Jae's Decorated Cookies

I just came back from a short but sweet trip to Vegas with a group of girlfriends to celebrate a birthday.  Two years ago we took a spontaneous trip to Vegas and this year we did the same.. but planned.  On our last trip I had made some chocolate cupcakes for her decorated with buttercream flowers:

This year, I made her about 2 dozen decorated cookies and regular chocolate cupcakes.

Jae LOVES butterflies so I decided to incorporate it into the cookies.  Inspired by a cupcake I saw online the other day I decorated the cookies using fondant.  Fondant is a sugar dough which is most often used to cover wedding cakes to create a perfect canvas as a foundation for beautifully decorated cakes.

First I baked off sugar cookies with skewers.  I soaked the skewers in hot water for about 20 minutes or so before inserting them into the cookies to bake.

After baked and cooled, I colored the fondant black and cut out black circles (rolled out with a rolling pin and cornstarch) with the same round cutters used to cut the cookies.  Take note that the cookie expands a little in the baking process.  Depending on how often the dough is worked the cookie might expand a little or not at all.  Chances are some of the circles of fondant won't always fit perfectly on the cookie.

I dusted off the excess cornstarch.  Then, I made some royal icing and got a brush (Home Depot has various sized paint brushes for as little as about $1) and dipped it in the icing.

Then I brushed on the icing.  I made sure not to go too close to the edge because if the fondant doesn't cover all of the cookie then you'll have a messy finished product.

For the second layer I rolled out white fondant to create a stark contrast of colors.  I had bought these clear stamps at a craft store with different floral and swirly designs.  It's a quick and easy way to create some texture to the fondant without having to spend hours hunch backed trying to pipe a pretty design.

Make sure the stamp has some cornstarch on it so it doesn't stick into the fondant.  Repeat throughout the entire piece of fondant.

Then I took a round cutter that was the next size down from the ones used for the cookie and cut out round pieces.  

I had mini butterfly cookie cutters so I cut the center out with that.

I put this patterned circle on top of the black circle using a small amount of water to stick them together.  Then I took some of the royal icing and piped in the center of the butterfly my friend's name.  After several hours of drying, I added a shimmery coat (more on this in another entry) to the cookies and viola.. beautiful cookies.  

I reversed the colors on half of them.

Happy 28th Birthday Jae!  I love you!!