Pretty Pansies: Let’s Smell the Flowers!
It’s April, kids. Where in the world has the year gone already?! Despite the time passing by MUCH too quickly, I am extremely excited for the full arrival of Spring, especially up here in Minot. I’m planting all my flowers early this year, including some sugary pretty pansies, too! 😉
My super-sweet, crazy-creative friend Haniela had a beautiful idea for a collaborative cookie project: a virtual stroll through a beautiful flower garden! I felt so honored to have been asked to participate, and I was assigned pretty pansies to create!
I thought it would be fun to make a platter of pretty pansies in a range of colors… and it was!
And in addition to being pretty, I simplified these pansies so that you can knock ’em out in no time. I promise, they are so easy!
You’ll need the following:
- baked sugar cookies in a 5-petal shape
- 20-second icing in assorted colors
- yellow piping icing
- toothpicks
Step 1: Starting a little bit above the center of the flower shape, outline the back solid petal. Flood immediately with the same color. Set aside for 20-30 minutes. (Or just work on different color pansies in the meantime.)
Step 2: Working quickly, pipe the middle two petals, slightly overlapping the finished back petal. Be sure to leave a bit of space in the center of each petal for the secondary color.
Step 3: Immediately fill the space with the secondary color. Use the toothpicks to drag the icing outward to the petal’s edges for a spiky, sort of “jazz hands” kind of effect. Let these petals dry for 20-30 minutes before moving on as well.
Step 4: Working quickly again, pipe the last two “humps” of the flower into one very large petal, and flood the outer edge immediately, leaving space again for the same secondary color.
Step 5: Flood with a bit of the secondary color, leaving a teeny-tiny space for the center of the flower. Use a toothpick again right away to pull the edges out, giving the flower a sort of “snow angel” look. (Everyone else sees that, right? Not just me? Mmkay. 🙂 )
Step 6: Use yellow piping icing to fill the center. Draw the center into a mountain shape. 🙂
(Side note: I learned that almost all pansy varieties have yellow centers, despite the coloring on the petals. I thought that was neat, not to mention easy!)
I did the white/dark purple & the white/dark blue pansies only slightly differently, but most of the process remained the same. I love how delicate they look. ♥
And sometimes, when you look at the cookies at just the right angle, they kinda look like the Swedish Chef, which just makes me all sorts of smiley. 🙂
But the fun doesn’t stop once you’ve made yourself a bunch of pretty pansies! There’s still tons more beautiful flowers to check out from all these amazing cookie friends. Here’s a little preview for ya:
And here’s the links for you. Get clicking, and “Let’s Smell the Flowers!” 😀
1. Black Eye Susan by Lisa, The Bearfoot Baker
2. Carnation by Meaghan, The Decorated Cookie
3. Cherry Blossom by Pam, Cookie Crazie
4. Daffodil by Georganne, LilaLoa
5. Daisy by Stephanie, Ellies Bites
6. Dogwood by Marian, Sweetopia
7. Gerbera by Paula, Vanilla Bean Baker
8. Hyacinth by Amber, SweetAmbs
9. Hydrangea by Kim, The Partiologist
10. Iris by Cristin, Cristin’s Cookies
11. Lavender by Liz, Arty McGoo
12. Lily of The Valley by Hani, Haniela’s
13. Lotus by Marlyn, Montreal Confections
14. Morning Glory by Glory, Glorious Treats
15. Orchid by Ali, Ali Bee’s Bake Shop
16. Pansy by Nicole, Life’s A Batch
17. Poppy by Callye, SweetSugarBelle
18. Sunflower by Bea, Cancun Cookies
19. Tulip by Lorraine, Lorraine’s Cookies
- April 2, 2012 9:50 am
- Author: Nicole
- Categories: collaborative projects, spring
Welcome to Life’s a Batch! 
Awww….these are wonderful, Nicole. I LOVE pansies. And you represented them so well. 🙂
I’m happy to be part of this project with you and so many other amazing decorators. 🙂
Thank you so much, Pam! It has been such a fun experience, hasn’t it?! ♥
So so pretty! You totally captured what makes a pansy a pansy!
Haha, thank you, Meaghan! I had never really looked at a pansy so closely before, and I just couldn’t get over the similarities to snow angels. Who knew?! 😀
That’s a beautiful garden! I love the way you blended the colors on the pansies.
Thank you, Amanda! I mailed out these pretty pansies to your friend Betsy this morning, too! 🙂
Love seeing your technique to make these pansies so beautiful. They are such a happy flower and all your colours are lovely. Such a fun party and so pleased to have been a part of such a talented group of ladies.
