Mar 20, 2010

cherry blossom cookies

Here in Washington DC, the millisecond the cherry blossoms bloom around the Tidal Basin is big big big. So to honor their upcoming arrival (and hasty departure, it always seems), I used my rookie fondant to make cherry blossoms cookies. I had lots of ideas for these, including pulling out my food coloring and paint brush and making them super-realistic looking. But that seemed super-time consuming. So I went the super-easy route instead.


to make cherry blossoms cookies you will need:
dough
frosting

round or square cookie cutter
fondant (store-bought
or homemade)
blue, pink and brown food coloring (I use Americolor soft gel pastes, "Sky Blue," "Electric Pink" and "Chocolate Brown")
1 disposable decorating bag
1 coupler

1 size "4" decorating tip

wax paper
rolling pin
small
flower cookie cutter
small 1/2 inch circle fondant cutter
light corn syrup


step one: bake your cookies
Bake cookies using the round or square cookie cutter and let cool completely.

step two: flood your cookie backgrounds
Prepare about a cup of light blue frosting. Use half of it to fill a frosting bag fitted with a coupler and size "4" decorating tip. Tie the bag tightly with a rubber band. Outline circles or squares on the cookies and let set about 15 minutes. Thin remaining frosting with water, a drop or two at a time, stirring well, until the consistency of thick glue. Using a spoon or squeeze bottle, pour some frosting in the center of the cookies and let spread to the edges. You should have to encourage the spreading a bit with the back of the spoon. Let sell well, at least a couple hours or even overnight.
step three: make your cherry blossoms
Take a wad of fondant (I use about an egg-size, but adjust depending on how many cookies you are making.) Tint the fondant light pink by adding a couple drops of food coloring and kneading very well. If fondant gets too sticky, let sit uncovered at room temperature about 15 minutes or until easily pliable. Take another wad of fondant and tint a darker pink. Roll each pink fondant about 1/8-1/4 inch thick between two pieces of wax paper. Cut out small flowers with the light pink and some mini circles of both light and dark pink. Dab corn syrup on the back of a mini circle and press onto the center of a flower. Set aside on wax paper.


step four: make your branches
When your cookies are dried and your blossoms are done, tint a wad of fondant with brown frosting. You may need quite a few drops to get a dark brown. Roll thinly between two pieces of wax paper and cut out thin slices. With your fingers, roll the slices a little so they are more log like than flat.


step five: assemble your cookies
Arrange your blossoms as desired on the cookies. Dab light corn syrup on the fondant pieces to get them to stick. Arrange branches first, then place a flower and a couple mini circles on the branches. (I had you prepare the branches right before assembly so the fondant is still soft. That way, you can bend and manipulate them as you like.)

23 comments:

  1. So pretty. My hubby's band used to march in a parade near DC to celebrate the blossoms blooming. Thanks for the sweet reminder.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a perfect cookie to usher in spring!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow these look so dainty and delicate!

    Cookies like these definitely make memories rush back to you.

    Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  4. These cookies are so cute and so original! Very sweet!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very, Very, cute! I like the simplistic approach and that they are not so detailed.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love these cookies so much! I miss the cherry blossoms.

    ~Jenifer

    ReplyDelete
  7. They are so cute! Thank you for sharing the tutorial :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Really pretty Meaghan!!

    Blessings!
    Amanda

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your cookies are beautiful! Can you show more decorating with frosting - I'm not so great with fondant. Thanks for this blog - it is informative and fun to read!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think these have to be my favourites of the fondant decorated cookies you have done!

    ReplyDelete
  11. you are all so nice to me, sob, wiping tear. Yes Laura! Definitely. I have a couple posts coming up pure frosting (I never even used fondant til a couple years ago, and spent a decade solely using frosting, so important to get back to my roots!)

    ReplyDelete
  12. these are adorable and i love all the colors you used. i've always been too scared to use fondant but this post has inspired me. maybe i'll try some MMF soon! thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  13. sooo cute and perfect for spring and the cherry blossom festival!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. So creative! Can't wait until the cherry blossoms bloom.

    ReplyDelete
  15. These are so lovely! I just saw these today on Food News Journal (www.foodnewsjournal.com) as the FNJ Daily Recipe! They certainly put me in a spring mood. 8-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. oooh, thanks Tangled Noodle! I knew that was posting soon, so thanks for the head's up! I'll head over there now...

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love the autumn best and am so excited that it's finally arrived where I am, but you've got me wishing it was spring now! The tulips sound beautiful. Your cookies are such perfectly pretty creations - I can almost smell the blossom. The display's fantastic too.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments! While I may not be able to respond to every single comment, know that I read, ponder and appreciate each and every one.

If you ask a question in a comment, I will contact you directly if you have an email attached to your ID or if you leave me your email in the comment. Otherwise, I will answer by leaving a comment in the same place you left a question, so be sure to check back. Or, contact me via email.

Due to spam ads for viagra and medicine I don't need, I now moderate comments, so it may take up to a day for your comment to appear, depending on how crazy my day is. (I may suspend this during giveaways.)