Making Perfect Cut Out Cookies

From time to time I receive a question that requires more info than a typical cake decorating question…so below is a question from the comments section here on my blog that was asked regarding making cut out cookies along with the answer. I hope this makes everything much clearer for you Gerri as well as anyone else who has trouble making perfect cut out cookies.

Question—-Hi Donna, I love these onesie cookie baby shower favors and elected myself to make 40 for a baby shower next weekend. I have tried to make them already and it way harder than I thought (way harder!) I used already made sugar cookie dough and did not roll it out so 4 out of 10 cookies looked like a onesie where the remaining cookies shape were hard to figure out. Then decorating was tough – I used frosting in a bag with the wilton tip. My question is it will take me a long time to cook and decorate, how far ahead can I make the cookies so they won’t be stale? Thanks and any other advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Gerri Dando

Answer—-It can be very tough at times to get started trying to create something that you may have found on a website or in a book, but with the correct information and tools you should be right on your way to creating the best looking cut out cookies, regardless of the shape. I usually try to make my cookie up about 3 to 4 days ahead of time so that I will have plenty of time to decorate them and making sure that they hold their freshness. I store them in a container with a sealed lid until I need them for a special occasion or an order.

Getting started with cut out cookies……

1). It doesn’t matter if you use a pre-made cookie dough or one that you made from a recipe. It is entirely up to you.

2). If  you’re using a cookie recipe allow your dough to sit in the fridge for about an hour, because when you go to work with the dough the heat from your hands with make the dough too soft. You need dough that is cold for the best results!

3). Split your dough in half, leaving one half in the fridge while you prepare to make your cookies.

4). You will want to prepare your work surface…..you can use your counter top area, (just make sure that you wipe it down very well before beginning) or you can use a silicone mat that is specially made for baking. Both ways work just fine. I will say that if you have a tough time picking up the cookie shape and transferring it to the cookie sheet then using the silicone mat may be the best way for you to cut out your cookie dough.

5). Lightly dust your work surface with flour or powdered sugar (confectioners sugar) which I use.

6). Dip the  edges of your cookie cutters into some flour (I actually use powdered sugar instead, it is up to you as to what you use). This will help to prevent your cutters from sticking to the dough.

7). Lightly flour your rolling pin also and begin rolling out your cookie dough. 

8). Its best to always begin in the middle of your dough and roll outward towards the edge areas.

9). If you begin to notice that your cookie dough is a little sticky, try lightly flouring your work surface and/or rolling pin a little more, depending on where it is sticking. (FYI–Do not over flour your dough, use as little as possible because the additional flour will affect the final taste of your cookies).

NOTE: How do I get my dough level….I use a product called Perfection Strips, really all they are is 2 strips of a flexible plastic material that I laid on each side of the dough and you roll your rolling pin over the dough to get the perfect thickness and level piece of cookie dough to create the perfect sized cookies. These plastic strips come in pairs with the following thickness: 2mm (1/16″); 4mm (1/8″) and 6mm (1/4″)…..Now if you don’t want to purchase this sort of product which is available as a set of 3 different thicknesses. You could try using a piece of flat trim cut into 2 pieces. I have inserted a picture so that you can see exactly how to use the perfection strips below.

10). Cut the shapes into your dough by applying even pressure with your entire hand on top of your cookie cutter, making sure to press all the way through the dough with a nice even cut around the entire edge for a perfect cut. Before lifting the cookie cutter away from the dough, give it a little twisting motion which helps to give you a very nice clean edge to your cookie shape, honestly this makes all the difference for achieving perfect cut out cookies……

  11). Use a thin metal spatula to carefully lift your cookie cutout off your work surface. I dip my spatula into a pile of powdered sugar  ( or flour if that is what your using) so that the cookie dough will not stick to it…….. Try to slide the spatula as far under the cookie as possible to help maintain its shape when transferring to the cookie sheet. Place the cutout cookies on a cookie sheet.

IDEA…..I leave the cookie cutter around the shape I have just cut out so that I don’t loose the shape of the cookie as I transfer it to the cookie sheet!

Once your cutouts are on the cookie sheet, place your cookie sheet into the freezer for approx. 10 minutes so that the cookies can firm up…….then into the oven to bake.

