Silhouette Bird Halloween Cookies Square of course

I like Halloween.

Apparently it used to be widely celebrated here in Australia before the Depression and then fell out of favor. Well that's what I read in one of the local popular magazines......if it's in a magazine it must be true right?

Um right............Anyway Halloween Love it!

and if the local shops are anything to go by it's coming back into fashion here. Is that a bad thing, I'm not sure? For me the chance for the kids to dress up, interact with the neighbours and eat sweets.......as long as it's supervised and once a year I'm totally ok with that. We don't actually indulge in the tricks if there are no treats so hopefully it's not too great a burden on the neighbours.

Plus Halloween cookies are pretty cool.

These ones are Chocolate cookies made using a square ruffle edge cookie cutter from my d-line set - I picked mine up at Kitchnwear Plus. But you could use a round cutter if you don't have a square cutter or if your not really into square cookies.

Although I really couldn't imagine anyone not being into square cookies, so just if you don't have the cutter on hand I guess. A circle would pretty much work just as well.

and I also made some  matching cookies in a floral pattern with a kinda cute striped flower.

Bird Silhouette Halloween cookies Ingredients and equipment

Square Cookies
Square cookie cuter
Orange Ready Roll Fondant
Black Ready Roll Fondant (I used chocolate fondant colored black with some Americolor super black)
Small rolling pin
PME Robin (bird) butter small
Carnation cutter
Black Royal Icing in a piping bag with a small round tip (eg #2)
brush and water
sharp knife

Roll out some orange fondant (marshmallow or shop bought) on a workbench lightly dusted with cornflour (corn starch) and cut out a square using a cutter a little smaller than cookie. Brush the cookie lightly with water using a clean brush and adhere the fondant to the cookie, using the rolling pin to lightly press it down.

Roll out some black fondant onto a workbench, you can dust it lightly with a bit of cornflour (It's what I use) but if you find that it shows up white on your fondant you can grease the workbench lightly with some crisco or a spay of vegetable or rice bran oil, just a bit. Cut out the bird shapes and carnation shapes then roll out thin pieces of black fondant with your finger tips to make long ropes that you can shape into the branches.# Look at the cookie to see an example of how you can shape the branch and where to place it. You should be able to press the branches directly on the orange fondant without water but if you have used the oil they may not stick. If necessary use a very teensy small amount of water, the brush should nearly be dry otherwise the black will run.

Once the branches are in place adhere a bird so it is sitting on top of the branch and then trim the carnation either using the cookie cutter or a shape knife so it sits in the corner.

Then pipe black dots of royal icing around the edge of the cookie to finish off.

#If you like you can use the black royal icing and pipe branches instead of using the rolled fondant.

Oh and I have noticed that over on Amazon you can peek into a PREVIEW of the first few pages on my book plus the index. Also the cover of the book is different if you pop into the preview and shows up a few different treats in the book.

Pink Paper Doll Princess Party - Sophie's 5th Birthday Party

When I asked Sophie what type of party she wanted this year she told me Barbie......then the next week it was Zhu Zhu pet, and then the next week it was Barbie AND Zhu Zhu pet. I racked my brain which was spinning from all the changes wondering what I was going to be able to come up when I realised that Sophie didn't really want a Barbie party or a Zhu Zhu party, what Sophie wanted was presents....lots and lots of Barbie and Zhu Zhu presents. Really she was kinda relaxed about the whole thing as long as there were friends, presents and cake ;)

Photo of Sophie by Naomi V Photography for Princess Ratbag

Phew, ok with that little issue sorted I still needed a theme. I was looking at some photo's of Sophie where the stylist Candice from Princess Ratbag had pinned up her super long hair and made her look like a little vintage doll and then I remembered a cookie idea that I had floating around for over a year and the theme just worked itself out.

Paper Doll Sugar Cookie

Decorating the Sophie Paper Doll Cookies - see the clothes are stiff and easy to handle

Yup that's right I wanted to make sugar cookies and then fondant clothes that the kids REALLY dressed up the dolls with using royal icing to adhere the edible fondant clothes to the sugar cookie doll. If you follow my blog you might have already seen the photo's of the cookies - the kids had a super time. The tutorial on how to make these super sweet cookies is HERE. Sophie can spend hours dressing up her dolls and I thought it could be a theme we would both love.

