Trees and Tire Swings

A few months ago a friend contacted me about making some cookies to give as party favors at a Fall fundraiser she was hosting.  The event was to raise funds for some new playground equipment in Central Park, NYC.  She wanted trees or playground equipment cookies.  I didn’t think I had the skill level to make anything that looked like a swing set or a teeter-totter but I thought I could probably do a credible tree.

I made a sketch of a tree and hand cut a couple of cookies to send her for a sample of what they could look like.  I also made a smaller cookie with a tree and tire swing on it, for a little whimsy.  She loved the cookies and wanted me to make some of both for her event.

I went on a search for tree cookie cutters.  I found exactly what I was looking for at ThreeD Geek, on Etsy.  Johnny and Edie tenBroek are the owners of the store and were really wonderful to work with.  I’m pretty sure I drove them nuts with all of  my questions but they were always very patient with me.  The tree cutter is available from 2″ to 5″ with a price range of $3.50 to $6.50.  They have a lot of really nice cutters and are willing to work with you to make anything custom that you can think of.

I didn’t take a lot of picture of the process but they were very easy.  First I piped the trunk and branches of the tree.

When they were dry ( I now dry my cookies in front of a small table fan*) I piped the leaves onto the branches and filled in the empty spaces between the branches.  I used a Wilton tip #352 with a fairly stiff icing for the leaves.  They stood up fine and I was able to pipe them next to each other without the leaves melting into each other.

For the tire swing cookies, I flooded the cookie with a pale blue icing.

When that was completely dry, I piped the trunk of a tree and some branches on each cookie.  When that was totally dry, I added the rope for the tire swing and then the leaves. I used a Wilton #16 (small star tip) to simulate the leaves. I added the tire and the grass along the base of the tree last.  I let the cookies dry for 2 days before I packaged them in cellophane bags with a little grosgrain ribbon.

I didn’t take any “real” photos but I found a couple on my phone to show you what they looked like packaged and ready to ship.

 

I made a few extra trees to make some apple trees for a fall cookie platter I wanted to put together.  I really loved the apple trees.  Next year I will make some with Fall colored leaves on the trees.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Royal Icing Recipe

*I have found that drying the cookies in front of a fan makes them crust faster, eliminates craters in piped dots like eyes and helps prevent color bleed.