Graduation Cookies Take Two!

A couple of fondant accents, drop flower and mini rose RI transfers,
as well as an outlined and accented stamp were some of the
ways I decorated mini cookies for a grad platter. 

A friend asked me to make some grad cookies for her daughter's college graduation party.  I loved the color palette and thoroughly enjoyed playing around with this project.  Orange, blue, and white are the Sam Houston State University Bearkat colors and the following are what I came up with.  They are based on a vanilla bean sugar cookie and used a variety of techniques when decorating - basic piping, rubber stamping, stacked "3-D" plaque cookies, and some royal icing transfers (a variety of flowers).  Lots of fun - a few mistakes (mostly eaten) and off they went to celebrate this week-end.  Enjoy the photos!

Three plaque cookies from 5-6 inches in size. 
Nice centerpieces for a cookie platter.
The white dots were all piped with a PME 1.5 tip,
the orange with a PME 2 tip,
and the blue shell border with a Wilton tip #13.
I found these rubber stamps
(Class of, Congrats, and the Grad Cap)
at Hobby Lobby.  I think they were just $3.99 each.

 I have to tell the story of the '13 plaque cookie.  It was supposed to be the Congratulations plaque cookie.  I let it dry 18 hours under a fan, but apparently it wasn't dry enough.  When I pressed the stamp on the surface and gave it a slight push - the whole thing cracked and caved in.  I was going to give it to my husband to eat and left it under a fan all day so he would not end up with black lips!  However, after it dried, I thought "hmmm, could I re-coat it?"  So I tried it and it didn't dry very smooth and I could see a vague bit of black under the orange.  Then, when I was outlining and flooding the numbers 2013...I broke the number two.  I didn't have a back-up cookie.  So, I thought "hmmmm...could I make a 3-d cookie and cover up a whole mess of woes and still come out sunny?"  Having nothing to lose (and a back-up plaque or two) I gave it a try. To get the apostrophe, I used a mini leaf cutter and cut it out of a spare cookie from the batch...not a very smooth edge, but I carefully pressed it into shape and quickly iced it and didn't touch it any more!  It turned our fairly well I thought.  I gave all 3 plaques to my friend - she could choose whether to use one or all in her cookie platter.

There were quite a few stars - this is a sampling.  The center bottom
star is stenciled and highlighted with blue dots...
 the rest are free-hand.  My friend asked for
three-dozen minis.  It was fun getting creative with the minis.

Large 3 1/2 to 4 inch cookies included grad caps, scrolls, and
shooting stars (not shown)  A bit of gold lustre dust dissolved in
a drop of vodka added a nice accent to the tassels.

These are various drop flowers, piped roses, and piped ribbon roses.
The little hearts on the bottom left cookie were a simple dot
piped wet-on-wet and dragged with a needle tool to form a circle of hearts.
The transfers were all prepared on parchment paper, allowed to dry
overnight, and then glued to the base-coated cookie with royal icing. 
Mini leaves piped with a PME ST50 tip.  One of my new favorites!

This bunch of minis had a couple of wet-on-wet techniques.
I marbled the bottom one with white and orange after
base coating the cookie blue.  I like the way it looks.  I used
a technique for wet-on-wet flowers I've seen done by Buttercup Cookies.
Mine is not as good as hers...but I like the concept.

I've enjoyed sharing this project with you - I've made more graduation cookies this year than I've ever made before...EVER!  Since I'm just a hobby baker at this point, making large sets for friends is helping me stretch my wings!  If she sends me photos of the party, I'll update the blog post!!!  Congratulations, Elizabeth, on your graduation...hope you and your friends and family enjoy the cookies!

 

 

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!