These royal icing poppy flowers can be lovely accents for cookies, cupcakes, and full-sized cakes for Memorial Day celebrations. Since they are royal icing transfers, they can be made weeks/months in advance. Or you can speed up the drying time by using a fan on low speed or a food dehydrator. 

What you'll need:
* stiff red royal icing (Americolor tulip red is the perfect food coloring for this flower because of the orange undertones)
* Wilton decorating tip #150 (or other large petal decorating tip), icing bag, and coupler/ring
* flower nail
* parchment squares
* black royal icing, piping consistency
* black sanding sugar
* red petal dust and small paintbrush

Here are some close up pictures of the Wilton #150 tip (excuse the tarnish- it's an old tip). Notice how it is angled in the middle picture, with the left side slightly taller. Unlike other petal tips, the opening of this tip is the same width. A regular petal tip with a tapered opening would work for this poppy too, with just a slightly different final look. 

1. Load the red icing into the decorating bag with the coupler, tip, and ring. Attach a parchment square to the flower nail with a small amount of icing. Pipe the four flower petals with the taller point of the decorator tip closest to the flower nail. Check out the video of the flower making process.

2. Carefully slide the parchment square off of the flower nail and set aside to dry.

​3. After the flower has dried, use some red petal dust to dry brush (that means no liquid) the center of the flower. Simply load up the end of the brush with the dust and work it into the center of the flower and under the petals. It's subtle, and adds just a little depth. Don't have petal dusts? You could lightly airbrush the centers- or just leave them plain!

4. Peel the flower off the parchment paper square. Use the black icing to create a small icing ring in the center of the flower. Immediately sprinkle on the black sanding sugar. 

5. Use the black icing to make a mound of icing in the center of the sanding sugar ring. You're done!

Lest we forget the true meaning of Memorial Day.

Tequila. Salt. Lime. 
Putting together a collection of cookies for a Cinco de Mayo birthday created a challenge. I wanted to include this quintessential indulgence in the set of cookies, but I didn't have a shot glass cutter. 
​Cutter flips to the rescue!

This handled mug cutter from That's a Nice Cookie Cutter had a great shot glass look, and provided a space for a tequila wedge too. Yes, I realize the tequila wedge is kind of floating along the side of the glass. But after a few tequila shots, who is going to notice? 😉

What you'll need:
* baked mug shape cookies
* royal icing in the following colors/consistencies:
    white: 20-second
    gray: piping (just a little bit!)
    light and dark green: 25-second
* cardstock paper
* airbrush and gold airbrush coloring
* pencil and scissors
* scribe tool or toothpick
* white sanding sugar (for the "salt") 

​1. Bake your mug shape cookie. Use white royal icing to flood the glass part of the cookie, leaving a space along the handle of the mug for the lime wedge. Use the gray royal icing to add in a few glass lines at the bottom. Allow this section to dry well. 

2. Make a template/stencil by tracing the mug cutter on the piece of cardstock paper. Cut it out. Now draw and cut out a space on the cardstock mug that will represent the liquid in the glass. 

3. Use the template to airbrush the "tequila" onto the shot glass cookie. I like Amerimist Gold (not the metallic gold sheen). Notice that the airbrush shading is heavier along the edge of the template to create a curved appearance.

4. Use the dark green, light green, and white royal icing to pipe the lime wedge. Darker green on the outside to represent the peel, white and lighter green to represent the lime flesh. 

5. After a few minutes, use the scribe or toothpick to scratch the surface of the light green part of the lime to give some texture. Add some detail lines on the glass, and a little bit of sanding sugar "salt", if you wish. You're done! Time for tequila!

Here's the whole Cinco de Mayo collection.

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, FLOOR!

Wait, what? That doesn't look like a decorated cookie! And you would be absolutely correct.

Say hello to my newest drool-worthy, diet-postponing treat! Imagine a cheese puff (without the cheese) that tastes like a Butterfinger. Yup, you really did just hear angels singing.

We all know that cookie cutters are made differently. Some are made with molded plastic, some are made with bent metal, some are created with a 3D printer. I genuinely don't have a preference of plastic over metal- there are pros and cons to both.

However, there is one feature of some plastic cutters that I like- a HANDLE!
Oh wait, you didn't know that some cutters have handles? Let me show you!

The handle on a cookie cutter is a lip (typically around 3/8" wide) that is opposite of the cutting edge and it follows the perimeter of the cutter. When you press these cutters into the dough, your fingers can wrap around the handle to easily lift up the cutter. Typically, metal cutters do NOT have handles (unless it's a rubber grippy kind that can actually be removed). SOME plastic cutters have them; some mass-produced molded plastic ones (like Wilton and Sweet Sugarbelle branded) and some 3D printed ones (Sinful Cutters and Bobbi's Cutters, to name a few). 

But for me, that handle is more than just an easy way to lift up a cutter. It's a way to double your cutter use!

I wanted to use this Sweet Sugarbelle cutter for a gumball machine cookie, but it was a little too small for me. Instead of using the cutting edge of the cutter, I laid the cutter on my dough upside down, with the handle resting on the dough.

Using a paring knife, I cut around the handle of the cutter. ​

The resulting cookie shape was definitely bigger than one made with the real cutting edge. But it retained the same basic shape, just a little rounder.

Here are the two cutter sizes, decorated in the same manner. There are obvious differences between them, but the hand-cut shape works just fine!

A few tips:
1. Roll out a disc of dough and chill it for 10-15 minutes, then hand-cut your shapes. Your cuts will be smoother, leaving the cut edge less jagged, and the overall shape less distorted. 
2. Carefully select your cutting tool and what you're cutting the dough on. A dull paring knife on my Pampered Chef mat works for me. A sharper cutting tool will cut through the dough AND what your dough is resting on. Don't be like me and use a brand new PenBlade on an expensive silicone mat. You'll end up buying a new mat because you'll slice and dice through your mat. Trust me on this one. 
3. Keep in mind the shape of your cutter. This technique will work great for some, but not all shapes. A really bumpy-edged cutter will lose some of its definition. You can always trace the handle of your cutter on paper to test how it will look before you cut and bake dough. 

So don't be dismayed that you don't have the "perfect" sized cutter- you might just need a hand(le)!