Inspiration Challenge: May {Cookies You Fear}

I have to start off by saying, there is not much I fear about cookies anymore. I guess it would be different if I had a business selling my cookies and needed to accurately make whatever my customer asks for. But since I mostly make them for fun, or for friends who give me a lot of creative freedom, I am able to pick and choose what and how. And when and where for that matter.

There was one last thing, NOT a cookie, that I had feared so I conquered that instead. I had always been afraid to make anything that required a candy thermometer. A few weeks ago, I made caramels, and in honor of this month’s challenge, I made marshmallows. Ok, so the marshmallow recipe I used didn’t call for a thermometer, but it DID involve boiling sugar, which can be a little scary and anyway, marshmallows were on my baking bucket list. Check.

I chose to use this challenge to make cookies based on a book that I REALLY wanted to “cookie”, that if it hadn’t been for this challenge, I wouldn’t have had a reason to make them. To make things difficult, I used a technique I don’t really use. I painted them.

“Have you ever heard of Mickey…..” who falls into a dream, and strait down “In The Night Kitchen”? I really kind of love this book by Maurice Sendak. The illustrations are bright and colorful and the story is ADORABLE.

Mickey falls into The Night Kitchen and strait into the batter of the cake about to be baked by the three bakers. They mistake Mickey for milk, and mix him in then pop him into the oven- ready to bake “a nice Mickey cake”. Mickey bursts out of the oven crying “I’m not the milk and the milk’s not me, I’m Mickey!”- (Ben’s favorite line by the way). Then Mickey makes an airplane out of bread dough and flies into the sky, dropping down into the giant milk bottle.

Before waking up from his (trippy?) dream, Mickey scoops up some milk from the bottle and pours it into the cake batter, thus saving breakfast. As the bakers bake the REAL breakfast cake, they chant “Milk in the batter, milk in the batter, we bake cake and nothing’s the matter!” (Another favorite line. In fact the other day, we made coffee cake for breakfast just so the kids could add the milk to the batter while singing that nothing’s the matter!)

I can’t possibly, with my description or cookies, do justice to this book. If you have littles, I highly suggest it. (Try to ignore the fact that when he isn’t covered in cake batter, Mickey is stark naked. If that bothers you, this book isn’t for you.)

To make the cookies, I base coated squares and a scalloped circle in white. After they were fully dry, I painted the background onto the cookie with food coloring, a bit of water, and a clean brush that I only use for cookies.

Once the backgrounds were dry, I brought out the white icing again, and piped and flooded the shapes I wanted to make pop. After that dried completely, I painted the 3D areas.

It was really fun to make these cookies based on a book I find adorable. They weren’t easy, but I LOVE the end result!

Sadly, this was the last month of Melissa’s (Simply Sweets by Honeybee) and my year long inspiration challenge. We really enjoyed doing this and working together each month to come up with a new source of inspiration and challenge ourselves to stretch our comfort zone. Mostly, we enjoyed seeing what you all linked up when you played along! Don’t forget you have the whole month of May to link up your challenge.

Just because we are not continuing to play every month, that doesn’t mean we won’t be coming up with random projects here and there! And in the meantime, use the things you find around you for inspiration, take a picture, and link it up to Simply Sweet Saturdays, every week at Simply Sweets by Honeybee.

Thank you to everyone who played along!

(I will be updating this post with links to all of the past projects when I have a few minutes to organize things….)

Inspiration Challenge: April {April Showers}

Rain is not my most favorite thing in the world. I have thick, curly hair which frizzes easily, and frizzing is the only thing that it does easily.

Actually, I don’t really hate rain. I hate my hair.

To be perfectly honest, I like rain. As long as it’s warm. A good warm spring rain. It’s good for puddle hopping, and it’s good for the environment, too. It’s not really good for my sinuses, but it helps the kids sleep well. So I can live with it.

This month, Melissa (Simply Sweets by Honeybee) and I chose to use spring rain as our inspiration to make some cookies. Specifically April Showers.

I made some rain splatters and some umbrellas (to keep our hair as frizz free as possible).

I don’t actually have an umbrella cookie cutter, but I realized that you can make an umbrella out of just about any shape! A raindrop, a circle, or a square. The best part, is that if you own the sets of graduating cutters in these simple shapes, you can make them in any size!

