Circus Animal Cookies - Easy Tutorial
April 18th is National Animal Cracker Day and when I think of animal crackers, my mind races back to my childhood with those small frosted circus animal cookies showered in bright sprinkles. They were my favorite and still are. These cookies are incredibly easy to recreate at home and can be used in fun ways. I graced one of my mini cakes with my favorite pink camels and think it's just adorable. How fun would this be for a baby shower or child's first birthday?
What do you need to bring the nostalgia back in the kitchen?
- cookies in animal shapes (I used my lemon gingerbread and I bought my cookie cutters from Wilton on Amazon)
- pink royal icing in 15 second flow ( I used a touch of Americolor electric pink. My royal icing recipe can be found here)
- tiny rainbow sprinkles
These cookies are so easy and fun, you may want to enlist your children or grand-kids to help. Simply outline and fill the animal cookies with pink royal icing. While it is still wet, gingerly add the sprinkles on top of the cookies. Set the decorated cookies in the dehydrator for 10 minutes at 90 degrees. The color of the sprinkles may slightly bleed into the pink, but it is quite minimal.
Mmm! I just love them and hope you do too.
XO,
Jenny
The Giving Tree - Apple Cookie Tutorial
Once there was a tree, and she loved a little boy.
Have you read the children's book "The Giving Tree"? I remember thinking that the boy was so selfish. And then I became a parent. The book took on another meaning. It is not about the boy's needs or his seemingly inability to question the tree's needs, no, it's about the selflessness and unconditional love given by the tree. As parents, we understand try to understand that children's needs come first and it's our beautiful role to fill them and love them through every phase.
A friend of mine recently asked for a teacher appreciation set of cookies that would include a tree theme. I instantly thought of the Giving Tree. In many ways teachers are tasked to give selflessly to our children.
The apples are very easy to make and perfect for your teacher to show appreciation for all that they do. What do you need?
- Pipe your apple and highlight outline. The icing consistency is about a 10-12 second flow with Americolor red.
- Immediately fill and flood the apple.
- The pink icing is also created with the Americolor red. It's the tiniest touch of red to 15 second flow. Before the red apple crusts over, fill the highlight in with the pink. You can use a toothpick to push the icing out, but don't go all the way into the red.
- The brown stem is created in a semi-stiff icing with chocolate brown.
- The leaf is done with Americolor leaf green in 15 second flow icing. The light green is also leaf green with just a touch. Ice the leaf veins while the dark green is still wet. Carefully place your cookies in a dehydrator at 90 degrees for 10 minutes.
These sweet cookies are easy and I hope you will try them. It's no easy task to be a giving tree and it's always wonderful to hear a word of appreciation.
XO,
Jenny
Easter Bunny Petit Four Recipe & Tutorial
Can I tell you a dirty secret? Cake is not my favorite. I know, right? But there is a caveat, I adore petit fours! It's like my taste buds know that petit four cakes are that much more work and so therefore are delicious. I'm not sure why I adore them, but I do. Whenever I have a special occasion, it's one of the top desserts that I request. I was thinking that these sweet little cakes would be perfect for Easter, but I wanted something more than just cute squares. I wondered if I could use one of my cookie cutters to make shaped mini cakes - you can and they are so stinking adorable!
I have seen a few tutorials for petit four desserts that use a ready made pound cake. If you are pressed for time, do it. However, homemade mud cake is an insanely delicious alternative and it isn't that much more work. You can even bake and cut your cake the day before, just wrap those babies nicely and pop them in the freezer! And you are going to want to try this lemon mud cake. It's moist with a delicious lemon bite - it will be your new favorite. It is a dense cake - plan on torting it for a yummy filling and keeping them bite-size.
Lemon Mud Cake
Ingridents
- 3/4 cup shortening
- 2 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. Wilton meyer lemon extract
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 5 large eggs
- 3 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 2 tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup almond milk (or milk of your choice)
- 1/4 cup sour cream
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- In your mixer beat shortening, butter and sugar together until light and fluffy - about 5 minutes. Gently add in vanilla, lemon extract and juice.
- Add one egg at time to your butter mixture, beating on light speed.
- In a seperate medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
- Alternating between your flour mixture and milk, carefully blend them into the butter batter.
- Fold in sour cream, mixing until just combined.
- Prepare a jelly roll pan with parchment paper and a cake release spray. Pour in batter and spread it out to all the edges.
- Bake for 35 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned and the center bounces back to the touch.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove.
If you are going to make your petit four the day you bake the cake, allow it to cool for an hour.
