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Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #11: Christmas in July

Ho, ho, ho! 

I know many of you are wearing shorts, swimsuits, and sunnies, but here in the Practice Bakes Perfect kitchen, it is Christmastime! Well . . . sort of. You see, for this latest challenge, you will be asked to repurpose your Christmas/winter-themed cookie cutters to create a set of cookies that are anything BUT Christmas/wintry.

But before we get to the challenge details, I want to tell you about the ridiculously awesome prize that we have in store for one lucky challenge entrant, who will be chosen at random at the close of Challenge #11. Very generously offered by BRP Box Shop, the prize for this challenge includes a HUGE assortment of cookie boxes and packaging materials (estimated retail value: $55)!

Julia Usher GiveawaywithText

Specifically, the winnings include the following 16 items:

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Plus, BRP has agreed to ship to a winner anywhere in the world that UPS ships! Again, another super huge thank you to BRP Box Shop for donating such a great prize. Even if you don't plan to enter, I encourage you to check out their site - it's wonderful!]

With a prize like that, how could you NOT enter Challenge #11?! So, without further ado, let's talk about the challenge details.

For this challenge, I would like you to stretch the limits of your imagination and really think outside the (BRP) box (pun intended). I would like you to take a set of your own Christmas/winter-shaped cookie cutters and create a NON-Christmas/winter set of cookies with them. Now, I have never made an entire set of non-Christmas/winter cookies from Christmas/winter cutters, but a few of my Christmas cutters do tend to make appearances year-round. A couple of favorites of mine are my snowman cutter:

Snowman Bouquet Triptych

And my present cutter:

Bunny Present Cutter pm

And, if you are like me, you own about 1,000 different Christmas and winter-season cookie cutters, so the possibilities for this challenge are endless. Here are just a few of my favorite seasonal cutters, but really, for this challenge, I want you to scour your own collections of Christmas and winter cutters and breathe some new life into them, or maybe, even use that odd or "misfit" cutter for the first time ever.

Xmas in July Cutters

Rules:
  1. Create a non-Christmas/winter set of five (5) or more cookies using Christmas/winter cookie cutters. Templates are not allowed, but you may borrow cutters from others.
  2. Each set of cookies must be created using at least five (5) DIFFERENT Christmas/winter cookie cutters. For instance: a snowman, a mitten, a snowflake, a gingerbread man, and a stocking. The five cutters must be completely different, i.e., not two different snowmen.    
  3. You must create something different from each cutter than what it was originally intended to be. For instance, if you choose to use a star cutter, it must be used to create something other than a star.
  4. You may not "Franken-cookie" or alter your Christmas cutters/cookies in any way. You must use your chosen Christmas cutters as they are. For instance, if you are using your snowman cutter, you may not cut off your poor snowman's head to create a cookie that is the shape of the number eight. Nor may you combine two or more cutters to create a single shape.
  5. Please refrain from using generic shapes, such as circles, squares, rectangles, diamonds, triangles, hearts, and teardrops, for any of the five required cookies. If you have a question about whether a cutter you want to use will qualify, please ask by posting a comment below.
  6. You can include additional, non-Christmas/winter cutters in your set, but they must form a cohesive set with the other five required cutters/cookies.
  7. When posting your challenge entry, identify which Christmas/winter cutters were used to create which of the cookies in your set by posting a picture of the cutters you used in the comments to your entry. A picture of the cutters is required to qualify for entry.
  8. As always, we ask that you make a brand-spankin' new set of cookies for this challenge.
  9. Think outside of the box, take some healthy risks, and HAVE SOME FUN.
To enter:
  • Please post an image of your cookie set to the site under the Practice Bakes Perfect clip set no later than August 16, 2015 at 5 pm central.
  • Because these challenges will be ongoing, we ask that you put "Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #11" in your photo caption (subtitle field) AND in a tag, so that we can tell the challenges apart from month to month. Please use the main title field to uniquely name your cookies as you normally would.
  • Please also assign other relevant clip sets and tags to your images, as you normally would. (Meaning don't just use the Practice Bakes Perfect clip set and leave it at that, or your photos won't easily be found with keyword searches.)
  • You can enter more than once, but please post only one clip of each distinct entry/cookie set. Multiple clips of the same entry/cookie set are not allowed unless added in a comment beneath the one primary clip.

After the challenge closes on August 16, we will announce the winner in the Saturday Spotlight the following weekend (August 22). The next challenge will be announced after this challenge is closed.

And one last thing . . . This is NOT meant to be a competition. The only person you should be competing against is yourself. Period. These challenges are intended to inspire the artist in you and push you to be the best cookie artist YOU can be at this snapshot in time. Remember, the whole point of this exercise is to get you OUT of your comfort zone - to "take healthy risks," as my wise-beyond-his-years son always reminds me. Plus, prizes are given entirely at random, so healthy risk-taking has its own rewards!

I would love to chat with you as you journey through this process, so if you have any questions about the challenge, are having trouble getting started, need help bringing an idea to life, or need technical advice (other than, "Where the heck did I store my Christmas cutters for the summer?"), please leave a comment below.

Christine Donnelly began her professional baking career at 16, when she was hired on the spot at her local bakery to work the counter and decorate cakes. After detours to college and law school, she worked as a trial lawyer in Chicago for many years, ultimately leaving that career to become a stay-at-home mother to her two children. In her “retirement,” she continued to bake at home, at last finding her preferred artistic medium in decorated cookies. In February 2013, Bakerloo Station was born with a presence on both Facebook and Instagram. Christine makes cookies to balance her left brain, to inspire and share creative ideas, and to feed those needs that only art can satisfy. 

