Sunflower Cookies! A Perfect Petal Tutorial!

Summer's coming!!

We've finally had some sunny mornings here in Southern California.

I made these sunflowers a few weeks ago when we were still covered in a haze of fog.

In other words...yes, the pictures are a bit dark and bluish.

(Photo editing can only do so much.)

But, now that I've ordered a light box 

we're assured sunny weather from now 'til eternity,

so that will be good.

I thought I'd use these sunflowers 

to show you how I get the blank spaces between the petals.

Sometimes, I like a little bit of cookie to show through all that icing.

For the longest time, I just piped my petals and hoped for the best.

But every third or forth cookie I'd get a few wonky petals 

and have to scrape them off and start over.

In the interest of efficiency, 

(and not losing my mind)

I came up with a way to make sure I only had to decorate each cookie once.

Here goes....

Start with a symmetrical flower, as many petals as you'd like.

Decide how large you'd like the center of your flower to be,

 and grab a circle cutter the same size.

Being careful to center the cutter, press down gently to create an imprint.

With an edible ink marker, 

make a dot on the inside on the circle,

 directly across from the point where two petals meet.

Make sure the mark is on the inside of the circle so that it is covered when the center is flooded.

Keep going all the way around.

Next, pipe a line (I used a #3 tip) the same color as your flower center,

over the imprint, covering it completely.

Finally, when you pipe your petals (#3 tip again), 

start and stop on either side of the marks that you made.

Easy-peasy!

Perfectly spaced petals!

I finished these up by flooding the petals and letting them dry.

Then flooding the center with black, and immediately adding wet-on-wet white polka dots.

The bead trim was the last step, added after everything was completely set.

I don't like lonely flowers so I made them some little friendly bees.

This little 'side-view' bee is a new cutter for me.

Not quite sure how I feel about him yet.

I think I'd like him better if I cut off the stinger before I bake him next time.

Just too aggressive...

I couldn't bring myself to ice it on.

These flew out the door to some very lovely ladies!

Bzzzzzzzzz......

Thanks for stopping by,

Lizy B