Cookie Wedding Cakes

Cookie Wedding Cakes are great desserts or favors for Weddings or, if you aren't ready to take on such a task, they would be perfect for a small gathering or Bridal Shower! They are cute and delicious! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• Cookie Recipe: I used Scoochmaroo's Perfect Sugar Cookies (I meant to give a better idea of how many cookie cakes you can make, but I burned some of the cookies. Really it depends on what size cookies you use.)
• Marshmallows + Powdered Sugar = Marshmallow Fondant (I made a batch with a whole bag of mini marshmallows and that was too much for the amount I did. I only needed half.) Also, I used white because I wanted these to be wedding cakes, but go crazy and try different colors and flavors. Why not make Jello Marshmallow Fondant or Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant!
• If you don't want to use fondant, you can always use Royal Icing or really whatever icing you want. I tried this originally and if you want to use this you will probably need to frost the cookies and let them sit until they have hardened completely. I tried to stick them together after frosting them and the cookies just slid off each other and made a mess. That is why I switched to fondant.

Decorating Ingredients:

• Sprinkles of Choice: I used white Sugar Pearls (because they looked fancy) and clear/white sugar crystals
• Corn Syrup or something to stick the fondant to the cookies and the sprinkles to the fondant

Supplies:

• Baking Sheets
• Nonstick or Silpat Mats (good for baking cookies and for kneading and cutting out the marshmallow fondant on, it really is a lifesaver with the fondant)
• Mixing Bowls
• Rolling Pin
• Decorating Paintbrush
• Cookie Cutters (I used the three smallest from this set)
• Cooling Rack
• Optional: Clear Plastic Containers for people to take these as favors

So, I made the cookie dough ahead of time so it could sit in the fridge (as Scoochmaroo suggests) and it is also good to make the marshmallow fondant ahead of time so it can sit. Depending on how many you need to make, it is good to make the cookie dough and marshmallow fondant the day before. Then you can make the cookies the morning you need them and decorate them after they have cooled.

It really helps to have help. It takes a while to cookie cut out all the marshmallow fondant pieces and then stick everything together. I say working assembly line style would work best for this.

Once your cookie dough is ready, you can move on to cutting out the cookies and baking them.

I used cookie cutters that were about 3/4 inches, 1 1/4 inches, and 1 3/4 inches. For my cookies they needed to bake about:

• 10 Minutes (big cookies)
• 6 - 7 minutes (medium cookies)
• 5 minutes (small cookies)

Whatever you do, put them on less time and keep an eye on them. Mine didn't take long to over bake and then they get darker brown and just won't do for cookie wedding cakes.

Also, I originally tried every other size cookie cutter from my set starting with the second smallest and that just ended up making little cookie cakes that were too big. The total size for you is up to you, but I tried to make it more realistic that these little cakes would feed 1 or 2 people instead of 6.

Once your cookies are baked, give them time to cool and you can start getting your marshmallow fondant cut out.

Make your Marshmallow fondant ahead of time if you can. I have heard it is good for it to sit in a closed container overnight.

Once you are ready, lay out your mat and grab some powdered sugar. Make sure you keep your mat and rolling pin covered in powdered sugar while you roll it out flat. I usually pick up the fondant and flip it over once in a while while also spreading out the powdered sugar so it doesn't stick. The mat helps, but it will still stick.

Once you have it rolled out, use the same cookie cutters from before and cut out circles of fondant to put on your cookies.

Cover in Fondant:

I used a tiny bit of corn syrup spread on a by a decorating brush to stick everything together. Whatever you are going to use, spread a bit of it on the cookies and then you will be ready to cover them in fondant. I find it best to just cover all the cookies in the fondant and then we'll assemble the cookies.

You can cut out a bunch of circles and just lay them there, or you can try to cut them out with the cookie cutter and then get them to stick in the cookie cutter. This makes it much easier transferring them to the cookies while also getting them to keep their nice shape and thickness. If you cut it out and then pick it up to put on the cookie, it is going to get at least a little smushed.

If your cookies got significantly bigger when baked, just go up a size in cutter for each cookie to cut out the fondant. Mine only got the slightest big wider, so I carefully placed them directly on the center of the cookies and then use my fingers to urge it to spread out to the edges of the cookie.

Assemble Cakes:

Okay, time to put them together. First, take two of the large cookies and see which one is bigger (they probably won't be the same size, one will be slightly bigger than the other). Put the bigger one down on the plate and take the other one and take whatever you are using as your "glue" and put it on the bottom of that cookie. I found putting it on the bottom of the cookie rather than the top of the fondant was just easier and you are less likely to put your "glue" where you don't want it.

You can do whatever you want for your cake shape, but I did two of each large, medium and small cookies. I didn't end up with even amounts (because it was easier to use up the rest of the sugar cookie dough by cutting out the medium and small cookies) so some cookie cakes are only 4 layers with just small and medium cookies. Do whatever you want :)

And there you have your cake! You can stop here or you can move on and decorate! Because, face it, it is just fun to decorate cookies :)

Time to decorate! As I said earlier, I just chose to use sugar crystals on some cakes and then sugar pearls on the others. I like the pearls the best since they had a fancier look to them, but do whatever you want.

To Completely Cover:

To completely cover a cookie with something, simply give it a light coat of your "glue" on the exposed marshmallow fondant layers. Then, put your cookie on a plate and just sprinkle on the cookies. With clean hands you can urge the sprinkles to stick better so you can get a good coating.

To Decorate:

For some decorations, you won't be able to or won't want to completely cover it. In that case, be careful to only put your "glue" where you need it. For the pearls I lucked out and they fit perfectly on the lower layers, so I just coated those bottom two exposed fondant layers with the corn syrup and then for the top I just put it along the edge of the fondant. Then I carefully place on the pearls. This takes longer than just covering it with sprinkles, but it looks nice.

After putting them on, I gently pushed them down a little like with the sprinkles. Don't want them rolling off!

One option is to put these in little clear plastic containers for people to take home with them, or you can put them on display so they can be looked at and enjoyed right away.

Either way, enjoy!

They are adorable, aren't they!