Build a Boat - sail boat and pirate ship cookies for Kids to decorate themselves

Build a boat cookies with edible fondant cut outs like a jigsaw that the kids can decorate themselves.They are so simple to make. If you can roll out fondant and use a cookie cutter pretty much you'll have these down pat.

My just turned 3 year old completely decorated this cookie below on his own. OK, granted that's not the normal spot for an anchor or flag, but I'm no ship building engineer so perhaps this design would totally work in real life ;)

Look how serious he is about it. He had already watched the girls make their cookies so he knew exactly what was going on.

and don't even think about trying to help him squeeze out the icing.

Yup all on his own and so proud of it - I think it made the cookie taste even better to him.

These boats were the cookies I made for the boys to decorate at Sophie's birthday party. In case you didn't see the previous post the girls got cookie paper dolls with edible fondant clothing so they could dress up the dolls for real.

Instructions

Make the fondant 'build a boat' pieces a couple of days in advance to allow time to set hard so that it will be easy for the kids to pick up.Roll out the fondant on a workbench dusted with cornflour (cornstarch), until a couple of millimeters (1/8") thick.

 Use the boat cookie cutter to cut out a boat shape and then use a sharp knife to cut out sails and the boat hull so you end up with 3 pieces. I used my knife to draw a couple of shallow lines in the hull to look like wood and then a toothpick to pop in some nail marks.

Once you have the sails and hull sorted you can cut some triangles from the fondant offcuts to make little flags. Place fondant boat pieces on a tray covered with parchment paper to set for at least one day or more if the weather is humid.

I also made some little boat decorations by hand, I shaped some yellow fondant to make little anchors by pinching the fondant into shape and some life buoys by rolling white and red fondant together and shaping it into a little O.

To make the pirate flag I cut out a rectangle and shaped little teensy skull and crossbones.....but while I was doing it I was thinking it might be easier to cut out a white flag and draw a black skull and crossbones on with edible pen.

Once you have the fondant boat pieces ready and they have set for a day or so bake up a batch of boat cookies and allow to cool.

Mix up some royal icing and put into piping bags or ziplock bags with a tiny hole cut from the corner.

and then finally allow kids to squeeze royal icing onto the cookie boat and then stick on boat sections to decorate as they like.

We also added some blue and white sugar confetti to the boat hulls in some to look like little portholes.

- if you haven't already seen the pics you must have a look at the paper doll dress up cookies I created for the girls they were a huge hit. Click Here for the link.

Easy Pink Ombre Butter Cream Frosting Cake tutorial for Real people

 

I made a pink ombre cake for my daughter's 5th birthday party (you know that's just fancy talk for saying pink graduated rainbow cake).

I'm so sorry, there are no endless ruffles, and inside there are not 8 different graduated layers.It's just a simple cake you can decorate with a spatula or if you needed to a knife. So simple pretty much anyone could do it.

The key here is to start off with a purposely messy design. Cause lets be real for a change. Most home cooks don't have all the tools you need to make one of those super spectacular graduated ruffle cakes, and even if you do go out and buy everything, your first or even second attempt probably won't look like the ones you see in all the pictures online.

So if you want to see a graduated pink cake that real people can make here's how I did it...... 

Easy Pink Ombre Frosted Cake

Ingredients and Equipment

1 cake baked in 2 layers 
1 large batch frosting (I used Kaye's butter cream from The Whimsical Bakehouse: Fun-to-Make Cakes That Taste as Good as They Look)
1 cake board same size as cake
Light Pink, medium pink and dark pink/burgundy gel food color, maybe also purple and black (mine were mostly Wilton which you can pick up from cake decorating or hobby stores)
Disposable piping bags or ziplock bags
Offset spatuala or large flat knife

Step 1. Cut the rounded tops from your cakes to make them flat and even. If you like you can also cut all the brownish crusts off the edge of the cake so it looks even prettier when sliced but that's totally up to you. If you not taking photo's of the slices I wouldn't bother.

Step 2. Make up your frosting, what ever type you like as long as it is firm enough to hold it's shape. For the cake in the pictures I used a Meringue Buttercream which is lovely and smooth and holds up ok as long as it's not the middle of a humid summer here in the sub-tropics. Color the frosting very light pink.

Step 3. Place a dollop of frosting into the middle of a cakeboard and press the bottom layer of the cake onto the frosting dollop so the cake does not move around.Spread a layer of frosting over the top of the cake and then press the second layer onto the top making sure the cake looks level.. Cover the top and sides of cake with frosting, make it kinda even and smooth but your going  to pop another layer on so don't go crazy.

Stick the cake into the fridge and let it set up while you color the remaining frosting.

Step 4. I started with the lighter color and just keep adding gel food color until I had all the colors I wanted. Remove about 2/6ths of the light pink frosting and place into your piping bag/ziplock bag and set aside.

Add a little more color until you have the next shade you want and remove 1/6th of that color into a piping bag/ ziplock bag and set aside.

Continue on until you have 5 different shades of pink. For the darker color I needed to add a touch of black and purple to the burgandy to get the color I wanted. Just a touch remember you can add more if it's not quite right but you can't take it out :)

Step 5. Once you have your 5 different colors remove the cake from the fridge. Use a ruler to measure the height of the cake and divide into 5 - mark around the cake at regular intervals with a knife. So for example if your cake was 12.5cm (5") high you would mark at 2.5cm (1") then 5cm (2"), then 7.5cm (3")and a final mark at 10cm (4"). # Note these measurement conversions are rounded

Step 6. Take the darkest color and cut the end of the disposable bag. Using the marks on the cake as a guide pipe a thick layer of frosting all the way around the cake. Repeat with all the graduated colors finishing with the lightest pink around the top, pipe a bit of extra frosting over the top of the cake. You might need to go back and fill in any big gaps at the end. Don't worry the finish does not need to look really neat.

Step 7 smooth the frosting

Step 7. Take your spatula and smooth around the edge of the cake. If you have a cake turntable you can spin it with one hand. Don't move the spatula up and down or you will smudge the colors into each other, if needed use paper towels to wipe excess frosting off the spatula to reduce smudging. Clean off the spatula and roughly smooth down the top of the cake.

OK so once again it doesn't need to be perfectly smooth - I know this is TOTALLY my type of cake decorating as well - check out the picture above to see how mine looked.

 Step 8 decorate the sides with short strokes using your spatula

Step 8. Next take a smaller knife or spatula and using short strokes around 5cm (2") and lifting the spatula completely off the cake at the end, make a rough pattern. Work around the cake on each color of frosting separately making sure the spatula/ knife is clean in between each layer. If you need to practice the technique do a few on the top of the cake. Frosting is pretty forgiving so you can go back and rework it as needed.

Step 9. Once you have finished all the layers on the sides use the same short stroke and lift technique on the top of the cake. I made these ones a bit smaller about 2.5 cm (1").

Step 9 decorate the top of the cake

For more easy to make recipes check out my book which is due for release in December, there are a stack of delicious small treat type recipes to make with your kids, ranging from super easy to more advanced.

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