Art Nouveau Birthday Cookies with Wafer Papers

In my vintage postcard collection, there are some beautiful birthday cards in the Art Nouveau style. I wanted to turn them into cookies, which was a trick and a half, since postcards are rectangular and I wanted round cookies. After much tinkering, I was able to come up with a gorgeous set, I think .

The wafer papers measure 2" round, and fit a 2.5" round cookie. Most cookie cutter sets have a cutter in this size; my favorite is in the Ateco 4-Piece Round Fluted Cookie Cutter Set. This size is also easy for using a cheat—store-bought cookies! For these, I used Walker's Lemon Thins from the grocery store (they have a lovely scalloped edge). I also use Walker's Raspberry Thins regularly. If you plan on making a dozen, get two boxes—chances are that each box will have a few broken ones, which is a shame on the one hand, but, on the other hand, the baker gets to eat them herself :D The new Newtons Fruit Thins, which come in cranberry, blueberry, and lemon flavors, work as well. Your local store may also have other options, so make a cookie raid!

As per usual, I piped and flooded the cookies, waited until they were rock solid (24h), "painted" the surface of the cookies with corn syrup using a small craft brush, waited 10 mins for the syrup to bead up and become super-sticky, then pasted on the wafers. When they were dry, I piped a border using a #14 star tip with stiff icing in beige, since I knew I'd be gilding the edges. Once the icing was dry (next day), I painted the borders with edible gold "paint" made with Wilton Gold Pearl Dust mixed into some lemon extract. Michael's is a good place to get it locally, if you need it. I prefer it over every other gold dust, because it looks like actual gold, not strange and yellow or brassy. But, enough about the process. You can head to How To Decorate Cookies With Wafer Paper for more detailed directions and photos of the process.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out!

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The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Octopus Cookies with Wafer Papers

For lovers of cephalopods, I present: Octopus Cookies! I had long wanted to make another black and white set, and my friend Marnie loves octopi, so when I ran into a 19th-century dictionary illustration of an octopus, I knew it was a match made in heaven The illustrations are all from Victorian lithographs and engravings, including three I licensed.

As usual, I made the cookies with Sugarbelle's foolproof Sugar Cookie Recipe, flavoring the dough with raspberry extract. I used the 3" cutter from the Ateco 5-Piece Fluted Square Cookie Cutter Set. I piped the borders and flooded with white royal icing flavored with clear vanilla extract. Next day, when the icing had hardened, I covered the iced squares with clear corn syrup, waited 10 minutes for super-stickiness, and pasted on the wafer paper squares. After about an hour, I piped a border to cover the paper edges; I opted for a beaded border, using stiff black icing (colored with Super Black).

This guy was my favorite. I call him "Mad Octopus Is Mad" :D

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The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Easter Wafer Paper Cookies Redux

Easter was a busy time, but I did manage to make 133 cookies for the annual Easter Egg Hunt at our house (+ some 20 cookies, which I ate in the process of making them).

Some were old favorites, like these colorful floral eggs:

I also made lots of chicks hatching from eggs:

New for this Easter, I made some bunny rabbit cookies from Victorian (or Edwardian, if we're gonna be sticklers) Stecher postcards, with momma and daddy rabbits with baby bunnies. These were very popular with the under-5 set:

The second new set, musical bunnies playing instruments, was the most popular with the under-3 crowd:

The third new set, vintage bunnies from Victorian postcards, was my personal favorite:

They will all be available through my shop for next Easter.

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Dragons and Knights Wafer Paper Cookies

These cookies were requested by a customer, who needed dragon cookies for her son's birthday party. Even my 3yo, who doesn't really know much about dragons yet, thought them fantastic!
As is my wont, I used. The wafers come in three sizes and shapes, and the cutters I used were:

1. The middle cutter (2"x3") from the Ateco 3-Piece Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set;
2. The 2.5" square cutter from the Ateco 5-Piece Fluted Square Cookie Cutter Set;
3. The 3" round cutter from the Ateco 4-Piece Round Fluted Cookie Cutter Set.

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All of the images are used under paid license.

These wafer papers are available for purchase here.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Shark Jaws Wafer Paper Cookies

Between Finding Nemo, Shark Tale, and visits to various aquariums, my 3yo is now crazy about sharks. It was only a matter of time before I made him his very own shark cookies—we had them for a playdate with his best friend, Maya, 4. They were a huge hit!

For the cookies, I used the Candy Corn Cookie Cutter from Karen's Cookies. As usual, I used Sugarbelle's Sugar Cookie Dough, making thicker cookies than usual, to make sure they were more sturdy. After the icing was hard, I wafer-papered them by "painting" the whole surface of the shark with cornsyrup and a craft brush, about 3 at a time; when the cornsyrup had sat for about 5 minutes and gotten stickier, I pasted the papers on. This is the better method when you don't intend to give your cookie an icing border, and in high-humidity conditions. There is less curling up of the edges; you still have to tamp down the edges a few times, but you get a pretty decent result.

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The wafer papers are available for purchase in my store.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Happy Thanksgivukkah!

This week, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah coincide, creating Thanksgivukkah—an event that will not occur again in our lifetime. To celebrate, I made these Menurkey (turkey menorah) cookies and gave them to my mother-in-law; I'm making a second batch today to give to my friend for a happy Thanksgivukkah.

 I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!
~Ani

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These wafers are available here.

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2013 Halloween Cookie Wrap-Up

In addition to the Poe Cookies and the Zombie cookies, I also made these:

Cute Gray Skulls

Spiderwebs

Fright Bites

Scary Squares
I had so many other ideas, and some sets were even ready to go, but time and energy were lacking. I'm recovering from pneumonia, so I'll just have to be pleased I got any cookies done at all :)

 Happy Halloween Y'all!
Ani

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All of the above designs are available at my etsy shop.

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