thecookiemaster.com

Challenge Yourself — Sketch It! & Mystery Cookie Cutter Challenge

Channing — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:21:43 +0000

Another month, another challenge! This month LilaLoa asked us to sketch a design before we decorate the cookie. Check out all the great posts here. I also partipated in another Mystery Cookie Cutter Challenge. Here are the results.

Can you guess which one is mine?

You can visit all the other amazing decorators here:

1) Michelle of Wonderland Cake and Company Co

2) Heather of Twins Plus One Goodies

3) Leah of Simply Eden Baked Goods

4) Amy of One Preppy Cookie

5) Maria of Homemade Cupcakes, Cookies & More

6) Elaine of Elaine’s Sweet Life

7) Megan of Sweet Baketique

8) Beck at Strawberry Giggles Edible Gifts

9) Traci of Cookie Queen Kitschn:

10) Channing of TheCookieMaster

11) Cristin of Cristin’s Cookies

And, here is the sketch I did. It really did help to get my ideas going to outline in sharpie then draw, erase, and draw again until I ended up with a design I liked.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Channing — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:17:05 +0000

A friendly reminder from yours truly… mistakes are fixable in Cookieland.

This is my first cookie decorated using my new Kopykake. I printed out wording I liked, placed it in the machine and went straight to “Kopying.” Well, I held the cookie on the top with my pointer finger and the bottom with my thumb. I must have been nervous because I squeezed the cookie too hard and the bottom point fell right off! Opps! I huffed and I puffed and I freaked out, because this was the ONLY cookie I baked for my friend who was actually going to pay me! But, then, I calmed down and thought… in Cookieland, all is fixable. So that’s how I ended up with a ruffle around the edge. Nice right?

Oh… and my red icing dripped when I was doing the ruffle… so that’s how I ended up with a little heart AND extra wiggles over the “I.”

So next time you’re at it, remember, mistakes are fixable in Cookieland.

Valentine’s Day Hearts

Channing — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 18:56:57 +0000

Sometime Valentine’s Day is a little too pink and red for me. I love all the hearts, but a little color change was due for me this year. Welcome in purple!! Oh, I know… it’s not really all that different, I didn’t choose lime green or black. But really, who wants to eat a black heart? Cruella de Vil maybe?!

I also tried a lot of different cut out ideas. It was fun to combine multiple sizes and add holes into the cookie to develop different looking ideas rather than a straight plain old heart.

Enjoy!

Oh, and wouldn’t you know… I got two orders for these… in pink and red!

LilaLoa’s Challenge Yourself — Forget About Color

Channing — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:38:06 +0000

LilaLoa, one of my favorite cookie bloggers and certainly one of the best cookie artists I can think of, has invited everyone in the cookie world to go on a once-a-month adventure of bettering ourselves and pushing our own envelopes. January is the first month, and the goal is to “Forget About Color.” I decided that not only would I make monochromatic cookies, but I would also experiment with fondant and texture. Just like a good home interior designer knows; sometimes a great space doesn’t happen with lots of different colors and patterns, but with a combination of heights and texture. Putting texture to the test, I think I came up with an incredibly simple, yet elegant cookie design.

As far as making these, I really enjoyed using fondant. First of all, you don’t have to wait overnight for your first coat to dry like you do when flooding a cookie with royal icing. In fact, I was able to make 50 of these beautiful cookies in one night and one morning alone. I shared them with my new friends at the Southern California Cookie Club meeting.

Simply roll out your fondant and press the texture mat of your choice into it. Then cut the fondant out with the same cutter you used for the cookie dough. Glue the fondant on your cookie with a little bit of corn syrup.

The little crowns are white chocolate candies I made by melting chocolate and pouring it into crown molds. So simple. I glue the crowns on the fondant with royal icing. Lastly, I added royal icing dots to finish the look. A simple spray of Wilton Pearl Color Mist and these cookies are done.

Make sure to check out all the other colorless cookies over at LilaLoa’s blog.

