Super delicious birthday cookies

I made this cake for a sweet sixteen party in Dalton, GA.  I have done this birthday girl's cakes now for several years.  Her Mom gets a local artist, Paula Gregg, to make a topper for the cake.

I then get to make a cake to accompany the cake!  It's always a fun challenge to create something that complements her artwork.

I took a picture at the venue with the topper installed, but the picture came out completely blurry :(

Have a great weekend and don't forget to register for the Money Cake giveaway.

Being an artist (at least I consider myself an artist), I try to do everything I can to support local art programs.  In our town, we have The Creative Arts Guild.  They do a wonderful job of bringing art to our community, as well as teaching classes in art, dance, photography, music, and probably a lot of other stuff I can't even remember right now.

Every year they host Festival, where artisans come from near and far to sale their particular brand of art.  This year there were SO many vendors selling everything from jewelry, to wood crafts, to tie dye T-Shirts.

The night before Festival begins, the Arts Guild hosts The Patron's Party where they invite the best food vendors in town to come in sample their wares.  We were honored to be invited again to provide cake for the event.

This year we really wanted to go all out and really make something special.  We broke out the Cricut Cake machine and cut out lots of dancers ( and the font too).  Then we went to the Guild's website and grabbed some images from local artists and printed them on edible image paper.  I framed these mini masterpieces on modeling chocolate frames (made from a lace mold).

I added the red curtains for a nice splash of color, but also to represent the theatrical and for the dramatic flair it adds.  It's just red fondant, and the pleating gods were with me that day.  They turned out SO nice!  I topped the cake with some musical notes bursting out the top.

It was very well received by the guests and especially by the Guild members.  I think we may have set the bar for future years.  If the folks from the Arts Guild are reading this, we'll try to go bigger and better next year!!

I realized when posting Terri's birthday cookies that I've never posted about her 40th birthday cookies.

Now, I hope Terri won't mind me stating her age, since she looks younger every time I see her.
{In a few years, I'll be making "29" cookies for her. I know, you'll want to hate her, but she's really nice, so you can't.}

So, I had this idea to use a drawing of Terri and have it printed on icing sheets for her cookies.

First, you need a really talented relative that you can guilt into making the drawing. (Thank you, Maura.)

Then, format the picture to the size you want it to be on the cookies. If you're lucky enough to own an icing printer (oh, how I would LOVE an icing printer!), print them off. If not, do what I did and take the file to your local bakery supply store for printing.

When you are ready to make the cookies, trim the pictures to the right size. Outline and fill the cookies as normal.

While the icing is still wet, peel off the backing of the picture and place onto the icing.

Now, here's what I learned the HARD WAY...add a day to the drying time. The icing sheet traps the moisture in the royal icing. It really needs 2 days to dry totally.

I made them the night before, started to bag them up and hop in the car to drive to the party, and OH, NO! The cookies were still wet. I cranked down the AC, turned the fans on high and prayed for the best.

Well, by the end of the evening, some of the cookie icing was stuck to the interior of the cookie bags. It's the thought that counts, right? :)

So, here is batch #2 of cookies from our trip. These cookies were for my cousin Maura. She is an amazing artist, so I used her artwork and made cookies from it.
I love this skeleton bride and groom! I thought a bride & groom needed a scalloped edge cookie. :)

Isn't this blue bird so sweet?!? I love the little orange beak and feet! (Hey...that rhymes!)
For both of the cookies, I scanned notecards that Maura made (her etsy store is closed now, but if/when (?) she re-opens it, I'll let you know...you'll want some of your own). To make photo or art cookies:

1. Make sure you have a really talented cousin! :)
2. Scan the image to be used (make sure you have permission!) and use a photo editing program to crop to fit the cookie. I use the crop tool and image size and view on 100% to see the actual size of the picture. Hold your cookie cutter up to the screen to check.
3. If you are lucky enough to have an icing printer, print on icing sheets. Otherwise, burn the images onto a CD (my techno-speak is not great, hope I said that right!) and take to a bakery supply store to have printed with edible ink.
4. Cut the images from the icing sheet, but leave the backing intact.
5. Outline and fill cookies in white icing.
6. While the icing is wet, remove the backing from the image and lightly place onto the cookie.
7. Let dry at least 24 hours...not just overnight...24 hours! These take a while to dry, I think the moisture gets trapped under the image.
8. Mix a little meringue powder with water.
9. Using a small paintbrush, apply this mixture around the edges.
10. Sprinkle with non-pareils; shake off excess.
11. Let dry.