My first job today was to stencil all 100 smooth royal icing white cookies with a very intricate Chinese symbol in magenta and black.

(It was just to hard to write on each cookie by hand, so I had patiently traced and cut out a small stencil to use for the job. I bought special stencil brushes from the local craft store and matching edible powders to create a thinned paste to stencil with.)

Well, how happy was I when I finally finished the 100th cookie.......only to look at the stencil and realize...

....I had done it BACKWARDS!!!

Oh that is so not funny, but I'm laughing so hard! God love ya....!

Oh Helen! What a shame!!! (But I bet they are BEAUTIFUL, delicious backward coookies!) Can they be fixed or is this a "do over"? 100 cookies, ACK!

Shock!!! GASP!!! Can you paint over them somehow????

Debbi

Oh no!!!!!! I hate that for you!! Just goes to show, we are ALL human!! I thought I was the only one to do things like that.
Makes a person like me feel better when a great decorator like you shares her mistakes. Thanks for sharing!!!!

I am so sorry, but I it is kinda funny. Sorry that you will have to them all over again maybe the ones that wrong can be sold for 1/2 price in store.

Bless your heart! Murphy's Law strikes again.

I don't have a store. Each cookie is done to order.


So, THANKFULLY I had let the white base icing dry for 2 days before I did this final step. (It was very very bone dry, crucial for what I was about to do.)

I took a brand new J-cloth, dampened it slightly and wiped off all the Chinese characters as best I could. (They couldn't have been a pale yellow...no, they had to be the darkest colours known to mankind!)

Anyway, they wiped off about 90-95% of the way. I let them dry for 2 hours again, then re-stenciled over them. I think I can get away with about 75-80 of the cookies. Some either didn't wipe off well, or just look too messy re-done.

My business partner, Ana, is on her way over here to give them a vito or a thumbs-up. After staring at them for 5 hours, I can't decide whether they are passable or not.

I'm so sorry! That stinks.

Maybe the symbol has an alternate meaning when printed backwards? Some great fortune perhaps? Like, "The rising moon will grant happiness to your family".

Since you redid them I should keep quiet, but couldn't you set them up with a mirror behind them--they would look right in the mirror..... OK I will shut my smart rear up! Sorry that it happened!

I love that even the best can make mistakes and still see the silver lining. It should be easier and faster the second time around.

ohhhh, im so sorry this happened to you. hope it all works out!

I thought the same thing as far as a 'backward' meaning.
I'm soooo sorry, but that's one for the story book!

oh no I'm so sorry you had to go through all that work before you realized. But (and this will sound terrible) I cant help laughing its like you know when someone trips and you laugh but you dont mean them ill will lol ok shutting up

Oh Helen soooo sorry this happened! Here's to hoping you get a on at least most of the cookies!

is there any way to maybe air brush in white some of the mistaken part after you wiped it before redoing the others? kind of crazy . . . or just pour another layer of royal icing so that you don't have to redo the last 20 cookies completely? that is horrible . . .

it is something i would do - only it would be at 4:00 in the morning, and i'd have another deadline to meet, and i'd be out of ingredients, and i wouldn't have slept for 3 days . . . . and i'd be crying hysterically.

you are handling this amazingly well!

I guess we know what's for dinner tonight!


I'm sorry this happened to you - these things happen every so often. Just think of how bad 200 cookies would have been!

How many passed the cookie inspection? Do we get to see a before & after pic.?

Side note: Helen, my kiddos fell in love with your recipe, they like the fact that there is no waiting. Even though they did not use the RI they had a blast decorating with anything and everything I have in the baking pantry. I love the fact that we enjoy it together. Thanks for sharing the Good, and the Bad with us.

Gloria I

Ooh what recipe is that? Will we see pics of the cookies? I wonder if it did have a different meaning backwards.... LOL! This is SOOOO something I would do!

Good luck! Hope they turn out better than you think!

okay, 9:30pm update....

20 cookies didn't pass the inspection of Eagle Eyes....but 80 did!! Woo hoo!

So, I re-baked 25 and am about to ice them now.

Oh, don't you worry...there WILL be pictures!

I thought of everything like cutting out fondant circles and applying them overtop, colouring the entire cookie then doing the Chinese symbol in white, going out to buy and airbrush....

glad I wasn't too hasty, they seem to be okay now.

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P.S. If I didn't have 3 other wedding cakes this weekend, I would have re-done them entirely....but I have a 7 tier monster of a fake cake (52" tall with flowers between each tier!!!), a 4 tier fake cake covered in gold dust and crystals AND a real 3-tier for Sunday.

good for samples!!

lol

Oh I feel so bad for you.. I am glad that most of them passed the test though and you didn't have to redo them all. Once you are all done you can sit and have a nice hot cup of tea and 20 or so cookies to go with it..
Liz

if I know Helen, she will be having more than just a cup of tea after this!!!!!

OH NO!!! This is something i TOTALLY would do myself! Then sit and cry for about an hour! LOL Im glad that most passed the test so u didnt have too many to redo.

Oh those are just too cute. Im glad it turned out alright.

They look perfect!!!

Sorry to hear about your misfortune...but glad it worked out in the end.

Thanks for sharing your flub-ups with the rest of us!!

Ah, they're lovely! At my brother's wedding there was the double happiness symbol everywhere and most of us wouldn't have known if it were forward or backward! You could've gotten away with it!