Vintage Duck Toy Cookies

The month of March brought not one, but THREE precious babies into my life.  A tiny little nephew named George, a niece, Sara, and another one of my besties *finally* welcomed sweet John into the world.

Babies of course make me happy, and when I’m happy it puts me in the mood to make cookies.

I wanted to do something a little different than the standard bibs and bottles so I came up with a simple duckie pull toy cookie. Yes, they’re three dimensional, but in the interest of simplicity I kept the colors and design elements to a minimum.  If you’re new to three dimensional cookies this is a perfect project for getting your feet wet.

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To make these cookies you will need a duck cutter {I used THIS ONE} and some sort of square/rectangle cutter, slightly wider than the duck.  If you don’t have one use a template and a simple knife or pastry wheel.

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Piece together the duck and base to form a single cookie as pictured below.  Then use a small round cutter to cut 4-5 wheels for each cookie.

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Before baking, insert a toothpick approximately 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch into the cookie to create a cavity.  If you’re only planning on decorating one side of the cookie you could always skip this step and attach the string to the back but in my opinion, attaching it this way creates a more finished look.

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After baking and cooling remove the toothpick and you’re ready to decorate.

To make these cookies you will need:

Begin by outlining and filling the duck cookie in sections.  They will need to dry completely before working with them.

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In the meantime use red 20-second icing to cover the wheels.  These will also need to dry for a while.

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While you’re waiting, you can put together the string pulls.  Since my favorite red icing color, tulip red, falls a little on the orangey side, Mandarin twine from The Twinery is a perfect match.  To make sure you always have the right color on hand I suggest picking up their 18-Color Sampler Pack.  It’s always handy to have around.

To create pulls, cut a 4-5 inch piece of twine {depending on the size of your cookie} and double knot the end.  Then dip a small section of the loose end into flood icing to stiffen it just enough to easily insert into the cookie.Duckie Pull Toy Cookies 10

When everything is dry {this may take 8-10 hours} it’s time for the fun stuff.  Begin by attaching the string pull.  Squeeze a very small amount of piping icing into the opening and insert the string.

Duckie Pull Toy Cookies 11To finish up, use stiff piping icing to attach the wheels.  For standing cookies this is a two-step process.

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Flip the cookie over and use a spare tire {hardy har har har} or a coupler to keep things level while attaching the back wheels.

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You might be wondering why I decorated the back wheels and not the other side of the cookie. The short answer is I’m crazy.

For those of you not afraid to take a trip into the dark recesses of my brain…during the planning stage of this project I MEANT to decorate both sides of this cookie but I developed a case of the lazies halfway in.  But double-sided or not these cookies are cute, right?

Anywho, check the wheels to ensure that they’re even and leave the cookies in this position until they’re completely dry.

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Also, you might notice that my duckies eventually grew eyes.  I got so excited about the building part that I saved them for last.  A wise, patient soul would probably add them before attaching all the other junk, but I’ve never been known for wisdom and patience.

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This has been a great month for babies around here.  George and John are perfectly healthy and our sweet Sara, although very sick, has the heart of a fighter. I cannot wait to see what’s in store for these tiny little babes and I hope you’ll keep all three in your prayers.

My sweet friend Giselle of Baking in Heels also made duckie pull toy cookies.  You can check hers out HERE.

I’m excited about the month ahead.  Spring is in the air and I’m ready to get busy in the kitchen.  Here’s to a great April for everyone!