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. 

Decorated Sugar Cookies - Layla's Baby Shower

I had so much fun making these baby shower cookies.  My best friend from childhood's older sister is having her first baby, a little girl named Layla! 

I made some baby carriages, a variety of onesies, bibs, teddy bears, gift boxes, hearts, and flowers. I painted the cookies with silver, pearl, and pink luster dust so that they had a pretty shimmer to them. I also used the wet-on-wet technique on many of them. This was my second attempt at decorating cookies with royal icing. There are no photos from my first attempt, so use your imagination on how those ones turned out. These cookies taught me the importance of checking your icing consistency before you start decorating. Mishaps aside, I think they turned out alright! 

It took me 3 days of non-stop cookie decorating to make 3 dozen cookies. Hopefully I will get faster with more practice. I was so exhausted by the end of it but it was worth it - I'm so proud of how they turned out! After I was done packaging all of them I literally just sat on the floor staring at them and taking pictures for about 30 minutes and asking Cassidy "aren't they sooo cuuute?"