Surfin' USA (July 2014)

So, the 4th of July might be one of my all-time favorite days of the year.  It is truly a "family day," as my kids would say.  (Basically, the name for weekends and any "extra" days we get as a family all together.)  Between the parade in the morning and the neighborhood festival with rides, carnival food, and live music, who wouldn't want to stay up late?  And that...staying up until past 9:00...is the ultimate "special treat" for the kids.  Our new house happens to be located right next to a country club that puts on a pretty spectacular fireworks show.  Therefore, we basically have a personal, up-close view, all while sitting in pajamas on our back deck...it's amazing. 
(Not sure why that wasn't listed on the MLS website...what a perk!)

But enough about all the reasons we love the 4th at our house.  Let's talk cookies!  My daughter, was the inspiration for these, as she was singing The Beach Boys, "Surfin' USA" on our roadtrip back home, and voila, an idea was born.

 Red, white, and blue is my favorite color palette.  It looks good on everyone and is so classic.

For the beach cookie, I let the blue set overnight and then used some brush embroidery to paint some waves on top.  (I should have used a different brush in hindsight...ah, lesson learned.)  The brown sand I outlined and filled, but then when almost dry, I dabbed my finger around the semi-dry icing to give it some texture.  (I thought a long time about how to create texture here, and then, this simple trick came to mind.)  I used a toothpick to write USA, and then a red star was added before entirely dry.

The surfboards were all hand cut with cookie dough.  Very time-consuming, and not too uniform in shape.  In the future, I will spend more time recycling a cutter that I own or give up and purchase a surfboard cutter.

I looked online for awhile, gathering ideas for surfboard designs, finally deciding upon these.  I particularly like the blue and white wave design and the ones with the "flower."  Those flowers were made using a cool technique when the icing was still wet.  First, I flooded the background color, and then, while the icing was still wet, I drew a circle in a different color on top, dragging a toothpick through it to create a flower effect.

Oh, and then because I love a good theme, I added a few sharks.  They were inspired by Sweet Sugarbelle, but I made them a bit simpler.  We had come home from vacation June 30th, so let's remember, I didn't have much time here!

 

These pictures were taken on a platter, looking all festive and formal, but in reality, they were eaten during the fireworks, so who knows if anyone even saw these designs anyway (!)

Happy Fourth!