It was a great pleasure to create these colorful mezeskalacs hearts, which are very unique in East Europe country fairs. There was no country fair in my childhood without a mezeskalacs vendor. They sold huge decorated hearts for keepsake which we cherished for a long time.
I did a little bit of research about the tradition behind the design and the shiny mirror in the middle.
These traditional Mezeskalacs (Hungarian honey bread) are not designed for eating and can last indefinitely with care given to storage. The phrase “Szeretlek” means “I Love You” in Hungarian. These are wonderful gifts for grandparents, grandchildren, or anyone worthy of your love and appreciation.
For a beginner it is always hard to make sure that the icing consistency is right for the design. I had lots of trouble at the beginning. I just wanted to make flooded cookies, but the icing was too thick and it did not run at all, or the opposite happened, that it was way too fluid to draw lines. Actually, it is not exactly true, I was able to draw the lines, but after a while the lines just run into one big mess, instead of staying in the position I laid them down.
Sooner or later, let’s say later, I learned how to determine the right consistency of the icing.
Mostly I use 3 different consistency.
Are you one of those many people who admire decorated cookies, but afraid to try it yourself?
This is what you need to make decorated cookies!
Don’t be! It is easier than you think! At least the beginning is not so difficult.
Decorated cookies are great gifts for teachers, friends, and everybody with sweet tooth. It is also a great project with your kids on a rainy day, or homemade present for grandma.
First, you need a good recipe for making decorated cookies!
Every year I create 3-4 new Easter cookie design for the season, this is one of my new once. It was a hit around the kids last weekend who were looking for Easter cookies already.
This is my favorite traditional Royal Icing recipe with eggwhite.
3 ounces of pasteurized egg whites or regular egg whites
1 tbs of Vanilla extract
( I use it only if I color the icing later, because even though it has no color, it just turns the icing a little yellow ) You could add a little bit of lemon juice for flavor or almond extract as well.
In the last couple of weeks I am decorating Valentine’s Day cookies. All different kind. Some cookies with previous design that people ordered on Etsy.com, and there are some new ones, like the tulips flower pot of gingerbread cookies.
Here is a new one!
I did a little bit of drawing of the bird cookies before starting this cookie but not much. I had the birds first sitting on a bare branch. It looked nice but looked cold and wintry. I had the urge to mix a little bit of green icing for leafs and add them to the branches. It does not take much to get a spring feeling. When you see little buds on the branches and leaves and little bit of color, the heart just just feel the nice weather coming.
One of my favorite recipe for gingerbread cookies.
I tried the traditional American gingerbread, but that was too spicy for me. In my country Hungary, we also have a similar recipe, made with almost the same ingredients, but instead adding molasses we add honey. I combined these two recipes to get something very delicious.
I have baked and decorated many different kind of gingerbread cookies this yeas. This is one of my favorite, which will be on the donated to the Hungarian Society for their annual raffle drawing.
This is a gingerbread Valentine’s Day cookie – red and white, where I tried to incorporate some traditional Hungarian motives. There is just a little bit of icing on it. Only the decoration. The red is applied directly to the surface of the cookie.
My gingerbread recipe is a different from the traditional once. It is a great combination of a Hungarian honey bread recipe and the traditional american gingerbread. It is less spicy but has all the flavor. Those who do not like traditional gingerbread love these.
A mother ordered the Pirate cookies for his sons party but he also had a little sister. She wanted to please her as well and asked me if I can come up with some mermaid cookies for her. And that was the birth of the decorated mermaid cookies.
Sure I could! I love special orders, it just helps me to try something new and fun. Like the these here. I used the same colors as I used on the Treasure map and that help to pull the theme together.
