{"id":2053,"date":"2012-02-06T19:06:28","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T19:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/?p=2053"},"modified":"2012-02-06T19:37:46","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T19:37:46","slug":"guest-post-edible-love-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/2012\/02\/06\/guest-post-edible-love-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: Edible Love Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember those amazing Shark Cupcakes<\/a> that Aurelie from Sweet Liz Bakes<\/a> brought us a few months ago? \u00a0Well, she\u2019s outdone herself again with these beautiful Edible Love Letters, perfect for your sweetheart! \u00a0Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

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Hello everyone! I\u2019m so thrilled that Jackie has invited me back to share another tutorial with you! This time around is a tutorial that will give new meaning to the phrase \u201csay it with sweets!\u201d Edible love letters: perfect for Valentine\u2019s Day!<\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Rolled cookie dough<\/li>\n
  • Pizza cutter<\/li>\n
  • Ruler<\/li>\n
  • Cardboard<\/li>\n
  • Plastic wrap<\/li>\n
  • Parchment paper or baking mat<\/li>\n
  • Cookie sheet<\/li>\n
  • Piping tips #12, #2, and #1<\/li>\n
  • Piping bags<\/li>\n
  • Royal icing in white, blue, and pink<\/li>\n
  • White paper<\/li>\n
  • Pen<\/li>\n
  • Pin<\/li>\n
  • Edible pens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Instructions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Begin by rolling out your cookie dough. I like to roll out my cookie dough between wax paper and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes or so. This makes the cutting so much easier.<\/p>\n

    Decide on the size of your cookie stationary. You can use a thin book you already have (which is what I did) or cut a piece of cardboard and use that. Cover the book\/cardboard in plastic wrap so as not to contaminate the dough. Using this as your guide, cut out your shapes from the dough with the pizza cutter. You can use a knife, but I found that using a pizza cutter made a smoother edge.<\/p>\n

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    Once your stationary pieces are cut, place them on a cookie sheet on top of either parchment paper or a baking mat. Let your cookies bake 2-3 minutes longer than you usually would. This will help them be a little bit harder and less fragile. Remember to make extra cookies \u2013 they break easily!<\/p>\n

    Unless you have an awesome rolled cookie dough recipe (in which case, do share!), your cookies will most likely come out looking like this:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/img><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

    No worries! As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, simply take your pizza cutter and slice off the expanded edges. Don\u2019t worry if the edges aren\u2019t completely clean, the royal icing will cover that up.<\/p>\n

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    Take your #12 piping tip and use the piping end to punch out holes in the cookie. To make them even, start by punching out a hole in the middle of the letter, then one at the top and one at the bottom of the cookie, and two more in between those two and the center whole.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/img><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

    Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet. Once my cookies cooled, I used a cake lifter to move them since they were so fragile. Try using large knifes or spatulas to move them. Even when cooled, the cookies may be very fragile. Luckily, a nice layer of royal icing will help stiffen \u2018em up.<\/p>\n

    Next, place your white royal icing in a piping bag with a #2 tip. Outline the stationary and the holes as well. Let them dry for 10-15 minutes.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/img><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

    Add a little bit of water to your royal icing and use the softer mix to fill the stationary outline completely.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/img><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

    Let the cookies dry completely. I let them dry overnight just to be sure. In the meantime, use your ruler and pen to make a guide on your paper for the lines on the stationary cookie. I placed my lines about 1 inch apart.<\/p>\n

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    Once the cookies are dry, tape your guide to a table to prevent it from sliding while you work. Place a piece of wax paper on top of the guide so the cookies don\u2019t touch the pen. Use a lighter to make sure your pin is thoroughly disinfected. You\u2019ll use it to trace a small, straight visible line for your icing to sit on \u2013 best of all the icing covers it up. Take a cookie and line it up with the top line. On top of the stationary, place another piece of white paper with its top edge aligned with the first set of lines on the guide below. Trace the edge of the paper onto the cookie with your pin.\u00a0 Repeat for each set of lines on your guide. Then, rotate the cookie and make one vertical line by the holes in the letter.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/img><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

    The lines will be very faint and hard to see, so I recommend working in the daylight. Using the line you traced, pipe blue horizontal lines on your cookie with a #1 tip. Let these dry for 10-15 minutes.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/img><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Quick tip: <\/span><\/strong>Make sure your icing is the right consistency. If it\u2019s too runny, your lines will flatten. If it\u2019s too stiff, your lines will break. Keep the same constant pressure as you pipe the line. Remember, it won\u2019t be perfect \u2013 just have fun! \u00a0If you mess up your line, use a toothpick to quickly remove the icing from your stationary. If the icing has stained the cookie a little, use a damp piece of paper towel to remove the color.<\/p>\n

    The last step is to pipe on the vertical pink line. Do this with a #1 tip.<\/p>\n

    Once your cookies are transformed into yummy stationary, grab an edible pen and make someone\u2019s day!\u00a0 You can write on the cookie yourself, or, for a neat little gift, package the cookies up with edible pens and let the recipient write you a note!<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/img><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

    Remember, this is just a start! Mix up the colors. Try different sized stationary. And have fun!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Edible love letters for your sweetheart!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[319,320],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2053"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2055,"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions\/2055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacasadesweets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}