Who and what inspires you? I am often inspired by my children, their wonderment and joy of seeing the world and ability to find beauty in every little thing. But Sometimes I get my inspiration elsewhere.
Many years ago I had an inquiry asking if I could make some treats for a garden party photoshoot. I had seen Jordan from
Polkadot Prints' work and blog which was fun and innovative and I agreed. I popped off an email saying yes, but pick up or post only and provided my address.
Back came an email, of course pick up was fine, in fact it was not a problem at all. It turned out we lived in the same suburb with 3 streets between us. The world wide web can be a small place indeed. It was the start of a lovely friendship and irregular coffee catch ups that lasted until Jordan moved over to Canada a year ago.
Our friendship and sometimes collaboration resulted in a few of my all time fav cookie designs, including this pretty cookie set, inspired by an invitation/ printable range.
I never actually got around to doing up a tutorial for these cookies when originally posted, I guess they are kind of fiddly and have a lot of fondant cutters. Rather than worrying about matching up cutters exactly the same, you can just use this tutorial as a guide.
I would say the only essential are a babushka cookie cutter set, a carnation set and a blossom set.....oh maybe a daisy set as well. I'm teasing y'all, once you get the nesting doll cutter, really I'm sure you can use what you have :) Or maybe not, luckily if you shop around these days you can pick all the fondant sets up pretty cheaply.
To match these cookies up to the original invitations
CLICK HERE .
Oh and just in case your thinking your options are limited with those cookie cutters check out these other cookies I have made with them in the past. Yup all using the nesting doll cutters. Links to tutorials listed under photo:
Penguin nesting doll Tutorial ;
Santa Tutorial;
Snow man Tutorial;
Elf Nesting doll tutorial;
Monster nesting doll tutorial;
Mummy nesting doll tutorial;
Evil Ghost tutorial;
Screaming ghoul nesting doll tutorial
I'm a flower girl Babushka Doll
* If you prefer Royal Icing to fondant covered cookies you can replace the initial step with a light pink royal icing cover and then adhere the floral fondant decorations. Marshmallow fondant can also easily be used in place of shop bought fondant.
CLICK HERE for an easy Marshmallow Fondant recipe
Ingredients and Equipment
Babushka Cookies (cookie recipe and instructions below)
Small Babushka Cookie Cutter 8.5cm (3") (mine from
Bisc-Art)
Small Rolling Pin
Regular size piping tip (you are using the open round end so any regular size)
Various flower cutters
- Carnation cutter 3.5cm (1 1/2")
- Daisy cutter 14mm (9/16 ")
- Daisy cutter 2cm (13/16")
- Blossom Cutter 6mm (1/4")
- Blossom Cutter 9mm (3/8")
- Blossom Cutter 14mm (9/16 ")
Rolled fondant (coloured yellow, light yellow, Pink, dark pink, skintone and brown) pink used is Sugarflair dusky pink which will make both the light and dark colours^
Sharp knife
Cornflour (cornstarch)
Black edible pen
^fondant dries out quickly, when not in use store in an airtight container or ziplock bag. To use fondant knead until pliable and smooth and roll out on a workbench dusted with cornflour (cornstarch)
Knead light pink fondant until smooth and pliable. Dust workbench with cornflour (corn starch) and roll out fondant until quite thin then using the babushka cutter cut out a fondant shape. Using the large round end of the piping tip cut out a round shape so that a face can be inserted.
Roll out the skintone fondant until quite
thin then using the
large round end of the piping tip cut out a round shape for the face.
Brush
the cookie with a little water and adhere the pink fondant to the cookie and then insert the skintone face into the round hole. Use the rolling pin to press fondant on gently and push out to the edges
where required.
Roll out the brown fondant then using the
large round end of the piping tip cut out a round shape. Using the edge of the babushka cookie cutter where the head meets the shoulder, cut into the round to make hair.
Knead and roll out separately the white, light yellow, dark yellow, light pink and dark dusky pink fondants and cut the following shapes from the fondant for each cookie. (If you are making a number of cookies it can be more time effective to work on a number of cookies at the same time instead of doing each separately.)
For each cookie you will need to cut out:
Daisy cutter 14mm (9/16 ") - 2 X dark dusky pink
Daisy cutter 2cm (13/16")- 1 X light dusky pink
Blossom Cutter 5mm (1/4") - 1 X light yellow
Blossom Cutter 9mm (3/8") - 1 X light yellow + 1 X light dusky pink
Blossom Cutter 14mm (9/16 ") - 1 X dark yellow
Carnation cutter 3.5cm (1 1/2") - 1 X white + 1 X light yellow
A little extra white and dark dusky pink for making flower centers.
Use a tiny amount of water to adhere the flowers to the cookie as detailed in the picture. Yes some of those flowers are hanging over the edge - you'll fix that in the next step. Finish off each flower with a little dot of fondant rolled into a ball and pressed on with a small amount of water.
Use the sharp knife to trim off any excess overhang.
Then draw on a face, 2 eyes and a mouth with the edible black pen.
Sugar Cookie Recipe (makes 24 regular sized cookies)
460 grams plain flour (16 1/4 oz all purpose flour)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
230 grams unsalted butter (8 1/8oz)room temperature
220 grams caster sugar (7 3/4 oz superfine sugar)#
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
#use regular white sugar if you do not have caster/ superfine sugar
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to medium low, add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and mix in the sifted flour mixture until combined. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill in fridge for 30 minutes or so.
Line a few baking trays with parchment/ baking paper.
Dust workbench with plain flour and using a large rolling pin roll out the dough until around 1/2 cm (1/4") in thickness. If the dough is to hard you may need to work/knead it a bit until you can roll it out.
Cut out cookies shapes and place the cookies on the prepared trays. (Knead and reroll dough as necessary, if it becomes to soft you can pop it back in the fridge.)
Pop the cut cookie dough trays into the fridge to chill again for around 30 minutes until firm (or in the freezer for 10 minutes).
Preheat oven to 160 C (320 F) and cook the cookies until they just start to turn golden, around 15 minutes (less or more depending on cookie size).
Cool on trays for 5 minutes and then carefully lift onto a wire rack to cool completely prior to decorating.
- Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for 1 week.
Unless stated otherwise, the above pictures and post are original works and the property of Linda Vandermeer.
Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook '
Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes,
candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is
available at most online book stores:
This post is not sponsored.
