Dress Cookies Recipe

I know, it’s so cliche, but inspiration truly can come from everywhere!

One of my last projects in our place in Thailand were these decorated cookies (store bought of course) with seafoam-colored icing. At least seafoam was what I aimed for!

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Making the Icing and the Coloring

I made my usual egg-white royal icing by hand, but instead of lemon juice I used lime, because I had one on hand. To thin the icing I also used drops of lime juice instead of water. Simply because I am a huge fan of tart flavors and it really helps cut down the sweetness of the icing. The lime flavor also somehow matched the color tone I was going for.

Apparently, a tiny bit of sky blue will give you seafoam colored icing. But I didn’t have sky blue on hand, so I tried my own mix of lots of yellow with a little bit of leaf green and royal blue. I was quite satisfied with the hue, but once it sat for a few hours, suddenly the yellow developed a lot more than the other colors. Oh well, lesson learnt! The great thing about cooking and baking and doing what you love is that you are allowed, even encouraged, to make mistakes. It’s part of the process, and it makes it even more fun.

The inspiration for these designs came from a lovely fashion magazine I flipped through in a Thai coffee shop. I took iPhone pictures of fabric patterns that really spoke to me to use them as inspiration for a project.

Around came the seafoam-colored cookies idea. How cool is it that inspiration can come from anywhere? I love this aspect of baking.

Making the Flower Pattern

For this flowery lace pattern I used a technique I saw on my friend Sugarbelle’s blog. Flood the cookies and let dry. Pipe a few simple flowers and let them dry before piping more flowers in the gaps. Repeat a few times until the pattern is dense enough for your liking (in hindsight I realize I should have done way more flowers).

For the flowers in my last addition I put little silver dragees (2 mm) as centers.

I am in awe over this circular flower pattern. There was a certain sophisticated elegance in all these Thai fashion designs that I somehow never saw in Western magazines. Whenever I come across something unfamiliar and unique, I love thinking about how these things are first created, and how they have been passed down from chef to chef.

Lastly, to get this draped flowery look, I just piped a few swirly circles and added silver dragees and silver discodust for the accents.

Always Learning and Improving!

I wasn’t all too happy with the outcome of this last pattern. While I like the ribbon bow look, neither take of the center structure came out too well. But I really loved that dress design, I have to say. At any rate, it is all a part of the process!

Have you done any dress or fabric inspired cake or cookie decorating? I hope you enjoy this recipe, and feel free to get creative on this one!