Ethan, a sweet 6 (almost 7!) year old down the street, sets me straight on what is popular now. With the serene patience of a Boy Scout helping an old Granny to cross the street, he patiently explains the ins and outs of what kids like these days. I ask many questions, and Ethan never gets upset. Despite my recently appointed status to the Geritol group, I like to think that Ethan keeps me fairly abreast of the strange creatures that grab kids’ attention. I find it hard to believe that kids can like anything this strange looking, but, as Ethan’s mom, Jill, pointed out, people probably thought the toys that were popular when I was a kid were weird, too (Furbee, anyone?).
Ethan recently schooled me on Minecraft– a weird little game (?) with strange, old-school type squarish characters. These are some weird looking things– let me tell you– but the kids love them. So much so, that I’ve been buying him Minecraft toys and gifts at every opportunity I get. Ethan really wanted these little guys in cookie form, for his birthday party in a few weeks . . . so I decided to give it a try. You can thank Ethan’s patience for this post (“Ethan– is this thing called a “Reaper” or a “Creeper?”), because, without his guidance, I never would have attempted these strange little things. 😉
What are we waiting for? Let’s do this!
To begin with, the Minecraft characters are kind of . . . “blockish.” Yes. You can call someone a blockhead, and, for this one time . . . you’ll be exactly right. This means that you can’t just freehand the design– it has to be geometrical. I went ahead and traced around my square cookie cutter, so that I knew I had a pattern exactly the right size. Use some type of thin cardboard– a cereal box is ideal. I divided my square into an 8×8 grid. The easiest way to do this is by “halves”– draw a line through the half of the square. Then divide those halves, and then divide the remaining halves. You have 8 equal pieces.
When you get your grid drawn out, go ahead and sketch in your pattern. The top one is the creeper (Creeper, right, Ethan?), and the bottom is “Steve.” I gave myself some little letters to remind myself what color these things were (W for white and B for blue on Steve’s eyes, for example). Of course, if you are a young whippersnapper and are already an expert on these Minecraft creatures, go ahead and march right on to the head of the line and leave the old lady in the dust. 😉
After I drew out my patterns, I cut them out. Wait! What happened to Steve’s head!!! Well, I’ll tell you . . . off with his head!!! Sorry. Haha. Anyway, since I knew these patterns exactly fit my cutter, I could trim the hair off, knowing that it would be clear where the hair would be, once I had the cookies. I’ll show you what I mean in a minute.
See? If you put the Steve template on a square cookie, the hair becomes visible. All you really want is the line to trace, anyway. The template is just to help you get your pattern on there.
When I had my patterns cut out, I drew them onto the cookies with edible marker.
Now, the fun part– decorating! Go ahead and do your “centers” first. You will need some 17 second icing in each color– I’m starting with the black Creeper face. Go ahead and outline it. When the outline has dried a bit (after you have outlined a few more cookies), go ahead and fill it. Let these faces completely dry before you go on to the next part, so that your colors don’t bleed. But you can go ahead and start on Steve’s little face 😉
Ethan told me that Steve’s hair and mouth are the same dark brown color. So I started with brown. The nose is kind of a lighter brown. Do the brown features, and let them dry for 1/2 hour or so.
After the creeper faces have dried several hours (or about an hour under a fan), go ahead and outline/flood in green. When you’re working with a larger space with details to go around, you have to work quickly so your icing doesn’t dry while you’re trying to trace.
Now for Steve’s eyes. He has a blue center, and a white outside. Let whichever color you do first dry before you add the rest of the eye, to avoid color bleeding.
Now, let Steve’s eyes dry for 1/2 hour or so, and then add his sweet cheeks. Haha. Sweet cheeks. These should be a very light brown– kind of a peachy color. I just took my “nose” color and diluted it with a little white, and that worked nicely.
Let these little guys dry overnight, and they will be ready to stack and make the little Minecraft fan in your life happy. Thanks Ethan for the helping hand. Happy birthday, little guy 😉
You did it. And I’m just so proud of you.
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