Madeline

Today is a very special day: it’s my best friend’s birthday! I’ve known this girl for… ever! We literally ran into each other during the 2nd grade and we’ve been best friends ever since. We’re also nearing the end of February, which means Read Across America Day is quickly approaching. FYI, I’ll probably be celebrating that off and on for the next month… I just have too many wonderful children’s books I want to make into desserts! I asked my friends on Facebook for suggestions on children’s books to “cookie,” and of course my best friend jumped on the Madeline series. I was afraid she just might, since I’d been planning for months to “cookie” Madeline for her birthday. So today I’m celebrating my best friend, Madeline, with her favorite book character of the same name! Happy birthday Maddie!!

For these cookies you’ll need:
Cookies
Royal icing
Food gel in yellow, blue, red, black, and beige
Piping bags
Wilton #1 tip
A toothpick or quilling tool
Black food pen (optional)

You’ll want to start by making your cookies. I cut mine out using a female gingerbread cookie cutter I had on hand. Bake your cookies and let them cool completely before icing. Although I made my cookies with a chocolate cutout recipe, I wouldn’t recommend it for this cookie; the bow on Madeline’s hat is kind of hard to see against the dark cookie.

Once your cookies are cooled, you can icing them. I started by drawing an outline on my cookies with a black food pen. You can easily skip this step, but I like to do this for at least one cookie so I have something to go by. Using black piping icing (a stiff icing that can hold a soft peak) affixed with a #1 tip, pipe your outline. Since this cookie is supposed to look like a cartoon, you can pipe around all the features like the face, hair, feet, etc. Once you have your outlines, it’s just a matter of filling in the areas with the correct color flood icing (very fluid icing): yellow for the hat, beige for the face, white for the collar, arms, and legs (she’s wearing white socks and gloves in the book), and navy blue for her coat/dress. Use your toothpick or quilling tool to work the icing around so there are no gaps between your icing and the black border.

Once the icing has dried, add the final details on her face and dress. I did this with a black food pen, but you can just as easily pipe them on or paint them on with black food coloring. I also used a little pink food coloring and a brush to give her some rosy cheeks. As for the big book cover cookie, I freehanded that with some food coloring, water, and some brushes (clean, food only brushes). That wasn’t really a method to it aside from look and paint. Be sure to let everything dry thoroughly before packaging.

Happy baking!