I need your help talented and wise bakers/decorators of CC. I possibly need to make about 100 wedding favor cookies, and I never made any before, so will be trying out a whole bunch of things in the next few weeks to try and see if I can make them decent enough. What I really need is an inspiration for an easy done but nice looking cookie: it needs to be a church (allready have the cutter) and have a monogram in the middle, everything else is optional. Any of you done something like that before? Can you share some photos? I tried the gallery but ended up with a whole bunch of cakes instead of cookies. Any good inspiration out there?
Thanks in advance,
P

Copper Gifts has a couple of photos on their site:

http://www.coppergifts.com/productcart/pc/cg_ProductDetails.asp?idproduct=68

One place to add a bit of color is a church roof.

i love copper gifts and use their decorated cookies as an example all the time. I did church cookies this week, check my pics (I didn't do a monogram though)

Oh wow, thanks you all, but I don't think I can do those. They look a little more complicated than I was hoping for, especially considering I need to put a monogram on it.....Do you know of anything I can do easier?
Thanks in advance, P

Which church cutter do you have? You're right, putting the monogram on doesn't leave too many other options. That's why I mentioned color at the roof line, that would still work along with the monogram.

Oh goodness.. it is whatever bride picked up at Hobby Lobby. Looks like a litte house with a cross on top, she calls it a chapel, but it is kinda big and then the cross transition pretty small, looks like it will be very easy for the crosses to break off. I did not commit to them yet, I just started doing cakes about 9 months ago, cookies are still on my to do list. I was trying to get out of it, but it's kinda hard with the bride being a daughter of my best friend and a granddaughter of my boss. I told them that I give it my best shot, I cannot imagine how much these things will cost if they order them somewhere. The bride is allready draining my best friend heavily with this wedding, the budget was only 2k but it has allready doubled and they did not even get to the reception food and decorations, and it's an evening wedding. Sorry for venting, I love my best friend, her little girl... I just want to smack her sometimes. I have no idea how she turned out to be such a princess. So I just need to figure out the way to make these things to look good and acceptable and time efficient for me. I don't even know how to do a monogram, is there a tutorial somewhere on here for that? May be I can do some rolled buttercream on it, either embossed or may be with those cute little holes around perimeter like I see in the gallery? Will it be easier and neater than flooding the cookies? How do I make those little holes? I'm just at a loss, I want for these things to turn out so bad, just have absolutely no experience doing them. And I know they are much harder than they look. I just cannot bare to see my friend spend another $200-$300 (more? have no idea what cookies go for these days) on something that I don't believe is a necessity. As you see I need all the help I can get. Thanks for listening.
P

Oh please someone help.....

For me the most time efficient & easiest would be to roll fondant thin & cut with your cookie cutter, place cutout on dampened cookie then stencil on the monogram with royal icing.

I'm leaning toward that as well, but will they look too simple, is there an easy way to dress them up a little?

You could choose a really fancy monogram in one of their colors however I think simple tone on tone is very classy. If you are good with a piping bag you could add scrolls, hearts or dots to dress it up. Brushing with pearl dust would add too. I'm just thinking easiest, fastest.

Here's a little church graphic:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-28276876-cartoon-family-of-four-with-church-in-background.html

I would use the roof line to add some color, dots could gingerbread type trim. Maybe you can squeeze that little arched window in and put the monogram where the door is.

Or put the door on, the monogram where the window is. Add little dots of color and green to represent flowers along side the door.

You could use Americolor food markers to do the monogram, as it would be the easiest way to add that particular detail. If you used the fondant, you could add little dots of RI to dress up the cookie. Sometimes, less is more, and tone-on-tone can look very classy and elegant.

Well, it wasn't quite a monogram, but I did a simple butterfly cookie a couple weeks back for a wedding shower. I added some simple dots, and used some luster type dust.

Everyone loved them, and they were fairly quick to do.

Culinary Stencils has some really nice fancy scroll letters.

I think it would look awesome.

Is there any way you can talk her out of using a church for the cutter?

Oh cookiemookie, your cookies are absolutely beautiful! I did not see the butterflyes you are talking about though. Did I miss them? Do you have a photo by any chance? I'm not sure I can talk this bride out of anything by now, she is even purchase these little individual tule bags to put cookies in. Do you think I can try a different shape and just let her choose? What would be a better one to consider? I really don't know why she wants that shape to begin with, their wedding is not even at the church.
Thanks again, P

Actually they are the last cookies I've posted in my gallery. One was done as a bouquet.

I did circles with a scalloped edge.

I would see if you could do either, a circle or a square. I think it would be really elegant. If you don't have a church cutter, you could buy it off of her to add to your collection.