If you are baking your cake in advance, you can cut your cake with the cookie cutter of your choice once it has cooled. Then wrap them tightly with saran wrap and pop into the freezer until you are ready to create the mini cakes. The freezer will keep your cakes moist and you can work with them easily when they are cold.
What do you need to create the bunny petit fours?
- mini baked cakes
- lemon buttercream frosting (or filling of your choice)
- uncooked/poured fondant (I used King Arthur's recipe)
- sprinkles for bunny crown
- assorted royal icings to decorate the bunny
Torte the mini cakes as evenly as you can with a sharp cake knife. This will be easier to do while the cakes are frozen. Fill the middle up with delicious buttercream frosting. You could even torte it twice and a second layer of filling.
Prepare the pourable fondant and place mini cakes on a wire bakers rack over a pan. Carefully pour the fondant over each of the cakes. This will be easier to do while the fondant is pretty warm and liquid.
The fondant will dry QUICK! Like super quick so you will need to work quickly. Once the bunnies are hardened, you can decorate as you see fit. I added a sweet crown of sprinkles with little bunny faces. Aren't they adorable?
You can serve these on dessert plates or place in paper cupcake liners for a fun look. My husband said they look like Little Debbie's - lol! Maybe next time he can have those instead while I savor my delicious lemon cake and buttercream.. Mmm!
Have extra fondant? Don't toss it! You can make delicious little candies with them. Come see what I did with mine.
XO,
Jenny
Chocolate Bunny
Almond Fondant Easter Candy
Easter is just around the corner - have you been busy making candy or cookies? I swear that Easter has the best treats of all the holidays. There are pastel eggs, chocolate bunnies and everything in between. I love it! I have a petit four recipe coming out later this week that required some poured fondant. Poured fondant is the not the malleable candy that we cover cakes with, it's a sweet and soft filling for candies. You can flavor it, add mix-ins and it's delicious! It sometimes known as uncooked fondant if you go searching for more recipes.
This was my first time attempting poured fondant, so I went with a tried and true recipe by King Arthur. For these candies, I added a bit of almond extract and I think next time I may even add some finely chopped almonds.
What do you need to make these candies?
- pourable or uncooked fondant
- mold for candies (I used this bunny one from Wilton)
- almond extract (optional)
- dark chocolate candy wafers
- edible gold food paint
While your fondant is still soft, pour inside a silicone candy mold. Wrap the mold a few times with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight. The candies will easily pop out of the mold when you are ready. They can get soft quick so work in small batches and keep the others waiting in the refrigerator.
You can dip the fondant candy in either tempered chocolate or melted chocolate candy wafers. I use a Wilton candy melter, if you use the candy wafers, you can also melt them in a double boiler or in the microwave. Once the chocolate is a nice smooth consistency, quickly dip the fondant candies into the chocolate and allow to harden on a wire rack.
You can either serve them or you can add a bit more fun to them with some edible gold coloring. Paint it on the hardened chocolate with a food only paintbrush and allow to dry. Aren't these so beautiful? I think they would be a perfect treat on your dessert table. No will guess that these are easy to make!
Have any leftovers? These will keep delicious in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
I can't wait to try more flavor combinations!
XO,
Jenny
Buttercream Lamb Cookies
We moved to Vancouver, Washington this past winter and there are large pastures close to our home. I love to see all the farm animals grazing on the lush land. Close to our place there is a home with dozens of lambs out on their field. There are so many baby lambs out there right now - one of my favorite parts of spring.
With Easter right around the corner, I thought it would be the perfect time to make some buttercream lamb cookies. I'm still learning my way around buttercream, so I did use a bit of royal icing on these as well. The two frostings play nice together and provide very different textures. I made a delicious lemon buttercream that is perfectly paired with the vanilla cookies. This icing does crust, but it doesn't harden like royal icing - you won't be able to mail these. They are perfect to bring over for Easter celebration or baby shower brunch.
What do you need to make these?
- vanilla cookies in lamb shapes
- royal icing in ivory and grey
- lemon buttercream icing (recipe below)
- Wilton tip 16 - for lamb fur rosettes
- Americolor soft pink gel
- clear alcohol or vanilla
I use tipless bags for my royal icing or you can use the traditional reusable icing bags with a 1 or 2 tip. Using the grey royal icing, frost the hooves of the lambs.
Switch to the ivory royal icing and frost the tail, ears and face. The face of the lamb is like a chubby heart with soft edges.
Before the ivory icing sets, add two small grey eyes and a little line for his mouth. Using a toothpick, carefully drag the corners of the mouth out to give the appearance of a small nose. Place lambs in a dehydrator at 90 degrees for about 10 minutes or allow the cookies to setup, about an hour or two.
