Brush the cookie with a small amount of water and press the fondant onto the cookie. Use the small rolling pin to adhere the fondant to the cookie by pressing down lightly, if necessary gently roll out the fondant to the sides of the cookie by lightly rolling the rolling pin towards the edge.

4. Take a small amount of white fondant and using your fingers shape it into a ghoul face (see step 4 for example) and press onto the cookie in the face area. Shape a small amount of the excess black fondant into eyes and mouth (once again see step 4 for example of shapes).

5. Press the black fondant eyes and mouth onto the face where you would like them. Use a tiny amount of water if necessary to stick the black fondant down, make sure you do not use too much or the black will run into the white fondant.


Nervous Monster Babushka Cookie
Ingredients and Equipment
Babushka sugar cookies (baked and ready to decorate I used the recipe from Sweets on a Stick)
Babushka cookie cutter 
Green Ready Roll Fondant
small rolling pin
clean food safe brush and water
small sharp knife
cornflour (corn starch) for rolling out fondant
Small amount of white fondant
Black edible pen

1. Knead the green fondant until pliable. Dust the workbench with cornflour (corn starch) and roll out the fondant until a couple of mm's (1/8") thin.

2. Using the cookie cutter, press down and cut out a babushka shape.

3. Brush the cookie with a small amount of water and press the fondant onto the cookie. Use the small rolling pin to adhere the fondant to the cookie by pressing down lightly, if necessary gently roll out the fondant to the sides of the cookie by lightly rolling the rolling pin towards the edge.

4. Using the sharp knife cut some of the excess green fondant (that is still rolled out) into two monster arms, shape see step 4 for example. You may need to manipulate the monster fingers a little with your own fingers to get a shape you are happy with. Stick the arms onto the cookie at each side.

5. Roll out some of the white fondant to make a large oval eye and stick onto the cookie where you would like it using a tiny amount of water to adhere if necessary. Allow the cookie to dry for an hour or so and then use the edible black pen to draw a black dot on the eye, a mouth (I made mine a little wonky) and a short line at the bottom to make legs). *

* Note any of these directions are just suggestions, it's a monster it could have 5 eyes and no legs :)

The cookie cutters I used are from Bisk-art and the easy vanilla sugar cookie dough recipe I used is from Sweets on a Stick.



Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Babushka Ghost Halloween cookies


I'm in the middle of packing up my kitchen so they can rip it out this week and pop in a new one.

It's kind of exciting and totally exhausting.

So I really hope that it looks great when they put it in.

Oh, and I hope it stores stacks of stuff which is what I really need. I am a total cake and cookie decorating hoarder. My dining room has been a total cluttered mess for a couple of years now.

So no baking now for at least a week.....and probably more as I imagine it will take me a while to sort out where everything will need to go.


Luckily this week before I packed everything away I made up some easy to decorate babushka doll cookies that I will be sharing with you over the next couple of weeks.

I'll start with the easiest cookies requiring the least equipment and work my way through to the more difficult ones. Today we have the evil ghostly babushka cookie. Next up will be the screaming ghoul cookie :)

Because I have a few of these to get through I'll be back to my old posting schedule of a few times a week so check back on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The cookie cutters I used are from Bisk-art and the easy vanilla sugar cookie dough recipe I used is from Sweets on a Stick.



Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!
Ghostly Babushka Cookie if you like your ghosts a little bit cute rather than a touch evil just change the eyes to a more rounded shape and the mouth to a smaller happy smile.

Ingredients and Equipment
Babushka sugar cookies (baked and ready to decorate I used the recipe from Sweets on a Stick)
Babushka cookie cutter 
White Ready Roll Fondant
small rolling pin
clean food safe brush and water
cornflour (corn starch)
Black edible pen
Small amount of black fondant (white fondant colored black with food color) - optional you can just use the pen if you like

Knead the white fondant until pliable. Dust the workbench with cornflour (corn starch) and roll out the white fondant until a couple of mm's (1/16") thin.



