Spongebob Character Cookies

I have a soft spot for Spongebob because I have lots of fond memories of watching the cartoon with my girls when they were little and hearing them laugh and laugh.

So when the opportunity came up to create Spongebob character cookies for a very sweet soon to be 5-year-old, I couldn't resist.

These cookies were all made with ordinary cutters you probably already own, a square, a star and a circle. The decorating does take some time because it's done in layers that need drying time in between.

Allow yourself two full days to make them — One day for baking and base coating and one day for the detailed decorating.

Oh I hope Avaieya has a wonderful 5th birthday party and enjoys sharing these cookies with her friends.

Here's how I made them:

Day One

These are the cutters I used.

Make and bake your cookies.

Outline a Spongebob cookie with yellow icing.

Immediately fill it in with more yellow icing.

Use a skewer or scribe tool to evenly distribute the icing and give the cookie a gentle shake to help the icing settle.

Immediately drop on random dots of a very pale green icing. I mixed the color by adding just a drop of moss green to some of the yellow icing.

The dots will settle nicely into the base coat.

Do this for all of the Spongebob cookies and set them aside to dry.

Now it's time to tackle Patrick. Outline the star cookie with pink icing.

Immediately fill in the cookie with more pink icing.

Use your scribe or skewer to evenly distribute the icing and give the cookie a gentle shake.

Also set these aside to dry.

Now for Squidward, outline the round cookie with ivory or white icing.

Fill it in and set it aside to dry.

Day Two

Pipe two rounds on the Spongebob cookie using medium consistency white icing. Repeat on all of the cookies.

By the time you've added the rounds to all of the cookies, they should be dry enough to then outline them in more white icing to connect them in the center. Also add a bit of yellow for Spongebob's nose. Repeat on all of the cookies.

Add two drops of yellow for his cheeks.

Draw on his mouth using an edible ink marker.

Add two small drops of white for his teeth. Repeat on all of the cookies.

Set these aside to dry and move onto Patrick.

Pipe two little white eyes and let them dry completely. Then when the white icing is dry, add pupils, a mouth and eyebrows with a black edible ink marker.

Also mark the top and bottom of his pants and add a little belly button.

Fill in Patrick's pants with green icing and set him aside to dry.

By now Spongebob's eyes should be dry enough to add his pupils. Draw on circles with your edible ink marker.

Fill in the circles with blue royal icing. Set him aside to dry.

For Squidward, I used the edible marker to sketch his face shape onto the cookies. You could also do this by making a template that you could trace.

Start filling in his face but leave the lower nose portion open.

Add two drops of white icing for his eyes. You may need to use a skewer or scribe tool to help manipulate the icing into the correct oval shape. Set the cookies aside to dry.

Now it's time for some Spongebob final details. Use your black edible ink marker to outline the eyes, nose, teeth and add eyelashes. Also draw a black pupil in the center of each eye. Use a red edible ink marker to make a few dots on his cheeks and add a squiggly line on his chin.

To finish off Patrick,  pipe some purple blobs on his pants. I also added a little dot with the black marker in the center of his belly button.

Patrick and Spongebob are done!

Now it's time to pipe Squidward's nose. Piping it on after the rest of the face icing has dried adds some nice dimension to the cookie.

Add Squidward's pupils using dark maroon tinted icing.

Work up to this point on all of the cookies.

Mix up some teal icing and using your scribe tool, drop random little dots on Squidward's forehead.

Do this to all of the cookies and let them dry.

Now for the final details — Use your edible ink marker to outline Squidward's face, his nose and his eyes. Also add a mouth and a few lines on his forehead.

Now Squidward is done too!

Hamburgers For Everyone

Today's lunch.

We served hamburgers, which proved to be a very popular lunch, at today's Wednesday Community Meal. We were non-stop busy from the moment we opened our doors at 11 a.m. and served 368 meals during our two hour service.

When I told one of our guests who was in line early what we would be serving he smiled and the man standing behind him responded with an enthusiastic "Yes!".

The Cascade Farms hamburger patties were donated to us by Lift Urban Portland and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral provided the buns, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and condiments.

The cathedral and its members are so generous and supportive of the weekly meal and fund extra necessary purchases. It's not just food they provide — they also provide the paper placemats, napkins, cups, foil, plastic wrap... and more....anything that we need to make the weekly free to everyone meal happen. Trinity also lets us use their commercial kitchen and serve in their large beautiful dining room.

My two full carts at Cash 'n' Carry on Tuesday, shopping for the additional ingredients and supplies that we needed for today's meal.

Alongside the hamburgers, we served Tim' Cascade chips and grapes. There was also soup, salad, dessert and drinks. Thanks to Trinity and Lift Urban Portland, it was a tasty and satisfying meal for our hungry friends.

Ornament Cookies

I used just three colors of royal icing to make these ornament cookies and was still able to create a wide assortment of designs. I decorated all of these using the wet on wet technique of dropping wet icing onto wet icing for a flat design.

There are two main reasons I like using the wet on wet technique. One is that it's quick decorating because there's no added drying time between layers. And two, is that a single flat layer of icing is the sturdiest and a smart choice for holiday cookies that will packaged or shipped. A single layer of icing holds up best because there are no raised bits that can be squashed or knocked off.

Here's how I decorated them:

I mixed up all of my icing colors, thinned them to flood consistency and placed them in piping bags fitted with #2 tips. I used just three colors, blue, green and white.

When you decorate using the wet on wet technique you can work on just one cookie at a time.

Outline and fill a section of the cookie with white.

Use a skewer or scribe tool to help evenly distribute the icing and give the cookie a gentle shake to help the icing settle.

Immediately add two blue stripes.

Add a green stripe.

Now outline and fill the other sections of the cookie.

If you don't decorate the entire cookie while the icing is still wet, you'll have obvious seams between the segments.

One down, more to go.

You can also divide up the segments on the cookie differently.

Remember to always give the cookie a gentle shake to help the icing settle and help eliminate air bubbles.

Add some dots while the icing is still wet.

Finish off the cookie with some blue on the top and bottom.

You can also draw through piped lines for a chevron effect.

This is so simple yet people are always amazed by it.

Three cookies down.

Here are two more design ideas. Experiment, be creative and most importantly, have fun. Let the cookies dry completely before serving or packaging.