Hello, every lovely cookier! You guys are the absolute best to keep coming back here to Practice Bakes Perfect to challenge yourselves. I could not be prouder of the amazing leaps I've seen people take in trying new things and stretching themselves. It's already been six months of us playing cookie together! Can you believe it? I hope you like all of the great challenges I have in store for you for the next six months too!
As Julia has so ably outlined here, we are going to try slowing the pace on the scheduling of the challenges - to give you guys and, well, me a chance to better fit these posts into our busy schedules!
So that said . . . you'll have plenty of time to come up with a plan to build your own three dimensional cookie project! That's right, we are taking the cookies up off the plate, and asking you to go 3-D. Now - what I am looking for here is a three dimensional cookie construction.
What I mean is, I want you to do a cookie that is not just dimensional, like raised icing dimension, but three dimensional. That can mean a suspended cookie construction, like my cookie dreamcatcher or Yankee Girl Yummies' flower necklace (for which she made a great tutorial, and then wore before eating, obviously!)
Or a three dimensional shaped cookie construction, like the ones that Julia is famous for, and rightly so! She has so many great tutorials. Here is the one for these spectacular ornaments.
It can be a cookie with a significantly three dimensional added cookie or fondant element, like this spooky-real witch cookie by Rebecca of Litterelly Delicious Cakery.
Or a gingerbread or cookie centerpiece like this beautiful holiday one by Hani of Haniela's. I love all of Hani's three dimensional cookie creations - you should check them out! And she has lots of great recipes and tutorials for building cookies into three dimensional mini scenes.
I hope that these examples get your cookie gears turning, and that this holiday season will give you plenty of excuses to make a cookie banner, or a centerpiece, or place holders, or whatever fun thing might fit the criteria for this challenge.
Caveats:
It can be a hanging cookie - but if you do that, I want to see it in action! Put that thing on a string, hang it up, and let's see it!
It can be a shaped cookie, but stretch yourself - the rule of thumb in my mind is that we want cookies that are shaped so that the depth is an inch or more.
It can be a cookie with an applied 3-D fondant or cookie element, but again, depth counts. Let's pick it up an inch off the cookie. For this challenge, we aren't just sticking on fondant flowers or adding a second cookie on top. (Not that those aren't totally great cookie techniques that I use all the time.)
Or it can be a traditional 3-D cookie tableau, with cookies standing on a base. But I'm going to know if you just glued your regular old 2-D cookie to a base to enter it in the challenge. So mix it up a little - use the base to good effect, create a little scene. Let me know you mean it. That said, I'm thinking cookie centerpiece scale, not epic gingerbread house cookie construction scale!
Each cookie construction = 1 entry. Cookie(s) can be included within a larger set, i.e., there can be some 2-D cookies involved.
Any theme. Any colors. They do not need to be holiday-themed! Whatever you are working on, or whatever you are inspired to make, is welcome!
As always, we ask that you make a brand new cookie/cookie set for this challenge.
And lastly, get creative and have fun!
Prize for this challenge: A SURPRISE, to be announced! But Julia assures me, it will be fab!
To enter:
- Please post an image of your cookie or cookie set to the site under the Practice Bakes Perfect clip set no later than December 21, 2014 at 5 pm central.
- Because these challenges will be ongoing, we ask that you put "Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #7" in your photo caption (subtitle field) AND in a tag, so we can tell them apart from month to month. Please use the title field to uniquely name your cookies as you normally would.
- 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.
- 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.)
Once the challenge closes on December 21, we will announce the winner and host the Saturday Spotlight the weekend after New Year's Day. The next challenge will be announced in January after this challenge is closed.
Last but not least, THIS IS NOT A CONTEST! These challenges are meant to spark conversation and learning. You are challenging yourself to try new things and stretch as a cookie artist. Just because someone else went to town, doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a shot. I want to see what YOU would do! Of course, there are prizes, but they are given at random, so just participate and you have a chance to win!
If you have a question, or if you need help getting started or just want to run an idea by me or the group, please comment below. I love to troubleshoot, brainstorm, and talk technique, so please don't be shy!
Rebecca Weld came to cookie decorating from gingerbread house making. As a "real" architect, busy business owner, and mother of two small children, Rebecca discovered that gingerbread houses had a way of getting out of hand, and that cookie baking offered her a more manageable artistic outlet. Always eager to be a part of the cookie conversation, Rebecca maintains an active Facebook page as The Cookie Architect, as well as Pinterest and Instagram presences. She makes cookies to inspire herself and others, to feed those needs that art fills in all artists: expression, sharing, stretching yourself.
Photo credit: Rebecca Weld
Note: Practice Bakes Perfect is a bimonthly Cookie Connection blog feature written by Rebecca Weld 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 Rebecca's past Cookie Connection posts here.
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