I didn’t make an umbrella tutorial, but it is fairly straight forward.

Cut out and bake your shape. Outline the top half of the cookie and decorate it in the umbrella pattern of your choice. Let this half dry for a while. Then outline and flood the bottom half in white. Let the whole thing dry for several hours or overnight. To make a stormy sky background on the white half, cover the umbrella half with a paper towel and spray the white with Wilton’s silver color mist. Be a bit heavy handed (although it goes against your instincts). Before the alcohol evaporates and the color dries, use a paper towel or a clean paint brush (that you only use for food) to wipe parts of the color away in streaks. After that dries, outline and detail your umbrella top and add a handle with grey piping icing. When the handle dries, you can use a bit of silver luster dust mixed with vodka to paint the handle and make it pop.

Speaking of heavy-handed, I may have gone a little overboard with Picmonkey’s photo editing options! I had a lot of fun making my cookies look “stormy”. Here is a straight out of camera version.

Now, go check out Melissa’s cookies at Simply Sweets by Honeybee. They are so perfectly spring rain like!

So, we are nearing the end of our year long inspiration project. May marks our twelfth project and we thought it might be fun to take some risks. Is there a set of cookies that you have been wanting to make, but you’ve held back because you were afraid? Maybe a character or theme that you’ve been wanting to cookify, but you didn’t have a specific reason and you felt it was too intimidating to try only for fun? Here’s your reason! Next month, May, we are going to face our cookie fears. Make that set that you didn’t think you could. Then share it.

Until then, don’t forget to stop by The Cookie Puzzle everyday in April. Say “hi” to Kim and when you can, share a few posts. Help spread awareness for autism.

Inspiration Challenge: March {Spring Is In The Air}

Hey… wait. Where did February go?

I know the groundhog said there would be an early Spring, but I didn’t think it was possible to make a whole month actually disappear!

We didn’t get much snow here in New Jersey again. I’m sorry Midwest. I really don’t mean to rub it in. A bit of snow would have been nice, especially since I actually bought the kids snow suits and boots this year.

Anyway, it won’t be too long before we can go back outside to play. And the playground!

There is one sure way to know that spring is in the air around my house. You look for something else in the air:

My kids are OBSESSED with bubbles. In warmer weather we can go through a bottle a day. Since Ben actually thinks he is Willy Wonka, his favorite thing to do is chant “Bubbles bubbles everywhere, but not a drop to drink” while his sister blows bubbles into the air.

Once again, and I’m sorry, I don’t have a tutorial or even multiple photographs. If you do have the desire to make these, I can tell you that the bubble wand is a baby rattle with the little bumps on the side cut off. The bubble bottle is my latte cup cutter ( a gift from my friend Kim at The Cookie Puzzle who knows how to combine coffee and cookies- my two obsessions!). I know I have to get on the ball and get some tutorials out there. I lost my daylight working hours again and I haven’t had a chance to look for a light box.

My friend, Melissa, however MAKES tutorials. Not only does she make them, she records them and shares them on YouTube! She is awesome and she made the most AMAZING “Spring is in the Air” cookie. The way her mind works just stops me in my tracks. So head over to Simply Sweets by Honeybee and see for yourself. While you are there, you can link up your Spring is in the Air cookie.

Next month, we’ll be celebrating April Showers. Warmer weather, humidity wreaking havoc on royal icing again, allergy attacks. There is just so much inspiration to be found in THAT topic! lol.

So, what says “Spring is in the Air” to you?

Inspiration Challenge: February {Famous Couple}

This was such a fun challenge. In honor of Valentine’s Day, Melissa from Simply Sweets by Honeybee and I decided to cookiefy a famous couple. That was the only guideline. Past or present. Alive or not. Real or fictional. Whatever. If they were a couple they could be cookied.

A while ago, I posted this picture amongst a group of cookie friends on facebook.

I loved the guesses.

Will and Kate? John and Yoko? Bonnie and Clyde? … Will and Grace? Ok stopping now.

Bert & Ernie? Sonny and Cher?

Brad & Angelina? Kim & Kanye? Romeo & Juliet? Ike & Tina? Homer & Marge? Lucy & Desi? Adam & Eve?

