Gardenia Cookies For Billie Holiday

I always try to come up with a special decorated cookie to serve at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Alternative Liturgy worship services because my husband Joe is the organizer and the freewill offering collected goes directly to Trinity's Hunger Ministries which supports the Wednesday Community Meal.

The Alternative Liturgies are always based around a popular music theme, musician or band whose songs are performed live by a group of fantastic musicians who donate their time and talent.  Special cookies I have made for past alternative liturgies include a yellow submarine (The Beatles), a lightening bolt (David Bowie) and a smiley face (Nirvana).

This weekend's liturgy is Billie Holiday and I knew right away I needed to make a Gardenia cookie since that's the flower she always wore in her hair.

I wanted to make the flower three-dimensional and it took me a while to figure out how — My solution was to make one layer of Gardenia petals out of cookie and a second layer of petals out of royal icing.

I'm very pleased how these turned out and can't wait to serve them this weekend. Please considering joining us, the music and messages are always inspiring and it's for a great cause.

Here are the details:

GOD BLESS THE CHILD: BILLIE HOLIDAY LITURGY
Saturday, April 11, 6:00 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (147 NW 19th Ave, Portland, OR), Kempton Hall, Free and Open to the Public. An alternative Eastertide liturgy set to the songs popularized by the Angel of Harlem, jazz legend Billie Holiday. An evening of live music, readings and reflections to benefit Trinity’s hunger programs.

And, here's how to make Gardenia Cookies:

You need a round cutter and a mini heart cutter.

Cut and bake the round cookies with 2/3 of your dough and then roll out the remaining 1/3 and cut mini hearts. These will be used to make flower petals.

Cut a heart cookie in half.

Use your figure to flatten and shape it into a petal.

Pinch off the bottom to shorten the petal like the two on the left. The dough you remove can be re-rolled. You need a lot of petals, five for every cookie.

After you've made the petals, bake them for 4 to 5 minutes in a 325-degree oven.

Outline and fill your round cookies with flood icing. Set them aside to dry overnight.

With white icing, outline and fill all of the petals and set them aside to dry.

Once your base cookies and petals are dry, you can assemble. Use medium consistency royal icing to pipe six dots — First add one in the center and then add five evenly spaced around it.

Place a petal on each of the five dots.

Using stiff white royal icing and a petal tip (I use Wilton #104), pipe a petal on top of the cookie petals. This takes some practice so you may need to first try piping onto a plate. The most important thing is that a petal tip is wide on one end and narrow on the other and the wide end should be on the bottom and the narrow end on the top as you pipe a petal.

Pipe four more petals. As you pipe, the stiff icing tends to soften because of the pressure and warmth from your hands. If the icing gets too soft you may need to whip it again.  It's worth taking the time to do this if necessary.

Let the cookies dry before adding a center.

With medium consistency gold icing and a #1 tip, add a tiny dot to the center of each Gardenia.

Trinity Christmas Treats 2014

A box of this year's Trinity Christmas Treats. Each box contains 45 treats.

After weeks and weeks of planning, preparation and work, this year's Trinity Christmas Treats are finally packed and ready to be delivered. The annual fundraiser is a project that takes a tremendous amount of energy but it's for a very good cause. All proceeds go to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Food Ministries which supports The Wednesday Community Meal.

I owe so much to all the wonderful volunteers who helped this year. Together we filled 100 boxes—That's 4,500 treats! Thank you Cheryl, Dave, Cindy, Mary, Terri, Martha, Leah, Nancy, Tom, Anne, Tiffany, Linda, and Madeline! I am grateful for your hard work, support and friendship.

Here are some pics from our busy week:

One of my first jobs was tackling the gingerbread snowflakes that grace the outside of the box.

After outline and flooding the cookies, I added piped details to every cookie.

After the royal icing dried, I packaged each snowflake in a cellophane bag.

Stacks of peppermint bark ready to be packaged.

I put my new baker's rack to good use cooling trays Dark Chocolate Espresso Almond Sea Salt Bark.

The delicious dark chocolate bark ready to be packaged.

Then it was time to make Russian Tea Cakes. Cheryl, Terri and Mary also helped by making doughs ahead of time so that we could spend one day in the church kitchen just focusing on the baking.

The baking team.

Finished cookies counted and placed in cupcake papers for the boxes.

Walnut Logs cooling after being dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with chopped walnuts.

Chocolate shortbread drizzled with white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy canes.

Martha and Cindy filling the boxes.

Madeline and Mary working together to add ruglach to the boxes.

The bottom layer clockwise from top left: Cranberry Chews, Maple Cinnamon Chip Cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread, Vanilla Shortbread, Ruglach, Ginger Molasses Cookies, Linzer Cookies and Russian Tea Cakes.

The top layer clockwise from top left: Peppermint Bark, Ginger Molasses Cookies, Brownie Biscotti, Walnut Logs, Cranberry Chews, Ruglach and Dark Chocolate Espresso Almond Sea Salt Bark.

Tart Packaging

I like to make individual-sized fruit tarts because they are easy to package and make great gifts for friends.

A full-sized tart is awkward and a slice is pretty impossible to package without using a hard container like Gladware which works but is expensive and not so cute.

All you need to wrap individual-sized tarts are cardboard, parchment paper and self-sealing cellophane bags. A homemade tag isn't necessary but a nice touch.  It truly is easy and will no doubt make your friends very happy.

This packaging is also great for bake sales and fundraisers. Your customers will be enticed by a well-wrapped treat that's simple to transport.

Here's how:

Cut a round of cardboard that is slightly larger than the tart and place it on a piece of parchment paper.

Fold the parchment over the edges of the round and hold it in place.

Set the tart on top.

A tag is optional but easy to make and a nice touch.  I make tags using a large paper punch and cardstock. Punch a hole on the side of the tag so you can thread twine or ribbon through it.

Slide the tart into a self-sealing cellophane bag. Seal the bag, wrap with twine and add the tag.