Portrait Cookies

The most personalized cookie on the planet : the Portrait Cookie.  Using a person's silhouette, you can create a timeless treasure for all to enjoy - a likeness they can eat! 

Whether you're feeling nostalgic or vengeful, nothing can lift the spirits like eating a cookie in the shape of someone's face.  It's impossible not to take some pleasure out of the methodical munching of a sweet treat that harkens back to the last time you bit the head off an animal cracker, or devoured your chocolate bunny ears-first.  Where will you start?  The nose?  The chin?  Or go for the eyes?  Make up a dozen and have fun decorating them with crazy expressions!  Let the fun begin.

This project is made super simple by the aid of an Epilog laser cutter.  But if you're sadly lacking one of these, you could try using j_l_larson's technique using sheet metal and a little patience.

Step 1 Obtain Silhouette

For the following example. we used the light from a projector and took a photo of the shadow it cast on a blank wall.

You could also shine a light on the subject and either photograph the shadow or trace it and scan it into the computer.

I made cookie cutters of myself, my brother and my fiance.  Even though my brother and I don't live in the same state, it was easy for him to email me a photo of his silhouette!

Comments

[Chocolate Moose]

Ok, when i saw this thumbnail, it looked like a JFK cookie with the back of the head bitten off. I thought it was very uncharacteristic of you scooch. But i know its not now, so we can still be friends.

[Bierle]

Would be nice for a wedding also
Beautiful

[Alberta Leong]

Your instructables always never fail to impress me! Great job! :)

[HollyHarken]

Maybe I'm missing something, but Idon't see how you cut the cookie out with a plastic shape.  Did you cut around the plastic shape?  I don't see an edge on the shapes to cut with so I'm confused.  Cutting out fondant and putting it on a warm cookie is a very old, but tasty idea.  Do you have a recipe for fondant?  The stuff that Wilton puts out is the nastiest tasting gunk ever made. 

[steve3rj]

Hey Scooch,,,couple more months we will be n SF so thanks for all the info. Now back to this. Please bear with me as I have absolutely NO pictures because I used to do this 25 years ago. For all the low tech people I used to make wind chimes and wanted different wind catchers to move the striker. I had a small vacuum pump ( I think a shop vac would work too) and would cut my designs out on a piece of plywood with a small scroll saw. I would then put a narrow rubber seal around the outer edge and had the vacuum hole in the center of the template.  I would suck the piece of plastic to this and then run it through a simple router bit with roller guide. No home lasers back then. Of course I guess you could skip the step of making the template and just scroll saw the plastic unless you wanted multiple silhouettes. Hey, whatever works,LET'S EAT!!!

[kcls]

Cool cookies! Nice job!

[sunshiine]

I like these!  Makes me want to did out the cookie cutters!  Thanks for sharing. 

[lemonie]

Didn't you make these last year? Image #1 looks familiar to me, but I don't remember the instruction. It's great, but you had me thinking of lasers-on-dough for a moment!

L

[scoochmaroo]

 I did, I did!  I used the picture as my avatar for a while, but I never got around to writing up the full Instructable until now.  

[lemonie]

Thanks for confirming my mind wasn't askew, I really like this (needing the laser-thingy is a wee-hindrance but-) it's top-stuff.

L

[fazgard]

Excellent combination of Tech and Food!

[Kiteman]

Argh!

It's bad enough knowing you have a laser cutter to play with, without you rubbing our faces in it with delicious cookiness at the same time!

[scoochmaroo]

 I wanted to publish the cookie recipe and the fondant recipe as well, but I didn't know how best to handle this 3-tiered Instructable as it were.  Which is what kept me from publishing it for so long! I don't know if I'll ever get around to the others. . . I can't just use the same pictures for all of them.

[Kiteman]

Simples: More steps

Put links in the introduction so people can jump to the section they want, like I did in step 2 here.