What is it about fonts that is so fascinating? I’m no expert, but I often stare at store signs, letterheads, website banners, street signs and product labels for a long time, guessing the name of the font and wondering why it was chosen. I usually don’t guess correctly, but I can see why some fonts are effective at conveying a certain character or message.

Last year I made some monogram/letter cookies after re-reading Jane Eyre, and I had so much fun with those, I flipped them into paintings. Do you remember my  “E” and “J” paintings for the Bronte-Along? Ever since, I’ve been meaning to make an entire alphabet set. Finally, I did it! A shot of my finished set is at the bottom of this post. Yeah, I’m giving you something to look forward to.

These letter paintings measure 2.5 x 3 ins or 3 x 3 ins. They’re pretty easy to make, so if you’re interested in making your own, here’s a short little tute.

Materials:

• Small canvases, 2.5 x 3 ins or slightly larger. I bought mine in packs of 5 at my local art supply store.
• Contact paper.
• Black Sharpie marker.
• Craft scissors.
• Acrylic paints and brushes.

Directions:

1. Print out the alphabet on plain white paper. Before you hit print, make sure that your letter is sized so that it fits into the frame of the canvases you’re using. Since I used a different font for each letter, I first typed the letter, highlighted it, tried out different fonts, and once I picked a font, made sure that it fit within a 2.5 x 3-inch or 3 x 3-inch frame. The easiest way to measure size is to make the rulers in your word processing document visible.

2. Cut your contact paper into squares, about 4 x 4 inches. Place one square over one letter at a time.

3. Trace the letter onto the contact paper with your black sharpie pen.

4. Cut the letter shape out. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Craft scissors with a nice pointed end are a great help in this process. Peel the contact paper away from its adhesive backing. This can be a bit challenging but eventually the contact paper and the backing will separate. Place your contact paper letter onto the canvas. You can reposition it as much as you want. Once it’s where you want it within the frame, run your fingernail over the letter a few times to make sure it really sticks in place.

5.  Start mixing your paint colors and paint over the letter. You’ll want to be a bit careful when the brush touches the letter. Try not to get paint under it.

6. Let the paint dry for at least two hours. I usually left the paintings to dry overnight.

8. Peel the letter away. You’ll get this nice white area. (sorry, I forgot to photograph the “T” I was working on. These are other canvases right after I peeled the traced-out contact letters away).

9. Paint in the letter area. I tried to use contrasting colors for each painting to make the letters pop out. If you’re not sure what kind of colors go well together, use a color wheel. I use one all of the time, for both painting and cookie decorating.

And you’re done!

For the longest time I’ve been talking about putting together some really simple cookie decorating tutorials. Time I stopped talking and started doing. So here ya go! The first of several audio-visual tutorials. In this session, I demonstrate two very simple methods of covering cookies with a base layer of icing. Spreading and flooding. I think of spreading as the method for those of us who just wanna get it on, and flooding as the method for those of us who need to have everything in place before getting it on.

For an example of a cookie with a base that was spread on, please take a look at my “E is for Edward” cookie. Spreading icing on a cookie gives you a nice base, yes, but you might have not-so-neat borders so I put in a tip for remedying that little nuisance. Flooding, on the other hand, yields the neatest, smoothest and most perfect finish but you’ll need some time on your hands to do that one.

One important note: in this tutorial, I mention a squeeze bottle but I forgot to photograph one of those for you. A squeeze bottle is a plastic bottle with a narrow, pointed tip that’s usually filled with a condiment like mustard or ketchup. You can use the same bottle for icing, and if you’re making a large run of decorated cookies, it’s very convenient. It’s also reusable and dishwasher safe. You can buy squeeze bottles at supermarkets, craft stores, cooking supply stores, or online.

I realize there are some errors in this video tute; I confess that despite my broadcast tv reporting background, I’m a bit out of practice (these days I usually write audio scripts for other people, and I always have an editor who guides me through rewrites). So if there are parts here and there that you don’t like or suggestions you have for improving my work, by all means, let me know.

About the video: my husband shot still photos of each action. I dragged them and an audio track I recorded separately into iMovie and exported the file as a Quicktime movie. The original file was pretty large so I compressed it with Compressor (which is why it looks a bit rough).

More video tutes are on their way!

