April Cookies

I was really excited to do some Easter cookies!

I had ordered cute bunny, chick and flower cutters but didn't think they would arrive in time so I went ahead with plan B.  I had seen a cute idea to use an egg shape for chicks so I figured I could use it for bunnies as well...

I liked what I had but then my cutters arrived and I had to make more :)

 

I seriously love this bunny and chick!

I wish I would have done something a little different with this flower...but...next time :)

Back in March or so I talked with my sister about doing cookies for her daughter's 6th birthday.

She wanted either Frozen or cats and dogs.

Since my skills aren't up for the challenge of character cookies (I hear they're the hardest) and I also have read that there's some sort of copyright issue with doing them, I opted for the cats and dogs :)

I couldn't find the perfect cutters in time so I ended up hand cutting the sixes, cats and dogs.

I definitely think that this is a set that I can do better with down the road after much more experience.  I wasn't thrilled with how they turned out which is always frustrating...especially if they are for someone else.  I figured my cute niece wouldn't notice the flaws too much and would hopefully be happy with them.

Trying to do realistic-ish animals is definitely not my forte!

Maybe I should have tried to do a more simple, cartoon style like I did with the Easter chicks and bunnies but oh well...I learned another lesson :)

Another thing that made these a bit more tricky were that they are vegan!

The cookie itself was more soft than I was used to working with and I felt that the icing (I used a vegan meringue powder) didn't set up as well so it cracked and wasn't as smooth.

I also had a lot of color bleeding happen with this set and I don't know if that was because of the different icing recipe or what but I just seemed to be up against a lot of challenges with this one!

Anyway, I was going to ship them to Oregon but my parents decided to take up a trip up there a couple of weeks before her birthday.  I was worried about how they would handle the shipping anyway, so when my parents announced they were going I decided to try making them early and freezing them (which I had never done with my cookies before but had read that they actually do quite well and some cookiers even think they are better after having been frozen) and sending them on the plane with my parents.  My sweet mother was kind enough to hold them on her lap to keep them safe :)  My sister reported that they were great and the birthday girl was thrilled...so I guess my mission was accomplished :)