Brain Cookies!!

Check out the nerdy handiwork:

They're anatomically correct, too.

In honour of our friend Jay's recent graduation, I decided to make him some really dorky cookies to celebrate his new status as a full-fledged Social Neuroscientist (they really do exist). And get this - I may be the first person ever to post pictures of brain cookies on the Internet! After searching high and low for 'brain cookie' on Google, I failed to find any decorated cookie as remotely brilliant as the ones you see below. Truth be told, I did see some photos of chocolate chip cookie dough piped in a brain-like blob, as well as many a brain-cake, and even a jello brain (wait. I think I saw that on Facebook), but none of them were quite what I was looking for.

The alternate goal for this cookie exercise was to practice my piping and flooding skills, which I have been excited to re-try since oggling the many pretty cookies in various baking books I have hoarded from the library. First, you bake your cookies. I used a sugar cookie recipe from Confetti cakes which turned out to be a pain because the dough was so crumbly you had to keep refridgerating it for it to hold together. Anyhow, after the cookies are cooled, make royal icing (meringue powder or egg white, icing sugar, water) in a medium consistency, and pipe borders along all the cookies. Then, you add some water to your royal icing so that it's a very thick pouring consistency. You can watch Martha flood royal icing on cookies!

To make the brains, find a brain image online to use as a stencil and print it out in your cookie size. Lay a piece of plastic wrap over the stencil and pipe a black outline of the brain. Leave to dry a few hours. Then, fill a piping bag (with a #2 round tip) with a thick but flowable pink royal icing and carefully pipe between your black outline. Use a toothpick to lead the icing into nooks and crannies. Leave to dry overnight. The next day, gently and carefully lift each brain (dont' mess up your hard work!) and glue it to the cookie with some icing. Enjoy!

Aside from brains, there were some hearts, ducks, swans, buses, planes and race cars... some of them are making their way to Minnesota as I type!