IT'S VALENTINE'S DAY

I tried a couple of different recipes for my valentine cookies this year and wasn't happy with the taste of them. "If it's not broke don't fix it!" What was I thinking? My favorite cookie is always ginger but I think Valentine's Day calls for chocolate or sugar. I did decorate them but they are still in the freezer waiting for me to decide what to do about them! It's a little late this year to put them on the blog except for these that I made just for fun - to put on the blog. Happy Valentine's Day!

- posted by Momsu 

BE MY VALENTINE?

By Valentine's Day last year I had discovered the cookie bloggers and was trying new ways of decorating. And with Americolor gels getting a good red icing was easy. I decided that piping and filling with royal icing left a better edge than simply spreading the icing on the cookie.
I was trying out the wet on wet technique - so perfect for making a heart by dragging a toothpick down the center of a dot. The scalloped outline in icing on that square cookie didn't turn out because the icing was too thin and the heart bled for the same reason - but I liked the look of the cookie. I love red. I love Valentine's Day - it's my birthday! So - from the archives here's a plate of sugar cookie hearts.

- posted by Momsu

PAPER DOLLS?

Did you ever fold up a piece of paper and cut out a row of paper dolls?

Christmas is traditionally over on January 6 or Twelfth Night. Well - that's come and gone weeks ago and I still have the remembrance of a wonderful Christmas spread out around the house. So hard to get it all picked up and put away! We have managed to eat up most of the Christmas cookies (and they were soooo good)

BUT - there were four gingerbread men left and when I opened the tupper where they were stored it reminded me of the paper dolls we used to cut out of a piece of folded paper when we were kids - my generation anyhow!

This is our original gingerbread man. Nina makes them for us every year - exactly the same. It's a tradition! But this year she rolled our gingerbread recipe a little thinner - 1/8 inch and they are very crisp compared to the ones we roll 1/4 inch to decorate. You wouldn't think it would make that much difference but it does. They are VERY good rolled thin - or "were" . . .  

- posted by Momsu

The cookie platter? Clockwise from the Gingerbread Men, Ginger Cookie snowflakes, Nina's Jam Buttons, Lebkuchen stars, Pecan Balls, Iced Ginger Cookies with Jill's Spritz in the middle. YUM! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR by Nina

It's New Year's Eve!

Put on your party shoes...

And raise your glass to welcome 2013.

Happy New Year from The Ginger Cookie!

SNOWFLAKES by Nina

For really beautiful snowflakes made with an actual snowflake cutter here are Nina's flakes.

I love this cutter - the prettiest I've seen. Where did it come from?

Nina says: This is one of my favorite cookie cutters! Auntie Janet gave it to me for my birthday in the spring and I've been looking forward to using it this winter. I don't know where she got it. Maybe she remembers and will post in the comments!

They say there are no two snowflakes alike - hard to believe!

These are soooo pretty, Nina!

Nina says: Thank you, Momsu! They were fun to make. I only made these three but would like to do lots more.

- posted by Momsu

SAN DIEGO SNOWFLAKES

No snow in San Diego - just in the mountains to the east of the city once in awhile. But we can MAKE snowflakes! So - from the archives since I'm not decorating cookies until this coming weekend and it's time to get something wintry on the blog:

I like the look of piping in white accented with sanding sugar on a ginger cookie.

Even prettier is white on white. A six-sided star makes a nice snowflake if you don't have or (in my case) don't want to use a snowflake cutter.

And cut out around the edges of big cookies are small bite-sized snowflakes. Be sure to bake cookies of the same size together so the little ones don't get too done while the bigger ones are taking longer.

A six-sided scalloped cutter makes a pretty snowflake too.

Or decorate fat stars in the same way - this one is sprinkled with granulated sugar which stuck to the ginger cookie as well as the icing giving a frosty effect.

- posted by Momsu

FALL COLOR GIVES WAY TO BARE TREES

. . . but not here in San Diego. We go to the local mountains for a fall "fix" every year. In San Diego we have liquid ambers, ginkos and a few other ornamentals that can be very colorful but most of our deciduous trees just dry up and turn brown.

I discovered photographing my cookies in the sun works well but not on a day when the sun keeps going behind a cloud - like the day I photographed these cookies. It took me forever!

Here's an example of what happens:

This cookie was photographed in the sun - the color is good but with the November sun low in the sky every imperfection shows up. My icing was too thick and it looks like the struggle it was! It will take some Photoshop work to make it look presentable. But if it's a good icing job the sun works very nicely.

Here's the same cookie taken when the sun went behind a cloud. The icing looks better but the color is dull and it will take some Photoshop work to get the color to look better - but not good. The cookies at the top of this post were taken when the sun went behind a cloud and they look dull in spite of Photoshop.

So - I need to slow down and not be in such a hurry - and make sure my royal icing is the right consistency. See Sugarbelle's 20-second icing tutorial. And perhaps I need to set up a photo light box inside instead of using nature's light box? See Sugarbelle's post on photographing cookies. 

- posted by Momsu