Superhero Christmas Cookies: A Self-Critique

As we do every year, my family and I made Christmas cookies earlier today...although this year I took a slightly different approach with my slab of cookie dough.  Instead of the usual Christmas tree, star, or snowman shapes, I thought I'd introduce a superheroic twist to the holiday goodies.

How'd it go?  Pretty well...though I've gotta say, cookie decorating is an imprecise art at best....a little like threading a needle while wearing boxing gloves.  Some of my superhero cookies worked out pretty well, while others...well...didn't.  Let's take a look at the results, accompanied by a healthy dose of self-critique (click on the cookies for a larger view):

1.  The Flash Symbol:  Simple enough, right?  Lightning bolt in a circle...no problem!  Well, that is, until the frosting tube decided to act up and blurp all over the place, making sharp corners virtually impossible.  Hindsight:  I probably should have used plain white sugar for the circle field behind the lightning bolt.  Still, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  Grade:  B-

2. The Superman "S" Shield:  Feeling pretty good about my Flash symbol, I thought I'd tackle the Big Enchilada. Once again, the frosting tube gave me all kinds of headaches, with the red frosting looking more like lumpy mashed potatoes than the smooth red frosting I'd envisioned.  But, despite the glitches, it looks okay.  Grade:  B

3.  The Green Lantern Symbol: After reasonable success with the Flash and Superman symbols, I was starting to get a little cocky.  "Is there NO DC superhero logo that I can't make into a cookie?"  Well, as it turned out...yes.  The Green Lantern Logo was a complete disaster.  Not only was the symbol off-center, but the unpredictable flow of the green frosting made this one a dreaded "eat it quick so nobody sees it" cookie.  Add to that the lame "green glow sugar sprinkles" around it, and I say...let's move on to number four.  Grade: F

4. The Bat Symbol:  Ahh...redemption!  After that pathetic Green Lantern symbol, the success of the Bat Symbol cookie provided me with the second wind I desperately needed to keep going.  By this point, I'd accepted the blotchiness of the frosting, so I didn't sweat the blunted ends of the wing points. 
Grade: B+

Knowing it wasn't likely I'd be able to pull off a decent Wonder Woman logo cookie, I turned my attention to the Marvel Comics side of the aisle.

5.  Iron-Man head:  Since he doesn't have a cool symbol, I went for the head shot....especially since the relative simplicity of Iron-Man's helmet lends itself well to the crude tools of the Christmas cookie trade.  Despite looking like the red portion is melting and his eyes and mouth looking like big black leeches (or turds), I think it looks okay. True, the Iron-Man movie people probably won't be offering me any merchandising deals, but hey...it looks like him.  Grade: B-

6.  Spider-Man Symbol:  Instead of the oval Spider-Man head shot, I thought taking the circular "Spider-Signal" approach would make it bit easier to attempt webbing. After connecting the first two "web strands" to the eyes, I realized I would have to pull the others back if I wanted the eyes to get the prominence they need.  Not entirely successful, but not a complete failure, either.  Grade: C

7. Thor's Hammer:  It was a toss up between Mjolnir and Thor's winged helmet...and the hammer obviously won out.  I'm not blown away by it, but I'm glad I tried it.  In hindsight, I probably should have done Captain America's shield instead. Grade: C

8.  The Thing:  At first, I thought I'd try doing the "4" in a circle logo of the Fantastic Four, but after the frustrating frosting experience with the Superman shield, I'm glad I decided against it.  The Thing was fun to make, since his head is made of such simple shapes.  The yellow-orange sugar matches his color close enough, and I thought the purple candies approximated his "ever-lovin' blue-eyed" look close enough.  A cookie even Aunt Petunia could love!  Grade: B

There you go.  Adventures in sugar cookie dough.  I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I did making (and eating) them.

Comments

[suedenim]

They all look great - I want to consume the Uru cookie of Mjolnir!

[Shelly]

They all look so yummy, and yet, too nice to eat. Good job. :)

[cinephile]

You're being too hard on your cookie arts skills, Mark-- the Thor, Spidey and IM cookies are great, and I rather like the Flash cookie, too.

[RAB]

I totally agree with cinephile. These are all better than you say. I'm particularly impressed with the Spidey cookie...but the mere idea of the Thing cookie deserves an award all by itself.

[Mark Engblom]

Hey, glad you like 'em, folks. Yeah, I'm probably being a little harder on myself than I need to be, but I think that comes with the territory when you're a "creative type". We're all generally pretty hard on ourselves...even when it's for something with as short a "shelf life" as a Christmas cookie.

If I could, I'd bake all of you a batch! :)

[Greg Scott]

Wow Mark, great job! They were so beautiful, you must have been crying while you were eating them. Like eating your sweet, bite-sized, baked little children.

Some notes:

1. Most Delicious Looking: The Superman cookie.

NOT because the flavor was super-enhanced by the Earth's yellow sun and lighter gravity, but simply because it's the cookie with the most frosting. Sugar cookies were a delicious treat -- in 1937. But in today's high speed, on-the-go world of cell phones, Mrs. Field's Double pecan white chocolate chip cookies, and digital watches, kids are looking for a cookie that's fresh, that's hip, that speaks *today's* language; not the cookie that's happening now, but the cookie that's happening *right now*. It's a whole new cookie paradigm today, people.

Let me put it to you this way: Why did the Sugar Cookie cross the road?

Exactly. Exactly.

2. On that note, I think if you could somehow combine a cookie so that half of it was sugar cookie, while the other half oatmeal raisin (mmmm), you'd be well on your way to making the perfect Two-Face cookie. Just think of it.

3. Why was Mark so hard on himself? The diameter of each cookie: 12 inches.

But seriously, awesome job Mark! Keep this up, and you'll soon be adding "Culinary artist" to your resume.

[Mark Engblom]

LOL! You always crack me up, Greg...thanks for stopping by! Yeah, you're right...I forgot to mention the 12 inch diameter on each cookie! LOL!

I love the Two-Face cookie idea. So much so, that I think I'll delete your comment and keep the idea as my very own, perhaps thinking of you years later atop my millions of dollars accompanied by a tiny twinge of guilt, which will be quickly eclipsed by whatever hedonistic pleasure I'm engaged in at the time.

[Rich]

Man, if I graded like you my students would go nuts. These are rad!

[Siskoid]

I think you underscored yourself on Spider-Man and the Thing, personally.

Great stuff. And now I'm raiding the fridge...

[taylor]

wow- these rock. i might just unseasonally try them out myself once the holiday time festivities die down. i think the spidey one looks much better than you give yourself credit for!

[Mark Engblom]

Thanks, Taylor. Yeah, give it a try. It's fun...despite the "limitations of the form". Remember, think simple (even then it can be tricky).