Cookie Gift Baskets Tip & Recipe Blog

Posts Tagged ‘cookie bouquets’

What do you give when someone far away has a birthday, an anniversary, or a new baby? If you want to ship a gift, you usually have to go and shop for the gift, wrap it, and then look for a suitable box to ship it in. By the time you write the label out and get to the UPS store or post office, you’re exhausted! There’s a better way to send a gift with a few simple clicks of your computer mouse.

We sell these tasty cookie gift baskets online! They’re made to order and then ship right to the recipients' door so you never have to run around town getting in and out of the car.

Cookie flowers have been popular for some time now. These decorative cookies are really more like pops as they come on long stems. They resemble a cookie rose. But they can be decorated with any kind of theme imaginable.

Cookie companies have really turned this into an art. The frosting and colorings that are being used now are so vivid, you’d swear that the cookies are real and not just representations of flowers.

Go for a theme that matches your gift-giving holiday. Cookies for Mother’s Day can mean red rose cookie blooms. New baby? How about a basket filled with long-stemmed baby bottle cookies or ducks or even baby faces? The icing artists who make these cookies are so skilled that the frosting really pops to life.

There are cookie bloom baskets for every holiday, no matter how obscure. Nurse’s Day? We have nurse cookies! Send over a basket to your favorite hospital staff complete with nurse’s hats, thermometers, and stethoscopes done in sugar. How about Groundhog’s Day? You can get a representation of that little fuzzy shadow-seeker, too! There’s really no limit to what you can order in the cookie realm these days.

You can also create your own cookie blooms. It’s really easy. Just choose a sugar cookie recipe and a cookie cutter that’s big enough to accommodate icing detail. Small, intricate cookies don’t work well for cookie blooms. You want a big and bold shape like a giant star or sunflower or teddy bear outline.

The only real trick is to get long stemmed lollipop sticks at the craft store and insert them before you bake the cookies. Many a disappointed home baker has tried to get the sticks in after baking and it’s just impossible. You’ll end up with crumbled cookies. And don’t try to move the cookies off the sheet pan before they’re completely cool or you’ll end up pulling the whole stick out.

Decorate with royal icing and icing tints or food coloring powders. The powders are found wherever cake making supplies are sold. And that’s how commercial bakers get the colors so vivid—a tip from the pros.

Stand your cookies up in a floral foam block or a cube of Styrofoam, then place in a basket that has been lined with fabric or a linen napkin. Make sure to hide the foam so it looks like the cookies are standing on their own. This is one thinking of you gift you’ll want to carry over to a friend’s house instead of trying to mail.

So you want to prepare a homemade basket that is filled with luscious goodies? It couldn’t be easier if you plan on making cookies the center of your basket. Bake a few batches and you’re on your way.

Find a basket that is sturdy and attractive. You can certainly reuse baskets that you have. Just make sure that you’re using something that looks elegant and can pass for brand new. Any misshapen basket or one that is obviously on its last leg is a bad choice.

Once you have your chosen basket, get ready to fill your basket with a liner. This can be a pretty cloth napkin, a piece of fabric, or even a decorative piece of wrapping paper that will hold up well. Brown packing paper can also be used to give your basket a rustic feel and look.

Basket in place, lined and ready to go, you’re on to the fun part. Decide which recipes you will use to fill your basket. Think about classics and family favorites alike. If you have a standby chocolate chip cookie or sugar free cookie recipe that everyone seems to love, be sure to include it.

Once all your cookies are baked, think about the packaging. You can wrap several types of cookies, each in their own cellophane bags for individual treats. Or you can wrap the same type of cookies in one plastic bag, another in another. Just don’t combine different types of cookies in the same bag or leave them all loose as all the cookies will take on the flavor of each other and you’ll have one tasteless mess.

Now, arrange the cookies into lovely little parcels. You might choose to wrap each plastic bag in a pretty paper or even stand them inside a paper cone. It’s up to you. You can also just place layers of cookies into the basket flat, but inside bags.

If you’ve got all the same type of cookie, you can go ahead and leave them all out in the open in the basket. Start layering them like shingles on a house so that they look decorative and well-placed. If you want to include cookie pops, you’ll need to insert sticks into the cookies before you bake them. And then individually wrap them and add to the basket. It’s nice to have some elements standing and others flat at the bottom of the basket. Vary the heights, too. Some cookie pops can be sticking out while others are lying off to the side.

