Back to school means Homecoming  and the homecoming dance, the first dance of the school year.

Hopefully your school’s football team will win and the dance will be a huge celebration.

 Homecoming is a time to celebrate the school you’re attending. And, after you’ve graduated,

it’s a time to go back (or “come home”) to your town and the campus, see old friends, and reminisce about your school days.

Generally there is a spirit week prior to the “big” game” energizing the football players. Huge crowds gather to cheer their school and show support, with parades and floats (mostly at the college level).

Generally, the Saturday after the game has been played there is a high school dance, this is the dance all students are invited from freshmen to seniors.

The students nominate a court: King and Queen, generally seniors. Prince and Princess, generally juniors. Duke and Duchess, generally sophomores or freshmen.

With homecoming just around the corner I created homecoming inspired dress cookies. Princess Grace of Monaco was my fashion inspiration!

Homecoming Dress Cookie:

Equipment:

• Blossom Wedding Dress
• Blossom wedding dress stamp
• Jewel mold
• Ribbon cutter
• Veining tool,HP
• Celstick/Celpin
• Fondant rolling pin
• Fondant smoother
• Fondant floral pad, OP
• Mini pizza wheel, or craft knife
• Toothpicks
• Artist brushes
• Cornstarch
• Parchment paper cone

Materials:

• Dress cookie recipe
• Royal icing
• Fondant, ivory
• Food paste, magenta and grape violet,SF
• Petal dust,African Violet, NYCake & Violet, Ck
• Lustre dust, Old Gold, CK
• EverClear
• Edible glue,pre-made
• Royal icing, ivory colored and bead consistency

Find supplies here

Bake and cool your cookies.

To capture the flow and move of the dress I used an ombre method.

You want to prepare you colours ahead of time starting with the darkest graduating to the lightest.

Constructing the Dress:

To achieve this effect start by adding small amounts of wedding white fondant transitioning (adding more white with each step) to your lightest color.

Knead your fondant, roll the fondant to a #1 on a pasta machine or 3 mm/1/8-inch, cut the fondant with your blossom cutter,

and with your ribbon cutter, set to the smallest width cut two strips of each color.

Transfer the fondant strip to your pad and begin to frill the strip, roll the veining tool back and forth until you are satisfied with the frill. Only cut and frill one color at time.

Brush piping gel on the cookies and attach the frilled strip.

Work with one ombre color and cookie at a time, we found two strips pre color work brilliantly.

Work from the bottom of the dress to the bodice. Attach each strip as close as possible without laying the fondant frill strips on top of one another, each strips should be attached to the cookie.

Knead the darkest color of ombre colors, roll the fondant to a #1 on a pasta machine or 3 mm/1/8-inch, cut the fondant with your blossom cutter, and with your mini pizza wheel cutter cut the bodice portion of the dress. Transfer the bodice to a foam pad and use your veining tool to frill the bottom of the bodice.

Apply more piping gel to the bodice portion of the cookie and attach the bodice fondant piece to the cookie.

Decorating the Dress:

Now that your dress is all dressed-up in ruffles, gingerly open the ruffles, starting from the bottom and work your way up to the bodice. Use the blunt end of the Celpin to open the ruffles.

On a piece of parchment paper place African violet and violet, sprinkle cornstarch on the side. Mix the two violets together and mix cornstarch with an artist brush. Proceed to brush the petal dust mixture on the ruffles, allowing the excess to fall into the lower ruffles. Petal dust the bodice as well.

Mix a few drops of EverClear with old gold petal lustre in a little jar, the mixture should ripple on the bottom for a perfect consistency.

With an artist paint brush, only used for food, accent the edges of the ruffles.

Fill a parchment paper cone with bead consistency ivory coloured royal icing, leaving a small hole. Pipe beads on the neckline and on the bottom of the bodice.

The Stand:

 For the stand we used a jeweled mold and a square shaped sugar cookie cover with fondant. Placed a square sheet of fondant in the mold to create the jewel. We painted the jewel with old gold.

Assemble:

 Take the extra pieces of fondant add a few drops of water, at a time, smoosh the mixture with a mini straight spatula until it becomes gooey.  Place the gooey fondant mixture in cornet and apply the fondant glue to the stand and the bottom of the dress cookie, place the two pieces together, and hold for a few seconds or until the dress is standing without aide. If any of the glue peeks out paint it with the old gold/EverClear paint.

The perfect cookie for the Homecoming table!

If you would prefer to order the cookies please visit the shop.