Photo credit: Christine Donnelly

NotePractice Bakes Perfect is a bimonthly Cookie Connection blog feature written by Christine Donnelly that poses inspiration or challenges to get you to stretch as a cookie artist - for practice, for prizes, and for fun! Its content expresses the views of the author and not necessarily those of this site, its owners, its administrators, or its employees. Catch up on all of Christine's past Cookie Connection posts here.

 

Attachments

Images (4)
  • BRP Prize Array: Prizes and Photo by BRP Box Shop
  • Snowman Bouquet Triptych: Cookies and Photos by Bakerloo Station
  • Bunny with Present Cutter: Cookie and Photo by Bakerloo Station
  • Christmas in July Cutters: Photo by Bakerloo Station

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Comments (21)

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Oh, the trickiness continues!!!  I never got to Challenge #10, so hopefully I can do this one.  Great prize, but obviously, just the fun of doing this is something to dive into.  Thanks Christine!!!

Staring at Michelle (Sion) and Teri...  Yes, I hear the pinging in your heads...  lol  Welllll, yes, I have cutters and hmmmmmmm.  Okay, I can't compete against  those that have commented...   Scratching head!

After having missed the last challenge due to severe time management problems (me = muddlehead), I have set my mind on not missing this one! Though I can't help but wonder if you have sadistic streak, Christine.... it is finally warm enough that I don't feel liking turning up the heat, and now you want us to busy ourselves with X-Mas?!? I hope I will have a really grosse idea in return *lol*

Well, I AM a lawyer, so yes, I think I probably do have a mildly sadistic streak.    MAYBE I will go easier on you all for the NEXT challenge. 
 
Originally Posted by Laegwen:

After having missed the last challenge due to severe time management problems (me = muddlehead), I have set my mind on not missing this one! Though I can't help but wonder if you have sadistic streak, Christine.... it is finally warm enough that I don't feel liking turning up the heat, and now you want us to busy ourselves with X-Mas?!? I hope I will have a really grosse idea in return *lol*

 

What a great challenge to get me back into the cookie-mode. I have been away for a while being a Grandma... no time for baking! I am back home and so ready to take on this challenge and think 'out of the cookie cutter'. 

Originally Posted by donaharrisburg:

Staring at Michelle (Sion) and Teri...  Yes, I hear the pinging in your heads...  lol  Welllll, yes, I have cutters and hmmmmmmm.  Okay, I can't compete against  those that have commented...   Scratching head!

Dona - remember, it's not a competition! 

Originally Posted by Julia M. Usher:
Originally Posted by donaharrisburg:

Staring at Michelle (Sion) and Teri...  Yes, I hear the pinging in your heads...  lol  Welllll, yes, I have cutters and hmmmmmmm.  Okay, I can't compete against  those that have commented...   Scratching head!

Dona - remember, it's not a competition! 

Julia, I just wish I could be as good...  I haven't looked at my cutters because I can't think of anything to do. 

Am I correct     use a cutter but do not alter in any way, do not reshape 

 

Originally Posted by donaharrisburg:
Originally Posted by Julia M. Usher:
Originally Posted by donaharrisburg:

Staring at Michelle (Sion) and Teri...  Yes, I hear the pinging in your heads...  lol  Welllll, yes, I have cutters and hmmmmmmm.  Okay, I can't compete against  those that have commented...   Scratching head!

Dona - remember, it's not a competition! 

Julia, I just wish I could be as good...  I haven't looked at my cutters because I can't think of anything to do. 

Am I correct     use a cutter but do not alter in any way, do not reshape 

 

Yes, rule #4 says you can't alter the cookie cutters or cookie shapes in any way.

 

Originally Posted by Raena Bell:

Do we need to provide a picture of the cutter that was used? I don't have very many cookie cutters in general, so I hand cutout a lot of my shapes from a template. TIA!

Ideally, yes, per rule #7. (You don't HAVE to show the cutters, but seeing the cutters helps us greatly on this end in making sure entries qualify, and also helps viewers better appreciate the work done to transform the cutter into your cookie. So I STRONGLY encourage including a photo of the cutters.) 

 

I can't speak to whether custom templates are allowed. Christine needs to answer that. But if so, we'd like pictures of them too.

** RULE CLARIFICATIONS **

 

To answer the questions regarding templates, I will say that they will NOT be allowed for this challenge.  The challenge is meant to involve the repurposing of existing cutters, and allowing templates would potentially allow people to create whatever shapes they chose, which is not really in the spirit of the challenge.  

 

Additionally, I am going to ask that ALL entrants, going forward, post a picture of the cutters used.  This will greatly help us in the judging process, and will add to our level of amazement when we see how very clever you all have been in your cutter-repurposing!

 

Finally, might I suggest, that if people do not have Christmas/winter cutters of their own, they could try to borrow or swap cutters with other local cookiers in your geographic area. Maybe some people even have duplicate cutters they would be happy to part with.  Feel free to request loans/swaps here in these challenge comments.  

Last edited by Julia M. Usher
Hi Raena!  Please see my comment below about the use of templates.  I am sorry, but for this particular challenge, they will not be allowed.  
 
Originally Posted by Raena Bell:

Do we need to provide a picture of the cutter that was used? I don't have very many cookie cutters in general, so I hand cutout a lot of my shapes from a template. TIA!

 

Yes, you may use your star cutter.  HOWEVER, you may not use it to make any sort of star. You must make something else out of that shape. 
 
Originally Posted by Crazy Cookies:
Well I wanna make sure whether I can use my star cutter as one of the christmas cookie cutters.��

 

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