And here are the recipes for the icing used in this tutorial:

Base Consistency Icing (to make a spreadable base)

• 2 Cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon meringue powder
• 4 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon room temp. water

Directions: Beat three to five minutes with an electric mixer. I recommend using a metal bowl. If you don’t have one, be sure to use a deep bowl. Scrape the icing out of the bowl with a spatula into an airtight plastic container.

Flow Consistency Icing (for flooding cookies)

• 2 Cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon meringue powder
• 5 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon room temp. water

Directions: Beat three to five minutes with an electric mixer. I recommend using a metal bowl. If you don’t have one, be sure to use a deep bowl. Scrape the icing out of the bowl with a spatula into an airtight plastic container.

A few days ago, Wolf took some time out of pre-production prep for a film to shoot a very basic icing tutorial for me. The picture above is one of the few I took and the only reason I like it at all is because my husband did the lighting for me. What a difference a pro makes! The tutorial – the first of several – will be here soon.

Because this tutorial is so basic, it made me think about how I started decorating cookies, about eight years ago. What began as a little holiday fun turned into an obsession. How did that happen? What is it about baking and decorating that I like so much? How did I go from slapping royal icing onto a small, hand-cut gingerbread house to this decorating mania? As those thoughts were passing through my head my husband tapped me on the shoulder to show me what he had just photographed. “Is this what you’re going for?” he asked as he swiveled his camera around to show me the LCD display. And back to work we went.

After putting the camera equipment and props away, my thoughts returned to how I got on this cookie decorating kick. More importantly, I started to think about what inspires me. A lot! And I plan to write about that here soon.

In the meantime, I’d like to ask you:

Where do you find inspiration? Where does inspiration come from? What inspires you? Is it usually a person? Or an event or experience? What happens when inspiration hits you? Do you know it right away? If so, what do you do? Do you carry a notebook with you and jot down your thoughts? Or do you whip out your camera or some other device like a digital recorder so you can remember it?

In my previous tutorial, I showed you how easy it is to make cutout cookies. In this tute, I’ll show you how easy it is to  decorate with royal icing. I’m only covering very basic techniques, though these are the ones I use most often. I’ve also included my icing recipe which is what I’ve been using for years. In subsequent tutorials, I’ll show you some more tricky tricks.

Outline Consistency Icing – with Meringue Powder (for dots, lines, and other small details)

(yields about 1 1/2 cups of icing)

2 Cups confectioners’ sugar

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon meringue powder

3 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon room temp. water

Directions: Beat three to five minutes with an electric mixer. I recommend using a metal bowl. If you don’t have one, be sure to use a deep bowl. Scrape the icing out of the bowl with a spatula into an airtight plastic container.

Base Consistency Icing (to make a spreadable base)

Same recipe as above, except use 4 Tablespoons of room temperature water. Beat three to five minutes.

Flow Consistency Icing (for flooding cookies)

Same recipe as above, except use 5 Tablespoons of room temperature water. Beat three to five minutes.

Parchment Cones: Why use them? and how to make one

I use parchment cones because I tend to use very small amounts of icing for my decorated cookies, and, because they allow me the greatest control in piping my designs onto the cookies. Usually I make up to six colors at a time, all in outline consistency, and probably use less than two tablespoons of each color for a dozen cookies.

If I put a base of icing on my cookies first, I either use an offset spatula to spread the icing onto the cookies, or, I put a large amount of base icing into a squeeze bottle and carefully pipe it onto the cookies.

Parchment cones, popsicle mold to hold cones, and squeeze bottle.

To make a parchment cone, please look at this great tutorial on Baking911.com. I’m pointing you in that direction because I didn’t have my photographer husband available to help me this time (he will at some point). Baking911.com is also a great site with tons of information on baking.

Coloring the Icing

I use gel paste color. It’s highly concentrated so you only need to use a drop or two at a time. Unless you plan to make hundreds of cookies, you’ll only need the small bottles (I think they’re about 1.75 fluid ounces each) which are available at most cooking supply stores such as SurlaTable. I buy mine online from SugarCraft – I think they’re hands down the best online retailer for baking goods. Their prices are reasonable and their service rocks. Michaels, the crafts store, sells Wilton brand gel paste colors, which are fine, but they come in little jars instead of these tiny squeeze bottles so things can get messy. If you do use the Wilton jars, use very small spoons or even toothpicks to scoop the gel color out.

