Noblesville Basketball Cookie

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And there it is…cookie number two for Lily’s basketball teams is done. This one is for the Lady Millers, her school team. I could have done something really similar to the Team Elite Cookie and no one would have noticed, but as always, I wanted to push myself and see what new design I could come up with for a basketball cookie…this being my 5^th one?!  Wow! But if there is on sport I know and love enough to keep trying to find new fun ways to design around, it’s basketball.

So, for this cookie I decided to make the whole cookie the basketball, I know, it doesn’t seem like such a novel idea, but it would be a first in my sports cookie designs. Making sure that in doing this, all the basketball details were right, it turned into a pretty successful cookie design. I have used the basketball design on a cookie many times, but this was the first time that because of the scale of the ball, I was able to really detail the texture of the surface. The black lines are concave just as they are on a real ball and the elevated grips you can feel on any good basketball are there well really elevating the ball and making it a more elevated design instead of the cartoonish designs I and many other people use when creating a basketball.

To make the logo and the name stand out a bit so the basketball isn’t the only thing to draw your attention, I added one of my favorite embellishments, clear sugar flakes. The way they glitter and glisten really adds emphasis to a border or a design element making the whole cookie draw your attention and want to take a closer look. More important here, it highlights the team name and logo making it about the girls and the team and their accomplishments.

Diamonds are a Girl' Best Friend

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Diamonds are a girl's best friend, 

but they won't make you a cookie for your wedding shower! 

One of my best friends from grade school/high school/forever was having her wedding shower thrown by another of my best friends from all that time. So this was a pretty big deal :)The theme was 'diamonds are a girl's best friend' so my concept was to  focus on a central diamond ring and then have it 'showering' diamonds all around. The purple and grey wedding colors were a great compliment to the bright and sparkling white of the diamonds and the clear sugar flakes that give it that extra layer of shimmer. 

I tried to give the diamond some depth through highlighting the cut lines which I think could have been more successful if I had used a simper cut pattern, but it adds to the overall depth of the cookie which is an important factor in any design. Another layer to that depth can be seen in the ring. I usually add pearlescent highlights to an element to make it stand out and or highlight a certain part of it, but for the ring instead of just using the pearlescent accent to paint a design on the silver I first texturized the the icing by pressing in the design I wanted to give it relief and then painted over it with the shimmer to give it a little bit more pop. 

Though I really enjoyed making this cookie for my friend's shower and some of the elements and techniques I used are fun and interesting, I don't think the whole concept comes together as well as it could have. What's important though is that everyone there loved it and it did look great along with all the other fun food and desserts that were offered at the big celebration. I'm glad I was asked to make something and be a part of such a special occasion!