Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Teal and red Christmas

Teal and red gingerbread Christmas decoration by Tunde Dugantsi

My dear friend, Tammy has mentioned that she was planning a teal and red Christmas this year. She also told me she has purchased the ornament cutter set I designed for Cookie Cutter Kingdom, because they reminded her of her childhood Christmas.

I decided to surprise her with a cookie set and, of course, I made the ornament shapes she loved in teal and red. I left the accents white as I did not know if she wanted gold or silver accents or not. Luckily, she is a cookie artist herself, and she is also the owner of 2T's stencils. They carry the most amazing DinkyDoodle airbrush colors, so she can add some shine to the set later if she wants.

Teal and red gingerbread Christmas decoration by Tunde Dugantsi

I also made her an advent wreath centerpiece to complement this set.

Teal and red gingerbread Christmas decoration by Tunde Dugantsi

Are you almost ready for Christmas too?

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Sunday, December 20, 2015

Szaloncukor (Hungarian Christmas candy) 2015

Szaloncukor by Tunde Dugantsi

Saturday, December 19, 2015

3D Christmas tree

3D Christmas tree gingerbread cookie by Tunde Dugantsi

 While my little girls are decorating some gingerbread cookies in the Kitchen, let me show you real quick one way to make 3D Christmas tree cookies.

3D Christmas tree gingerbread cookie by Tunde Dugantsi

First bake 5-6 half Christmas tree cookies (I used 5). You can use the special cutter from Cookie Cutter Kingdom, or cut a Christmas tree shape in half before you bake it.

3D Christmas tree gingerbread cookie by Tunde Dugantsi

Use egg yolk glaze to color them green. (mix 1 egg yolk, 1 tbsp milk, green gel food coloring).

3D Christmas tree gingerbread cookie by Tunde Dugantsi

Decorate all the pieces both side.

3D Christmas tree gingerbread cookie by Tunde Dugantsi

Cover a cake board with royal icing if you need a base for your tree.

3D Christmas tree gingerbread cookie by Tunde Dugantsi

Glue the pieces together with thick royal icing.

3D Christmas tree gingerbread cookie by Tunde Dugantsi

Finish decorating with royal icing, connecting the pieces. Your icing needs to be on the thicker side, so the hanging line doesn't break.

3D Christmas tree gingerbread cookie by Tunde Dugantsi

This tree is a nice complement to the Santa Sleigh cookie from my earlier post.

3D Christmas tree gingerbread cookie by Tunde Dugantsi

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Monday, December 14, 2015

Christmas cookies with Hungarian folk art design

Christmas cookies with Hungarian folk art design by Tunde Dugantsi

I love to make Hungarian folk art flower cookie designs. However, I never thought about doing it for Christmas. This year, I got a request for them so I created a Christmas set with these gorgeous flowers. They are not your traditional Christmas decorations for sure. But these ornaments are cheerful and colorful.

Christmas cookies with Hungarian folk art design by Tunde Dugantsi

To complement the set, I made these bell shaped candle holders and an advent wreath centerpiece.

Christmas cookies with Hungarian folk art design by Tunde Dugantsi

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Friday, December 11, 2015

Blue Christmas ornaments and candle holder

Blue gingerbread Christmas decoration by Tunde Dugantsi

Sunday, in my post about the Christmas sweater I promised to bring you more of these airbrushed blue cookies. Today, I show you some Christmas decoration gift sets. One candle holder with 6 ornaments make a beautiful gift set and fits perfectly in my gift boxes.

Blue gingerbread Christmas decoration by Tunde Dugantsi

These candle holders are made of two snowflake cookies. The top part has a hole for a tea light or a votive candle.

Blue gingerbread Christmas decoration by Tunde Dugantsi

I decorated some star cookie-ornaments. Of course they are all different. Each set will have two stars.

Blue gingerbread Christmas decoration by Tunde Dugantsi

I will add two bell to each set. By now, I have numerous bell cookie cutters, but this one, from the basic 101 set of Wilton is still my favorite.

Blue gingerbread Christmas decoration by Tunde Dugantsi

The two Christmas trees will also have the simple clean shape of the basic set.

Blue gingerbread Christmas decoration by Tunde Dugantsi

This is one of the gift sets.

Blue gingerbread Christmas decoration by Tunde Dugantsi

And here is an other one. And I also promise you more blue Christmas cookies in the near future.

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Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Mini Christmas ornaments


You probably remember these ornament shapes from the ornaments with lace or the blue Christmas ornaments. This set was made with the mini version of the same cutters, available at Cookie Cutter Kingdom.

I started with white flood icing for all of them.


Then painted half of the with TruColor Super Red Shine Color an  the rest with Deep Blue Shine.



Then piped some filigree pattern to all of them.


Painted the filigree of the red cookies with TruColor Gold Shine.


