Happy Easter Baking! The spring weather makes us realize that spring is here and Easter is just around the corner! Do you want to try a new technique this year? Edible printed wafer paper can be used to create a hand painted or watercolor look on your cookies. Brushing the edges and splattering the cookies with edible gold paint and a bit of edible gold leaf add the finishing touches.

Mix up your favorite sugar cookie recipe and cut out and bake Easter shaped cookies.

Right after you take them from the oven, flatten the cookies with a smaller baking sheet to give you a nice smooth top to decorate. Let the cookies cool completely before icing.

Use royal icing for the base of your decorating. Outline your cookie and then fill in, getting the icing close to the edges.

Once you have applied the royal icing, let the cookies set for at least 4 hours, or overnight. The icing must be completely dry before moving on to the next step.

Use edible printed wafer paper to decorate. A search on Etsy for printed edible wafer paper will give you many choices to choose from.

Place your cookie cutters on top of the printed wafer paper and trace around them. Cut just inside the line, so that the paper is just slightly smaller than the cookie. Because the cookies will vary, lay your cut-out paper on the cookie before attaching it, and trim where necessary.

Use light corn syrup as a “glue”, thinning with a small amount of water, if necessary. Using a small craft brush, used for food only, coat the entire back of the image, making sure you get all the edges covered. Avoid getting the corn syrup on the right side of the image. Place the image on the cookie and adjust to center. Gently press design in place.

Place a paper towel over the cookie and gently smooth the image once more, making sure all the outer edges are stuck down.

Turn the cookies upside down on a piece of waxed paper and let set for about 15 minutes. Turn the cookies back over and allow to dry completely.

Then you can use a small flat brush and brush the edges of the cookie with edible gold paint. You can also thin the paint and add a bit of splattered paint to your cookie. Edible gold leaf flakes add additional sparkle and shine.

So fun to experiment with these edible wafer papers and edible paints! They give the cookies a wonderful old-fashioned look – a beautiful addition to your Easter baskets or cookie trays.

These almost have a cloisonné look.

Such a pretty little bunny!

Lovely Easter cookies nestled in some pink grass.

You might also try “watercolor” techniques on your cookies. Once the royal icing is completely dry, use a sponge or brush to “paint” the cookies. Mix a bit of food coloring with clear vanilla or almond extract. It only takes a tiny bit of food coloring – I put in too much food coloring, so I did not get the Easter pastel colors that I wanted, but just decided to go with the brighter colors.

Once your cookies are “painted”, you can add a touch of gold to them too! Add some gold stripes or flakes to make them look extra special.

Adding extra flakes or gold splatters in the middle of flowers gives them a textured center.

Have fun experimenting with the wafer paper and the edible gold paint and flakes. Happy Easter!

The web sites below provided the inspiration for these cookies. Click on them for more ideas:

https://www.sprinklebakes.com/2019/04/floral-bunny-and-egg-sugar-cookies.html?m=1

https://www.bakeat350.net/2015/04/watercolor-gold-speckled-easter-egg-decorated-cookies.html

The edible gold paint and flakes are available from Amazon.

Keep a selection of “food only” sponges and brushes to use when decorating cookies and food items.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Here is a fun project to do with little kids, big kids – or all by yourself! Grab some clay, cookie cutters and your rolling pin. Then look through your drawers and gather up ribbon, paint, markers, stickers and googly eyes.

Last Christmas I had made some ornaments out of this air dry clay and really liked using it. It is easy to work with and no baking is required. This package made about 3 dozen ornaments. To begin, remove the clay from the package and knead it a few times. Then roll out the clay on a smooth surface, using a regular rolling pin. You can use other kinds of clay, or make your own.

After you roll the dough, you are ready to get out your favorite cookie cutters and start creating! If you are using the embossed rolling pin, firmly roll it over your smoothed out clay.

Carefully place the ornaments on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. You can gather up the leftover clay and make more designs. The great thing about this clay is that if you don’t like the way the design turns out, just re-roll it and try again.

Use a straw or skewer to make a hole in the top of each ornament. I used a small heart cutter to create a heart in some of the bunnies, then saved the hearts and used them for a cute little bunny tails on other bunnies.

Have fun experimenting with your cookie cutters and rolling pins. I rolled the embossed rolling pin one direction and then the other to make more texture on the “wool” on some of the sheep.

You can use a pie crust stamp to create designs on your dough. Look around and see what other textures you can create from things around the house. You could use glasses or bowls with a cut design on the bottom or press a doily or textured piece of fabric over the clay before you cut out the ornaments.

Let your ornaments dry for about 8-10 hours, then carefully turn and flatten (if necessary) and let dry for another 8-10 hours, then turn again. Repeat process, it will probably take about 1 1/2 – 2 days for these to dry completely. Make sure the ornaments are as flat as possible.

On these bunnies, I used alphabet stamps to stamp “HOPPY” into the clay right after I cut them out.

Once the ornaments are dry, you may want to smooth the edges and top a bit. You can do it with a small nail file, or I used a sanding block and sanding paper to make the process go faster. Then let the fun and creativity really begin.

