Balloon Cookies For A Sweet One-year-old’s Birthday–Part Une

I know.  That’s a big headline for simple and elegant white balloon cookies with a French twist but a first birthday is a very special occasion to celebrate.

When my niece, Lauren, showed me the invitation she was going to use for her little boy’s birthday with a white balloon pictured on it, I immediately thought of white balloon cookies to give to guests as party favors.  They would compliment the invitation but also the theme of all-white decorations at the party.  She wanted the cookies decorated very simply.  At first, it took every ounce of cookie decorating restraint not to “go all Disco Dust” on them or use more colors than white, although I did fudge a bit and used a light blue outline on the cookies.  I decided to be a good auntie and give the new mom exactly what she requested. 

With children of multiple ages at the party and knowing how they like to put their little hands around something to hold on to, I baked each cookie with a lollipop stick.  I pushed the stick onto the back of the cookie dough and baked them right side up. 

Because the sticks were thin, they baked into the cookie perfectly with no need to reinforce the stick with more dough as I do when baking with a larger diameter stick or drinking straw.  (See the milkshake cookies post for an example with straws and a flower cookie post with large diameter sticks.) 

To add a subtle touch of color to the cookies that were to be iced white, I dressed up the sticks using washi tape to add a soft stripe of color to mirror the baby blue outline of the cookie.  (Note: Do not bake the cookies with the tape.  Wrap the sticks after baking.)

Luckily, the washi tape was the perfect width to wrap around the stick. (Ignore the pearlized dragees on the cookie for now.  I’ll get to that in the future post – “Part Deux”.)

Place the cookie right side up and run a strip of tape down the stick. 

Flip the cookie over and wrap one side on the tape over the stick and overlap with the other side of the tape.  This way, the seam of the tape will be on the back side of the cookie.

To me, the white balloons looked rather French and reminded me of my favorite French movie as a child – The Red Balloon.  C’est vrai, the cookies are blanc, but still, don’t you think they have that certain je ne sais  quoi? I have such vivid images of the magical red balloon filled with helium and personality lofting through the Parisian streets with a single heart string attached.  C’est magnifique!  So strings my balloons must have!

I used white kitchen twine.  It has stiff, curvy body to it compared to baker’s twine (you know the colored striped kind that has been over-used on every craft project in the last few years).  I knotted the string (no bows, please) around the neck of the balloon and voila! 

Up, up and away!  To Seattle, not Paris, but still to a cher garcon. 

And because I cannot leave well enough alone, come back for Part Deux on Wed.  sans my shameful and limited knowledge of high school French.

Have a wonderful last week of July with the first days of August so near!  Incroyable!

Update:  Here’s Part Duex – Baby Blue and White Balloon Cookies with A Washi Tape DIY

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