Each Christmas I like to come up with a few interesting decorated cookie themes so friends and family who live afar are able to receive a unique and edible holiday greeting. In years past, themes included ugly holiday sweaters, A Christmas Story, and woodland holiday. This year's project was the most ambitious yet: Celebrities in Santa Hats. Not only did this theme allow me to work on portrait cookies, which happen to be my favorite decorated cookies to make, but I decided to challenge myself by trying my hand at three-dimensional noses and mouths.
Since sharing these cookies on Instagram, many have asked me how I made these. I am not going to lie to you. It is time intensive and not for the impatient. While painting portraits is pretty natural for me, the added element of dimensional noses and mouths was challenging, and, in some cases, plain frustrating. As those familiar with royal icing, glaze, or a mix of both, know icing can be insanity inducing: random cratering, overflow, the occasional butter bleed (although I can say I haven't suffered that one in years). Compound those challenges with creating facial features, and things can get pretty tricky pretty fast.
First things first: picking the celebrities to be featured and seeing if pictures of them in Santa hats could be found online. While some existed, others did not. In the cases where there was a great photo of them in a hat, I blew up the image to make a template using a thick card stock. For those who didn't have Santa hat pictures online, I used my trusty Photoshop skills to place an image of a Santa hat on another online image of them. From there I made my card stock template. If I had plans on making several like cookies, I would cover the templates with a lamination film to allow for cleaning and multiple uses. Since these would be one-of-a-kind creations, I didn't go to that extent. Once the templates were created, I used a Penblade to cut out the rolled dough. I like cutting lightly chilled dough, but not too cold. I find that it is harder to get continuous clean curves when the dough is too cold. I also like using LilaLoa's Vanilla 2.0 recipe for these cookies, and modify the flavorings to my own preferences. The reason I like her recipe is because it is sturdy enough for larger cookies like these, and the addition of some brown sugar helps them retain softness. Also, it serves as a great foundation for making unique flavors. For this cookie, I used homemade Bourbon Vanilla extract, lots of citrus zest, and a heavy hand of Cardamom. I am in the camp that emulsions taste too artificial, so I try to keep my flavor additives as natural as possible--even making my own extracts and dehydrated zests for year-round use.
After baking, I used an edible marker to redraw the facial features on the cookies, as seen on the template above, as those provided me guidelines for my flooding.
Once the icing base dried, I added the dimensional features. This process required an icing that is thicker than flood, but not as stiff as piping, as it needs to stay put, but also have enough give to smooth out. As the first layer of icing crusted over, I gave the features their "injections" under the surface of the crusted icing. I'd repeat this process a few times, watching over it like a hawk since it was prone to caving in. Jay-Z had five noses before I landed on what I thought was good enough to use, which brings up another point: this is not a time to aim for perfection, but rather for "close enough". Also, another lesson learned from Jay-Z, which was my first cookie of the series: don't paint the face prior to getting the 3D features right.
Now this part about watching these cookies like a hawk after you add layers of icing, I really mean it. In the case of Oprah, I was able to catch the tip of her nose collapsing while the icing was still wet enough to pipe some more into the crater to where it could smooth out nicely. Another tip, which I learned from Jay-Z's nose: do not put in the dehydrator, even on the lowest setting. I really mean it when I say this is not a pipe it and walk away from it activity. Once I had the hang of it, it would take about an hour to get each nose and mouth to a place where I felt confident that I could walk away without returning to a cratered mess that required a total redo.
Once the base of icing was ready, it was time to paint. Now this is where I can't really impart much wisdom on how to do this, aside from sharing that I use a variety of small brushes, Americolor gel colors, luster dusts (Petal Crafts), vodka, and water. While I use Everclear for painting metallics, I find it dries way too quickly for painting portraits. Also, Royal Icing and water don't get along, as it absorbs way too much moisture too quickly, resulting in rapid deterioration in the form of what looks like oversized facial pores. Using a straight glaze is tricky, too, since it doesn't absorb well, making it slow to dry between layers. For better results, use an icing that is a mix of royal icing and glaze. As for having the portrait actually resemble your subject, I have been drawing and painting ever since I was a kid, so I picked up technique along the way. For new painters who want to take this seriously, I'd suggest taking some basic classes or online courses in composition, light, shadows, and watercolor painting. Cookie portraits are as close to watercolor painting as you can get since you need to work quickly and build up with light layers. Cookies hold the added challenge of making sure the brush is wet enough, but not too wet to eat into the icing. Same goes for adding too many layers. There is a point where your cookie will want no more and the icing will start to break down. Just like my earlier mention of piping dimensional features, you must be very deliberate and know when to accept what you have as "good enough". Lastly, I do like to work on the eyes first, as I believe that, while you can have every other element to be spot-on, if you make one small misstep on the eyes, it can look like a completely different person. I find that if I get the eyes to look like the person as the first step, I quickly know if I am on the right track, and, as a result, I don't overwork the rest of the face, avoiding potential for icing cratering. While this works most of the time, on this series, I did have the stubborn cookie that I ended up overworking; I am looking at you, Beyonce.
For final touches, I used dry luster dusts for contouring, makeup and other features that I want to have a softer, more natural look.
And there you have it, about 5 hours later, you have your completed portrait cookie! Remember, as I said earlier, this isn't for the impatient. And for those reading who don't understand why decorated cookies cost so much, I hope this offers some context. Just like any creative work, it takes materials, skills, creativity, and time. This costs money.
