Mermaid Cookies

Recently I picked up a new toy on Groupon.  It's called a Kopykake Projector. 

Groupon was having an amazing deal, and my sweet friends at the Cookiers R Us forum let me know about it.  I have known about the KK for a while, but didn't think it was for me since I just do cookies as a hobby and the KK costs a good bit.  Well, at the price I got it for, I could justify it as a good tool even for a hobby baker.  The KK is basically a projector for cakes, cookies, and other food items, but you certainly can use it for crafts as well! It has a board on the bottom for placing your item on, and then the light bulb and projector unit is above so that it doesn't heat up the cookie and bake it more or cause it to break!  The KK has greatly increased the amount of designs I can do, and I feel a lot more inspired and motivated just having it as a tool available to me.  I am sure I could lightly draw out the designs I have done with a food writer and then pipe them, but the KK does the hard work for you and you know your designs will be consistent and free from the wonky-ness your freehand sometimes causes.  I love my KK!

One of the first designs I did with the help of my KK is a set of mermaids inspired by a clip art set by Jessica Weible Illustrations.  I love Jessica Weible's designs and couldn't wait to cookie-fy this one!  I really enjoy her stick people illustrations and have a few more in line to create, so be on the lookout on the blog. 

Click the picture to take you to Jessica Weible's website!

 For these cookies, I hand cut the mermaid shapes (with the aid of my KK!).  To decorate, I flooded the base with teal blue, which is a mixture of fleshtone and sky blue Americolor gels.  Once the icing was crusted, I CAREFULLY piped the mermaid outlines with black piping icing.  I let all of this dry overnight.  The next day I flooded the sections progressively with a thick flood icing (maybe 15 count). 



I am linking up over at the Bearfoot Baker blog where the theme today is "BLUE."  I think these underwater themed cookies fit the bill very nicely for that!