Some examples of the cookies the girls made up

I had a custom picture drawn up of the birthday girl made to look like a paper doll by Karen McCubbin. Isn't it the most adorable thing - Sophie LOVED that it was a picture especially of her! By taking a copy of the hand drawn picture I was able to use it as a template for the cookies.

Custom Paper Doll and clothes of the Birthday Girl by Karen McCubbin (details below)

Jordan from Polkadot Prints made up the sweetest pink and white polka dot invitations using the hand drawn picture of Sophie, and then cause she's super talented she made up matching thank you tags and dessert table labels as well!

Invitation by Polkadot Prints

The custom picture was great as I used it for quite a few other things. Each guest received a copy as take home favors and I also used the paper doll clothes to make a DIY bunting garland to top the buttercream pink ombre cake.

Homemade Paper Doll Dress up cake garland

The pink ombre (graduated pink) cake was frosted with Italian Meringue Buttercream. Inside the cake was strawberry butter cake with white chocolate mud cake polka dots which was inspired by an amazing cake on snowy bliss ( click here).... mine needs a little work as the mudcake balls are quite heavy I think they need to be popped in over a layer of batter.

Pink Polka Dot Cake

 I have already posted a tutorial on how  I did the ombre frosting on the outside Click Here

Pink Ombre frosted cake

We also had princess sprinkle macarons and polka dot milk. I tried to come up with fun names for all the party treats to work in with the theme.

The rim around the top of my the polka dot milk was inspired by a picture on pintrest of dark chocolate dipped rim in hundreds and thousands (rainbow non pariels). I just changed the idea to work in with my color theme. Then it was just strawberry milk with floating marshmallows 'polka dots'.

Oh and of course we had lollies (candy)....pink musk sticks, pink and white M&M's and Pink Princess Delight (strawberry bon bons from Sharnel Dollar Designs)

and Ah Tissue made up these Ah-mazing ombre tissue paper pom poms.

Apart from the cookie decorating we also had musical statues, bubble blowing and my kids always ask for pass the parcel. I'm not a huge fan of wrapping up layers and layers of paper 'cause we always stick some kind of prize in each layer and at the end it is huge, then it's just a big 'ole ball of paper to throw away. This time instead of wrapping up layers of paper for pass the parcel, I popped gifts into brown paper bags and wrote a task for each child to perform onto the front of the bag. When the music stopped the child reached into the basket pulled out a bag and had to perform the task to get the gift. I made sure they were age appropriate tasks like singing a song or doing the hokey pokey, the kids thought it was lots of fun.

and a special thank you to my lovely friend Jo who came over earlier in the day to hang all the poms for me as I couldn't reach up due to my recent surgery. Thanks so much Jo Xx

Party Menu

Pink Polka Dot Cake (click here for frosting tutorial)
Princess Sprinkle Macarons
Sophie Doll Cookies (click here for the tutorial)
Fresh Strawberries

Sherbert Icecreams
Musk Sticks
Strawberry Bon Bons
Pink and White M&M's

Fabulous Party Suppliers

The party sweets were made by me Bubble and Sweet  ( http://bubbleandsweet.blogspot.com/ )
Party invitations, thank you cards and dessert labels by Polkadot Prints ( http://www.polkadotprints.com.au/store/pc/home.asp )
Tissue Pom Poms by Ah Tissue ( http://www.ah-tissue.com.au/ )
Cake and bon bon Stands, polka dot straws and strawberry bon bons (princess delights) Sharnel Dollar Designs ( http://www.sharneldollardesigns.com.au/store/pc/home.asp )
Custom Paper Doll drawing by Karen McCubbin ( darkar1(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au)
Party Inspiration photo of Sophie by Naomi V Photography ( http://www.naomivphotography.com.au/ ) for Princess Ratbag ( http://www.princessratbag.com/store/pc/home.asp )
Pink and White polka dot treat boxes from Mon Tresor
Flowers from Perrotts florist Brisbane ( http://www.perrotts.com.au/ )
Most of the party pictures are by Terri Vandermeer

Flowers from Perrotts,  bon bon stand from Sharnel Dollar Designs

Just in case you haven't heard I have a book coming out in December called Sweets on a Stick - it's full of fun and easy recipes to make with your kids. Here's a link to Sweets on a Stick on Amazon.

