Autumn Cookies and Pears

I made this set for the workshop planned in November. The main techniques to learn in the workshop are brush embroidery, embroidery-like piping in the wreath, and making pear transfers. 

 

You can pipe pears straight onto the dry flooded cookies, but it's easy and safe to make transfers and glue them. To make pear transfers, I just outlined and pipe a blob with outlining consistency icing in the bottom half. Then, I flooded soft (but not too runny) icing on it. You don't have to worry about your pears being bumpy. Pears are bumpy. I painted them with yellow, green and brown, when they were dry. 

 

Piping a flower with a tip on a cookie is my recent favorite. It's a good way to add some different colors, texture, or... just flowers to your set of cookies. I think any kind of cookie set look great with flower cookies. 

Brush embroidery doesn't seem so popular in the current cookie world, but I like this technique. It looks elaborate, elegant, and traditional.

 

The wreath design is easy and versatile. I roughly draw a circle with a scriber and divide it into 8 and mark with tiny dots of icing. Then I pipe leaves, stems and berries. T

There are a lot of different kinds of pears in the world. We have Japanese indigenous pears which are completely different from western pears. They are crunchy and don't have very strong flavour.

 

We also have pears like ones that western people have. The most common kind in Japan is "La France."

Pears of this kind taste nice, but I love "Le Lectier" that is grown in Niigata, where I grew up. Le Lectier is sweeter, softer (almost like peaches) and has stronger aroma when they are fully ripen. And they are more expensive and can't be found in normal supermarkets. They are often for gifts.

Therefore, the pears on my cookies are Le Lectier. My father in Niigata used to send me a box of pears in every December. Since he passed away 3 years ago, I haven't eaten Le Lectier. This year I'm going to get some from an online store...