Itsy Bitsy HAIRY Spiders

It is not quite clear to me that I simply can't do the scary Halloween stuff -- even these hairy spiders are kinda cute and really easy to make.  Royal icing body and legs covered in black sprinkles which give a hairy (but not so scary) effect.  Bagged up and ready for Halloween!  Question -- when did green and purple become Halloween colours?  Who cares -- they are super together.  Happy Halloween!

Gingerbread Skeletons -- Scary or Cute?

I can’t decide if these Halloween skeletons are scary or cute?  These chocolate brownie cookies are made with a gingerbread man cookie cutter and I draw on the skeleton with white royal icing.  I love making these cookies and I particularly like that the faces are all different.  Maybe some are cuter than others – what do you think?

Hamsa Peace Cookies

These HAMSA cookies  were baked in honour of the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held captive for over five years.  The Hamsa is a palm-shaped amulet popular for providing protection against the evil eye.  I have written the word Shalom on the cookies, and while all FLOUR CHILD cookies are totally baked with peace and love, these really are PEACE cookies.  

Good Grief -- Is It a Ghost or a Kid in a Costume?

I like Halloween a lot – like seriously who doesn’t? – treats and costumes just means pure cuteness (even the scary stuff is still cute).  And nothing is as cute at Halloween as the Peanuts in The Great Pumpkin.  Remember how, every year Linus would sit in the pumpkin patch on Halloween night waiting for the Great Pumpkin which invariably did not show and Lucy would ask for extra treats for her “blockhead” brother and Charlie Brown would get rocks.  I loved ghost costumes each of the characters dressed up in and how they sort of shuffled together to trick-or-treat.  I made this cookie to look like a kid in a ghost costume and was inspired by the Peanut kids.

Now We Are Talking Turkey

Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving and that means I am “Talkin’ Turkey”.  Nice thing about these turkeys is that all the fixins are included and there is no fear that they will be dried out because I used my chocolate brownie cookie recipe. 

Materials Needed for Decorating:

- candy caramel corn – I used the Thanksgiving colours that you can sometimes find but if not the Halloween one will look just as cute

- small heart sprinkles

- candy eyes

- tweezers

- melted chocolate in a squeeze bottle if you want royal icing will also work

- royal icing – orange and white –- as always I stress how much I like Ateco meringue - --- powder because it takes like marshmallows

- round cookie cutter – any size will work the one I used was about 3” around

Instructions and Tips:

Roll out the dough and bake according to the recipe.

I actually sorta placed everything around the cookie to see how it would look before I stuck everything on – just as practice.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and pour into squeeze bottle OR melt right in the bottle.

Squeeze a line of melted chocolate (or royal icing) and place caramel corns across the top to form the tail feathers.  Let dry (I actually put in the fridge for a few minutes).

Add the eyes with white royal icing.

Draw an orange triangle for the beak and place the heart sprinkle for the wattle – that thing that hangs down under the beak – who knew it was called a wattle?  My sister-in-law that is who knew because I did not know and called her for vocabulary help (THANKS Jill).

Draw the legs.

If you take time to make these, take a little more time and let me know how they turned out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Fashion Cookies

I’m back from Italy and, all of a sudden, the leaves are starting to change, the weather is getting a bit cooler and the days are getting shorter.  It is quite properly the fall season which means I can start to pull out my turtlenecks and tights, go for long walks with the dogs and make fall cookies.  I LOVE the fall – the colours are so awesome and the air is fresh.  I tried to replicate the reds, oranges, yellows and browns of the fall colours in these cookies.  But to really appreciate the beauty of autumn, please take some time for a walk to see and smell the best of the season (although the cookies smell pretty good too).