Biscuit Christmas Tree

I'd seen these biscuit christmas trees a few years back in some posh kitchen supplies shop. I love the idea of doing something like this but I'd stopped myself because for once I thought of the calories! Instead this year I've made a miniature version. It's a gingerbread biscuit as opposed to a butter biscuit or shortbread with icing and tiny silver ball decoration. I've put some chocolates around the edge of the tree to look parcel like. 

I bought the cutters from a seller on ebay, I could kick myself as I'd gone out and bought one cutter for £4 from a shop because I was a bit impatient to do a couple of things and then I bought four  sets of three  cutters - round, oval, star and square for the same price from the land of bay. 

I think the plate needs to be a different colour but I only had white at the time. A festive green or red would brighten it up. I'll have to look in my paper pile to see if there's anything appropriate. 

Hidden surprise cakes.

I have to admit to having a bit of obsession with Pinterest. I'll have a look for inspiration on there and spend far too much time then wondering how to recreate it in miniature.  I also have a couple of boards with real life cakes, dinners and foodie ideas but they seem to be permanently in the 'make at some time in the future' rather than this is what's for tea tonight.

I left it a bit late this year to plan any specific Christmas goodies so I started thinking of next year and to  begin with  Valentine's day. I came up with a cute little red sponge heart encased in sponge covered with pink icing and different decorations on top. These are the ones I've made today but I'm sure more variations will appear in the future. 

I love the way the sponge looks so real and lifelike. It's done with a simple technique of using a needle on the fimo clay in small circular motions very lightly on the surface. It takes a bit of practise and patience but it's worth it for the end result. 

Pastries and pies

I do like a good pastry pie. The thing is I'm not the best pastry maker in the world. I more often than not  resort to a packet mix or a ready made version. Mini versions are a lot easier to make. There's something about adding the pastel shading or acrylic paint with a final brush of varnish that brings those little things alive.

I made a few fruit pies, pastries and fruit tarts. For the blackcurrants I used tiny seed beads and mixed some translucent liquid sculpey with a tiny amount of colour added. 

The orange segments were made from a mix of translucent fimo mixed with a tiny amount of ochre and orange cut into segment shapes and textured using a needle.

Orange tart

Orange tart

Orange and chocolate tarts

The custard and icing was made from TLS mixed with a tiny bit of oil paint. It also acts as a glue between the uncooked pastry base and the cooked preprepared fruit pieces. Cooked apple filling was made using translucent clay mixed with a bit of bright green apple colour clay. This was cooked then chopped into little bits, mixed with TLS then cooked again.

Danish Pastries

Shopping and Making Boxes

I normally buy most things that I need for my miniatures on the internet. Partly its because I work full time as well as making minis and don't have the time to go out and finding things I need in a real shop. The other reason is that where I live there wasn't any craft shops and 'normal' shops don't have the kind of useful bits and pieces we need. 

Then a shop opened in town and it's an emporium of paper sheets, bits and bobs, things you never thought you needed type of shop. I bought some paper, lace trim and a few other bits. I must look a bit mad looking at something like lace trim and working out if I could use in in miniature. 

I then made some box templates on a draw program at home and a box making production line started. 

Petit Fours and Truffles.

I started making the truffles on Sunday, and I finished them today. Three days to make some tiny truffles no more than 3 or 4mm round. Three days!

The most laborious part was making the sprinkles. I chopped up some pieces of cooked fimo and kept chopping until it was really tiny. I then sieved the clay to ensure only the tiniest pieces were going to be used. At least this is a job I can do sat in front of the televisions in bursts rather than slogging away in the craft room. There is probably a less labour intensive way of doing it but I couldn't think of one at the time. 

I made the plate using some glitter translucent clay mixed with a bit of dark pink. It's an inch across to give you an idea of scale, although I added a pencil to give a visual reference of the size. 

The petit fours are a mix of tiny biscuits, truffles and fancies, Because they are so small it's a useful way of using up odds and ends of clay that may end up in the bin otherwise. 

#

Christmas Jewelled Cookies

Today's creations are sweet little christmas cookies. I took my inspiration from the boiled sweet cookies that I'd seen as Chrsitmas decorations. Shortbread cookies with icing and small gold balls and boiled sweet centres. I'd also made some christmas tree shapes and some snowflake fancies. 

Pizza and Garlic Bread

I've made a few pizzas for those lazy can't be bothered cooking days in the doll's house.  A classic cheese and tomato, pepperoni and red onion and pepperoni pizza. I cut up a a couple of pizzas ready to be eaten on a paper plate with some garlic bread slices.