Hibiscus Cookie Tutorial!

I love making flower cookies.

Love, love, love, love....

Especially these tropical hibiscus flowers.

Wanna make some of your own?

Okay!!

Bake flower cookies using a 5 petal flower cutter, but add a leaf shape before baking.

(My favorite flower cutter is actually a sand dollar cutter, but I won't tell anyone if you don't)

When you cut the bottom of the leaf shape out of the flower so that you can fit it into place, 

the outline of the flower is removed.  

Before I bake it, I press the edge of the cookie cutter into the leaf so that I can see the outline again.

Outline your cookie with a #3 tip and piping consistency icing.

Outline your leaf.

Let these dry.

For the inside of your flower you'll use two colors of 10-second flood icing.

I like using one color for the petals and white or yellow for the center.

Starting with your petal color, flood most of your cookie. 

Leave a space about the size of a quarter in the center for your contrasting color.

Try to make the shape somewhat irregular-it doesn't need to be round.

Then quickly fill in the middle.

Now, grab a toothpick, boo-boo stick or stylus...but work quickly!

Put the tip of your tool in the center of your cookie and drag it outward toward the middle of a petal.

Make the line a little bit curved if you can.

Wipe off your tool when you lift it out of the icing.

Do this for each of your five petals.

This time you will start at the outer edge of your flower.

Place your tool into the icing at the point between your petals and draw a line inward, 

ending at the center of your flower.

Repeat that five times all the way around.

That's it!

(If you have any air bubbles left, take care of those now.

Like that huge one up there on the bottom petal!)

Set that cookie aside to dry and start on your next one!

(you can take a minute or two to admire your cookie-I'm sure its gorgeous!!)

When its dry, flood your leaf and outline your flower with your piping icing.

Now, the stamen is super easy, you just have to remember to do it in two steps.

First the bottom part.....

Pipe a curved line, a little longer than half the length of the stamen, 

with yellow piping icing and a #3 tip.

Let it dry!!!

Pipe the end of the stamen with the same icing and tip.

I make a bit of an arrow shape, but a curved rectangle is fine too.

Immediately cover this with sanding sugar.

By letting the bottom dry first, the sugar doesn't stick.

That gives the stamen a lovely 'pollen just on the end' look.

I hope you'll make some of your own!!!

More Flower Cookies!
Surfboards and Flowers!
Tropical Flower Cookies!
Ribbon Rose Cookies!
Baseball Flower Cookies!
Sunflower Cookie Tutorial!
Flower Cookie Pops!

Hearts!

Love day is coming and so are the hearts!!!
Heart cookies are beautiful and don't need a lot of decoration to get their point across.


Sometimes they're a bit bossy....

'Be Mine Valentine Cookies'

....some are very chatty and talk all night...

'Conversation Hearts'

...while others are quietly cute.

'The Heart of the Matter'

These like to go 'au natural'...

'Jack's I Love You Cookies'

Some hearts belong to someone right from the start.

'Valentines for My Rock Star'

Unfortunately....some have a hole where they're not supposed to 

and are leaking all over the place.

...and that would be mine.

Yup, I have a leaky heart.

I didn't always have one 

(or if I did, it was so tiny that my doctors couldn't quite hear it)

but I do now, and boy....is it ever a doozy.

So that's where I've been for the past month or so.

I've had lots and lots of pictures taken of my insides.

Tests and measurements galore!

But these doctors aren't quite done yet.

My little leaky heart needs a fix 

(technically a mitral valve repair)

that is going to move me out of the kitchen for awhile.

I've got a couple weeks until it gets fixed.

But before and after, I'll be at home with my feet up,

 watching every single show Bravo has to offer 

and getting all caught up on my reading and photo editing!

Hopefully, I'll be spending some time here sharing lots of pictures with you all.

But, since I've never been through this before, I'm not sure how I'll be feeling.

So if I go missing for a bit again, now you'll know where I'll be!

Good thoughts, prayers and well wishes are always welcome!!!

Much love to you all!

Top Tutorials of 2012!

Happy New Year!


I'm starting out the year with a little trip down memory lane.
First up, your favorite tutorials from the past year!

(there's a question at the end...want to guess what it is?)





We'll do this 'Letterman' style...

6. Fall Leaf Cookie Tutorial!

Easy-peasy wet-on-wet technique that can be used for so many things!






5. Sunflower Cookies!  A Perfect Petal Tutorial!

A super easy method for evenly spaced petals!






