May is the month for First Communions. This year I worked on a a few orders one of them being my daughter’s Holy Eucharist (well, I can’t count that as an order).

This set of cookies were made for a little group of boys from St. Francis of Assisi who play baseball and were celebrating their First Communion. The name of their team is the “Saints”.

The request called for a combination of grey, gold and black which were the colors of the uniforms and the name of the team included on the cookie. It was hard to envision a cross cookie with such deep colors. I knew I couldn’t make a black cross… and I couldn’t make it brown (like wood). Gold I thought was too deep, so my last choice was grey. I wasn’t too convinced, but I gave it a shot.

This particular cross mold doesn’t make a big cookie, so putting the name of the team on the cross was a little bit tough. By the way, writing on cookies and making eyes are my… lets say, nightmare. I have lost so many cookie doing that.

I knew the name would be in gold, but cookies still look too sad… too dark. Although adding a chalice and host was not part of the plan, I thought it would make the cookies a little bit brighter. I loved how they turned out!!!  I finished the cookies by brushing the chalice with gold luster dust to add shine to them.

I received wonderful comments about the cookies and that made my day.

It that time of the year when we start celebrating First Communions. I have a cake for you that helped my client celebrate such a memorable occasion.

I don’t often get to work on square cakes. Round cakes are simply more popular than square cakes so this was a good opportunity to work on a different shape.

This First Communion cake features a chalice, a cross with piped detail, a rosary and a monogram for the celebrated boy.

This chalice is entirely made out of chocolate and it sits on top of the cake. I used a chocolate mold to create this piece. We also featured a marbled fondant cross in ivory and white colors. I piped on the edges and added a sparkle in the center.

One of my favorite pieces is the edible rosary made out of fondant. I have to admit, I didn’t make this. My mom makes them by hand all the time. There are gum paste molds out there that can help you make this type of confection. I have tried them before, but I use them for other type of decorations. When it comes to the rosaries, I prefer the way my mom makes them which is one little bead at a time.

The bottom tier of the cake features a quilt pattern. Quilting a cake is a beautiful way to finish a cake. There is a sparkling gem on each intersection of the design. I went with a non-edible gem for extra shine.  A name plaque was also added to the center of the cake.

The rosary is never attached to the finished cake until it is ready to be presented at a table. I like to place them as part of the topper, but it can certainly be place anywhere on the cake.

The cake is covered in a home made fondant. Cake flavors included a very moist red velvet cake and cream cheese buttercream frosting and white cake with dulce de leche buttercream filling.

Many blessing Nicholas.