Mermaid Cookie Tutorial

Phew - I just could not get myself motivated to do up this tutorial for the Mermaid Cookie Pops I made for Lilli's 7th Birthday party.

I've had a busy couple of months so this is just going to be a short and to the point post on how I made up the cookies.

I have had a stack of enquiries about where I got the mermaid cookie cutter. I picked mine up from Kitchenwear Plus at Logan Queensland Australia. It's a d-line brand cutter and I also spied it here at another shop on-line.

But if you can't find the same cutter I used, just use another mermaid cutter and apply the same technique, it should all work out in the end.

and cause I'm too tired to think up anything witty or cute I'll just pop a pic of Lilli's birthday party here. If you missed the post on the party you can find it by clicking HERE.

Mermaid Cookies

Ingredients and Equipment

Mermaid Sugar Cookies - I used the sugar cookie recipe from my soon to be released Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!
Mermaid Cookie Cutter
Ready Roll Fondant or Marshmallow Fondant (Mine was white, light aqua, slightly darker aqua, green and skin tone) Keel fondant in an airtight container or ziplock bag as it dries out quickly. Knead well before use.
Small Rolling Pin
Sharp Knife
Cake molding tools (see picture)
small flower cutter (I used a plunger cause they are easier)
small brush and water
small dry brush and pink edible dusting powder (optional)
Cornflour (corn starch) for dusting
Black edible pen

Roll out the skin tone fondant onto a cornflour dusted workbench. Cut out a mermaid shape using the cutter. Using the sharp knife carefully cut out hand shapes where the arms end on the cookie cutter (see picture).

Roll out the light aqua fondant on the cornflour dusted workbench and cut out a mermaid shape using the same cutter.

Place the skin tone fondant shaped on top of the aqua shape and using the sharp knife cut through both layers of fondant in a V shape at the waist. Cut the 'arms' from the aqua shape so you are left with just the tail. Take the top of the skintone shape and the bottom of the aqua shape and adhere to the cookie with a little water. Use the rolling pin to push the fondant out to the edges of the cookie as required. The hand shapes should sit on top of the blue mermaid tail.

Use the cake tools to make 'scale' indents into the tail and draw lines into the ends of the tail. If you do not have these tools use what ever you have handy. You could use the edge of a piping tip to make the scales and the sharpe knife would work nicely to make the indents.

Roll out the white fondant on a cornflour dusted workbench and cut out a mermaid shape using the cutter. The white fondant will be the top, use the sharpe knife to cut out a V neckline, sleeves and a V shape at the waist (see picture for example). Adhere the white top to the mermaid cookie with a little water.

Make the mermaid hair by rolling out the dark aqua fondant and cutting thin strips. Twist the strips to make the hair appear twirly, cut into different lengths and adhere to the mermaid head working down from the top around the face area (do not just stick it all on the top of the head or it will look odd). I used about 8 pieces of different lengths and made the hair. Repeat the process of making the hair with the light aqua color and then white.

Roll out the green fondant on a cornflour dusted workbench and cut out a small flower.

Press into the hair part and add a small amount of rolled fondant for the center or press in an edible silver ball.

Allow the fondant to dry a little and then using the edible pen draw on a face. I went with simple eyes and mouth, well pretty much as I am terrible at drawing and I find the simpler the better.#

Optional - Use a small dry brush to brush on a little pink dusting powder to make rosy cheeks. Just use a small amount, you can always add more if needed but you can't remove it. Use a clean brush to remove the excess dust.

#hint - I like to cut out some fondant a couple of hours before I draw the faces and try a few different types to see what will work best and it's also a good way to test out the dusting powder, you don't want to be too heavy handed.