Decorated Sugar Cookies - Sweet Dreams Cookies

It is fact that a face, in particular a smiling face, can make anything instantly adorable. Although I'm pretty sure these cookies would have been adorable without the faces too. My favorite part has to be those little pink cheeks!

My friend Macey ordered these cookies to gift to her friends who just welcomed their first baby boy! These cookies remind me of softly lit nurseries, mobiles, and classic story books. So cute!

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Winnie the Pooh Baby Shower

When my good friend Kathleen ordered classic Winnie the Pooh cookie favors for her sister Anne's baby shower, I knew I wanted them to look a certain way. I wanted to try to recreate E.H. Shephard's whimsical and childlike illustrations, and while I wouldn't say these cookies are quite on his level of artistry, I was pretty happy with the results!

To achieve the nostalgic illustrated effect I opted to hand paint each individual cookie using gel food color as my "watercolor" and food-only paint brushes to paint with. While the process was time consuming, I think it was well worth the effort. I always feel happiest when I am creating something artistic with my hands. All my stress and worries seem to disappear, and it's so rewarding to see what you come up with at the end of it all.

Kathleen loves anything with peanut butter, (one of her dogs is named Peanut Butter!) and she requested that half of the order be peanut butter flavored. As usual when in need I turned to Haniela. I used this recipe. I was really impressed with how well the dough acted, with hardly any spread at all. Of course the end result was delicious too.  I'll definitely be making these again, they would be amazing with some chocolate ganache spread on top or with some mini chocolate chips folded in before baking.

I think my favorite cookie design of the set has to be the one with Pooh digging for honey from the honey pot. It's the quintessential Pooh! 

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Kawaii Cupcakes

THEY'RE SOOOO CUUUUTE!!! These are HANDS. DOWN. the cutest cookies I have ever made. I had such a good time making these. I'm pretty sure I was smiling the whole time. I mean, just look at their cute little faces! How can you not smile? I of course couldn't resist making them even cuter with the addition of polka dots, stripes, hearts, sprinkles, and pastel colors. I think my favorite cupcake has to be the mustachioed one. 

Several of my friends have birthdays mid February/early March so these cookies are for them. Here's a picture from Kelly's instagram of what they looked like when she received them It's always a giant sigh of relief when my cookies reach their destination safely. EDIT: My website has since been changed from Sweet Pree to Kishmish Kitchen).

I was inspired by none other than Sweet Ambs for these cupcake cookies - here is her tutorial. My head is spinning with ideas on more kawaii-inspired food cookies - I'm thinking fruits and vegetables, sushi, doughnuts, ice cream cones, a box of chocolates, mochi....the possibilities are endless!

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Valentine's Day Hearts

I made these Valentine's Day cookies for Amy and Melissa, a wonderful couple that I met here in Seattle. I really enjoyed making this cookie set as I used new several methods that I learned from the one and only Sweet Ambs, such as wet-on-wet roses, piped Wilton roses, and painting with gold luster dust. 

I love how feminine and delicate these cookies are. They make me want to host a tea party out in the garden with my finest china. Except I don't own any china. Or have a garden. 

My piped lettering needs LOTS of work. It pains me to post the above photo, but I think it's important to document my imperfections so I can look back on them one day and see how much I've (hopefully) improved! And on the whole I am pretty proud of this set. 

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Kawaii Dota 2

My boyfriend is OBSESSED with Dota 2. In fact he's playing it as I type this blog post! Over the years dating him I have learned to accept the fact that he is truly addicted. When he suggested that I make his friend Isaac Dota 2 cookies for his graduation, I had a sneaking suspicion that he was hoping I'd end up with "extras." He did end up helping, though! He actually piped the bottom left red cookie in the above picture. (For those of you wondering what that is supposed to be, it's the Dota 2 logo which is supposed to represent the map on which the game is played.) I was so proud of him - I could hardly tell his cookie apart from mine! 

As you can see, my cookies are only loosely based on the actual characters - I was going for more of a kawaii look. They are cookies, after all! I actually didn't like these cookies at all after I had completed the set, but when I woke up the next morning I took one look at them and loved them. Don't ask me why. The bright, fun colors and their cute little faces just make me happy! 

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Santa Owls

I love owls almost as much as I love decorating cookies. Or do I love decorating cookies almost as much as I love owls? Either way, my entire apartment is full of owls. Owl curtains, owl candles, owl wax warmers, owl measuring cups, owl socks...it's bordering on obsessive. But I couldn't let a holiday season pass me by without making some adorable Santa Owl Cookies!

The Santa hats, scarves, eyes, and beaks were all made using royal icing transfers, and "glued" onto the cookies once the base coat was dry. It's an easy way to add embellishments to a cookie while giving it a 3-D effect. I also used a vintage color palette which was actually kind of an accident. While mixing up my icing I was having trouble getting my red to be that bright, vivid "Christmas" red so I called it good enough and mixed up some pale shades of green and blue to complement the maroon. Sometimes "mistakes" can give you very pleasing results so I try not to stress too much about the small stuff and see what I end up with. The only thing I would change about these cookies is that I didn't add small dots for the "whites" of their eyes - they look a bit like they're dead inside...

Christmas Log Cabin - Gingerbread House

I decided this was the year to build my very first gingerbread house. I have no idea why it took me 25 years to get to that point, but I can say with complete certainty that this is going to become a Christmas tradition! I had a BLAST making this, and I'm really pleased with the results. 

It took me probably a week from start to finish to make this as I only worked on it for a couple hours a day. I had so much fun creating it and am already planning next year's gingerbread house(s)! Not only does it serve as a beautiful (and inexpensive) holiday decor, it's like Christmas scented potpourri for your house! I used LOTS of warming spices in the dough such as cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, cardamom, and allspice. Haniela is known in the cookie world for her incredible gingerbread creations and it is from this video tutorial that I took inspiration. She lays out the whole process, step by step.

I didn't have snowflake OR Christmas tree cookie cutters, so I improvise a bit and used flower shaped cookies and upside-down heart shaped cookies. I actually really like how whimsical and fairy-tale like it makes them look.