Bridget’s Floral Silhouette Sugar Cookies

When her cousin Maura encouraged Bridget to start a blog, little did the owner of Bake at 350 know that almost four years after her first post, over 3500 readers would be following it and over 5300 people would be reading her tweets! Nor did this baker from Texas have any idea that her charming cookies, always accompanied by a post dotted with good humour and an easy to follow tutorial would lead to some tremendous opportunities.  However, when week after week and year after year you are able  to delight and inspire your readers with cookies as original as these and as personal as these, then such a large following should come as no surprise.  Bridget never started decorating sugar cookies until 1999 when she quit work outside of the home to raise her son (affectionately called *Kiddo* on the blog).   As her self-taught decorating skills developed, so too did the demand for her cookies.  Bridget soon opened a web store and for years she shipped her delicious creations nationwide.  In 2008, around the time Bridget decided to home school *Kiddo* for the next few years, she closed her shop but continued to bake and blog for her own pleasure.  That pleasure is shared a few times a week, every week with her devoted followers and her talents have not gone unnoticed by several notables.  Martha Stewart has featured Bridget’s cookies as well as her family’s other creative talents and her decorating talents were also highlighted in Parent’s Magazine, Ultimate Conroe , Ultimate Woodlands and Ultimate Spring on-line magazines.  She has also been a contributing writer for her local Woodlands Family Magazine.  In 2009 Bridget was selected to be part of Kelly Ripa’s Cake Off for a Cure and was flown to New York to work alongside other bloggers with Regis, Kelly and Buddy Valastro!  She was chosen by TLC to be a member of their 20 blogger Cake Crew, has an ever-expanding portfolio on Foodbuzz and does not hesitate to put her baking talents to work to benefit wonderful causes and to work with others to educate and encourage cookie bakers and decorators everywhere.  To date however, I think it would be safe to say that one of her biggest surprises and pleasures from blogging came this past December when she was invited by Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman fame to come to her ranch in Oklahoma and show Ree, her children and several other bloggers how to decorate sugar cookies! And to think that this gracious and talented lady didn’t even think people would be interested in her blog on baking and decorating cookies when she started it!  I am very grateful that Bridget is here today, sharing her story and recipe with us.  You can follow her on Twitter @bakeat350tweets

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

First, I just want to thank Paula for her big heart and for bringing together bakers from all over to, as Paula says, “bake a difference.”

These cookies are in honor of my friend, Laura.  Notice I said “in honor” not “in memory.”  Just a few months after my mom was diagnosed with cancer at the end of 1998, one of my best friends, Laura, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

She endured brain surgery, radiation,  and lots and lots of chemotherapy.  It didn’t end there for Laura, though.  Laura has lost movement on one side of her body.  Her short-term memory isn’t what it once was. Her husband decided cancer wasn’t something he could deal with (insert feisty, Irish-blooded, curly-haired friend who wanted to bust some skulls here), and Laura’s parents lovingly gave up their retirement to come live with and care for Laura full-time.

And Laura fights on.  She’s watching her daughter, who was 2 when she was diagnosed, grow into a lovely young teenager.  Isn’t that what we all fight for, more time?

First, I grabbed an clip-art image online and printed it out for tracing on wax paper. (You’ll see that I ended up using a different image on the cookies.)

I  traced the images onto wax paper in white royal icing and let then dry overnight.  The cookie recipe and baking instructions can be found by clicking on the link at the end of this post.

Then, I outlined the cookies in grey royal icing.

Next, they were filled with grey flood icing.

After an hour or so, the border was added, using a #16 tip.

After the cookies had dried overnight, the pre-piped flowers were popped off the wax paper and placed on the cookies with a little royal icing.

And a little yellow center dot was added.

{Let’s be honest here, the flowers look less like the modern floral silhouette I envisioned and more like a cross between Lisa Simpson & a sea creature.}

Anyway….the cookies are for Laura and my donation today is going to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund in honor of my mom, Gail. ♥