.Captain and Tenille, The King and I, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Fred and Wilma, Barney and Betty, Pebbles and BamBam, Joannie and Chachi, Siegfried and Roy, …

At this point I was starting to doubt myself, because not one of these guesses was what I had in mind.

There was one couple that stuck in my mind. A fictional couple that remind me of me and Bryan. Mostly because Bryan is a clown and I’m, well…. I’m not flat chested.

When I started introducing Bryan to my friends and family, I was told “marry him, and you’ll never be bored.” And he has certainly provided me (and my friends) with hours of entertainment. If we’re friends on facebook, you may have seen him singing “Ice, Ice, Baby” in front of a hundred or so people. It’s hard to tell from the video, but he was sober.

“He makes me laugh”- Jessica Rabbit

My kids seem to have inherited the wacky gene from him, too. Life is certainly never boring.

Next month, we’ll be celebrating THE most important holiday in the calendar year. The vernal equinox. Also known as the first day of Spring. March 20th at 7:02AM. Not that I’m counting or anything, but we’ll be sharing a cookie that says to us “Spring is in the Air”.

Is there a famous couple that reminds you of your relationship? Or just  a couple that you admire, or one that you have been looking for an excuse to “cookie”? Here’s your chance! Go check out Melissa’s famous couple cookie, and while you are over on Simply Sweets by Honeybee, you can link up your famous couple cookie!

Inspiration Challenge: November {Show Me Your State}

So, when Melissa and I agreed to this challenge last month, I had no idea my state would be so front and center in the news! In my part of New Jersey, we were very fortunate. Personally we lost power for roughly 14 hours. We had no property damage. My parents, who only live five minutes away, didn’t lose power at all, so we were able to go to their house for a little while.

My heart breaks for those who lost everything. But this is a strong state. Everyone will pull together and rebuild. Our beaches will be rebuilt, and those who live there will move back. And there is a reason for that. Although New Jersey is often the punchline to the joke, everyone who lives here can’t imagine living anywhere else. Well, we can imagine. Especially for a brief period after we open the envelopes containing the tax bills. But, as is often the case, you pay for what you get. And we get it all. From anywhere in New Jersey, you are roughly one to two hours from the beach, the mountains, farmland, and two major cities.

When I decided on the design of my cookies a couple of weeks ago, I was focusing, not on the TV shows our state is famous for (there will be no Snookie Cookie… anyway, I couldn’t top this one by Arty McGoo if I tried!) but on my state’s nickname: The Garden State.

There are a total of at least four working farms within 20 minutes of my house. I work for my parents in their dental office, where, in the backyard, my dad grows enough produce to get them through the summer!!! I didn’t inherit that ability from him. I can’t keep a houseplant alive, let alone a garden.

I had planned to drive around and take some beautiful pictures of our fall foliage and maybe even take a drive to the shore to take some pictures there, but this month got away from me and then the wind and rain kept me in the house for the past few days. Then before I realized it, it was November first and it was too late. If I have a chance in the future, I’ll come back and add some pictures.

As far as the cookies go, I found some clip art I liked of the various vegetables above and used the pictures as a template to hand cut them. Then I used a mixture of royal icing, painted food coloring, and food safe markers to decorate them.

And this is what I think of, when I think of New Jersey. I AM a real housewife, and the closest I come to GTL is G(L)2-T. But there is one stereotype that I think most New Jersey residents will admit is accurate.

“What exit are you from?”

Now go visit Melissa at Simple Sweets By Honeybee to see her Texas cookies. I know she is super proud of her state and she always does an amazing job with her cookies!!! While you are there, you can link up the cookies that show us your state.

Then start thinking up your ideas for our December challenge: Winter Wonderland.

Inspiration Challenge: October {Halloween Candy}

Ellie went with my in-laws to the farm across from our neighborhood and came home with a pumpkin. That alone doesn’t necessarily say it’s Halloween time, but she immediately asked if she could paint it to look like a vampire. That’s when I realized, it is October 1st. Official Halloween season!

For our October challenge, Melissa (Simply Sweets by Honeybee) and I challenged everyone to make their favorite Halloween candy into a cookie. We also challenged each other to make a candy other than candy corn. There is only one candy out there that I can eat by the handful. Fortunately, this candy comes in a Halloween version (also a Christmas version, a Valentines version, and an Easter version. Hmmm. Why no Fourth of July version, I wonder?).

