Square cookie gifts with TruColor

I like to give my kids' teachers cookies for Christmas. I have these perfect 6x6x1 inch sized white gift boxes with transparent lid from Uline. They can transform any big cookie or set of smaller cookies into a nice little gift.

I mixed a small palette of TruColor Royal blue icing. I love to work with different shades of the same color and the beauty of TruColor's natural colors always amazes me.

This is a 5.5 inch square cookie and I used a snowflake cutter from Ann Clark as a template for the pattern. You can see the steps here:

The next cookie is the same style. For the main motif I used a smaller cutter, positioned in one corner and filled the rest with different sizes of snowflakes. I don't have a video for this one (yes, I forgot to push the record button), but the steps are very similar to the first cookie.

And here is my favorite. This is a set of 4 small squares. The same design repeated 4 times. Half of the square is sprinkled with TruColor sanding sugar for some color and texture. Then I added snowflakes on top. The other half is blank and the two parts are connected with lace work.

As you can see at the end of the video, by arranging the 4 squares in different ways your can get very different gift boxes.

Finally, here is a picture of the gift boxes:

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Centerpiece with Hungarian folk art flowers

This centerpiece can be a nice decoration for Christmas, but also for Easter or a wedding. This is one of the project in my upcoming Cookie Academy 4 - Hungarian Folk Art Flowers book:

Enjoy the video:

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White advent wreath

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Blue Christmas ornaments

As I promised in my previous post about the blue advent wreath, I am here to share the blue Christmas ornaments videos:

Have fun with them and make lots of Christmas cookies!

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Advent 2016

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Purple flower "thank you" cookie set with TruColor natural food colors

 

When you want to say thanks to a friend you can send her a card, but there is a much sweeter way: make her cookies.

This is a fast and easy cookie set, yet it looks really festive. I mixed piping and flood consistencies of TruColor purple and leaf green. To add more dimension I used TruColor pastel green and pastel purple fine sanding sugars.

The set has two bigger cookies and and a lot of small, simple filler cookies.

The "thank you" cookie is a large plaque. The design is really easy to make. The sparkle of the sugar makes it stand out. See how easy it is:

Of course, I had to make a heart, because I am the gingerbread girl and this is my favorite shape. So I grabbed a 4 inch heart and had some fun with it.

It's still easy to make:

And to make it a full plate, I added a handful of these simple little flowers. They are about 2 inches and super fast to make. Throw in some leaves and they make a cute platter.

And here is the video for you:

Let me know if you tried them!

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Back to school 2016

This week my kids started school. I loved spending the summer with them, but now I am celebrating having more time for cookies. Here is my back to school set for this year. There is nothing really new in this set, just my version of the old classics. Have fun with them!

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TruColor Color Guide 2 - Airbrush Shine: Metallic Reserve Collection

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TruColor Color Guide 1 - Airbrush Shine: Metallic Paint Collection

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Flowers and small hearts decorated using TruColor gel food colors

 

As a mother of three, I always try to use natural ingredients in my kitchen. For a long time this was not a real option when it came to food coloring. I am thrilled, that with TruColor now we have the opportunity to create colorful AND healthy treats.

I have used their airbrush colors a lot, as it is so easy to just paint on the cookies. But I did not really use the gels until now. Mixing the icing colors is a lot of work by itself and it just felt overwhelming to add the extra step of hydrating the colors first. But I decided to get over my fear and get familiar with this product as well. And it was actually easier than I thought.

I used the smallest mixing bowl I had. First, I put a little color powder in the bowl and mixed it with a few drops of distilled water. When the color dissolved I added some icing. Then adjusted the consistency by adding a little confectioners sugar or water as needed. (But this is a step I always do for each bag when bagging icing). Look at this gorgeous, vibrant palette:

I don't know if it's just because of knowing that they are natural and healthy, but I always find my TruColor color palettes very beautiful and live. Somehow, I always love them more that my synthetic palettes. What do you think?

You can follow below how the cookies were made:

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Cookie gift sets with swirl roses

Do you remember the square cookie gifts I posted earlier? I made them to fit the 6x6x1 gift boxes and they made such a nice gift! This variation is even better. These cookies are a little under 3 inches in size and four of them can fill the same gift box. I made 3 different sets, using the TruColor sanding sugars again. The first set is two squares and two circles with the same, very simple pattern:

The next set is four of the same square design:

And the third is a simple square design:

 My favorite thing about this set is that you can create many different designs just by assembling the set in different ways:

Have fun with them!

