What can you possibly give a kid who has beaten Hodgkin’s Lymphoma? Aside from the Pandora charm (in lime green of course to match the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society bracelets we’ve been wearing since November when she started chemo), I wanted to do something special. My cousin, after all, has been given the gift of cooking talent and will be attending Johnson & Wales University this fall. So it was only natural that I brought something to her graduation and recovery from cancer party last weekend that only she could appreciate and I didn’t really have to think too hard about what I knew she would love.
After watching Annie make various decorated sugar cookies over the past few months, I was inspired. I had worked with royal icing during my Wilton Course 2 class last summer and didn’t find it too difficult to work so I decided to give these survivor cookies a go. I found ribbon cookie cutters online with a little cut out in the center rather than a cutter with just the outline of the ribbon and snatched those babies up. The only issue I had was how the heck I was going to match the lime green bracelets. Wilton doesn’t sell lime green color gel but I came across a color scheme list that included chartruse which was a pretty close match to lime consisting of 9 parts lemon yellow and 1 part leaf green. Well, 9:1 yielded icing that was WAY too yellow. It took me a few minutes of tweaking to get the color right and ended up using a lot more leaf green than I started with but the end result was a perfect match!! I followed Annie’s suggestions about flooding the cookies and had no issues at all. The decorating went really quickly and I was soooo pleased with the end result…and so was my cousin!! She practically squeaked when she opened the box in brought them in!
You can go here for Annie’s sugar cookie recipe and here for the royal icing recipe. Be sure to check out Annie’s hints for making your royal icing experience an easy one.
Glad my tips were helpful to you, Tara! And I’m sure your cousin just loved these. As a fellow lymphoma survivor, I’m SO thrilled for her and hope to hear more updates on her positive progress!
[…] part went yet) and I immediately knew I would make these cookies for the party. Since making the Survivor Cookies for my cousin last summer, I’d gotten the itch to test out the royal icing waters even […]
I was so excited to read this – a friend of mine just got her scans back and she is lymphoma free! We have been scouring the internet trying to find a Pandora charm for her but were only able to find one for breast cancer. Can you tell me where you got the lime green Pandora charm from? Many many thanks, and I’m so very happy for your cousin!
Hi Kimberly, Congrats to your friend!! I’m pretty sure this is the bead we purchased for my cousin: http://www.pandoramoa.com/search_product.php?pid=12198 It isn’t specifically for the lymphoma survivors (and yes, i think the only cancer survivor-specific bead they have is for breast cancer) but the color is pretty much spot-on to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society bracelets, which is lime green. I hope that helps!! Tara
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