Not only can I eat M&Ms by the handful, but my kids have proven that you can eat the cookies version by the handful, too.

If you need your own M&M cookies to eat by the handful, this is what you need to do. Start by cutting out your chocolate dough (I use this recipe by LilaLoa) using the bottom opening of an icing tip. Next, bake and cool your cookies, then mix your colors.

By trial and error, I found that the easiest way to coat the cookies was to drop them into a bowl of icing (about a 3-5 second consistency), mix them up well, then scoop them out with a small spoon and push them off of the spoon with a toothpick. This method was definitely a lot less messy than my first attempt to put the cookies on my cooling rack and pour the icing over them! Let your cookies dry overnight. They were a little difficult to remove from the cooling rack, so in the future, I would probably let them dry on a parchment lined cookie sheet. After your icing is completely dry, use a small “m” (or letter of your choice) stamp and white food coloring to stamp on that “m”.

I also made a peanut version, because I can eat peanut M&Ms even faster than plain.

I wrapped a bit of cookie dough around a peanut before baking. LilaLoa’s recipe held its shape really well and I was so happy with the way these turned out. If I’d thought they would turn out so well, I probably would have made an almond, and a pretzel version to!

I really can’t wait to see what Melissa came up with, so lets head over to her page to see. While you are there, you can also link up your Halloween candy cookies! Or you can leave a link in my comments section. I’d love to see what everyone comes up with!

Then start thinking about next month’s cookies. We want to see “Your State”. Texas and New Jersey are two of the most stereotyped states, I will NOT be making a “Snookie Cookie”. Although this one by Arty McGoo  almost makes me proud to live in the same state that show takes place in!  :)  If you don’t live in the Unites States, show us where you do live. I can’t wait to have fun with this one!

Inspiration Challenge: September {Pirates}

In honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th, I made some cookies to demonstrate a few of the things that you will need if you plan to celebrate.

First off,  you will need a red sash to tie around your waist and a pair of big brown boots.

Take your sword and knife, and tuck it into the back of your sash. It won’t show on the cookie, but it’s there.

The next thing you’ll need is a fancy eye patch (think “One-Eye’d Willy).

If you’re planning on going out and drinking a little spiced rum or boot leg whiskey to celebrate, you might want to take a Wench with you.

You may even want to bring two.

But don’t forget to bring a bouquet of roses for your Wench. Romance isn’t entirely dead, after all.

Whatever you do to celebrate, have fun. But please try to limit your pirate behavior to jargon and spiced rum. I’m pretty sure the other stereotypical pirate activities, like pillaging, are frowned upon. Probably even illegal.

Now go check out Melissa’s awesome pirate over at Simply Sweets by Honeybee. She seriously blows me away every month. You can also link up your version of pirate cookies over there.

Next month, we’re celebrating a more mainstream holiday. We’ll be “cookie-ing” Halloween candy. I guess it’s almost time to put summer behind us, and move on to fall!

Inspiration Challenge: August {“Staying Cool”)

There are so many ways to interpret this month’s challenge theme. Something about it makes me think of Snoopy sitting on top of his little red dog house wearing sunglasses. Or The Fonz.

Of course with this excruciatingly hot summer, it’s not surprising that Melissa and I both went with ways to keep from melting

Originally I was going to make a cookie shaped like my house, and one shaped like my thermostat set to 68. And me sitting on the couch under a blanket. But then I realized that we got out a lot this summer. Despite the heat and humidity, we got outside for a little bit almost everyday. Monday through Friday, Ellie goes to camp and she gets to swim at least twice a day. When it’s really hot, they swim again, or they play water games. Ben comes with me to the gym every morning and afterwards we go swimming. He’s like a clingy, cuddly, little koala bear in the water, especially after he decides he can swim on his own, then discovers he can’t yet.

On weekends, we need to provide our own water. So we drag out the kiddie pool.

Or we water the lawn and ourselves.

(I really wish I had popped those air bubbles. In real life, I swear, my kids don’t have holes in their backs and arms. Scraped knees and bruised shins, but no holes. But, ummm… Our sprinkler does have a hole. It’s pretty beat up.) (And while we are keeping it real, Ellie wants me to tell everyone that she does not even own a red bikini, and Ben does not have a blue suit. I was using icing that I had already from her birthday party cookies.)

