Cricut Cake Part 1: Cookies

Reported by Marti Wills

I have been the proud owner of a Cricut Cake machine since it came out. However, it has not come without a long learning curve, so I am here to give you the lowdown on the machine as I have experienced it.

I have been a cookie maker/decorator for many years so I was honestly more excited about the cookie possibilities than I was about the cake decorating possibilities. So how did it do?

Fall cookies made using the Doodlecharms Cartridge and frosted with Royal Icing. Cupcakes in the back with little matching Fondant leaves.

Ladybug cookies with Royal Icing base and Fondant top layer

These little gems did NOT come without frustration.

First cutting the cookie dough. I ALWAYS use Martha Stewart's basic sugar cookie recipe and have for years. Tastes delicious and DOES NOT lose it's detail or puff out when baked.

As shown above the dough MUST be put in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before you try to cut it or your edges will be ragged. In addition you must be sure to roll it out thin enough to fit under the roller bar of the machine. In addition I found it better to cut the SHADOWS of each shape out of the dough for you cookies.

Next I put the royal icing base on. Now, I have always done the entire surface of a cookie with Royal Icing - details and all. But, I thought, wouldn't it be awesome if I could do layers with my Cricut Cake instead? Commence disaster....I used fondant. I rolled it out nice and thin (I thought) and tried to cut. The fondant did NOT stay still on the mat despite having used Crisco like I was supposed to. I put it in the freezer for half an hour and tried again. I had much better luck with the actual cutting:

Getting it OFF the mat was another story altogether. The fondant was sticky and stretchy and I found it nearly impossible to get it off the mat without it being distorted. I would put it in the freezer but it would thaw back out quickly and get sticky so I was putting it back in constantly and it was very time consuming. After spending an entire day trying, I only had the three ladybugs that turned out well. Here are a couple others I tried to do but gave up before doing all of the layers.

You can see how badly the fondant layer matched the base shadow layer.

I finally admitted defeat with the fondant, but not the Cricut Cake. I was determined to master it and I did. Tune in for part 2 tomorrow to see what I finally learned for perfect results every time.

Pros:

• I can cut a huge variety of shapes in all sizes without the expense or storage headache of individual cookie cutters.
• I knew once I learned - I would be able to make the layers for each cookie shape quicker and easier and better than I could with Royal Icing
• Works with ALL of the regular Cricut Cartridges.

Cons:

• Cricut Cake has a learning curve - you cannot take it out of the box and be an instant decorator. (Of course this can be accomplished and then this con goes away).
• It takes a lot longer to cut cookies this way than the traditional cookie cutter way.
• Supplies can be tough to find.

Do you have a Cricut Cake? Do you like it? Do you use it? Have you thought about getting one? Why did you or did you not get one?