Tie it all up with a pretty ribbon and your gift is ready to go. One nice thing you can add to your basket is the recipe for the cookie you’ve included. If you’ve included several varieties, be sure to write out the recipe for each. You can hand write or type onto recipe cards or other decorative card stock. Punch a hole through the card and tie on with ribbon.

Don’t forget about a gift card. You’ll want your recipient to know who it’s from after all your hard work. Take the few extra minutes to make a decorative card that shows your recipient’s name in fine penmanship or even glitter. The more decorative your gift basket becomes, the more it looks like a fine, well-intentioned thinking of you gift to a dear friend or relative.

Cookies on a stick are fun to bake and really make a great impact for very little effort. For your next party or to give to someone you want to thank or who isn’t feeling well, bake up a batch of eye catching flower pop cookies.

Sugar cookie pops are nothing more than cookies on a stick. They are then arranged into a cookie bouquet and placed inside a vase or flower pot.

You can make your own sugar cookie dough, or you can buy store bought dough and roll it out. You’re going to need cookie cutters that are in the shape of flowers. Or, you can use round cutters and decorate your cookie pops to look like flowers. The important part is that you get the proper sticks. You’ll need lollipop sticks from a craft store. Buy the long kind so you can make long-stemmed cookies. You can always cut the sticks down to make shorter flowers. And you need to place the sticks inside the cookies before you bake them so that they stay firm.

Another thing you will need is a clean flower pot. Terra cotta pots look most authentic. You’ll be securing all your cookie pops to the pot, so you’ll need either floral foam or Styrofoam to stick the lollipops into. Tape down the floral foam or Styrofoam so it doesn’t tip out of the pot. Use green tissue paper to pad the top of the pot and cover the foam.

Here is a great recipe from the Jelly Belly jelly bean company. Their version of the flower pop uses jelly beans in a clever way. Visit their site at www.jellybelly.com to see the finished photo.

Here’s how they did it.

Jelly Belly Flower Cookie Pops

Courtesy of Jelly Belly

These colorful cookies are fun and easy to make, and are topped with some of your favorite Jelly Belly Confections like Mint Cremes and Swedish fish, and of course lots of Jelly Belly jelly beans!

Ingredients:

• 1 roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

• 1 tablespoon egg white powder

• 1 to 2 tablespoons water

• Assorted Jelly Belly jelly beans

• Mint Cremes by Jelly Belly

• Green Swedish Fish

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Knead the sugar cookie dough with the flour on a work surface until smooth. Divide the dough in half.

2. Roll out half on a lightly floured surface to a scant 1/4 inch thickness. Use 2 to 3 inch flower shaped cookie cutters and cut out as many shapes as possible. Transfer the shapes to the prepared pans on either long edge. Insert a lollipop stick into the dough about half way into the cut out.

3. Bake until cookies are golden about 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough and lollipop sticks.

4. Combine the powdered sugar and egg white powder in a medium bowl. Add 1 tablespoon water and mix well. Add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until mixture is thick. Spoon the mixture into a re-sealable bag.

5. Snip a very small corner from the bag, about 1/8 inch. Pipe dots of frosting on cookies and attach the Jelly Belly beans. Pipe dots of frosting on cookies and attach the Mint Cremes or cut some of the Jelly Belly beans in half crosswise and add, cut side down. Continue with the remaining Jelly Belly beans and cookies. Let cookies dry at least 2 hours.

6. Place a piece of Styrofoam into a clean planter or serving bowl. Fill planter with green Jelly Belly beans. Insert the cookie pops into the planter, pushing the sticks into the Styrofoam to secure at different heights. Add a few green Swedish Fish as the leaves.

More Cookie Bouquet Fun:

• All About Cookie Bouquets
• 5 Different Ways to Decorate Cut Out Cookies
• Cookie Gift Bouquets - Make Your Own
• How to Make a Cookie Bouquet

Well the free shipping promotion has come to an end, but you'll be happy to know that you are still going to get a great discount from now until the end of August. Starting this week, all decorated cookie bouquets are on sale, so now you can save up to $25 on these unique gifts!

There are so many options to choose from, and for so many occasions, that you will not run out of ideas! Not to mention, each bouquet is delivered with care and priority. So hurry up and browse all these great cookie bouquets, they won't last long!

Click on one of the delicious iced cookie bouquets below to start shopping.

Sale ends August 31, 2010