4. Rainbow Ruffle Cookies!

These still make me smile!






3. Chevron Pumpkins!

Same wet-on-wet technique as the leaves!!  So very versatile!






2. How To Use a Cookie Tutorial!

I liked this tutorial because I got to link to some very lovely baking ladies!!







...here it is, your very favorite (by a landslide)...

1. Let's Talk About Writing On a Cookie!

This also happens to be the post I get the most emails about and has the most pins.
I still love writing on cookies and trying new fonts.



Which leads me to my very important question...


What new tutorials would you like to see in the new year?
More about fonts?
Different tools and tips?
Colors?


 
Please leave a comment and let me know!
Come back all this week for more recaps and questions!!
(I missed you all...so happy to be back!)

Turkey Cookie Tutorial!

Oh those Turkeys! Who knew so many people wanted to make them? Because you asked...here you go!

Oh!  And I have a new shopping button!!!
It's over in the sidebar...its pretty and navy blue and says "Lizy B's Favorite Things"!
It links to an amazon store where I've put together items I used in my tutorials.
Does that sound good? I get lots of 'where did you get that' emails, so I thought it would help!

Let's make Turkeys! (Just a warning....there's a lot of pictures.) You can pipe this little guy's body freehand if you'd like. I use some guides because I hate dislike piping circles and ovals. I have the worst time trying to keep them even.

  I use a boo-boo stick (or a toothpick), a circle cutter, an oval cutter and a regular sized decorating tip.

Oh yeah...and a cookie.  This turkey is really a seashell.

My oval cutter is about half as large as my cookie...1 1/2 inches.

Place it in the middle, almost at the bottom.

Don't forget to leave space for the little turkey toes.

Trace around the inside of your cutter with the boo-boo stick.

You've got a turkey body!

If your cookie is on the soft side you could just push on the cutter

and make a little indentation.

But then sometimes this happens.

Ouch.

Grab a decorating tip and place it where the head would be.

Make sure to overlap the circle and oval a bit.

Push down and rock back and forth (gently) to make an impression.

Almost there!

I use a 2 1/2 inch circle cutter for the tail....

...and trace inside with the boo-boo stick.

Yes...there will be lots of crumbs.

Brush them all off with a soft brush!

There he is!!

Hmmmm...Tom's looking a little pale though.

Time for some color!

(all colors are Americolor gels)

With light brown piping icing 

(a little chocolate brown + a drop of gold + a drop of black)

and a number 2 tip...

1. outline the oval

2. outline the top of the circle

3. outline the bottom curve of the tail

With dark brown piping icing

(a lot of chocolate brown + a little black + a little gold)

and a number 2 tip

1. outline the middle curve on either side of the head

2. outline the outer edge of tail.

Let that all dry.

For the tail feathers I used flood consistency icing in squeeze bottles 

1. dark brown (see above)

2. dark red (super red + maroon + a little chocolate brown)

3. orange (orange + terracotta)

4. ivory 

But use any colors you like!

Flood tail with dark brown and immediately pipe colored stripes.

Drag a toothpick through all three stripes, starting at the outer edge.

I like to start at the 'valley' of each little scallop.

Let it dry.

Don't touch!

Fill in the body with light brown flood.

Give him a nice round tummy.

It might crater a bit, but I kinda like it.

Let dry.

Fill in sides a little less than the tummy.

(wanna guess what's next)

Let dry.

Fill in the head, make it nice and round.

Letting him dry well (I try to give him an hour with a fan) between steps

helps to create lots of dimension.

...and then it got dark and there were no more pictures...

so I'll walk you through the rest.

For the wings, use dark brown icing and a number 4 tip for the outer edge 

and build it up past the height of his middle section.

Then switch to a number 2 for the inside edge.

I've done the entire outline in a number 2, but sometimes the flood icing spills out.

Not good.

Flood with dark brown.

At this point, let him dry overnight.

The next morning, dress him up however you'd like!

Hat: black piping icing with a 2

Hatband, waddle and bow: red piping with a 1

Nose and toes: orange piping with a 1

Eyes: dark brown with a 1

Remember...no two turkeys look exactly alike,

so make them however you'd like!

Have a Happy Turkey Day Everyone!!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, you might also like:

Fall Leaf Cookie Tutorial

Let's Talk About Writing On A Cookie!

Royal Icing, Step-by-Step