Good Things by David

Citrus slice sugar cookies are a nice way to end the summer, whether you're at home with your family or at the beach enjoying a leisurely weekend.  A simple round cookie cutter is all that you need to make citrus slice sugar cookies by the dozen.  Lemon slices, lime slices and orange slices are sure to entice just about anyone who sees them. Citrus Slice Sugar Cookies After rolling out and cutting rounds of whatever size you wish, slice each cookie in half to create the citrus  wedges.  Bake per your recipe instructions and let them cool.   Royal icing should be made in batches and tinted in leaf green (a few drops of yellow will create a shade of lime), lemon yellow and bright orange.  Leave some plain white icing to pipe the pips and the pith of the citrus slices. Lemons, Limes and Oranges Working with flooding-consistency royal icing and #3 piping tips on all of your piping bags, outline and flood the base of a citrus slice in the color of your choice, a...

Wirework cooling racks from the mid-19th century through the early 20th century have gained in popularity in recent years due to their singular look, fine craftsmanship and visual appeal.  What's more, these pieces have also appreciated in value over the past several decades due to their scarcity.  Collectors will get into bidding wars if and when they come up for auction, often driving prices into the hundreds of dollars for a single piece.   More recently, the drama series Downton Abbey, featured them periodically in the kitchen scenes (everything in the kitchen of the Downton was of the period), which fueled interest for existing collectors.  Many decades before Downton, however, we had lifestyle maven Martha Stewart, using them in several of her cookbooks and throughout her very popular television shows.  Collectors quickly took note!   Wirework and wire objects can be traced as far back as the 17th century to the region of Slovakia, where tinkers speci...

Cookies in the shapes of cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day are now yours.  All you need is a cupcake-shaped cookie cutter, baked & cooled cookies, and some tinted royal icing.  If you happen to have green nonpareils or some shamrock candies to attach to the cookies, even better.  As you probably already know, I like to keep cookie designs simple because it makes my job of creating dozens upon dozens much easier. Set in jadeite glass boxes, an array of cookies can be displayed for your family's St. Patrick's Day dinner. St. Patrick's Day Cupcake Cookies The colors of the Irish flag became the inspiration for the cupcakes pictured above.   Royal Icing Technique On a baked cookie, outline and flood the white "cupcake liner" using white royal icing and a #4 piping tip as shown.  Using orange royal icing and a #3 piping tip, outline and flood the swirled section of frosting as shown.  Outline and flood the section of leaf-green royal icing as shown using a #3 p...

Conversation heart candies have been a part of Valentine's Day for as long as we can remember.  As a kid I used to love giving them out to my classmates every single February 14th, and because I had a sweet tooth, I couldn't wait to devour mine as soon as we emptied our Valentine baskets in class.  It's been decades since I've eaten a conversation heart candy, but it's been only a few hours since I created my very own in cookie form. Sugar Cookies on Wedgwood Queen's Ware & Platinum Scroll For purists who will tell me that these are not true conversation heart colors, it is true, they are not.  I departed from the original pastel hues of the diminutive sweets because I wanted bright reds and pinks for the cookies, and the lettering was done in pure white icing using either all-caps, lower case or cursive.   Luv U & Be Mine Keeping the phrases to a simple few words, I made several dozen of these conversation heart sugar cookies just in time for Valentine...

You can surprise your sweetheart with a few envelope-shaped sugar cookies this Valentine's Day if you plan a few days in advance.  Even if you don't have a cookie cutter in this shape (I don't), you can still create a few of these cute edibles.  Very simple and easily accomplished by anyone. The Valentine's Day hearts above, are ones that I've created in the past.  They are customer favorites, so I make dozens upon dozens of them every single year.  Those are easy to make too. For the envelopes, cut out as many cookie dough squares as you can, and then slice off the top two corners of each square to create the shape of the envelope right before baking.  That's all there is to it!  If you have a house-shaped cookie cutter, you can try using that for the envelopes. For the royal icing colors:  mix Chefmaster 'Super Red' until you get the desired shade of red.  For the pink, mix a couple of drops of Chefmaster 'Fuchsia' until you get a light pink (u...