I know that is going to be my next stenciling adventure. I think their monograms are really pretty.

Oh wow! If that's the ones you are talking about, mine are not going to look anything like that, I'm pretty sure. I do love them though, so I can try and see if I can do something like that with the monorgram in the middle in addition to the church ones and let her choose. This is going to be such a disaster, I'm so out of my comfort zone.....
Thanks again for all your help. Maybe once I try them, you can provide me with some honest feedback to make them look at least somewhat presentable
Thanks again, P

You'll do fine!

I know how you feel, I HATE doing cookie bouquets. They are totally out of my comfort zone but I was able to talk the hostess throwing the shower out of doing them for all the tables and settled on just one for the bride.

After all was said and done, I think it turned out OK, but the stress involved..yikes.

You do really nice work, try not to stress out too much!

cookiemookie, your stenciling is incredible. I've tried using stencils with royal icing but it never works.

cookiemookie, are your stencils store bought or made by hand? I'm thinking of the LOVE heart cookies...

I get most of my stencils from

www.culinarystencils.com

They have really nice stuff and are so worth the money.

I've used the Wilton ones, but honestly they just aren't as durable.

Thank you for the nice comments.

I use a pretty thick consistency of royal icing to do mine, unlike the actual video demonstrations I've seen. I think it works much better.

Ok cookiemookie and whoever else wants to help, finally here is my attempt at my first cookies, definitely not happy with them. Was dreading them for a reason... Monogramms are pain, I tried to stencil them but because of embossed background, the lines kept messing up and bleeding into the grooves, so had to try freehanding them and/or doing them on wax paper first-not sure which one is easier. Anyways, here are the pictures. I need help--I need to make them presentable for this weekend wedding. What do I do? What will make them look better? Pretty please....
Thanks in advance, P

Pebbles - I think they look great! They are very pretty! They make me want to make some!

I'm not a RI expert, but I wonder if you would have better success with the monogram if the RI was a bit stiffer?

I have tried different consistencies RI and none seemed to be just right, so I'm not sure what will be the best. Thank you for thinking they look good, but to me they just look "homemade" and not in the best meaning of the word.....

i think they look great!

I think the cookies look great! They aren't "perfect" but I think you should be proud of them. Think what you would say if someone else had posted them... would you think they looked good?

Thanks you all for incouragement. I guess if someone else posted them, I would not think they are terrible, but I would not be putting them in my favs. But again, I don't do cookies.... They were still on my to do list for much later this year. And you are right, Gemini, the letter needs to be larger, I have been practicing for the last hour and finally came up with the way to do it that I'm okay with. I also found another design on here that I will try out this afternoon and see if it looks any better. Then, I'll see what the bride says... I guess...
But how can I make this "perfect" or close to it with my limited ability? This is a very spoiled rotten bride and I have no clue what her expectations are. I don't go to too many weddings, and the ones I've been to, did not have cookies. Here in the galleries, there is a big difference in skill for wedding cookies. Where is an average? What do people normally expect? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh... I'm sure I'm overthinking all of this...
Thanks again for all your help, P

I think you did a great job! I agree with gemini that the monogram could be a little larger.

You could either sprinkle the letter when wet with a little of that sparkle dust(disco dust ect). If it's an evening reception they will sparkle like diamonds. Or you could paint it with some silver luster dust mixed with vodka or lemon extract to make it stand out more.

I used the sparkle stuff with the first cookies I ever stenciled last summer, they were purple hearts with white stenciling. They looked so pretty on the tables at night. I couldn't believe that I made them.

Don't be so hard on yourself. You did fine!

You know pebbles, those cookies are gorgeous! I personally cannot write for beans on anything sugar so I use the almighty Tappits. You can use those in fondant and even gild them if you like -- nobody will ever know! It's just a thought...

Thanks you all! I did consider tapits but kinda late, plus I do not like the taste or texture of fondant, and rolled buttercream is somewhat hard to work with when it comes to small cutouts. Anyways... here are my final attempts before making them for real. I tried out another design, the one with flowers, and really liked it much more, not loved it, but liked it much better. Well, the bride did not like it... So, she wants to go with the scrolly ones with green luster dust on them (the one to the left on double photo), honestly, they look like they are sprouting some mold because of that luster dust, but she seemed to like them the most. Go figure. I think I'll tint my buttercream a little green and then put clear luster dust on them instead. Also, got to work on some spacing issues, but I guess all in all, that's what they are going to look like. Thanks you all for all your help, it is really greatly appreciated. Now, I'll just have to figure out how to package them in tule with ribbon on top... Oh boy...
P