Birthday Butterflies

Cookie inspiration can come from anywhere...greeting cards, invitations, fabric, catalogs...and even going to mass.

Yes, going to mass. This summer, a woman sitting a few pews in front of me had on the prettiest 2-tone pink dress. Halfway through mass, I realized that her dress wasn't just a swirl of pinks, it was actually covered in pink butterflies!


I tucked the idea away for this week because one of my very favorite people, who just happens to be a butterfly lover, is having a birthday. I shouldn't even say "butterfly lover"...she's more like the butterfly whisperer. She has a talent for butterflies...butterfly gardens, butterfly photos...she is an inspiration. ONE DAY, despite my black thumb, I am determined to have a butterfly garden liker her. :)

I think she needed pretty, pink, birthday butterfly cookies! Don't you?

For the cookies themselves, I wanted them to be extra special. I used my regular cookie recipe, but instead of 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, I substituted 1 tsp vanilla bean paste.

{The color is a little off here, but I like that you can see the vanilla bean flecks. This is the same recipe I used for PW's cookies.}

To decorate:

• Make Royal Icing in two shades of pink; I used AmeriColor Deep Pink and Soft Pink.
• With a #2 tip, make the body of the butterfly (I used dots of icing) and outline the wings.
• Thin both shades of icing with water until they reach the consistency of a really thick syrup. Cover with a damp dishtowel and let sit several minutes.
• Stir the icings gently with a rubber spatula to pop any air bubbles that have formed on top and transfer to squeeze bottles.
• Fill in the interior of the wings with light pink, but don't bring the icing all the way to the edges...leave about a quarter of an inch. (Work a few cookies at a time.)
  


• While the light pink icing is still wet, add the dark pink icing to the edges and add the veining. The dark pink and light pink icings will dry as one smooth surface. (I was going for a Monarch butterfly here, but feel free to get creative!) :)
  


• Drop in a few non-pareils on the wings for detailing.


Related posts:

• taking flight
• for BEEing sweet
• BEE my honey
  
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For BEEing sweet. . .

This summer we adopted two kittens from the animal shelter. Want to see them?

{That's Spike on the left and Bluebell on the right. This is the day after we adopted them.}

Yes, they are adorable, but they also came home from the shelter quite sick. (They looked fine to us.) Let's just say, we've gotten to know our vet quite well over the last two months. I won't go into all of the gory details...and they are fine now...but I will tell you, one almost died and the other developed a nasty eye infection and had to have an eye removed. (OK...I went into the gory details.)

So, you can see why we've come to love our vet and the staff at the clinic. They've taken such good care of our little ones and I wanted to make them some cookies.

But, what to make for a vet's office? Do they really want to EAT a cat or dog cookie? It seems wrong. Hearts, too personal. Paw prints, not special enough.

Here's what we came up with...bees!



{The inspiration for these comes from an old Martha Stewart Kids magazine....best magazine there ever was!}


Yes, I enclosed a goofy note saying, "Thank you for BEEing sweet to Spike & Bluebell." :)
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What's all the BUZZ about Valentine's Day?

I've been dreaming about little pink bees for about a year now....since last Valentine's Day! :) My favorite cookie of the three ended up to be the red heart covered in sanding sugar. I've never covered an entire cookie in sanding sugar, thinking it would look too plain, but actually they turned out really pretty (and they are so easy!).


For the sparkly red hearts:
• In red icing, outline the heart. Use any plain tip...I used a #3 (AmeriColor SuperRed).
• Thin red icing with water to the consistency of syrup. Cover with a damp towel and let sit several minutes.
• Run a rubber spatula through the icing to break any large air bubbles and transfer to a squeeze bottle.
• Fill in the hearts.
• Let dry overnight.
• Mix a little meringue powder with water. (To get a peek at my "sanding station," go here.)
• Brush the mixture on the cookies with a small paintbrush.
• Sprinkle with red sanding sugar.
  
  
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Taking flight

My son & I just returned home from a wonderful trip to visit my aunt, uncle and two of my cousins....some of my favorite people in the whole world! We took a few cookies along with us, so here's a look at batch #1.
These monarch cookies were for my Aunt Janice. I am so, so happy that my uncle had the smarts to marry her! :) I'll bet that every one of my friends knows "Aunt Janice" because I frequently talk about her...she is one cool cookie!

One of the many things my aunt does well is garden, especially butterfly gardening. The design inspiration for the cookies came from Karen Tack's Hello, Cupcake! book where she uses candy melts to make a butterfly cupcake topper. I like the way they looked tied with the dotted grosgrain. To make the cookies:


• Using a #5 tip, pipe the butterfly body in black. (Spectrum Super Black)
• Switch the tip on the black icing bag to a #2 and pipe the outline of the wings.
• Thin black and orange icing with water to a syrup-like consistency and cover both with a damp dishtowel. Let sit several minutes. (AmeriColor Orange mixed with a little Spectrum Super Red)
• Run a rubber spatula through the icings to pop any bubbles that formed on the top. Pour into 2 separate squeeze bottles.
• Using the thinned black icing, follow the outside edge of the wing outline.
• Immediately fill with thinned orange icing, filling in the remainder of the wing, making sure the black and orange icings meet.
• Using a toothpick, drag the black icing into the orange, making veins in the wings.
• While the icing is still wet, drop on white non-pareils.
• Let the wings dry for an hour or more.
• If desired, go back over the butterfly body using a #5 tip in black icing.
Source URL: http://soniceview.blogspot.com/search/label/insects
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