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Want to send a unique, special message to a friend or family member? Perhaps you would like to create a personal gift for a loved one? If you like to bake and decorate gourmet sugar cookies, then here is a fun project for you. All you need are some fun shaped cookies, royal icing, your favorite stamps and various colors of food coloring.
 The set up: First, choose cookie shapes that are pertinent to the message you want to send. If you are sending a message of love, perhaps choose a heart shaped sugar cookie. Or, if you want to say happy birthday to someone, choose a birthday cake shaped sugar cookie. You get the idea, right? Then, using the flooding technique to ensure a perfectly smooth iced cookie, ice your cookies with colored royal icing. The more colors, the better! Allow your cookies to dry for 24 hours so that the icing won’t crack when you start creating your messages.
While your cookies are drying, choose the stamps you would like to use on your cookie. You can find stamps at any craft, hobby or scrapbooking store. For lettering your sugar cookies, your best bet would be to buy the interchangeable lettering stamps and an acrylic block so you can create different messages easily and more cost effectively. You can also purchase various complete messages and shapes to use with your acrylic block. Otherwise, any other stamps will do. Once you have chosen your stamps, wash them with soap and rinse thoroughly with water. Let the stamps air dry. Suggestion: While you should always wash your stamps before using them to decorate cookies, to be on the safe side, only use your cookie decorating stamps for cookie decorating. That way, there will be no danger in tainting your cookies with non-food grade ink.
Once the royal icing on your sugar cookies is completely dry, choose the stamp or create the message that you would like to stamp onto your icing. Then, choose your food coloring. Gel food coloring is the best, because it is less messy than liquid food coloring and won’t drip onto your cookie. In addition, the color of gel food coloring is a bit brighter and more concentrated than liquid, so your message will be clearer on your cookie. There are two methods for getting your coloring onto your stamp: First, you may squirt some food coloring onto a flat plate. Then dip your stamp into the puddle, taking care to cover the entire stamp, but not adding so much coloring so that it drips off of your stamp onto your cookie. This method will take some practice. Second, you can soak a small piece of paper towel with your desired food coloring and press your stamp against it, just as you would an ink pad. Either method you use, you will need to practice a few times on a spare cookie or paper towel.
Once you have gotten food coloring on your stamp, place your stamp evenly and steadily onto your iced sugar cookie and lightly press. Be careful not to wait too long before stamping your cookie…you don’t want your food coloring to dry before stamping your cookie. Once you have place your lettering or design on your cookie, set your cookie aside and allow to completely dry.
Once dry, you will have a beautiful, personalized gourmet sugar cookie to dazzle your friends, family and loved ones.
Amy Douglas is a life-long lover of gourmet cookies , so much so she started her own gourmet cookie company , Sugarbaby Cookies Co.If you're looking for a thoughtful gourmet gift, you can see Amy's charming cookies at www.sugarbabycookies.com.
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