Baby Deer Cookies

These baby deer cookies are the final tutorial from my woodland cookie set.

My friend Cindy warned me that the deer cutter that caught my eye on our field trip to Blake's Decorette Shop might not be the best.

"It looks like it would be hard to get the dough out of those thin legs," she said.

I ignored reason and bought the cutter anyways because it was so darn cute, but Cindy was right. The thin legs were a big pain!

Patience, very cold cookie dough and the use of a small soft paint brush to easy the dough out of the cutter worked but gosh, I'd hate to make more than a dozen of these.

Luckily the decorating went smoothly. Only three colors were needed,  just brown and a small amount of white and black. And, brown was the only color that I needed a piping bag for. I applied the white and black details with a paint brush and scribe tool.

Here's how I made them:

Be patient and cut and bake your cookies. I couldn't have gotten the dough to release without applying some pressure from the brush. As you can see this leaves a few marks on the legs of the deer but these won't be noticeable after decorating.

I outlined and filled the cookie with brown icing using a pastry bag and #2 tip. Then I immediately added some small drops of thinned white icing using a scribe tool. Just touch the icing with the tip of the scribe and then touch it onto the deer's back. I let this dry completely before moving onto the next step.

Using white icing and a small brush add white to the tail, hooves, ears, chest and eye area.

Use the scribe tool to add a black nose, eye, lashes and lines on the bottom of the hooves. While the eye is still wet, use the scribe add the tiniest drop of white.

Woodland Tree Cookies

These Woodland Tree Cookies were inspired by the late oil painter Bob Ross and the hundreds of trees that I watched him bring to life with his brush on his long running PBS show, "The Joy of Painting."

Bob's "happy trees" were just the trees I imagined in a magical woodland brimming with beauty, peace, joy and gnomes.

Now I am not a painter, but Bob's motto, "there are no mistakes, just happy accidents" is something I try to always remember and encourages me to not let a fear of failure hold me back.

As a college student, I religiously watched the "The Joy of Painting." It was on Sundays, early in the afternoon, and it was a relaxing end of the weekend ritual. Watching Bob paint was meditative and made me feel positive and ready for the upcoming week.

I never painted alongside Bob, I just sat and absorbed his creations and his sweet and wise narrative.

So, with tinted and thinned royal icings as my paint, and flooded and dry cookies as my canvas,  I made these woodland tree cookies.

Some are better than others since as with just about everything, practice makes perfect. But, I wasn't afraid to try and I hope Bob would be proud.

Here's my inspiration:

 And,  here's how I made them:

Make some cookies and outline and flood them with white icing. Let them dry completely before painting the trees.

I mixed a paint by tinting thinned royal icing with a bit of moss green and leaf green gel coloring.

Paint a line to mark the center of your tree.

Now load your paint brush and starting at the top fill in the branches and work your way down making the tree wider as you go.

Then go back and add some darker areas for dimension.

You can also add some brown royal icing paint to mark the trunk, branches and ground.

If you want to make a group of trees just make the one in the foreground bigger and darker.

Keep practicing and experimenting. This was one of my favorites.

Gnome Cookies

I like my gnome cookies but they also turned out to be one of the most labor intensive cookies I've ever made.

And, after all the work, I have to report that there was a sad casualty. You see, I was so pumped with how they turned out that I lined them up for a final photo and in my excitement, dropped my camera on one of the poor guys. He was pretty messed up and sadly there was no way to resuscitate him.

With a good 40 minutes devoted to decorating each gnome, I'd have to say these are cookies you should make for the experience or for very very good friend. With the time spent on them, I'd have to charge $15 a cookie if I sold them and I can't imagine anyone would want to pay that.

If you want to make each kind of cookie from my woodland set, make extra mushrooms and just a handful of these little guys.

Here's how:

I knew it would be all in the details when it came making the gnome cookies come to life. Before I started decorating, I traced my cutter and sketched multiple designs on paper. I always find my results are better if I have a solid decorating plan on paper. Trust me, it's time well spent.

I started by outlining and flooding the hats.

Then I outlined and flooded the boots and used an edible ink marker to break up the face, shirt and pant sections and draw where I wanted the gnome's hands to be placed.

I added the face and hands. As you can see, I decided to move the placement of the hands down a bit.

Then I outline and flooded the pants, going around the hands so that that they look like they are inside pockets.

Outline and flood the shirt.

Add the eyes, eye brows and beard with white icing.

White the white icing is wet, add the ears and nose. Let this dry completely before moving on.

Once the icing is dry, use a brush and thinned icing to add details — black above the eyes and for the mouth; a bit of pink to highlight the cheeks, ears, nose and mouth; and more skin colored icing under the eyes and on the ears and under the mouth.

I used a brush and thinned black/blue icing to add details to the shirt and mark the gnome's arms.

The addition of two tiny drops of blue on the eyes brings the gnome to life. I used a scribe tool to add it.

Now it's time for some textured details on the pants and hat, again using thinned icings and a small brush. As you can see, I decided to bring the hat down farther on the gnome's head and covered its original eyebrows.

I also brushed on some darker brown icing on the boots.

Now it's beard detail time —  Using piping consistency icing and a #1 tip, add strands of hair.

Also add piped hair to the mustache and add new eyebrows.

Looking good!

Woodland Mushroom Cookies

Of all the cookies in my woodland set, these mushrooms took the least amount of time. I could have easily made more of them and trust me, I don't feel that way about too many cookies.

For the smaller mushroom, I just outlined and flooded the stem with white icing and outlined and flooded the top with red. While the red icing was still wet, I immediately dropped on small and large dots of white icing.

For the large mushroom, I outlined and flooded the stem with white icing and the top with brown. Then, I let that set for at least 30 minutes before adding detail with some piping consistency ivory icing.

I could have stopped there, but decided to add some green grass at the base of the mushrooms after the icing dried overnight. As paint, I used thinned green icing and I applied it with a small soft brush.

Here are more details:

Outline and fill the stem.

Outline and fill the top and have your white icing ready for dropping on the dots.

For the large mushroom, I outlined the stem with white icing and the top with brown. Then I let the icing dry for 30 minutes before adding details with ivory piping consistency icing and a #2 tip.  With the ivory icing, I outlined the stem and then piped some lines for the gills.

I let the mushroom cookies dry completely before I added the grass at the base.

For the grass I painted on thinned royal icing using a small soft paint brush. I tinted the icing with leaf green and moss green gel coloring.

All done!

Woodland Cookie Set

I had been thinking about designing a set of Woodland Cookies for nearly a year, but it was a recent trip with my friend Cindy to Blake's Decorette Shop that really pushed me into action.

I already owned the gnome and large mushroom cutter but found the smaller mushroom, deer and small plaque on our shopping trip and immediately couldn't wait to get started. 

I devoted a good amount of time to planning and designing the cookies, and two full days to baking and decorating them.

The mushroom and tree cookies were by far the easiest of the set to make. The deer was a little frustrating because it was hard to release the cookie dough out of its long thin legs. Cindy mentioned this might be a problem when I picked up the cutter at the store but the deer's cuteness won me over and trumped practicality.

Then there are the gnomes — The only way I could figure out how to bring them to life was to base coat them and then after that dried, add more details by painting on thinned royal icing. Each gnome took a good 40 minutes to decorate but despite the work, I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

Stay tuned for detailed tutorials on how to make each cookie in this set. Up tomorrow will be the mushrooms.