Good Things by David

As a cookie decorator I find that the best cookies are those I create to surprise someone.  That's exactly what I did the other day to a dear cousin of mine who is expecting her firstborn.  Our family was going to give her a baby shower this month with baby deer as the theme, so I planned my surprise a couple of weeks ago. Baby Deer for a Baby Shower Years ago I acquired a large collection of cookie cutters from my dear friend, Janet Bridge, and since then I have made sure to do justice to them.  The majority of the cookie cutters are American made copper cutters from the venerable coppersmiths of Copper Gifts.  A small fawn cutter that I fell in love with the moment I saw it was THE perfect cookie cutter for this project. How adorable is this fawn? Having rolled, cut and baked my cookie shapes, I took some delicious royal icing and tinted three batches to match the fawns I see on a yearly basis around the property.  A rich chocolate brown, a neutral-warm taupe ...

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...

It's not necessary to reinvent the wheel when it comes to making new sugar cookies.  For my first round of Valentine's Day sugar cookies this year, I went with the easiest technique imaginable.  Dots!  Piping royal icing dots is not the hardest thing for anyone of any skill.  What's more, if you want to make quick work of your Valentine's Day cookies don't flood them.  Bake pristine sugar cookies in a range of heart shapes, and then quickly ice them with dots.  Note:  every cookie was decorated with a #2 piping tip. This pink milk glass platter shows the the variety of shapes and designs I am referring to. Here's a sampling of the cookie cutters I ended up using for this project.   If you don't own a set of these French de Buyer heart cookie cutters, I highly recommend them.  I like the range of sizes they come in, the fact that they're deep and made of strong plastic.  Easy to maintain, the cutters get used every si...

One of the nice things about crafting decorated sugar cookies is thinking about how the recipient is going to react when they behold their treats.  Whether I'm creating cookies for a friend, a family member or for customers, I like to know what colors people like, what shapes they adore and what will make them smile if given one or two of my cookies.  It's all about designing the right mood and look.   A dear neighbor of mine whose daughter is going to be two years old this week, asked if I would make her some acorn cookies to celebrate.  What you must understand is that little Lillian has a fascination with acorns.  Most mornings, you will find her coming into the cafe with a small bucket of them that she's collected on her walk with her mother.  Naturally, a few acorn sugar cookies seemed to be the right thing for her second birthday.  For this birthday project, I knew which cookie cutters I wanted to use.  A set of graduated acor...

I was commissioned to make a set of Downton Abbey inspired, tea-themed cookies for a local event in my town.  With a set of cookie cutters in the shapes of a teapot, a teacup, a teabag, a cupcake, a scalloped round and a plaque, I quickly iced cookies worthy of any tea party. These cookies were made with a specific color palette at the request of a friend.  A deep turquoise, a soft pink, a dark lavender and some jet black (not to mention white, of course) is what you will need to make these specific cookie designs.  You may also want to add a bit of gilded touches to your cookies if you want to make them stand out even more. I don't know if Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, would ever have had a reason to own a  black and white bone china teapot, but this one works.  It almost resembles a piece of Wedgwood.  I do know that she probably would never have eaten a frilly cupcake like the ones you see here.  That's OK, though.   ...

If you love getting farm fresh eggs from your local farmers market, from a neighbor's coop, or even if you keep your own chickens for their eggs, it's always amazing to behold the range in colors that they come in.  A few of my own friends raise chickens in their backyards and share the bounty with those near them if they aren't using the eggs for cooking or baking.  The commitment it takes to keeping chickens is nothing short of praiseworthy in my opinion.  It is to them that I dedicate this post. Araucana Egg Sugar Cookies Over the years I've made many egg-shaped sugar cookies for Easter, but I've never decorated any as gifts for my friends who are into chicken husbandry.  If you have ever seen Araucana eggs, then you know how varied the pastel shades of these eggs can be.  Their colors are made for cookie decorating! Dozens of Araucana Egg Sugar Cookies My neighbor Luke who has a weekly standing order from me of at least one to two dozen eggs,...

Creating sugar cookies for my friend Jayne (a British expat) is always a pleasure because she gives me so much creative license.  She has been a big supporter of my sugar cookie craft for almost a decade now, and I have her to thank for prompting me to pick up the pace and churn out cookies by the dozen each and every season.   Her request this time around was simple: "design a set of Easter cookies for my family in England and make them pretty."  After going through my archive of past cookies, and perusing the cookie cutters in my pantry, I decided on a few shapes and designs for these special U.K. bound cookies. A large Easter egg cookie cutter, a large five inch plain-round cutter, and some very special cookie cutters from the former Martha by Mail catalog were all gathered on my large kitchen counter. I then quickly began to plan Jayne's cookies. Have a set of baked and cooled egg-shaped cookies and several large round ones as well.  Batches o...

To change things up a bit for my niece and nephews this Christmas, I settled on making them a set of woodland sugar cookies in the shapes of adorable animals and figures.  Among these shapes was a set of gigantic gingerbread boy and girl cookie cutters, which I found several years ago at a consignment shop. These particular cookie cutters were beautifully made in the United States by the coppersmiths at Copper Gifts ,  in Missouri.  Although mine are vintage, you can find a similar set that is currently being made (click on the link provided)! Woodland Sugar Cookies Several of the cookie cutters, such as the adorable hedgehog, the mushroom and deer, came from my good friend Janet back when she was cleaning her cookie cutter pantry.  She loves everything woodland, and is known for imbuing her home every single Christmas with things that one finds in nature. With a nod to my friend and how she decorates for the holiday, I decided do something similar with su...