The Next Chapter

Today's post is something a little different... and an absolute first for me. Last month Kuki Reka Kani advertised a cookie challenge. The basic idea was to use their cookie cutters... which are amazing... and use their monthly prompts to take part in a year long cookie challenge.

Join our year-long journey of artistic expression, whether you're baking cookies with our cutters or crafting with clay. Each month brings new prompts based on a theme, inspiration, and chances to share your creative spirit.

We're building a community where every creation tells a story. From kitchen to craft room, let's make something beautiful together.

Since I already own several of their cookie cutters... and I like to try new things... I thought I'd give it a go.

I waited in eager anticipation for the first prompt to appear and it did not disappoint at all!

I knew almost straight away what I thought I'd like to do and which cutter I wanted to use... what I hadn't planned on was having even more ideas and coming up with two different designs!

So without further ado... here's my entries into the February challenge:

Close up

If you want to see how I came up with my designs stick around!

My original idea was something like what the palm tree cookie turned out... except that I'd envisioned having shells on it.

I started off the project making fondant shells in a mould... love how they turned out! Basically I coloured some white fondant with Colour Mill Latte... and some more fondant with Colour Mill Pebble. Then I marbled the two together and pushed them into the silicone mould. I popped them out and let them dry while I got on with the rest of the project.

Then of course I needed to actually bake some cookies. I used my favourite sugar cookie recipe and the Koru cutter to make my cookies. I thought the koru had a similar shape to a wave so that was my inspiration.

Gorgeous design

I'm not that great at rolling out cookie dough to an even depth so these cookie guides are an absolute life saver!

Ready for baking

I decided my design needed an extra element so I made palm tree cookies as well... yay for being able to make my own cutters!... after all... what's better than one cookie?? Two of course :)

Buttercream frosting ready to colour

Once all the cookies were done I made myself a batch of my favourite buttercream frosting... it's so creamy and delicious... plus it's super easy to work with.

I coloured my frosting with Colour Mill colours... Chocolate and Coffee for the palm tree trunks.

I did a mix of piping and spatula work to get the look I was after:

Then I coloured some more frosting with a mixture of Lime, Green and Forest to get the colour I wanted for the palm tree fronds:

It was all going pretty much according to plan by this stage:

Then I decided that my palm tree needed a little 'lift' so I added some air brushing to give the cookie some depth and highlights... loving it!

Air brushed cookies on the left

Now for some waves... I coloured some more frosting. This time I chose four Colour Mill colours... Tiffany, Teal, Sky Blue and Cobalt.

One of the great things about YouTube is learning new things... including how to tie icing bags a different way... LOVE this technique and will definitely be doing it again! I added another bag of plain white frosting for the 'sea foam' of the waves.

So here's how I created my waves... I started off with piping and then used a brush (that I only use for food) to 'paint' the waves.

Cobalt

Sky Blue

Teal

Tiffany

And then finally some white for the sea foam:

By this stage I had worked out that there was going to be no room on the cookie for my 'shells' and my brain kicked into gear for another cookie. Meanwhile I added my palm tree and felt quite pleased with the results.

Entry #1

I had plenty of left over 'wave' frosting so I decided I'd try something a little different for the next cookie.

I took some of the white frosting and tinted it very slightly with Colour Mill Clay:

I used the same piping and brushing technique to create some 'sand' on my cookie... and then I added a bit of air brushing... if you've got a new piece of equipment you just want to use it over and over LOL

I thought I needed a bit more texture on my sand so I added some demerara sugar and love how that turned out!

Then it was time to add the 'water' using all the blues and teals from the first cookie... and some more piping and brushing:

Piped

Brushed

Of course it needed some sea foam as well:

I had another look at my fondant shells and decided they could do with a little air brushing to make them more interesting:

It was while I was doing the air brushing that I realised the pattern from the cookie cutter resembled a sunset... the brain got ticking away and before I knew it I'd reached for my air brush again... it's addictive I tell you! I did a blend of yellow... followed by orange... and then finished off with some red. I did the airbrushing straight onto the cookie so that I had the cookie pattern incorporated into the design.