Decorated Mermaid Cookies

starfish-cookie-decorating-ideaWe took a little time this week to focus some discussions around the ocean, its inhabitants and its importance. We also relived our trip to the aquarium, focusing on the parts that were less ‘glamorous’ to our daughter. In order to liven things up a bit, I made a batch of decorated sugar cookies that were ocean-themed to keep the discussion going and hey, “cookies!” Who turns down cookies? Join Ruffles and Rain Boots for some tasty treats!

When the recipient of a set of cookies is a little kid, one couldn’t possibly fork out ocean-themed confections that didn’t include a mermaid or two. I opted for the “I’m only going to make basic shapes and three colors of icing because I’m so very tired” kind of mermaid cookies.

Otherwise known as “tired mom cookies.”

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Before I get to the tired mom cookies, I wanted to mention that this Friday, September 26th, our newest dress up apron costume will be shared! If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s super cute and unbelievably cheap to make – most of it’s felt! Here’s a peek:

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Back to the mermaid cookies that might or might not have been enjoyed while wearing the mermaid apron…

Because I can’t just do things the easy way and wait for cookie cutters to come from my dealer Amazon, I improvised.  I can draw a lot of things, but mermaids aren’t one of them so I chose to use some basic shapes and try my hand at winging it.

I figured the tail part of the mermaid was simple enough, and it sort of looks like the bottom half of a mermaid, right? Right? I’m looking for validation here people; I’m seeking validation from someone other than a 2 year old who thinks looking closely into public toilets is fascinating.

A true – albeit disgusting – story, and one that I will in no way share in a post that even mentions my tasty sugar cookies. Yet again, back to the cookies…

Here is the mermaid cookie with random bubbles.  I honestly don’t know what drove me to add the bubbles, as they more just resemble blobs of white icing than bubbles. And really – look at the placement. I’ll wait until you realize why I’m mortified?  Um, yep! I think I shall call this piece, “Mermaid farting in the open sea.”

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I drew a couple of mermaid tails (okay, they were supposed to be mermaid tails) free hand with a toothpick on the chilled dough. I’m not happy with how they spread (they were the second roll of the dough), but hey – we’re talking cookies here, not neurosurgery. Elise thought they were whale’s tails and because they live in the water too, I’m counting them as a success. And I’m counting them as mermaid cookies even though they’re too bad to warrant a close up.

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Elise is quite fond of the large, purple starfish that are native ’round these parts, so she requested one. She settled for green when mommy politely but firmly mentioned that we were not making more icing, but I could tell – a tantrum was a’brewing.

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I did find one sea shell shape in my collection of cutters and Elise wanted to help decorate that one. She chose blue icing, blue lines, and blue sparkles – she wanted the entire thing covered in blue sparkles, like a “snapfire.” Toddler translation: snapfire = sapphire. And I have no idea where she learned, sapphire.

And oh hey, isn’t it funny how they can’t push the stopper down on the bathroom soap but they can get the top off a bottle of sprinkles faster than you can say, “Oh sh…!” At this point we might or might not have taken a break from cookie decorating so that ‘we’ could have a tantrum when ‘we’ didn’t get our 2.5 pounds of blue sugary sprinkles on an already iced blue sugar cookie.

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After the tantrum ‘we’ might have had, I took requests. Bubbles – yep, that’s supposed to be a bubble, people. It’s such an awesome bubble however, that I spared you a close up shot.

When asked what else we should decorate, she said, “the ocean saying, hello.” Now I’m not going to lie – it took me a few minutes of trying to figure out what in the world she was talking about. Apparently to my kiddo, waves are the ocean’s way of saying, “Hello.”

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After we cleaned up for the day (and dumped the icing), she decided she wanted a jelly fish. That night, I used non-thinned royal icing to make a jellyfish. Now listen, I know it is NOT the way to decorate cookies but the kid got her jellyfish the next day. To me, it looks like an amorphous blob (is that redundant?) but to her, she saw a jellyfish. It’s a win, then.

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So here they are, in all their “glory.” Our ‘let’s make learning the boring stuff a little bit sweeter” ocean and mermaid themed sugar cookies. I really should start actually trying to improve my skill if this whole sugar cookie decorating this is supposed to be my 2014 hobby… Or, I could just play TinkerBell and the fairies of Pixie Hollow on the floor with the kiddo some more.

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As always, I hope your day is sweet and thank you for spending a little time with us today. Don’t forget to sign up for our email newsletter so you can have all the sweet fun delivered right to your inbox.

 

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3 Comments

  1. Girl! I actually really like the mermaid tail with the fart bubbles! I think the bubbles work though. I can barely make these types of cookies – I am not good with making food look nice! LOL It’s too late to be looking at treats! Mmmm

  2. Holy Cow, Sarah! “I’m only going to make basic shapes and three colors of icing because I’m so very tired” cookies? Seriously? The fact that you’re making cookies at all makes you awesome! I can’t even remember the last time I made cookies, let alone made frosting and DECORATED cookies!

    I so envy moms like you. You’re my hero. And now I want a cookie. =)

    Pinning!
    Brittany