Cookie Cutter Challenge

Channing — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:00:43 +0000

As a newbie to the cookie world, I was so excited to be included in a challenge with so many amazing cookie decorators. Taking the same cookie cutter and all of us coming up with a different design proved to really test my creativity. I questioned my family and friends on what to make. Ideas like duel dolphins jumping out of the ocean, Bart Simpson and Giggles (a crazy pink chipmunk) all came to their minds. But I wanted to make something that might prove to be a simple upcoming holiday treat. So… in came the Pot o’ Gold. Now, looking at the other decorators’ creations, I am so impressed with what else it could be. How will you re-purpose your cutters in the New Year?

Make sure to check out all the other amazing creations too! And thank you Cristin for putting this together, can’t wait for the next one!

#1 Christine at Chris’ Creative Confections

#2 Liz at CookiesToGo

#3 Laurie at Cookie Bliss

#4 Michelle at Little Derbyshire Bakery

#5 Stephanie of Sweet Creations by Stephanie

#6 Blanca of Sugarchic Cake Design

#7 Channing of TheCookieMaster (Thats me!!)

#8 Annie of Sweet Details Cookies

#9 Cristin of Cristin’s Cookies

Family Christmas Platters

Channing — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 00:23:42 +0000

My final Christmas platters for the season were made for my dearest family. Adding each name to the gift tags was an easy and fun way to include everyone and personalize at the same time. Next year’s writing will be much easier, since I now have a KopyKate thanks to Old Saint Nick (a.k.a. the best momma ever!!) Bring on your hardest challenge, I am ready for you.

Merry Christmas Platters and Baskets

Channing — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 16:39:58 +0000

I have been hard at work creating quick and easy platters and baskets for friends and family members alike. It is my first Christmas as an official CookieMaster! And while I am having a blast… I have also found that working a full time job, baking and decorating cookies in mass quantity AND stopping to document the process, to then post online, is well…nearly impossible. Please don’t shoot me! I took photos of the final products at least!!

Merry Christmas!! May your holiday be full of love and laughter!!

Cardinals and Holly Leaves

Channing — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 23:03:50 +0000

This year seems to be the year of birds… for the fall it was owls and for winter it’s all about cardinals. My mom even called wanting me to visit Hobby Lobby at my lunch hour to find her red cardinals for her Christmas tree. And wouldn’t you know they had more than 8 options! So, in following trend, here is my version of Cardinals in Holly Leaves.

And the finale!!

Noel Reindeer

Channing — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:49:38 +0000

In my effort to be new, creative and totally different in my designs I thought of these reindeer. I have always been fond of Noel merchandise… it is my middle name after all. I first drafted these little treats when I was preparing to compete in the holiday show at CookieCon, but just couldn’t finish in time… so now, two months later I have finally finished. They are hard as a rock and completely inedible, but they stay sweet to the eye non-the-less! (Get it?? “Sweet” to the eye! Haha!)

Enough with the jokes… May I now present to you… NOEL Reindeer.

To make these very special treats, I took my square cutter and combined two “Y” cookies to the top. Bake once you have slightly squished the 3 shapes together in order to make the “Reindeer.” Next pipe and flood both the main cookie in white and the antlers in brown. Wait until the base is completely dry. I drew my letters on paper, cut them out, and then traced them onto the cookie with a food color marker. Pipe and flood the letters. Once the letters have set, decorate with eyes and a nose. Be sure to add the nose last and once everything is dry again. That way when you sprinkle on the disco dust the only wet icing it has to stick to is the nose. Lastly, I made the bows by piping and flooding the design on wax paper and waiting over night for them to dry. Then simply remove from the wax paper and adhere to the cookie with a bit of icing on the back.

Christmas 2012 vs. 2011

Channing — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:31:30 +0000

As my first blog mentioned, I have always spent Christmas decorating cookie with my family. But I never had the right tools, medium or knowledge necessary to create a cohesive cookie platter with beautiful details. These are worthy of being tied with a bow and delivered by Santa in time for your special holiday party.

So here is the comparison:

Last year:

This year’s cookies I used a little pre-thought on colors and shapes. Choosing only a few colors instead of an entire rainbow and using only two main shapes (Ornament and snowflake) really keeps everything elegant, don’t you think?:

Estimated retail price $180. (4 Dozen) They come individually sealed and with a picture of how to organize the platter for biggest table impact.