Valentine’s Day Cookies 2015
The first hearts I call “Abstract Hearts”. They are hand painted and they were an ‘experiment’. That means that I messed up a lot of cookies before I was happy with the finished hearts.
I fell in love with an image I saw online while searching for ideas. A set of hearts full of coordinating colors, but no pattern at all. The colors looked brushed and spotted at the same time, if this makes sense. I took the brushing idea and the result is what you see below. They looked very dull and opaque after they dried so I sprayed them with edible glitter to make them shine.
Are you familiar with Burlap fabric? Burlap is a fabric material used for sewing and creating home decorations. The next hearts are decorated with the idea of trying to recreate the texture. Let me tell you… decorating these puppies was so time consuming and my hand was cramping after working on just a couple of them. The lines are meant to be really tight and close. I might have achieved the burlap look in one or two cookies, but my hand was numb with all the piping. The red hearts were some of the first ones and the brown ones… some of the last. I’m sure you see the difference.
The flying hearts are next. I worked on these cookies last year, you can see them here.
Burlap was one type of fabric design. This next hearts are decorated with a style called Filigree. Filigree consists of curved lines connected to each other and because it is typically used in jewelry or metal pieces in either gold or silver.
You may wonder why there is a musical theme to this year’s cookies. I worked on this set for a musical Valentines piano recital offered by children taking piano lessons from Pied Piper Studios (Kindermusik). My daughter participated this year so it was a very special Valentine’s event for our family.
Musical notes, symbols and pianos were some of the designs. You can see last years music Valentine’s Day cookies here.
Two more designs to show you. I love birds and this year I wanted to incorporate some sweetness inspired by these beautiful creatures. These cookies were some of my favorites.
Here are some teddy bears that may require a little bit more attention next time. there’s no connection between the heart and the arms, but they are still cute. What I like about them is that they have texture to them, like fur. It might be hard to see it though in this picture. I do like the pandas, they are super cute. They can always get cuter!
Here is the treat table. Besides the Valentine’s Day cookies, I also made rich chocolate cupcakes topped with a dark chocolate buttercream and pink vanilla cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream.
Another sweet treat I made for them were Cake Balls. Flavors included chocolate and chocolate ganache buttercream and vanilla with dulce de leche buttercream. Those are delicious!
My daughter Lillie did a wonderful job playing her piano pieces and she delighted the seniors with a couple of songs as well as the other children.
Valentine’s Day Sweet Treats
I had the opportunity to bake again for Kindermisik. This time, the treats were for a piano musical concert. The theme was Valentines Day and because it was piano performance, I wanted to incorporate musical items, especially a piano.
Here’s a quick look at the cookies as I arranged them in a tray.
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Musical notes displayed on large cookie hearts or fancy shaped cookies. A variety of musical and love messages are part of this design.
I made this heart cookie with wings design last year and really liked the way they can be decorated. You can see them here. This year I decided to use an delicate and very elegant technique called “brush embroidery” on the wings.
Here are a few other assorted heart shaped cookies in different sizes, shapes and colors.
Here you see the pianos. I have to admit that I had a few issues with them this year and they were not as clean and/or straight as I wanted them to be, but I still liked them. I decided to add a pink key to them as well as hearts and love words.
The next heart shaped cookie is covered with a quilting technique. A piped border finishes the edges and gives them a special touch to them. This design doesn’t need much more details as it is simple and elegant just as it is.
A final look of the cookies in their platter. Although red, pink and white where the main Valentine’s Day colors, I love how there’s a few shades of bright yellow and purple in the set. The touch of black was added for the musical cookies and it stands out beautifully.
Thanks for visiting my site again. I hope you like the Valentines Day cookies for 2014.
We again had the opportunity to make treats for one of my favorite family events, Kindermusik’s Fall Family Music Night. It was only appropriate to make spooky treats since the event was held on Saturday 29th, just before Halloween.
Here are some of the cookies we prepared for them this year.
I’m not a huge fan of candy corn (although I can eat a few of them without complaining), but I love how they turned out in cookies.
I love this cookie because it is so versatile and I can make for pretty much every occasion.
The next one was also one of my favorites. I don’t have the spider web cutter, but the circle cutter worked. I wish I would have made it in different colors. The spiders (on the webs) look more like mmh… ticks (yikes!). I’ll fix that next time.
My mom loved this particular cookie design. Eye catching uh? It made a few people wondered how we made that.
I love these friendly creatures. Adorable and cute ghosts.
What’s Halloween without some witches? Here we have the boots/leggings and the hats. Maybe I’ll work on the entire body next year.
And just to make it spooky enough for the little ones…
I was never happy with the “B”… I just couldn’t get it right.
The family night was a lot of fun. It was all about sharing a music night with the whole family and learning while doing it. Let me share the experience with you if you have never been to one of them.
Parents and children gather in a spacious room with the very awesome and talented Jenn Horak leading everyone on a musical journey of fun and games. Jenn either plays music or sings to everyone to make kids become active while they jump, sing, dance and share musical instruments. They may not know it, but children are learning and developing other skills (social, musical, and more).
Caregivers become active too! Grown ups get to participate along with the kids on this musical event as they also get to sing and dance with their little ones.
If you are interested or just curious about Kindermusik, visit their website. My children have benefited tremendously from this learning experience and I’m sure yours will too. My son Noah is almost 3 years old and he absolutely looks forward to Saturdays for his music classes.
We got very positive feedback from the cookies we made this year. I just feel bad that I ran out of them in the end!
Check out last year’s event here.
Enjoy a sweet treat every day!