The Challenge! Get out of your comfort zone…

Have you ever just did the safe thing? Always wanted to try something new but chickened out in the end? That’s me when it comes to cookies.

Now that, I think, I’ve got royal icing down. I thought I’d try to challenge myself and this week I gave two new to me decorating techniques a try.  3D cookies and stained glass.

First up, 3D cookies.  So I’ve got a lot of friends who are having babies and instead of the same old bassinet cookies I thought I’d try to make the bassinet out of cookies.  I mean Julia Usher is the queen of these type of cookies and I aspire to be like her. Well you’ve got to start somewhere.  Now practice makes perfect but for the first time I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.

I looked at pictures of bassinets on the web and then made up a template for the end pieces.  Then I cut the rectangular pieces to fit.  I iced them, let them dry and then put the pieces together.  What I didn’t account for was shrinkage.  There were a few gaps that I had to fill in with royal icing.  I also made some minis to put inside the bassinet. All in all I think it turned out pretty cute.  I gave these to a friend down the street who had a baby girl this week.  Congrats Angela and Jeff!

Next up I tried stained glass.  Have you seen Maggie Austin Cake??? They are the most beautiful stained glass painting on cakes ever.  I wanted to try but on a smaller scale.  So I took a small piece of fondant that was the same size as a cookie and gave it a go.  I Google’d Stained Glass hearts and found this pattern.  My impatience gets the better of me and the black wasn’t completely dry when I added the colour.  After the paint dried completely I popped the fondant on the top of a cookie the same size that just came out of the oven.  The fondant melted to the top.  I then piped a shell border in royal icing and gave it a little sheen.  For my next try I’ll have to go bigger, maybe even a cake :)

Ok, so now I need more challenges.  Give me some ideas.  I’m up for anything.  I will attempt the bassinet again, just so I can get it a little more smooth and I’m definitely going to do the painted stained glass on a cake!

Update on my back:  Well the last epidural didn’t work at all, in fact it made things worse.  Next doctor appointment is Monday and then I believe it’s time to meet a surgeon or two for an opinion(s) (yikes). But don’t worry, since standing is one position that doesn’t hurt much I’ll still be coming up with sweet treats :)

Thanks for looking!