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Big square cookies with swirl roses

Now, that I have 3 kids at school and dance recitals and travels all happen when school ends, I can not make big cookie sets for all of our wonderful teachers (although they would certainly deserve it).

 Luckily, I have the beautiful white 6x6 inch gift boxes with clear lids from Uline,  that help me create gorgeous 1 cookie gift boxes.

A was also so excited to get my TruColor sanding sugars, that I had to incorporate it in my design. I decided to create a fun texture with it. Look how nice and shiny and fun it looks:

I this point I have video for one of this set. As soon as I can edit the rest I will add them to this post. Have fun with them!

EDIT:

I have two more videos for you (when I decorated the fourth cookie I forgot to push record).

 

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Sweet little gift 2 - candy roses

Let me show you my other "sweet little gift" project created for my little girls' dance recital:

I was in Hobby Lobby, looking for some ideas and my husband spotted this mold. (He never came to Hobby Lobby with me before and I doubt it will happen again - but there he was, finding this rose mold for me.) I've never used this white mold for candy melt before, but the shape was perfect so I decided to give it a try.

I put the sticks in, added the candy melt and let it cool down in the fridge.

I have to tell you, the surface of this mold is not as smooth as the clear one so I had a hard time to take my roses out. Some calyxes broke off, but I was able to glue them back with a little candy melt.

I just wanted a little highlight to make them prettier, so I mixed some Green Shine and Pink Shine TruColor airbrush colors and used them to highlight parts of the roses.

They make such a nice little bouquet, don't you think?

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Sweet little gift 1. - Colorful candy hearts

My girls started dancing this year, so this recital week was our first. Luckily, more experienced moms advised me, that I should bring flowers for my 6 years old girls, because all the other little girls will get flowers. I did the math: we did ballet and tap this year. They perform twice for each and they are twins. So I should buy 8 bouquets of flowers. Hmm... maybe not! I don't even have enough vases in my house! But I am a sugar artist. So I decided to make something special for them instead! I will show you my first little gift for them. It did not take long to make and I had everything on hand to make them. They are simple candy melt heart lollipops sprinkled with sanding sugar.

The all natural TruColor confectioners AA sugars have bigger granules so they are perfect to give my candy heart some character. The girls had blue dresses, so I chose Sky blue, Royal blue and Purple to make it more girly.

I store my sugars in spice bottles to make it easy to sprinkle on cookies, cupcakes and candies.

I made some heart templates that I placed under a piece of parchment paper. I filled a pastry bag with melted white candy melt (so I don't have to temper chocolate).

I placed a lollipop stick at the bottom of the heart and drizzled the candy melt on top.

The next step is to sprinkle it with sanding sugar while still melted, then stick it into the refrigerator for a couple of minutes, so it hardens.

Here are all my little heart lollipops in three colors. You can individually wrap them for favors.

Or stick them in a glass of sugar and they can serve as decoration/snack at any party.

Or make a sweet little gift, just as I did! I used a plastic cup filled with marshmallows as a container.

My little girls were so happy, that they got something special! I am sure I will make these again, will you?

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Playing with TruColor sanding sugar

TruColor now has a full line of all natural sanding sugars. Of course I have to try them! I've never used sanding sugar on my cookies before, but I have to tell you, it is fun! 

This project is fast and easy and the sugar makes it interesting. I just flooded some small heart cookies with yellow icing and let them dry. Then I piped some simple, basic patter on top and dipped them in pastel yellow sanding sugar.

Look, how gorgeous this texture is! I am sure I will play with these sugars more!

Here is the video for you:

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Chocolate square cookies with painted flowers

Mixing icing colors is not my favorite part of cookie decorating. But I love colors! So I figured, I will just pipe in white and add the colors later. TruColor airbrush colors are very good at making everything look gorgeous and I also feel good about giving the cookies to my kids.

I made a cheerful yellow daisy, ...

... a purple anemone, ...

 ... a red tulip, ...

... and some forget me not. They make a nice colorful set. It was really fun to make it!

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