Free Handwriting Workshop And Cookies!

I once again have the honor of making cookies for Inga Dubay and Barbara Getty's annual free handwriting workshop tomorrow at Trinity Episcopal Catherdral. 

Because it falls on Valentine's Day I thought these pink alphabet cookies would be cute and appropriate. I've made alphabet cookies for the workshop before but this year's cookies were easier because I added the lettering with an edible ink marker instead of piping them on.

So there will be free cookies, but the main reason to attend is that it's a wonderful opportunity to improve your handwriting and learn from two pros. It's also fun. 

Here are the details:

 Rekindle the love for your handwriting

Free Handwriting Success Workshop
with authors
Inga Dubay & Barbara Getty

Saturday, February 14, 2015 10am—1pm
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Kempton Hall
147 NW 19th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209

Presented by Trinity Cathedral Arts
to promote legible handwriting and celebrate National Handwriting Day

•All workshop materials provided
•School-aged children accompanied by parents
  are welcome
•Books available at a special discount

International handwriting experts Inga Dubay & Barbara Getty are co-authors of many popular handwriting books, including, WRITE NOW: The Getty-Dubay Program for Handwriting Success, ITALIC LETTERS, and the GETTY-DUBAY ITALIC HANDWRITING SERIES for children. They will teach everything you need to know to get started with legible, useful handwriting. 


•Come early. This is a free event and seating cannot be guaranteed
•Suggested donation: canned or packaged food for Trinity Cathedral Food Pantry

E-mail info@handwritingsuccess.com for more information.

Writing On Cookies

Cookies for a handwriting workshop.

Writing on cookies takes patience and most importantly the right consistency of royal icing.

If your icing is too stiff it will leave peaks and break and if it's too thin it will spread and your letters will gradually become indistinguishable.

When thinning icing for writing, I aim for the consistency of yogurt - a consistency that will hold it's shape but is still soft enough flow evenly as you pipe and not leave peaks.

The best way to test for proper writing consistency is to first practice piping onto a plate to test the icing. With my recent batch of cookies for a handwriting workshop, I did this and it saved me from ruining a few cookies.

Wait for the icing base coat on your cookies to dry before adding writing.

I started by using a #1 tip which didn't work with my icing. The tip wasn't large enough for the icing to flow evenly.  It zigzagged out of the tip and was impossible to control

I changed to a #2 tip and as you can see from the photo of my practice plate (below), that did the trick.

The #1 tip just made uncontrollable squiggles. That's a pretty bad looking "C". Switching to a #2 tip made all the difference as you can see from my "A's" and "B". Always test your icing on a plate before going for it on the cookies.

A final tip is don't decorate cookies when you are feeling rushed. Decorated sugar cookies keep for weeks so they don't need to be made the day before. Tackle the project when you can take your time and you will have much better results.