Year of the Dragon

Happy New Year! Okay, I realize it was only twenty-two days ago that I blogged in the New Year, but I assure you:

• you did not sleep through 2012, and
• no, you are not experiencing deja-vu.

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year. The Year of the Dragon - the Water Dragon, to be exact. 
This mystical creature in Chinese astrology is synonymous with strength, vitality, intensity and luck - and boy does our economy need a healthy dose, STAT! So, enter the Dragon...(couldn't pass up the Bruce Lee reference).

I found this dragon wafer paper set over at Fancy Flours. (I also purchased some beautiful cupcake lines and cookie cutters among other things. I would like to mention what a great shopping experience I had there - very accommodating, responsive and they certainly go all out in their packing). Okay, back to the wafer sheets - they are sold as 8x10 sheets with 8 assorted images and sizes. 

I instantly had second thoughts about these wafer papers upon receiving them. They are simple enough to apply, but I was less than pleased with the end result. For some reason, I expected they would melt into the royal icing, leaving only the dragon image on the surface. Boy, was I wrong! Instead, the paper basically just sat on the surface of the cookie. They looked unsightly, so I decided to try and frame them with some yellow royal icing. 

To sum things up - some things just aren't meant to be, as is evident from the above collage of said cookies...a real disappointment. My fault for going in blindly... In any case, except for the other sheets already in my possession, I'm not likely to purchase wafer paper again - it just felt like cheating, actually and no real decorating skill was developed in the process. 

Anyhoo, I decided to abandon the dragons, in their cookie form,  and move on to the other cookies featured in this post - Live, Laugh, Love! Using the leftover cookies and royal icing, I simply stenciled these Chinese characters onto the existing white royal icing, and dusted with some non-toxic lustre dust.

In both techniques, the images can be applied directly to the cookies or onto royal icing or fondant. 

I chose to make my new, favourite chocolate cookie recipe and was tempted to apply the images directly onto the cookies. Instead, I decided to use white royal icing as a canvas, so that the red designs would have more visual impact. 

I would love to hear about your experience with wafer paper. What should I have done differently?

Xin Nian Kuai Le!