It's here! It's here!!! Sweet Sugarbelle's line of cookie cutters and cookie decorating tools is here!
You may have seen Callye on HSN (yay, Callye!), but her line is also now available at Michael's. SO EXCITING!!!
(Check your Michael's stores because the products are slowly making their way into all locations.)
Besides the fact that Callye makes THE cutest cookies, I've always been amazed at her ability to flip a cookie cutter shape around and make something totally different. Years ago when I was writing Decorating Cookies, Callye was kind enough to let me feature her in the guest baker section, talking about just that.
I used the Sweet Sugarbelle Shape Shifter cookie cutters to help make this set. (I'll be writing about more of the Sugarbelle products soon, so stay tuned.) The shape shifter cookie cutters come with helpful step-by-step instruction cards as well as stencils to help guide the decorating. So smart!
Along with the shape shifter cookie shapes, I used a scalloped circle and a heart to just add a little more to the set. See more on making the lace hearts here. And on the roses here (I used royal icing for these instead of buttercream).
Maybe it's strange to have a girl in the Dia de los Muertos set, but I just love her. In my mind, she's heading to the parade with flowers in her hair. ♥
On that note, for the flowers on the girl and on the skeleton, you can either pipe those directly onto the cookies or make them ahead of time, then place them on the dried cookies with a bit of icing. That's what I did here. I used a star tip to make the pink roses and the pink are toothpick roses, detailed here.
To make Dia de Los Muertos cookies, you'll need:
- cut-out cookies, skull shape from Sweet Sugarbelle
- royal icing, divided and tinted with AmeriColor Super Black, Bright White, Copper, Electric Pink, Electric Orange mixed with Orange, Leaf Green
- Sweet Sugarbelle food coloring pen
- piping bags
- couplers and tips: #2, small star, 101s, leaf, #1
- squeeze bottles
- toothpicks
- AmeriColor food coloring pens: black, red, pink
Make the cookies. Use the Sweet Sugarbelle pen and stencil to mark lines for piping.
Use black icing to outline the pen lines using a #2 tip.
Reserving some of the piping consistency icing, thin the black icing with water, a bit at a time, stirring with a silicone spatula, until it is the consistency of a thick syrup. You'll want to drop a "ribbon" of icing back into the bowl and have it disappear in a count of "one thousand one, one thousand two." Four is too thick, one is too thin. Count of 2-3 is good.
Cover with a damp dishcloth and let sit for several minutes. Stir gently with a silicone spatula to pop and large air bubbles that have formed. Pour into a squeeze bottle.
Pour into a squeeze bottle and flood the outline, using a toothpick to guide to edges and pop large air bubbles.
Follow the same technique of outlining and flooding for the faces using white for the skeleton and copper for the girl's face. (For a darker skin tone, use Warm Brown.)
Let the icing dry uncovered for 6-8 hours or overnight.
Use a small star tip to make pink roses, a leaf tip for the leaves, and a 101s tip to make toothpick roses. Let those dry overnight as well.
The next day, use food coloring pens to add the face details. For the skeleton, use the stencil. For the girls, use the stencil for face details if desired....I went rogue. ;)
Use the black icing and #1 tip to pipe hair detail.
Pipe a bit of royal icing on the back of the dried flowers and place onto skeleton to make a flower crown and on girl's hair.
Let the icing set up for about an hour before packaging.
I'm so excited to share more of Sweet Sugarbelle's products with you next week! Yay!
Cover with a damp dishcloth and let sit for several minutes. Stir gently with a silicone spatula to pop and large air bubbles that have formed. Pour into a squeeze bottle.
Pour into a squeeze bottle and flood the outline, using a toothpick to guide to edges and pop large air bubbles.
Follow the same technique of outlining and flooding for the faces using white for the skeleton and copper for the girl's face. (For a darker skin tone, use Warm Brown.)
Let the icing dry uncovered for 6-8 hours or overnight.
Use a small star tip to make pink roses, a leaf tip for the leaves, and a 101s tip to make toothpick roses. Let those dry overnight as well.
The next day, use food coloring pens to add the face details. For the skeleton, use the stencil. For the girls, use the stencil for face details if desired....I went rogue. ;)
Use the black icing and #1 tip to pipe hair detail.
Pipe a bit of royal icing on the back of the dried flowers and place onto skeleton to make a flower crown and on girl's hair.
Let the icing set up for about an hour before packaging.
I'm so excited to share more of Sweet Sugarbelle's products with you next week! Yay!