Gel paste color is best for coloring royal icing. Use sparingly.

Take a tablespoon of icing, put it into a small bowl, squeeze one or two drops of the gel color paste in and mix. Spoon into your parchment cone, fold the top of the cone and cut the tip off.

Gel paste color, icing in the bowl.

Squeeze a few drops of color into the icing. You don't need much.

Mix the color into the icing with a spoon.

Colored icing. You can add more color if you want...

Put your colored icing into a parchment cone and fold the top to close.

With your parchment cone filled, cut the tip off.

Practice on wax paper first!

Once you put icing on a cookie, you can’t remove it. You can work around your mistakes, which I encourage, but if you have a specific design in mind it’s best to practice it first before committing it to your cookies. I always try everything on a sheet of wax paper first, that way I get a feel for how I need to move my hand as I decorate, and I also get a feel for how much pressure I need to use on the parchment cone. Also, because wax paper is clear, you can put a drawing of your design underneath and trace it to get a strong feel for what you’ll be drawing on your cookies.

Practice by placing your design under a sheet of wax paper.

Piping Dots and Lines

These are the easiest things to do. Keep your hand steady, and squeeze the parchment cone. For dots, you just quickly squeeze and release. Repeat. Dot after dot.

Practice piping dots. Squeeze and release onto wax paper. It's that easy!

For lines, you need to keep pressure on the cone as you draw your lines.

Practice piping lines. Squeeze your cone, and drag the icing across. Release, and voila!

Piping Hearts

Now that you know how to pipe dots, you can pipe hearts. Simply make two dots, and with the tip of the cone, pull the icing down to create a “v” between the dots. And you have a heart.

Pipe two dots next to each other.

Put the tip of your cone in one dot.

Drag the tip of your cone down, at an angle.

Drag the other dot down and form a "v." Lift your cone off the icing.

Now you have a heart. That was easy!

Creating a Base Layer

There are really two ways of creating a base layer: spreading the icing directly onto cookies and flooding the cookies.

To spread the icing, just use an offset spatula to spread base consistency icing onto your cookies. Let them dry for about one hour, or until the icing has hardened and dried enough to put details on with outline consistency icing. (sorry, I forgot to take that photo. I’ll insert it as soon as I can).

To flood cookies – which gives cookies that extra smooth look – you’ll need a cone filled with outline consistency icing and a large cone or a squeeze bottle filled with Flow Consistency icing. First, draw a border around the edge of your cookie with the outline consistency icing. Give it a few minutes to harden. Then fill that space with the flow consistency icing. Pipe one line of flow icing from one edge of the cookie to the other, then back. Each line of icing you pipe must touch the one above it. Yes, this is a time-consuming task and your fingers might cramp a bit, but it will give you the most flawless finish. For things like wedding cookie favors, this is the technique you probably want to use. Let the icing dry, about 1-2 hours, or until the icing feels hard and dry to the touch.

First, draw a border around the edge of your cookie. Use outline consistency icing.

Draw one line of icing from one edge to the other and back, one line on top of the next. Use flow consistency icing.

Eventually you'll fill the area between the border, essentially flooding the cookie with colored icing. Let dry for about an hour.

When you add details and other colors, don’t get frustrated if you make mistakes or your cookies come out differently from what you had envisioned. In the end, you’ll create your own unique and memorable treats. And those lucky enough to receive them will love them!

Final cookie with dots, line, hearts and base icing.

These are the most basic techniques for cookie decorating. Now that you know how, try it. And if you make anything, photograph it and put a link in the comments section below! Cheers!

Late last year, several of my dear readers complained that I didn’t have any simple tutorials here in the cha no ma-ri or at my main site. I vowed to change that this year, and finally, nearly halfway through February, I cobbled together a set of tutes which I hope will enable you to all become master cookie decorators. Seriously, if I can do this, anyone can. And if you don’t want to bake and decorate, point someone who does to this blog. Maybe they’ll make the cookies for you!

Today I’m starting with the foundation: the cookies. Since Valentine’s Day is nigh upon us, I chose heart-shaped cookies, which are simple and even without any icing, say a lot to a recipient. For this demo, I used a Martha Stewart recipe which I think works very well.

Follow the recipe and once you’ve mixed everything together, DON’T chill the dough. DON’T.