 Here is the red and gold mini set:


And the blue and white mini ornaments:


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Sunday, December 6, 2015

Christmas sweater


I got this cool sweater cutter from Cookie Cutter Kingdom and I also have a highly neglected airbrush. So I decided to put them to work. I flooded the cookie with Sugarflair ice blue icing and airbrushed with royal blue. I love this color combination (so you will see more of it in the near future). Then decorated with white royal icing.


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Friday, December 4, 2015

Simple elegance for Christmas


Do you remember the 5 inch square chocolate cookies I used for the no-icing fall cookies? I had some more of them and I also had a bag of white icing, which looks wonderful on chocolate cookies.
I decided to draw a Christmas tree shape using curls and teardrops. Then I added a few tiny, shiny edible beads as accents. Different color for each cookie. I finished the cookies with a simple, double line border.


Here you can have a closer look at the cookie with the pink beads, and the one with the gold accents.


I also have a few more of these square cookies, waiting for inspiration. See you soon!

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Sunday, November 29, 2015

Advent 2015

Gingerbread Advent wreath centerpiece by Tunde Dugantsi

Today is the First Day of Advent. You can read about advent and the four candles in my post from last year. This year, I created this advent wreath with the Hungarian folk art flowers along with coordinating ornaments and candle holders I will show you later.

My sweet friend told me she was planning on red and teal Christmas this year, so I decided to surprise her with an advent wreath centerpiece and some matching Christmas ornaments.

Gingerbread Advent wreath centerpiece by Tunde Dugantsi

Advent is such a beautiful period of the year. This year, I decided to work less and focus on little sweet things more. Enjoy this wonderful period of the year!

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Saturday, November 28, 2015

Cardinal in winter - cookie featured in Food Network Magazine

Cardinal in Winter cookies by Tunde Dugantsi

Way back in August, I got a request from a Food Network Magazine editor to send them two designs of Christmas cookies (6 of each) for their December issue. They needed 4 inch circle sugar cookies, reflecting my home state. I was in trouble. I do gingerbread and I am Hungarian. I could not tell one Holiday thing that would be specific to Kentucky and I did not have a go to sugar cookie recipe either. But I like challenges, and this was one for sure.

Luckily I have great cookie friends who could help me out with the recipe, so this part was easy.
The design was a little harder, because it had to be Kentucky, Christmas and I also wanted it to reflect my style.

One day, I looked out the window and saw a cardinal on the tree. Cardinal is Kentucky's state bird. I figured the cardinal would be perfect for this design. I created 6 different lace base, then painted the bird on the cookies. I sure have to work on my painting skill. This was the firs time ever I painted on a cookie. Actually, I did not paint much since preschool at all. But I will learn it eventually. So here is my design, far from being perfect, but a little Christmas, a little Kentucky and a little me.

Cardinal in Winter cookies by Tunde Dugantsi

Probably I would have chosen the other design because of the imperfection of my painting, but the editors picked this one. 

If you have a chance, get the December issue of Food Network Magazine and check out this article! It's so much fun! It has a cookie design from each state, here is a sneak peek of the page where my cookie is featured:

Cardinal in Winter cookies by Tunde Dugantsi

They also have 25 cookie recipes in this issue.

Have fun and happy baking!

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Monday, November 16, 2015

Inspiration: from antique embroidery sampler to cookie gift

Wedding cookie gift by Tunde Dugantsi

You never know where the inspiration comes from. And sometimes planning a cookie takes longer than actually making it. This wedding gift cookie illustrates both of these statements.


A friend sent me this picture of an antique embroidery sampler as inspiration for a wedding gift cookie he envisioned for a couple. The sampler looks amazing, right? Obviously it has way too many motifs and colors for a cookie. So my first question was: Which are your favorite motifs you would like to keep? And the answer helped me to set the corner stones of the project:

  • keep the boat
  • keep the flower pot above the boat
  • do some nautical motifs to the bottom part
  • make this a 3 piece puzzle of three 9x6 inch cookies (I have cookie boxes of this size to ship the cookie safely)

I also knew, that I wanted to

  • replace the angled, triangular motifs with curves (closer to my style)
  • limit the number of colors as much as possible
  • add symbols and motifs of love, relationship, wedding if possible
So I was ready to start the planning:


Wedding cookie gift by Tunde Dugantsi

Here is the complete design as I planned on paper:

Wedding cookie gift by Tunde Dugantsi

Then I planned the colors. At the left side of this picture you can see my Sugarflair color chart. When I get new colors (I am a color hoarder - have a full sets of Americolor, Sugarflair and Trucolor and a wishlist of many more) I paint the actual color to a sticker and write the color name next to it. This way I have a much more accurate image of my colors, than the printed stickers.

Next to the design I listed the colors with the consistencies needed. Fore some colors I needed more than one consistency.

Wedding cookie gift by Tunde Dugantsi

And here is the actual color palette. Still a great selection for just one (3 piece) cookie.

Wedding cookie gift by Tunde Dugantsi

I baked the cookies, flooded them and created the design on the cookie.


 Here is the result:

Wedding cookie gift by Tunde Dugantsi

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Wedding cookie gift by Tunde Dugantsi

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