Play Ball!

I really do love my job.  And I love getting a second chance to try out new ideas on past designs.  Last year a client ordered a baseball themed dessert table for her son's bar mitzvah, which was our first foray into the major leagues: 

Baseball: Strike One

And this is our sporty table from this weekend for a lovely repeat client and her daughter's softball team end of season party.  Their team name "Purple Power" was reflected in the color palette and we had a great time coming up with new baseball themed goodies to flex our design muscles.  Below are the pictures from the party.  Enjoy!

Talk about a score!  These three baseball helmets were found at the thrift store (originally red, dirty and scuffed) for less than five bucks a pop.  A fresh coat of spray paint and some hand cut decals and voila!  Team helmets!  The perfect props.

Cotton candy cones.  

Make sure you put yours out at the very last minute just before guests arrive or they will start to dissolve with any ambient moisture in the air, like ours did.  I had to make an emergency cotton candy run to replace our soggy, sugary mess before the softball team arrived.

Personalized baseball card cookies.

I love these baseball cards of the girls on the team we created.  I contacted the hostess and asked her for a short description of each player (skin and hair color, along with length and style).  We packaged them up along with a sugar cookie stick of pink bubble gum and sealed them up with the team logo.  Great take home favors.

The team.

This gum guaranteed less stale than the real thing.

These were a home run!

Mounds candy for our "Pitcher's Mounds Cakes"

Detail.

Pennant flag cookies.

Detail.

Nacho sugar cookies.

Jalapeno detail.

Popcorn baby cakes.

Detail.

Purple licorice.

Animal Baby Shower Cookies

Little Mermaid Collection

Mother's Day 2012

Happy Mother's Day!  These pretty pink and green Mother's Day cookies are the same design as last year's.  Always fun to see the progression in design and skill after a little over a year of cookie decorating: 

Mother's Day 2011

Having Faith - Character Cookie Tutorial

I'm no character cookie veteran, so it always makes me cringe a little when I get an order for them.   But I have learned one thing, you've got to break a few eggs to make an omelette.  What I mean is, it's going to look terrible before it looks good. 

Exhibit A:  Real Mermaid of Orange County

You've seen her at South Coast Plaza or down at Newport Beach; the heavy eye makeup, the weirdly drawn in eyebrows, the blown out lips.  It's a little unnatural and off putting.  It's a character cookie before its "skin" has been filled in, and it makes me nervous EVERY TIME.

I've figured out that I need to use a number 2 tip to out line the facial features because the skin tone is going to "eat" into my drawing on either side of the linework, making the lines much smaller and finer (sometimes disappearing all together because my icing consistency is off just a hair and too runny - grrr...).

Better.

Next step is the fun one as the character finally starts to look like her old self.  I go in and fill with a gooey (not runny) icing consistency, using a number 1 tip to help me keep definition in the smaller areas.  I start in the largest area and work towards the small delicate spaces.  In this case, I started with the chest and shoulders, up the neck and then sloooowly and carefully around the facial features.  I try not to ice right up to the features because I know the icing is going to settle and touch them on its own.  If I piped it right up to  the mouth, I might lose the entire top lip (as you can see I lost a lot of my black eye outline).  I don't, however, want any gaps so I might work the icing to touch my outlines with a toothpick if they need some coaxing.

Final product.

This part I haven't perfected either, but I think a little bit of detailing (chin line, nose, shoulder) helps bring her to life.  And there you have it.  My take on character cookies.  With more practice, they can only get better!