How are you holding up? We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy. During this shelter in place period, finding things to occupy our time hasn’t been hard. But focusing on one thing at a time has been a challenge. One project we are working on is a 2,000 piece Star Wars puzzle. That provides long hours of distraction from the news stories and social media posts. We have spent several days working on it and completed about 1/4 of the puzzle. My best guess is it will take another week to finish.
Another welcome distraction has been staying connected to friends and family. One funny recent conversation brought up the topic of how to remove shellac nail polish. A special shout out to YouTube, we learned how to safely remove the nail polish, although it took five times longer than in a nail salon. Hands down, our favorite distraction is baking and decorating cookies, whether in the midst of this pandemic or not.
This is the second installment of our COVID-19 pandemic cookies. Although the Signature Sweets business partners are living 3,000 miles apart we find it incredibly inspiring and comforting to communicate through FaceTime, Zoom and texting. A friend recently posted this funny quote, “Introverts, please put down your books and check on your extrovert friends. They are not ok!” This is a nice reminder to check on younger and older friends and family, introverts and extroverts included. Remember to stay safe and try a little baking together.
Supplies needed to make COVID-19 Staying Safe Cookie Set
- Sugar cookie recipe
- Royal icing recipe
- Hexagon cookie cutter, or whatever shape you have on hand
- White royal icing
- Light blue royal icing
- Royal blue royal icing
- Gray royal icing
- Black royal icing
- Yellow royal icing
- Red glitter dragees
- Orange gel paste food color
How to make COVID-19 staying safe cookies
Use a PME 2 tip in your icing bag, or if using disposable bags, cut a pencil tip size hole in your icing bag. Using light blue royal icing outline and flood all the hexagon shapes. Set aside to dry the tops so they crust over before adding details later.
The COVID-19 virus cookie was created using a small ball of foil, about half the size of a golf ball. We gently tapped the foil ball on the counter to create a flat bottom. This prevented it from rolling around on the baking sheet while placing it in the oven. The hexagon shape cookie cut out was gently folded over the foil ball before baking. We left the foil in the cookie while it cooled. Later when it came time to decorate, it was wedged in place, so we left it as is.
Pico projector time
You may be able to freehand draw. We can’t, so we have learned a few tricks and tools we want to share with you. Now that the hexagon cookies have had a little time to dry, its time to add the details. Most of the following details were added using a Pico projector on an Arkon Mount. The process is fun, you select and image from just about anywhere in a book, a magazine or online. Using your phone, take a picture of the image(s) you would like to use to project them onto the cookie. The projector allows you to adjust size and scale to fit the cookie. The Arkon mount as shown in the picture is holding an iPhone for photography and filming.
Decorating cookies together holds a special place in our hearts and we think you would enjoy it too. We hope you enjoy spending all this quality time together with roommates or your family. Our neighborhood is taking to the streets (ok, really it’s our porches) at 8pm each evening to make noise, or clap, in support of all the healthcare and frontline workers assisting with the Coronavirus outbreak. Cheers to all of them, we wish we could bring them cookies.
Vaishali Khandekar
These are adorable and brilliant!! Do you guys ship these? Is that permitted in the age of COVID-19?
signaturesweets
We do not sell cookies for pick-up or shipping anymore, sorry. We just bake and blog;)