Thank you, Paula! I’m glad you like the colors. I really wanted to spotlight several different varieties of pansies because I wasn’t sure just one kind would really ‘POP!,’ you know? It was so neat seeing everyone’s flower cookies! 🙂
Beautiful cookies! Great tutorial you explain it very well. Marlyn
Thank you, Marlyn! One of these days, I’ll have to start figuring out video tutorials, but for now, I would just rather spend my mornings watch the great ones YOU make instead! 🙂
Such a beautiful collection! The colors are gorgeous! Pansies remind me of my Grandma, who used to always have them in her garden. I’ve always loved them!
Thank you, Glory! Pansies remind me of my childhood as well, as my mom liked to make pretty hanging pots with them on our back veranda. The white/purple was always my favorite!
I love these pansies! The colors are beautiful & you did such a nice job on the tutorial.
Thank you, Melissa! I’m so glad you enjoyed them, and I hope you were able to spend a bit of time checking out all of the other gorgeous flowers in the party! 🙂
I love Pansies, Nicole! They remind me of Winter in Houston with my Dad… islets and safety zones were covered with Pansies. They also grow in Mexico City, where I was born… sweet memories, I tell you!
Thank you, Bea! That’s so sweet that pansies bring back such lovely memories for you. I feel that way about your gorgeous sunflowers, too! 🙂
Pansies ARE NOT easy to make, but you executed them perfectly!!!! Love them, Nic!!’
LOL, thank you! 😉
so cute!!! Love all the different colors of these! 🙂
Thank you, Ali! I had a lot of different colors leftover from other projects, so I thought it would be sweet to have several varieties of little pansies. They were fun & easy! 🙂
These are gorgeous! My daughter has been begging me to plant some pansies in our yard (they have a display outside of our Whole Foods) but, since I am the flower killer, I wonder if she would settle for these cookies instead?
Aww, Stephanie – that would be extra sweet (literally!) of you, and I promise you this: these cookies will bloom much faster than real pansy flowers. 😉
So bright and cheery! Great job!
Thanks so much, Kim! 🙂
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That white and purple one is killing me!! I would not have known where to start but you made them look real!!!! LOVE!!
That’s my very favorite one as well, Lisa. Thank you so much! ♥
Nicole, that marbling is brilliant! Such pretty pansy cookies!
Thank you, Marian! I had a lot of fun doing this project with you & everyone else! 🙂
Nicole, I love these colorful beautiful Pansies.
You created a wonderful display with them, I love the marbling affect.
Thank you so much for making these for the party.
Thank you, Hani! It was such fun working with you & everyone else. What a great idea you had! ♥
Pansies! I LOVE these! Whenever I see them I think of those sweet little faces in Alice in Wonderland. Now I’ll see your Swedish Chef too! ha ha! You did an amazing job on these. I love the depth and the colors you used. BEAUTIFUL!!!
Thank you, Arty! I do know the little Alice faces you’re talking about, but all I could see was Swedish Chef’s mustache at first, haha!
Nicole…it took me a few minutes to recover from the surprise and complete shock when I got home from an incredibly LONG day of work to find a package addressed to me unexpectedly in my mailbox! I had no idea what was in there and when I opened it up in front of my husband and daughter, I just started crying. . . I kept stuttering….I KNOW THESE COOKIES!! I KNOW THESE COOKIES!!!! They thought I was nuts-o….they don’t speak “blog” ya know?! Having followed along with this lovely cookie flower exposition, I enjoyed all of the amazing creations. To be a recipient of this amazing collection of my FAVORITE FLOWER in the form of such a pretty cookie (see here….http://sweetology101.blogspot.com/2011/06/pansy-shortbread-cookies.html) at a point in my life where I so very much needed a little pick me up is beyond my words of gratitude. I wish I could just reach out and give you such a big warm hug and let you know how much you sweetened my life. To be honest, I have been on the brink of just folding up the whole blog endeavor with all life has handed me lately, but this just goes to show that for everything there is a reason! I hope you and whoever “nominated” me for this understands how profoundly grateful I am. My heart is 2 times bigger today!! I will make sure to pay forward this amazing gesture as the ripple of good will continues to flow….hugs from your new biggest fan ever! Trisha
Trisha, you are so very welcome! I had no idea that pansies were your very favorite flower, so I do hope my little cookies did a bit of justice to them. Your sweet friends Callye & Paula both nominated you, and with such good people on your side, I knew you must be someone VERY special yourself. I’m so honored to have been able to bless you in such a small way! ♥
These are beautiful Nicole! I especially love the “jazz hands” 😉 You make them look so easy although we all know your expertise makes it only look that way! Fantastic job and thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Cristin! 🙂
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