Fall Cookies

So this was a lesson in creativity and problem solving for me! I just moved into a tiny studio apartment, and hadn't had a chance to bake anything in my oven yet. I was making cookies to send to a friend, and decided it would be nice to use the leftover dough to make something to bring into work. Like every project I start, I go way over the top with all the elements and things that I would like to do...! I brainstorm and think of all the creative minute details that probably literally no one else even notices or cares about. So, sometimes I need to take a breath, step back, and know that I'm my toughest critic...and literally no one else is noticing all the things that I wish had gone differently.!
I started off with my awesome shaped sugar cookie recipe that is an absolute go to for almost everything...and these cookies spread out and turned out awful. I felt like a ridiculous failure. Baking and decorating I am confident in- if I can't even make simple cookies, what am I?? I had planned to make shaped cookies, and instead changed strategy. Obviously my oven calibration is a little off, and I didn't want to risk wasting the rest of my cookie dough. Instead, I used decorating techniques to make these cookies shine in a unique fall fashion.!

I wanted to play with a few different simple styles. My favorite was the marbleized pumpkin effect with black food gel "cobwebbed" to suggest pumpkin sections and give an artsy, gothic take on a fall pumpkin. To make those, I swirled orange food gel into a small portion of white royal icing using a toothpick, and then dipped the cookies into the icing. This swirled effect achieves different shades of orange, and turns out a little different each time! I used a toothpick dipped in black food gel to make pumpkin-esque design swirls on the marbleized pumpkins, and also to draw the ghost eyes and mouths in varying stages of fright.!

The big tip to create and maintain a pumpkin shape with a round cookie, is to outline the sections first with royal icing, and let them dry slightly before filling them in.! The outlines result in a more defined shape, as the royal icing that you use to fill up the space may puff up and expand slightly depending how much icing you use.

I drew faces on a couple of the pumpkins (also using a toothpick dipped in black food gel) to create some fun jackolanterns.!