And once again, I have to share one of my favorite cookie decorating tools.

My ceramic egg dish. It’s perfect for pouring a little vodka or extract into one of the wells, and a little luster dust, disco dust, or food coloring into another. Love it.

So, now go over to Simply Sweets by Honeybee and see what I could really go for right about now. And don’t forget that you can link up your “Staying Cool” cookies, whatever your interpretation may be!

****I forgot to mention September’s Challenge is celebrating “Talk Like A Pirate Day” on Sept 19th. So get ready to share your pirate cookies!****

Inspiration Challenge: July{Home Decor}

Yay! It’s month two and I actually followed through on something. It helps that I have such great support in my friend, Melissa (of Simply Sweets By Honeybee), who is doing this challenge right along side me. I know we are meant to be good friends. Do you know how I know? Not only is she as obsessed with baking as I am, but she would also prefer to text rather than actually talk on the phone. So very few days go by that we don’t text each other at some point about something we have baked, or something awesome that someone else baked.

Anyway. We originally chose this month’s theme based on something that Melissa bought that she wanted to “cookie”. She did change her mind, though, so I have no idea what she is actually making. I am as excited as you are to find out!

I was originally going to do a bunch of different clocks, but then I saw these incredible cookies by Ali’s Sweet Tooth, and I knew there was no way I could do cookie clocks justice after seeing these.

So I wandered the aisles of Target hoping to be inspired. When that didn’t happen, I began to wander my house. We have lived here for two years as of this month. And this is still what the majority of my walls look like (the two items are only where they are because that’s where nails happened to be already):

My Pinterest boards are full of gorgeous gallery wall inspiration and I hope to do that here someday. I have a few things waiting to be framed and hung (like the amazing portraits we had done in the spring by JM Portraits, the talented photographer who happens to be Ellie’s Girl Scout Troop Leader). But, while I was pacing my house, I kept coming back to this mirror that I fell in love with at Target (I got the subway art at HomeGoods). I was suddenly struck by the inspiration to do a mirror gallery wall out of cookies.

These definitely are not my favorite cookies ever, and I know they are not my best work. But I do kind of like the effect they have when grouped together. I searched Google for some cute mirrors, and I tried to go back to the source so I could link my cookie to the mirror that inspired it.

I was able to find most sources, but where I couldn’t I am linking to my Pin. If anyone finds an original link, let me know and I will fix it.

1. Off to a bad start. I copied this almost swirl for swirl then I could not remember where I found it. I even forgot to pin it
2. The mirror in my living room from Target
3. French Mirror Company
4. My own imagination. I cut out a shape I liked before doing my search. Then I couldn’t find anything to match my shape.
5. I searched far and wide for an original link here, but couldn’t find one. I pinned it from an About.Com article.
6. Another from my own mind. I wanted to try a simple scalloped design using a small star tip.
7. This sunburst mirror was from the same About.Com article, but I was able to trace it to Lighting Showroom.
8. Mosaic Mirror from Stoneage Arts
9. Ikea mirror

I also experimented a little to see if I could find a technique to make a “reflective surface”. All cookies were based coated first with a light turquoise.

1. Painted with a full coat of Wilton’s silver pearl dust.
2. Sprayed with Wilton’s pearl color mist and sprinkled with rainbow disco dust.
3. Brushed lightly with a mixture of Wilton’s silver pearl dust and vodka, then brushed again with some silver disco dust (also mixed with a little vodka)
4. The same as #3 but without the silver disco dust.

I think I liked #3 the best.

So, now go check out Melissa’s post. I can’t wait to see what she did! And while you are there, make sure you link up your home decor inspired cookies to her linky party.

Thank you so much to everyone who linked up last month. I loved seeing what you came up with!

Next month’s challenge is a little broader. As an homage to the ridiculous heat we are experiencing everywhere this summer, get ready to link up your cookies that represent “staying cool”. I know it will be fun to see how everyone interprets that one

Thank you for joining us this month!

Past Challenges:

• June {fabric} Ellie’s Bites, Simply Sweets by Honeybee