Hey Diddle Diddle
The Cat and the Fiddle
The Cow jumped over the Moon
The little Dog laughed to see such sport,
And the Dish ran away with the Spoon
Old English Nursery Rhyme, estimated 16th century
Wow. That’s an old rhyme! Just imagine the little English kiddies singing this song (or, more likely, a more antiquated version of it) on the little 1500s playgrounds. That is . . . if they had playgrounds back then. Perhaps they practiced games like “off with his head!” Oooh . . . gross. Let’s move on.
I love nursery rhymes. I always have. As a kid, I had a book called “The Magic of Rhymes” that I loved to listen to my Mom read as I traced the magical curving lines of elvish shoes and fancy writing. I loved that book and adored looking at the pictures.
Recently, a friend of mine, Cassey, suggested doing some cookies with the theme of the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle.” I loved that idea! And I couldn’t wait to start. Thanks for the great idea, Cassey!
What are we waiting for? Let’s do this!
Here are my cookies before I baked them. As you can see, there were quite a few strange shapes, and I had to combine several cutters to make them. I think what I’ll do is do a different post for each cookie, since there are too many steps for a single post. Sound good? Good. Today, I’m going to start with the first character in the story– the “cat and the fiddle.”
I decided to sketch out my idea, first. This is always a good idea– trace your cutter and sketch your idea inside the cutter. That way, you know your idea will fit, and you won’t be left with a ruined cookie that got “too big for its britches” while you were drawing before you realized there wasn’t room for what you were creating.
For this “Cat and the Fiddle” cookie, we will need a large white circle. Outline and flood several large circles (the ones you traced for your original design). Allow these to dry for 1/2 hour or so before going on to the next part of the design.
Now, we’re going to create a glowing sunset, with just a hint of creepy. Start by airbrushing a little yellow patch about the spot where you want your setting sun to be.
Now, take a flower nail (any round shape will work, but the flower nail has a handy little stick to pick it up with) and place it over the yellow spot. Make sure that the yellow dye is dry before you place the flower nail over the dye, or it will smear.
With the nail in place, airbrush a second layer of orange. When you lift up the nail, presto! There is your beautiful golden sun.
Now, I tried several variations of colors in this. You can decide what colors you like best, too. For this one, I did red, and then a light layer of black on the edge. *Note: Cover the “sun” each time you add another color, so it doesn’t get sprayed with another color by accident.
This was my yellow, orange, red, black version.
This was my yellow, orange, black version. I’m not sure which one I like better. I guess that’s the good part– you can make a variety and have some of each 🙂
This is your base for the Cat and the Fiddle cookie. This needs to dry completely before you move on, so go ahead and park that horse at the stable until morning. After it has dried for 24 hours, take a 20 second black icing and outline/flood your cat silhouette.
Voila! I love it. It’s a kind of spooky cat up against a burning sun silhouette. I think this idea could be recycled for Halloween, too!
You did it! And I’m just so proud of you!
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