Gingerbread Zombies

I'm just starting out this blog but I've got a backlog of a few cookie posts I want to get to so the first few posts will be really close together in time.  That's a helluva long winded way to say I'm probably going to make a couple of posts a day for a few days but the events they represent stretch out over about a month.

Well, except this post and the brain cookie post sort of happened at the same time so I've already blown my logic there or I'm somehow creating a temporal cookie paradox.  You be the judge. 

ANYHOO...

I panicked that brain cookies wouldn't be enough for my friend's zombie art exhibition so I thought it would be cool to make zombie gingerbread men.  Make gingerbread men, cut off an arm or head or leg on each one, ice outline as normal, put globs of blood red icing on the area that is missing a body part...easy peasy!!!

I only made gingerbread men...no women.  Before you get on my case wondering why the inherent sexism didn't bother me while the possibility of implied racism in my brain cookies did bother me, well...I am at a loss.  It was just easier that way!!  Haha.

So as I was placing my first tray of cookies to cool on the racks, one of the gingerbread men (not a zombie yet but oh it's coming...yes it is...) made a valiant bid for freedom and landed on the floor.  Did I pick it up?  No. 

I did what any easily amused person would do after watching the gingerbread man do a double forward somersault onto the floor.  I got the camera.

Here's how it landed.  You can tell there's been no photo editing because the flour and dog hair is still shamefully on the floor.

Yep.  I'm easily amused.

The dog got that cookie after the photo was taken :-)

And here's how the zombies turned out.

They're kinda goofy but it was fun.  I think people were more willing to eat a zombie than a brain...hahaha. 

It was a great opening gala and I was happy to be a part of it. 

Zombie art.  Why not?

Brain Cookies

So my friend who is an artist by trade was doing a zombie themed art exhibit with one of his artist friends and for the gala opening I was asked to contribute some baking.

Well, I decided that being a zombie themed show, what better to bake than brain cookies???

There was only one problem.  I had never made a brain cookie before. 

Thoughts swirled around in my head for days on what I was going to do.  Should I somehow get a little brain mold and make chocolates to sit on top of chocolate and vanilla cookies?    Should I make the brains out of cookie dough?  Was it even possible? 

After much internal debate and a shopping trip that failed to yield a brain chocolate mold (who'd have thought they'd be so hard to find???? /sarcasm), I decided to make fondant brains to sit on top of chocolate and vanilla rounds with blood red icing.

How hard could it be?

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

Ok, Ok...so it wasn't all that hard.  But having no mold, I made each and every brain by hand and it took me a crap load of time.  About 7 hours worth on the brains alone.  I have severe carpal tunnel...gimme a break. 

Here's how the brains turned out:

Awesome! 

I made little blobs of fondant shaped like eggs.  Then I made ropes of dyed fondant using gel black and pink dye and placed them in "s" like shapes all up and down each side of the brain.  Here's a couple of tips.  When using the food colouring...a little goes a long way and don't completely  knead it together...leave it a little streaky for a better brain effect.  Oh and just wet the fondant down to get the ropey bits to stick to the fondant blob.

And here are the finished cookies:

Gross and yet very tasty at the same time!

So don't ask me why on the eve of the gala I had a minor meltdown wondering if the zombie-going public would suddenly wonder if there was any implied racism in my cookies.  Yes that's right...racism.  I made chocolate and vanilla rounds with brains on top and I worried that my cookies WERE RACIST. 

When I mentioned  this irrational worry, I got laughed at.  A lot.

I had it coming.

SOMETIMES A BRAIN COOKIE IS JUST A COOKIE.