Attempt 3
This time, I changed my design and used colors. I tried a new technique called wet-on-wet, or flood-on-flood. My new design was Halloween-themed, and I decided to make eyeballs. First, I made the icing, then added color to it using gel food coloring. After that, I outlined the cookies with white icing and completely flooded the inside with white. For the iris, I used purple and green flood icing and applied it on top of the white while it was still wet. Next, I added the black pupil on top of the purple while it was still wet, followed by the white shine. Lastly, I used red icing dots and a toothpick to create the veins in the eyes. The main thing I struggled with was keeping the shape of the iris. As the cookies were drying, the icing continued to settle and the shape changed. Toward the end, I came to the conclusion that less is more. The less icing I used, the less the circle lost its shape as the icing spread out.
Overall, I think the eyeball design was easier to make than the sand dollar design I was previously trying. I also had more fun making the eyes.
Things I learned:
- As the cookies sit to dry, the royal icing continues to spread and settle.
- The softer the flood icing, the more forgiving it is.
That said, the Rascal treat test is not quite as ridiculous as it might sound. The Busken Bakery in Cincinnati has been running a presidential Cookie poll since 1984. It sells cookies with candidate’s faces on them and the highest-selling cookie candidate has won nine out of 10 elections (2020 was the outlier). A random bakery has been right just as many times as Allan Lichtman, the distinguished professor who is famous for his 13 “keys” to the White House. (Lichtman got 2020 right but 2000 wrong.) And the bakery has certainly done better than many pollsters.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/15/harris-trump-tied-polls-i-conducted-own-less-traditional-research