Monarch Butterfly Cookies

You can make pretty monarch butterfly cookies any size you want. Just bake some cookies, round, square, whatever shape you want (I used a plaque cookie cutter), and then make a butterfly template that fits the cookie out of a piece of paper.

To decorate them, you need to have all of your icings ready to go at once. I used delphinium blue for the background and medium orange and black for the butterfly. I thinned these to flood consistency and put them each into piping bags fitted with a  #1 tip. Whenever I'm outlining and filling small areas, I use a #1 tip so that the icing is easier to control.

I also mixed some small amounts of white, yellow and dark orange flood icings and covered them with plastic wrap so they wouldn't dry out. I applied them to the cookie by using a scribe tool, a toothpick or skewer would also work.

You also need an edible ink marker to make these, here's how:

Bake a batch of cookies and cut a butterfly shape that fits.

Lay the butterfly template on the cookie.

Use an edible ink marker to trace the template.

Outline the body of the butterfly.

Outline the cookie with icing, I used delphinium blue.

Then start to outline the butterfly and fill in the background sections. Use a scribe tool, toothpick or skewer to help evenly distribute the icing.

Keep working around the whole butterfly.

It will look like this.

Use your edible ink marker to draw a border around the butterfly and draw the wing sections.

Outline and fill the border of the butterfly with black icing.

Use a scribe tool, toothpick, or skewer to add dots and short lines of the dark orange, yellow and white icing around the border. Just touch the icing to pick up a little and then drop it onto the border. This technique allows you to add very small details.

It will look like this.

Now, outline the wing sections with black icing.

Fill the sections with medium orange icing. Be careful not too add too much or it will spill over your outline and again use your scribe tools to move and manipulate the icing.

All done. Let the cookie dry completely before serving or packaging.

Mother's Day Macaron Tips

A smooth liftoff!

Macarons are one finicky little cookie to make. Good thing they are cute and delicious or seriously, no one would make them.

Hearing from you, one of the most prevalent macaron frustrations is pulling the cookies cleanly off the parchment after baking. Here are a few tips that I know will help.

1. Bake the macarons long enough.

A macaron should be very firm to the touch and not wobble one bit after baking. And, depending on the humidity, baking time varies so don't count on every batch needing the same amount of baking time. Check each batch carefully before pulling them out of the oven. If the macarons are underbaked, they will be gooey and not release cleanly from the parchment.

2. Use good quality parchment paper.

Not all parchment papers are created equally. I love a bargain but parchment paper from the dollar store isn't worth it. I buy my unbleached parchment in bulk for a good price at a restaurant supply store. You can also find good quality parchment at specialty cooking stores. One readily available brand that I've used and like is Beyond Gourmet Unbleached Parchment.

3. Let the macarons cool completely.

Be sure to let the cookies cool completely before trying to lift them off the parchment. If you try to remove them when they are warm, they'll tear and you'll be frustrated.

4. Use a thin icing spreader to help.

The thin blade of an icing spreader is perfect for sliding under fussy macarons.

If the cookies are still tough to release, slide a thin icing spreader under the cooled cookies before lifting them off. Because of the ground almonds, macarons are not cheap to make so if they are giving you grief, don't try to force them off the parchment without a little help. An icing spreader will do the trick.