Showing posts with label wedding cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wedding cookies. Show all posts
Monday, June 19, 2017
Monday, April 24, 2017
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Bridesmaid Cookies
Cookies are a lovely way to ask your best friends to be a part of your bridal party. These special cookies were a fun project.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Burlap Wedding Shower Cookies
The theme for Chris and Sasha's upcoming wedding is burlap and burgandy, so I was asked to make the wedding shower cookies to match that theme. I decided to try a technique I had read about to make a burlap look on the cookies and I am thrilled with how it turned out. Here is how I created the burlap effect and how the cookies turned out.
After flooding the cookie in white royal icing that I allowed to dry for a few hours, I covered the cookie with cheesecloth that I stretched in an embroidery hoop. Then I used my airbrush and sprayed it with brown.
I love the effect! Now I had a burlap background for the rest of the design.
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Sparkly diamond rings were one of the designs I put on the burlap background.
Wishing Chris and Sasha a happy life.
And a wonderful wedding day in October!
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Wedding Cookies
These cookies are very special. Made for a beautiful lady who was my oldest daughter's grade 3 teacher (my oldest is now in grade 12!) She got married in the Maritimes and brought these cookies for place settings.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Monogram Cookies
These piped monogram cookies (SHC = Sweet Handmade Cookies) were created for an advertising campaign coming soon!
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Bahamas Bound Wedding Cookies
This set of wedding/beach themed cookies were created as a wedding gift for a Bahamas-bound couple. Packed in their suitcase, they will be enjoyed in the tropical paradise after the "I Do's"!
Monday, November 4, 2013
The 900 Cookie Challenge
In December of last year, I met Cristina, who was planning her October 2013 wedding. She loved my cookies and wanted to incorporate them into her wedding reception. After we exchanged a few emails, and I did up some samples, we met and signed a contract, and I placed the order on my schedule. It was for 900 cookies, two cookies per guest, to be flooded in white with an edible image and a piped border, packaged together in one bag and closed with a ribbon. One would go on each guest's place setting at the reception.
I was thrilled with the order, but admit that I thought about the order weekly and had dreams about it monthly from January until late September, which is when the frequency of my dreams (not always pleasant) increased substantially, as did the stress.
By the time October rolled around, which is a busy cookie month anyway, what with (Canadian) Thanksgiving and Halloween in it, I had 2000 cookies on my schedule, including another wedding order, a couple of baptisms, birthdays and my weekly farmers' market cookies. I prefer 300 cookies per week maximum, so I knew this would be a challenging month for me.
Because of the other cookie commitments, I had a week to make the 900 cookies. My baking racks limited me to 200 cookies at a time and the steps involved making the dough, baking and flooding on one day, putting on the edible image and piping a border the second day and packaging on the third. Putting edible images and piping a border onto 200 cookies was a 4 hour job. Baking and flooding 200 cookies was another 6 hours. Packing took a couple of hours as well. It was a week of incredibly long days. The statistics include over 29,000 dots piped, 20 pounds of butter, 100 cups of flour, more than 10 kilos of confectioners' sugar and 180 meters of ribbon!
When all was said and done, here are some lessons learned:
Lesson #1. Count, count and recount. The first day I rolled and cut over 500 cookies, keeping track of each batch's number of cookies. I rolled and cut the rest over the next few days. When I got close to the 900 mark, I counted again (as if I hadn't already counted 2 dozen times). A portion of the cookies had already been baked, decorated and packaged, another portion had been baked but not yet decorated. Suddenly there were cookies missing - 72 in fact. I counted and counted again. My husband was called in to count. Nope - no matter what, those 72 cookies were gone. I rolled out more dough and cut the missing 72. When all was said and done, guess how many extra cookies I had? Yes - 72. It still stumps me, but I am happy I had extras as opposed to being short!
Lesson #2. I think 900 cookies might just be too many for a one-woman show like mine. Well, perhaps if I didn't have another 1100 to make in the weeks leading up to it, it would have been less stressful. It was do-able, it was just that it was all-consuming for so many days in a row that it stopped being fun (and that rarely happens to me, I always love making cookies!).
Lesson #3. Edible images are not my friend. I invested in an edible image printer last year and it was why I was able to take on this order, but let me tell you this: royal icing does not change colour over time the way edible images do.
Lesson #4. Brides as organized and relaxed as Cristina are able to think on their feet. When I contacted Cristina to tell her the edible images were changing colour, she came up with the wonderful solution of changing the ribbon colour.