Now, follow me:

Step 1. After mixing the dough, don’t chill it. Take one third of that delicious dough and slap it onto a sheet of waxed paper. Cover that blob of dough with another sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Place unchilled dough between layers of wax paper.

Step 2: Get your rolling pin out. Without too much pressure, roll the dough. Front to back, back to front. Use too much pressure and you’ll roll the dough too thinly.

Get your rolling pin out.

Roll cookie cough front to back and again.

Step 3: Rotate your dough – still between layers of wax paper – 90 degrees. Roll again.

Roll cookie dough again, front to back and again.

Step 4: Check the thickness of your dough. Lift the top layer of wax paper and check. It should be about 1/8 of an inch thick, slightly thicker. There are some rolling pins that have bands on them that help you roll out to a specific thickness. If you don’t have one, then quit this tute. Or, just pull out a ruler and hold it up to the dough. That’ll tell you how thick or thin your dough is.

Check the thickness of your rolled dough.

Step 5: Once you’ve rolled the dough to the proper thickness, place it – still between wax paper layers – onto a baking sheet and in your freezer. Yes, your FREEZER. Leave it in there for about 15 minutes.

Now you can preheat the oven.

Place your rolled dough in the freezer.

Step 6: While your dough is freezing and your oven is heating, pull out your cookie cutters and decide which you’re going to use. Hearts are nice and easy. I’ll be using both the smoothed-edge and the zigzag-edge cutters.

Important point: When you bake, you should always have the same or similar-sized cookies on each baking sheet. The bigger the cookie, the longer it will need to stay in the oven. So don’t be a ding-dong and do something stupid like put little cookies on the same sheet as big ones. The little ones will burn or the big ones will come out under-baked, which is not a happy outcome. Not happy at all.

Choose your cookie cutters while the dough is freezing and the oven's preheating.

Step 7: Once your dough has frozen – all you need to do is touch it and if it feels solid, it’s ready – pull it out and onto your working space. Have a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silpat ready. Since the dough will soften after it’s pulled out of the freezer, you will have to work somewhat quickly. So don’t answer the phone, don’t start an argument with your partner, and don’t watch TV while doing this. Focus on this and only this. It won’t take long.

Peel off one layer of wax paper and put it right back on the dough. Turn your dough over, lay it back down on your working counter, and pull the other layer of wax paper off. Set it aside.

Frozen dough ready to cut.

Step 8: Start cutting your cookies with your cutters. You’ll notice that because the dough is frozen, it will stay on the inside of your cutter. How convenient! Gently bring it over your baking sheet, and push it out with your fingers. Gosh I hope you washed your hands. Use as much of your dough as possible. You can re-roll and cut the leftover dough. Or, eat it. Or, give it to your husband.

Cut your cookies. The frozen dough stays in the cutter.

Move the cutter and dough to the baking sheet. Release.

Use as much of your rolled dough as possible.

Step 9: Put the cookies in the oven on the middle rack. And don’t forget to shut the oven door. Turn on your timer. And remember to turn the baking sheet around 180 degrees halfway through baking. If you’re doing two baking sheets at a time, switch racks and turn 180 degrees halfway through baking time. And if all of this is confusing, then quit. And ask your best friend to do this for you.

Step 10: You’re done. To make sure your cookies are baked completely and to the right consistency, gently, and I mean GENTLY, press one of your cookies with your index finger. If it kind of bounces back, it’s done. If it sinks and the imprint of your finger remains, it needs about one more minute.

Once your cookies are ready, pull them out and place them, still in the baking sheet, on top of a wire rack. Let them sit there for 2 to 3 minutes. Many cook books will tell you one minute. That’s bogus. The cookies are still hot, their grease is still greasy, so they are soft. Leaving the cookies on the sheet for a few more minutes allows the cookies to harden, and they’ll peel right off the sheet.

Let your cookies cool in the baking sheet for a few minutes.

Step 11: With an offset spatula, remove the cookies onto the wire rack so they can cool completely. Give them about 10 minutes minimum. Ideally, 20 minutes. Either put them in an airtight container, or, get ready to decorate.

You’re done!

Next: The decorating tutorial.

Questions? Please leave them in the comments section. Suggestions? Welcome. Complaints? Go ahead. But keep it clean. You know what I mean.

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