Using the cookie cutter, press down and cut out a babushka shape.


 Brush the cookie with a small amount of water and press the fondant onto the cookie. Use the small rolling pin to adhere the fondant to the cookie by pressing down lightly, if necessary gently roll out the fondant to the sides of the cookie by lightly rolling the rolling pin towards the edge.


If you are using black fondant for the eyes, roll out small amounts of black fondant into small triangles (see picture for example) and press onto the head where you would like the eyes to be. Use a tiny amount of water if necessary to stick the black fondant down, make sure you do not use too much or the black will run into the white fondant.

Repeat for all cookies.

Allow the fondant on the cookies to set for an hour of so until the surface hardens.


Use the edible pen to draw on a large wide smile just under the 'neck' area of the babushka shape (see picture for example) draw small vertical lines across the mouth to look similar to stitches. Draw a couple of dots for nostrils and if you are using the pen to draw in the eyes do that at this stage as well.

Ta-daaaahhh super easy evil ghost cookies come back in a couple of days for screaming ghoul cookie......


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Elf in my Tummy - Christmas nesting doll cookies


Um.....are you bored of the nesting doll cookies yet? Don't worry it's ok this is the last Christmas one :)

I came up with a new one the other day while I was doing up the Santa Nesting doll cookies.

Actually I came up with it at the cinema while I was watching 'Arthur Christmas' which I really enjoyed. While I was sitting there watching it hit me and I couldn't believe I had missed elves out of my original set.


So I rectified it straight away.

and in case you didn't get the lame joke reference in the title I was alluding to The Elf on the Shelf which is an adorable tradition based on the fact that before Christmas Santa must send out an elf to every house to check if the kids are being naughty or nice. It is a fun book that comes with a little elf and the tradition is to move the elf around every day to be found in different parts of your house. So fun you should check it out.


The cookie cut out recipe I made the nesting doll cookies from is from my 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)

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

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


Elf in my tummy nesting doll cookies
These instructions use the small nesting cookie cutter, follow the exact same instructions for medium or large nesting doll cutter. 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.

Sugar cookies made using small nesting doll cookie cutter
Green, Red, White, Skin tone, black and yellow rolled fondant shop bought or home made marshmallow fondant (I used shop bought fondant colored with gel colors)*
small oval cutter with ruffled edges - I picked this up on Ebay in a set of 4
small rolling pin
piping tip - regular size like a Wilton #2
small nesting doll cookie cutter
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 green 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 red and black colored fondant.

 
Place the green, red and black fondant next to each other to use as a guide and using the sharp knife cut out boots, pants 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 green 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. Take a small amount of yellow fondant shape into small rectangle and press into the middle of the belt using a tiny amount of water if necessary.


Roll out a small amount of skin tone fondant and using the large round end of a regular size piping tip cut out the face. The 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 green 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. 


Roll out some white fondant and cut out a shape using the oval ruffle cutter. Then use the sharp knife to trim it so you can use it as the fluffly furry edge to the elf's hat.

 
Take a small amount of the skin tone fondant and shape a very small oval to attach to the middle of the face for a nose. Then take a couple of pieces a little larger and shape into tear drops to make the ears. Attach them to the sides of the face with the point facing up, the tops will sit over the edge of the hat. I pressed the ears on with the wrong end of a paint brush, placing the end of the brush in the center of the base of the teardrop to make the indents in the inside of the ear and then used a clean toothpick to make further indents up towards the point of the ear.

Roll out more of the green 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.

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

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 the trim on the arms where they meet the red mittens.

Add some detail around the neck. I made a type of turtle neck sweater by rolling out red fondant and using the sharp knife to cut out a strip that I attached below the face, then I added indents with the back of the knife. Or you can make a collar by cutting out a couple of triangles from white fondant and attaching them under the face. 

Allow the fondant on the Elf 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 



Sunday, December 11, 2011

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)

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

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 


Saturday, November 26, 2011

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)

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

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