The peacock, due to its symbolism and beauty, is quickly becoming a major wedding theme in North America. It has long been popular for weddings in different cultures and countries (India for example). The peacock itself represents royalty, wealth, and knowledge, while its rich, vibrant colors of green, royal blue, and turquoise, purple, and gold are beautiful when incorporated into wedding decor and favors.
Homemade: I am going to talk about 3 types of homemade peacock favors:
1) Favors delivered in a favor bag or box the color of one of the many colors found in a peacock feather. Craft stores offer a large selection of gift bags and boxes, found mainly in the wedding section (organza bags and small gift boxes). There are also larger colored paper bags to be found in the gift wrap section. To further decorate, you can attach the eye of a real peacock feather (and a bit of the stem) to the box or bag with a dot of glue (again, found at craft stores and easy to use). Craft and flower shops have peacock feathers to buy and there are several online stores that offer them in bulk. Just type “Bulk Peacock Feathers” into a search to find sources.
2) Everyone loves to receive an edible favor and a peacock-shaped cookie would be a much-appreciated ‘thank you’. You can easily find an online source for a cookie cutter. Then find a reliable and delicious recipe for a sugar cookie and frosting. Our favorite can be found at the end of this article. For frosting, use an easy technique called “flooding” to decorate in one or more vibrant, peacock-inspired colors. To find out how to flood cookies, go to google.com and type “how to flood cookies”; the results provided will provide many easy to understand videos and tutorials. Once the frosting sets (I recommend letting them sit overnight), place them individually in cellophane bags and tie with a pretty colored ribbon.
3) Add a themed favor tag to the favor of your choice? To do this, go to google.com/images and type peacock (or peacock feather) and select an image you like. Copy it into a Word or PowerPoint (or similar) document and copy it as many times as it will fit on one page. Buy white or ivory cardstock and print on it. Cut out the shapes by hand and, with a hole punch, make a hole to pass the satin ribbon to hang. It’s also lovely to hand stamp the back of the image with a “Thank You” rubber stamp. To find, look in the $1 bins at craft stores (stamps and ink).
bought: The peacock wedding favors available to purchase continue to grow. You can give a souvenir like a magnet with the bird or a feather; We recommend glass magnets for a higher quality gift. The personalized Christmas decorations in the theme are also beautiful touches.
Edible favors include decorated sugar cookies (easily found through an online search), white chocolate-dipped oreos, or whole-grain cookies that have edible images (as well as text). There are also cookie pops which are regular cookies dressed in fancy custom themed packaging. You can also find beautiful candy wrappers in this Hershey bar wrapper theme; some are also available as place cards.
Several stores offer beautiful personalized peacock boxes. Be sure to check out customer reviews to make sure the ones you buy are professionally produced. Fill them with small candies, chocolate truffles, a scented votive candle, or another small item.
This recipe is adapted from Penny McConnell, who runs a cookie wholesale business and sells decorated cookies to Starbucks. I have made the cookies and they are delicious. Very little diffusion, if any. You can roll them very thin if you like crispy cookies, or make them a little thicker. She recommends baking on parchment paper. Be sure to add ALL of the specified flavoring. It’s a lot, but it makes all the difference in the world.
Penny’s Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons whipped cream (you can use half and half)
2 tablespoons of pure vanilla
1 teaspoon of pure almond extract
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat just until combined and there are no clumps of butter. DO NOT cream until fluffy.
Add the egg, cream, vanilla, and almond extract all at once and mix well. The mixture will look curdled but that’s how it should be.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder. Add mixture to wet ingredients and mix.
Roll out to ½-¼” thick and cut with a cookie cutter. Bake on parchment sheets for 8-12 minutes (depending on thickness and size of cutters) and cool on wire rack. Makes about 3 dozens of cookies depending on the cutter size.
The dough does not need to be chilled before using.
This is the best cookie icing I’ve ever used and it sets up really well for bagging, but it’s not as hard as royal icing. You will love it.
sugar baby icing
1 32 oz. packet icing sugar, sifted
1/3 cup evaporated skim milk
1/3 cup white corn syrup
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla
1/3 cup water, boiling
Combine the milk, syrup and vanilla in a saucepan over the heat and add boiling water. Mix with an electric mixer. Add icing sugar and continue mixing until smooth. The consistency of the frosting is similar to a frosting. Color with powdered food coloring to decorate cookies.
You can buy powdered food coloring at specialty cake decorating stores, Walmart cake decorating department, or Hobby Lobby cake decorating department.
Copyright Diva Entertains, 2012