Hey ya'll! I decided to begin a blog about my cookie journey, so here we are!
My latest cookie order was for my best friend Michelle's little boy Eldon. He just turned 3 and the family had a little cook-out to celebrate his birthday. Michelle asked me to make whatever my son would like. Total artistic freedom! Well, Eldon is just a few months older than my little guy, so I knew exactly what he would like.
I had a tractor cookie cutter that I just knew I would be using someday soon. Both Michelle and I married farmers (who were friends since they were kids, just like us) and who would've guessed (ha) our little boys are obsessed with farm equipment. I'm telling you, my almost 3 year old son may not articulate his words very clearly yet, but I guarantee he will talk about farm things all day long. And he already can identify the names of more farm equipment that I can. I'm constantly being corrected by his farm education.
Well, I searched for some side-view images of tractors (John Deere, of course) before finding one that would fit somewhat nicely in the cookie cutter frame. I wanted to make these cookies detailed because I have noticed that my kid prefers replica toys vs. general kid's toys. The more details the better. I'm telling you, he got a new semi-trailer toy recently and pointed out right away that the wheels were fixed and did not roll like they should.
First, I iced the whole cookie with white royal icing. Then, went over the dry icing with food coloring "water-colors" and edible black marker. I made these colors using Chefmaster liqua-gel mixed with vodka. Lastly, I used black royal icing to give a three-dimensional look to the wheels and to pop out some of the tractor's body details. Although it was difficult to replicate all the details of this tractor model into the shape of the cookie, I managed to squeeze in quite a bit. I particularly like how the wheels turned out.
On my next blog, hopefully I can remember to get some in-prgress pictures. Until next time!