After the ornaments were dry, I just used watercolors and applied a light coat over the smooth eggs. You can leave them with a matte finish or put a coat of satin or glossy Mod Podge. They also make Mod Podge with glitter which would be fun, I haven’t tried it. (Experiment with other paints – the watercolors were just what I had on hand.)

Little bunnies look cute when added to your Easter decorations. (Can see on the right side that I needed to flatten that bunny during the drying process?).

You can also use them to decorate packages. This bunny tail was made from the hole made by the straw.

Use a large egg cookie cutter for the outside, then use a small one to create a design on the inside. I glued a piece of yellow paper behind the ornament, but you could also just leave it open. Add stickers, little flowers or lace for decoration. I also coated the ornament with satin Mod Podge before adding the decorations. If you have animal cracker cookie cutters, it would be cute to make a set of ornaments from them for a little Easter tree.

I added the embossed hearts to these bunnies to make their little tails. I used watercolors to paint them pink. Spring raffia ribbon is so cute with these ornaments.

This bunny has a larger tail, painted with watercolor, then once that was dry, I added a layer of glue and sprinkled on some chunky glitter.

Little kids would have fun decorating these with stickers, googly eyes, washi tape, glitter and markers. You could also use these to decorate an Easter tree or just spring branches.

The little embossed sheep were my favorites! So easy and just adorable.

The embossing rolling pin makes these Easter ornaments look extra special. They look great without any extra decorations, but you can apply a layer of Mod Podge satin to give them a bit of a glow, add glitter tails, or even use paint to color them.

These bunnies have one coat of Mod Podge satin on them.

Another fun way to decorate the smooth bunnies is to use cut out small pieces of tissue paper and then use Mod Podge to attach them to the ornaments.

Have fun with the tissue paper you have on hand! Can use a planned or random design. Maybe a stained glass bunny?

These would be cute on an Easter tree or placed in vase with spring buds.

How cute would it be to add these to little packages or Easter baskets?

If you are a stamper, you can also use stamps to create designs in the clay. Slightly damped the stamp first. I used a damp paper towel and used it to blot the stamp right before stamping the clay. These could also be colored with watercolor or makers, or topped with satin Mod Podge.

Experiment with the markers you have on hand to decorate your ornaments.

I put a layer of satin Mod Podge on these to give them a finished look.

Hoppy Spring to you! Use some of your extra time at home to “play” and be creative! Have fun and Enjoy!!!!

You can get the clay, alphabet stamps and raffia from Amazon. You can find similar products at your local discount or craft stores. A Pinterest search will give you so many more ideas!

Here are ideas for Christmas ornaments.

Christmas Clay Ornaments

Look at these cupcakes! Aren’t they adorable? Perfect for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration or special occasion.

You can use your favorite confetti cupcake recipe (I used the one from Sally’s Baking Addiction, link below) and then substitute Lucky Charm cereal milk for the whole milk, using same measurements. To create the cereal milk, place 3 cups of cereal in a bowl and cover with 2 cups of milk. Place a bowl or plate over the top of the cereal, so it is all pressed underneath into the milk. Let is sit and steep for 45 minutes.

NOTE: You can just use your favorite cupcake recipe as is – I just thought this would be fun to try the cereal milk. You could get by with 1 1/2 cups of milk and 1 cup of cereal.

Strain the cereal out of the milk – now you have cereal milk. Use it to replace the milk in your cupcake recipe.

When you use rainbow sprinkles mix them very gently to just combine into the batter.

Only fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full when making sprinkle cupcakes, they tend to overflow easily…less is more.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Mix up your favorite buttercream or cream cheese icing. I made a cream cheese icing with 1/2 cup softened butter, 8 oz softened cream cheese, 4 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon of the cereal milk (or regular milk) and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Combine these and mix until creams – 2-4 minutes. Add more powdered sugar or milk, as needed. Place in piping bag. I used Ateco 849 piping tip. Frost the cupcakes, a few at a time.

I used finely chopped Lucky Charm marshmallows and edible gold leaf flakes to decorate the cupcakes. I sprinkled on the Lucky Charm bits and used a pair of tweezers to apply the gold leaf. This would be fun on birthday party cupcakes.

You can find the edible gold leaf on the Amazon site:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P9V6XWX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It took me a little while to apply the gold leaf, so I just frosted about 3 cupcakes at a time, so the frosting didn’t have a chance to dry out before I topped them with the cereal and gold leaf.

They just look happy and ready to party!

Fun to St. Patrick’s Day or birthday parties!

YUM!

I made some mini-cupcakes with the remaining batter.

Added some color to them too! Have fun with sprinkles and gold leaf!

For the recipe and instructions on how to make the Confetti Sprinkle Cupcakes, click on the link below:

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/confetti-cupcakes/

These were inspired by the Lucky Charm Cereal Milk Confetti Cupcakes on this site:

https://www.howsweeteats.com/2018/03/lucky-charms-cupcakes/