NOTE: If you would like to use a silicone baking mat you can roll out your dough right on the mat itself, then after cutting the cookies out just leave them in place and remove the remaining cookie dough. Once you have cut out all the cookie cutouts just transfer the baking mat to the cookie sheet. Anoher way of doing this is to roll out your dough on the mat, when finished transfer the mat to your cookie sheet, and finally cut out your cookies shapes with your cutters and remove any excess dough from the mat, then place the cookie sheet into the freezer for approx. 10 minutes allowing the dough to firm up. Then you can bake as usual, following the baking directions.

Making your fondant look shiny

While talking with other cake decorators about getting a fondant cake to look shiny, we were all throwing out different ideas we had tried, like using a paint brush to put a very small amount of water all over the covered cake would give it a nice shine. There were others who talked about using different luster dusts to get a shiny appearance on a cake or particular object. Then I brought up what I had recently tried that worked very well and many thought I was a little crazy, but I have been using the spray pam and it works like a charm. I have used the name brand spray, and I have used my local stores brand and they both worked equally well, the nice thing is I used the butter flavored ones and they seemed to soak into the fondant very nicely and left a beautiful shine. I did not discover this great thing on purpose. I had a cake on the counter that was covered in fondant, and I was spraying a empty baking pan to get ready for baking a cake, and noticed the over spray got on my cake, I was very surprised to see how cool it looked, so I sprayed the entire cake to see what would happen. I thought I would let all my cake friends in on this cool little technique that I am sure will have the need to make their cake or object shiny in the future.

 

3D Baby Book Cake

This is a cake that I created for a baby Shower, I always love to do cakes that are not seen everyday. I will give the directions so that if anyone else would like to create this cake you will know how I did it, then you can add your own little touches.

Items needed to create your own Sculpted Baby Book Cake

A baked cake in any size that you choose

White Fondant and any other color of your choice

Pizza Cutter or a Knife

Cookie Cutters Letters or whatever kind you may already have on hand

Fondant Smoother

2 spatulas

corn starch or powder sugar to dust your work surface when rolling out the fondant

As for the cake itself I used an11 x 15 sheetcake cut in half then stacked to get the desired thickness I needed. However if you don’t have that size pan available you could always use a regular baking pan that you may have already, most people have a 9 x 11 baking pan that they bake cakes in. That size could be used, then cut in half and stack those pieces together to give you a nice thickness for a book shape, you may want to trim the sides to come up with a shape that works for you. it may help to look at the shape of a medium sized book you have and recreate the size and shape of that.

The next step is to cover the cake in an icing of your choice, then you need to cover with white fondant.

Use the pizza cutter or knife to imprint lines very close together on 3 sides of the cake to give you the look of pages in a book, don’t push too hard though or you will end up with holes in your fondant.

Next you will need to roll out enough fondant in a square shape to make the cover of the book. It’s really important to put down plenty of corn starch or powder sugar when rolling out the fondant because you wil need to wrap part of the fondant over the cake. Next I used 2 spatulas to pick up the cake and place it on top of the fondant square, place the cake about an inch from the right edge of the fondant. Then you will need to carefully pick up the left side of the fondant and lay it over top of the cake to complete the cover of the book, if you have too much fondant hanging over then you can always trim it to be equal to the bottom part of the cover.

Use a fondant smoother to smooth out the fondant on the top of your book cake, then use it to create a spine edge on the top edge of the cake, by looking at my cake picture you can see where exactly to do this. I then left the right corner of my fondant flipped up to add detail to the book.

I used cookie cutter letters to cut out the word baby for the spine of the book, you could use whatever cookie cutter shapes you may have on hand if you do not have letters, such as maybe a flower, a rattle, a star, a heart. It’s your cake so personalize to your liking it doesn’t have to be for a baby shower, you could do a book for a graduate, a gardening book, or someones favorite book. The ideas are limitless as to what kind of book you can create.

The baby I have on top was sculpted out of gumpaste, however if you are not able to do that then use a your cookie cutters to cut out a shape of something you like and place on the top. Another good idea is using the edible markers that are on the market and available at most stores, I bought a set at my local grocey store in the cake isle. You could write whatever you would like on the top of the book which would give you a differnt effect.

If you have any questions along the way should you decide to create a book cake just drop me an email and I will get back to you. If you do a book cake be sure to email me a picture I would love to see your creation, until next time happy creating!!