Tutorial: Writing in Cursive

 I've been a little MIA.

Things have been going on and it's been a little crazy and stressful.  But I'm still here.  And I haven't forgotten about my blog.  :)

Needless to say with all the action and adventure going on over here I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on new cookies.  So I thought I would post something I prepared a while back but never got around to posting.

Writing in cursive on cookies.  I know it's not the most exciting topic and tutorial but important none the less.  There will be SO many occasions when a client asks you to write someone's name on a cookie




or "Celebrate"

 

or "May The Force Be With You".  Ok, maybe not the last one.

That would be a pretty big cookie to fit all that on it anyway.  An awesome cookie.  But a big cookie.

A big cookie, of pure Star Wars awesomeness...*sigh*

Anyway, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing on a cookie in cursive:
1.  Write in your own handwriting.  Even if you don't have the most beautiful handwriting in the world.  Because nothing trips you up more than trying to mimic someone elses penmenship.  Seriously.  Try it on paper.  If it doesn't look natural on paper, it wont look natural on a cookie.

2.  Get your piping tip as close to the cookie as possible.  When your constantly changing the direction of your piping bag, closer is better.  Don't drag your tip on the cookie.  That's still a no no.  You'll get wonky lines.  But keeping the tip far from the cookie (like you would while outlining) will give you no control.  You'll chuck a few icing bags across the room for sure.

3.  Test out the scale.  I mean if you have a KK, this is an easy step.  If your like me however, and a KK isn't in your budget, then you'll have to do it the old fashioned way.:
  Get a peice of paper, trace the cookie cutter of the cookie your using.

  Do this a couple times for scale practice.  Then write whatever it is your writing in the space you will have to use.

  This will help you determine where to start your word, how big to make your letters, how much room your going to have etc...

  Then place a piece of wax paper over your test sketches.  Here's where you check your piping tip.  What should you use?  1?  2?.... I like a 1.5 myself....but every project will have a different scale and you will have to adjust the tip size accordingly.  Do a couple practice piping runs on your wax paper.  Find the tip that will work for your project.

4.  Make sure you use the right consistency.  If it's too thin your pretty "r" is going to look like your uncle Marshall's profile, big nose and all.  If it's too thick, the peaks left behind on your cookie is going to stab a poor unsuspecting mouth roof.  No bueno.  

5.  Don't try to write perfectly straight and level.  Unless your just awesome like that.  I'm not.  So I write everything slightly tilted and angled.  Takes the pressure off of it looking symmetrical and perfect.  Perfect is boring anyway.


Last but not least, if you wanna see the action LIVE then hop on over and check out the VIDEO!

And please excuse me, when I made said VIDEO I was functioning on 2 hours of sleep....I think.  I had made 8 dozen cookies in less than 24 hours.  And considering I'm not accustomed to working at factory speeds any more....be sure delirium was setting in... which would only make me slightly weirder than normal. 




I probably wont be around much for the rest of the week.  I have some things I need to take care of early this week (like today if possible).  By Wednesday I'll just be gone for the rest of the week.  Maybe I'll gt a post up before then.  Or maybe Thursday or something....  Anyway, what I'm saying is that I'll be back.  When the hubbub dies down a little and things get back to normal!  :)

Hope everyone has an awesome week!

May the Force be with you.....ok I couldn't help it.