flowers for a cause

I recently donated a copy of my book, a bunch of daisy cookies and a "coming up daisies" cookie decorating kit to The Dwelling Place Carnival of Chocolates. (How wonderful does a carnival of chocolates sound? Find info on The Dwelling Place, an organization that provides transitional housing opportunities to families in need in Maryland, here.)

I may be overloading you with daisies of late, but I thought I'd share a bit from the kit with you. So, how to make a daisy and a flower here!

you will need:
dough
frosting
daisy cookie cutter
flower cookie cutter
6 frosting bags, couplers, and rubber bands
6 size "3" and "4" tips
Frosting color (I use Americolor soft gel pastes, Electric Green, Electric Pink, Bright White and Egg Yellow)

Flower cookie cutters are pretty common, so you should be able to get them at craft stores and definitely on the internet. Bags, couplers and tips are also available at craft stores. Americolor soft gel pastes are harder to come by, but you can check specialty stores, and of course the internet. Or, of course, you can just buy my "coming up daisies" kit for all these things and with lots o' detailed instructions--tee hee!!


Roll out chilled cookie dough and cut out flowers according to recipe.

to decorate a flower:
Prepare 5 frosting colors: yellow (for the center), two shades of pink, and two shades of green. Prepare two frosting bags fitted with "3" tips and fill one with the darker pink and one with the darker green. Prepare two frosting bags fitted with "4" tips and fill one with the lighter pink and one with the lighter green. Prepare the last bag with a "4" tip and fill with yellow.

In center of flower, pipe a yellow circle and fill. With the darker pink or green, pipe petals and let set about 15 minutes. Fill with the lighter pink or green, respectively, by piping frosting back and forth to completely fill petals.


to decorate a daisy:
Mix the following frosting colors: white, yellow and pink or green. Prepare 3 frosting bags. Fill a frosting bag with a size "3" tip with white. Fill a bag with a size "4" tip with yellow. And fill a bag with a size "3" tip with pink or green.

In center of daisy, pipe a yellow circle and fill. With the white, pipe petals and let set for 15 minutes. Fill petals with white by piping back and forth until completely filling the petals. With the pink or green, pipe the little petals between the white petals: squeeze frosting to form dot, then stop squeezing as you pull away.