Lesson #5. Ask for help. I have a lovely friend who has been a great supporter of my business and offered her time to package the cookies with me. I resisted at first (I have never had any help before), but in the end I asked her to come and they were two mornings of joy and laughter, as well as good work done (she ties a beautiful bow and every bow I have tied since has been inspired by her).
Cristina's wedding day turned out cold and wet, but I am sure weather did not put a damper on their joy. Wishing Cristina and Frank a lifetime of happiness!
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| The finished cookies. |
I was thrilled with the order, but admit that I thought about the order weekly and had dreams about it monthly from January until late September, which is when the frequency of my dreams (not always pleasant) increased substantially, as did the stress.
By the time October rolled around, which is a busy cookie month anyway, what with (Canadian) Thanksgiving and Halloween in it, I had 2000 cookies on my schedule, including another wedding order, a couple of baptisms, birthdays and my weekly farmers' market cookies. I prefer 300 cookies per week maximum, so I knew this would be a challenging month for me.
 |
| Placing edible images onto the flooded cookies. |
Because of the other cookie commitments, I had a week to make the 900 cookies. My baking racks limited me to 200 cookies at a time and the steps involved making the dough, baking and flooding on one day, putting on the edible image and piping a border the second day and packaging on the third. Putting edible images and piping a border onto 200 cookies was a 4 hour job. Baking and flooding 200 cookies was another 6 hours. Packing took a couple of hours as well. It was a week of incredibly long days. The statistics include over 29,000 dots piped, 20 pounds of butter, 100 cups of flour, more than 10 kilos of confectioners' sugar and 180 meters of ribbon!
 |
| Piped border - 29,000 dots piped for the entire order! |
When all was said and done, here are some lessons learned:
 |
| One of my many scribbles with totals. |
Lesson #1. Count, count and recount. The first day I rolled and cut over 500 cookies, keeping track of each batch's number of cookies. I rolled and cut the rest over the next few days. When I got close to the 900 mark, I counted again (as if I hadn't already counted 2 dozen times). A portion of the cookies had already been baked, decorated and packaged, another portion had been baked but not yet decorated. Suddenly there were cookies missing - 72 in fact. I counted and counted again. My husband was called in to count. Nope - no matter what, those 72 cookies were gone. I rolled out more dough and cut the missing 72. When all was said and done, guess how many extra cookies I had? Yes - 72. It still stumps me, but I am happy I had extras as opposed to being short!
 |
| Baked, flooded and finished cookies on various racks. |
Lesson #2. I think 900 cookies might just be too many for a one-woman show like mine. Well, perhaps if I didn't have another 1100 to make in the weeks leading up to it, it would have been less stressful. It was do-able, it was just that it was all-consuming for so many days in a row that it stopped being fun (and that rarely happens to me, I always love making cookies!).
 |
| Cookies ready to package. |
Lesson #4. Brides as organized and relaxed as Cristina are able to think on their feet. When I contacted Cristina to tell her the edible images were changing colour, she came up with the wonderful solution of changing the ribbon colour.
 |
| Finished cookies with ribbon #1. |
Lesson #5. Ask for help. I have a lovely friend who has been a great supporter of my business and offered her time to package the cookies with me. I resisted at first (I have never had any help before), but in the end I asked her to come and they were two mornings of joy and laughter, as well as good work done (she ties a beautiful bow and every bow I have tied since has been inspired by her).
 |
| Finished cookies with final ribbon choice. |
Cristina's wedding day turned out cold and wet, but I am sure weather did not put a damper on their joy. Wishing Cristina and Frank a lifetime of happiness!
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| Ready for delivery. |
Friday, March 2, 2012
Wedding Reception Cake & Cookies
After a small and beautiful Cuban wedding at Christmas time, Sarie and Larry planned a reception closer to home for the family and friends who could not attend the wedding. Using their invitation as inspiration, I was asked to create a cake and bonbonnieres for their guests. This project was a labour of love and the gold and cream invitation provided a great jumping off point to create the two-tiered cake and matching cookies.
I achieved the golden flowers on the cake with fondant and royal icing and used 24 carat edible lustre dust to bring some sparkle to the cake.
For the cookies I used royal icing in various shades and used the 24 carat edible lustre dust on a few of the flowers' elements to bring in the sparkle. I wrapped each cookie in a celephane bag that I finished with a card thanking the guests. Wishing you a happy life together, Sarie and Larry!
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