Love is in the Air

It's June and love is in the air.  Time for weddings...brides and grooms, lace, champagne, wedding cakes, and of course, wedding cookies!  My cousin and her friends were planning a bridal shower for one of their daughter's upcoming weddings, and she asked me to make wedding  shower cookies for the event.  I was sooo excited!  The bride's colors are going to be multiple shades of red, a bit of pale yellow and green, and her wedding flowers are Calla Lilies.  She asked that the cookies have sticks so that they could be slipped in the napkins on the table settings.  So, I had fun trying to create a cookie with the elegance of a bridal cookie, still meeting the colors of the shower. 

While doing a little cookie research, I found this stacked cookie that looked a bit like a small wedding cake and I thought it was sooo cute. So I decided a make a couple of these for a shower surprise.  I made three cookies, and cut them with scalloped round cookie cutters.  These cookie cutters come in a set of differing sizes.  I flooded each cookie with Royal Icing and stacked them after they were dry with a little bit of Royal Icing to hold them together. I piped a red dot on each scallop and added a Calla Lily to the top with pale green leaves.

 

Next, it was on to the cookies.  The focus, of course, is the Calla Lily.  I played around with a few different techniques, and found the use of gum paste to be the best, for a more realistic Calla Lily.  However, gum paste dries pretty firm, so it may not be the best portion of the cookies to eat.  I used a Wilton Calla Lily form, but traded out the heart shaped form for a much smaller heart shape because I wanted a smaller Calla Lily.  I rolled out the gum paste, after kneading it, cut out the small heart, molded the edges, and wrapped the "petal" onto the Calla Lily cone form.  I placed each lily on a styrofoam board to dry...all 66 of them.  Next, I made the stamens by softening and rolling 1/4 of a yellow (lemon) Starburst candy  into a log shape.  I placed each stamen on on a tooth pick and painted them with edible yellow Luster Dust and placed them on the styrofoam to dry.  Once the lily was a firm, I painted it with edible opal Luster Dust so that the petal had a slight glitter.  After it was dry, I added the stamen to the center with a bit of Royal Icing.

Before adding the Calla Lilies to the cookies.  I flooded each cookie with white Royal Icing.  After the icing dried, I monogrammed the cookie with a red "S", the "bride-to-be's" new last name initial.  I piped small white flowers on each scallop and placed a white sugar pearl in the center of each flower.  After it dried, I flooded three green leaves on the face of  the white icing.  Finally, I added two Calla Lilies to each cookie and then added green stems and a top leaf.   

 

Finally, I placed each cookie in a cellophane bag and tied a pretty red bow at the bottom.  I was pleased with the way they turned out.

And yes, I just had to make another stacked cookie with a pretty red rose on the top; another little shower surprise.

I was happy to hear that every one at the shower enjoyed the cookies, because I sure enjoyed making them!