Using Wilton tip 16, fill in the rest of the lamb body with little swirls of lemon buttercream. I try to make the swirls fairly small so that it has some definition and the appearance of a furry coat.
Lemon Pie Buttercream Frosting
Materials
- 1 pound softened butter
- 1/4 cup lemon simple sugar syrup
- 6 cups powder sugar
- 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- (optional) Wilton Meyer Lemon Treatology
Directions
- In a large mixer, cream the butter until soft and light. Drizzle the lemon simple sugar into the bowl and blend. Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar and gently mix together.
- Add the lemon juice and remaining sugar, mixing until will combined. Feel free to add a bit more lemon juice if frosting is too thick.
I also added a couple drops of Wilton's Meyer Lemon flavoring to boost the citrus sweetness, but it's optional.
Want to add a bit of pink to the inside of the lamb's ear? In a small glass bowl, mix a drop or two of the Americolor soft pink gel with a few teaspoons of vodka, everclear or clear vanilla. Using a food only paintbrush, paint a small bit of the pink on the ear.
Now your sweet and delicious lambs are all set for the party. Aren't they adorable? Pretty easy and that lemon buttercream frosting will be your new favorite! Save any leftover frosting for my petit four tutorial that is just around the corner.
XO,
Jenny
Beer Bottle Cookie Tutorial
I love the random holidays - they are my favorite and April 7th is National Beer Day. I love cookies and I love beer, so it seemed completely natural to make decorated cookies that look like beer bottles. My husband's favorite commercial was the Dos Equis most interesting man and he was so sad when that role was retired. I thought it would be fun to make those bottles though - so pretty with their emerald green.
Materials
The first thing you will need to do is flood the bottom and top of the beer bottle cookie in electric green. Allow the cookies to dry in a dehydrator for 10 minutes at 90 degrees.
(Optional) Once the green icing has dried a bit, airbrush the sides with Americolor green pearl sheen. If you don't have an airbrush machine, you can leave this step out, it's just a fun way to add a bit of dimension.
Next flood an oval in the center of the bottle label and the smaller label on top with ivory icing. Allow cookies to dry in the dehydrator again for another 5-10 minutes at 90 degrees.
Complete the look of the Dos Equis beer bottle cookies with adding a couple of double red X's on the labels. If you are making these for someone in particular, you could personalize the label with their name instead.
Are you looking for my royal icing recipe? You can find it here.
Want to see some Coor's Light style beer cookies? Jump over here and you can see the Western set I created a few years ago.
Chocolate Dipped Easter Bunny Cookies
What's your favorite Easter candy? Mine are the classic hollow chocolate bunnies. There is something so wrong, but satisfying about biting into their sweet little ears. Is it the nostalgia or the pure sweet chocolate? As a mother, I've been planning our Easter for the last couple of weeks and have been preoccupied with the candy I want to eat. It dawned on me that I've never seen a bunny cookie dipped in chocolate, but why? The combination is amazing! Part chocolate, part baked cookie - perfection.
These are so easy to make and will look gorgeous on your holiday table. What do you need?
Materials
- 4 oz. heavy cream
- 4 oz. baking chocolate, chopped
- baked cookies ( My cutter is pretty old, but Ann Clark makes one and you can get it on Amazon)
- fondant (optional - for the bow)
- edible gold paint (optional - for the bow)
- silicone bow mold
In a small pot, bring 4 oz. of heavy cream to a simmer over medium heat. Once at simmer, immediately pour into a bowl. Add the 4 oz. of hot chocolate to the cream and immediately place lid on the bowl. Set aside for 15 minutes - the contained heat of the cream will start to melt the chocolate. Remove lid and stir the ganache until nice and smooth.
Once the ganache has cooled a bit, place into a piping bag. Carefully outline and fill the bunny cookie with the delicious chocolate icing. Ganache will take a while to set up, so be careful while they dry. I have a minute video below that walks you through the steps.
Optional
Push fondant into the silicone mold. Place in the freezer for about 10 minutes to allow it to harden. Pop out of mold and paint with the metallic food dye. Carefully place bow on the chocolate bunny.
Aren't these beautiful? These would be gorgeous on your finest china for Easter brunch and a delightful favor for your family! Easy and delicious - the perfect way to celebrate.
XO,
Jenny
Aren't these beautiful? These would be gorgeous on your finest china for Easter brunch and a delightful favor for your family! Easy and delicious - the perfect way to celebrate.
XO,
Jenny
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