Monday, January 18, 2016

Edible Art - Zentangling on Handmade Mint Patties

Handmade and decorated Zentangle Mint Patties

A while back, I celebrated a milestone birthday. I was in total denial about my age, a feeling I'm sure  that many of you who are reading this can relate to. I mean, I still feel so young, so how can I possibly be that age. Celebrating was the last thing I wanted to do but I knew that if I didn't mark the occasion I would regret it later on. So as a way of coming to terms with it, I decided to throw myself into the decorating by adding my personality to as many of the details for the party as I could.

Of all the projects I undertook, this was by far the most ambitious and time consuming but it was also the most satisfying. I created edible art in the form of mint patties by putting my zentangling skills to use for the bonbonnieres.
Mint patties zendoodled with black, purple  and pink edible ink pens.

I began with icing fondant which I flavoured with a few drops of concentrated mint essence. I rolled it out to about 5mm thick: thick enough that they would dry out a little but not so thin that the guests would crack their teeth when they bit into them.
Rolling out the fondant to 5mm thick.

Using a circle cutter, I cut out 2.5cm (1") rounds.
Using a 1" cookie cutter to cut out rounds from the rolled fondant.

And then I left them to firm up.
Allowing the fondant circles to dry before decorating.

On the front of each pattie, I traced around a filigree stamping to create a nice lacey edge across them using edible black ink.
Tracing around the edge of a square scalloped filigree onto a mint pattie with a black edible ink pen.

I traced some of the detail too.
Black outlines traced onto a mint pattie.

Then I drew in the pattern by hand.
Using a black edible ink pen to draw in details of the filigree on the mint pattie.

Lastly, I monogrammed each one with edible purple and pink pens in keeping with the colour theme of the party.
Mint patties decorated with filigree pattern and filled in with monogram "M" in purple and pink.

On the reverse side, I went to town and Zendoodled to my heart's content. I was so immersed in creating all the different swirls and patterns that I could feel myself enjoying the process. And the wonderful thing was that the more I doodled, the more I began to think about the guests, my loving family and friends who would honour me by being present at the celebration. And a warm and fuzzy feeling began to wash over me. And the more I thought about them, the less important that milestone number became. It was quite liberating and very therapeutic! All up, I doodled 48 pieces with only a handful alike.
Tray of zendoodled mint patties... no two patties are alike.

Here's a couple of close-ups so you can see the level of detail that went into these yummy little morsels of edible art.
Close up detail of the zendoodling on a mint pattie.
Zendoodle patterns in purple, pink and black on handmade mint patties.

I packaged them up in sweet little butterfly bonbonniere boxes along with some sugared almonds. See how to make the bonbonnieres in this post.
Handmade purple obelisk box filled with zendoodled mint patties.

I was so happy with the way they turned out and by the end, that silly little number had stopped bothering me. But on a practical note, if I was ever to do something so ambitious again, I'd pick just two or three designs to zendoodle. But, hey, this was therapy and these yummy little morsels weren't supposed to be mass produced or made production-line fashion. Handmade, and with loving thoughts..... that's what this was all about.

Pin this Project!
Zentangled mint patties inspiration sheet


'Til next time.....








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Would you like to comment?

  1. What a FUN bunch of mints you made! Their ALL Beautiful. I love that you made them so COOL! I will be turning 60 soon, so relate to how a birthday can make a person feel :( But I'm no having any kind of party. So I'm sure yours was a BIG Success I will be making your mints, because I love mins too. Mmmm! Thanks for introducing me to zentangling too. You did a Fantastic Job!! Have a Wonderful day too!

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    1. I'm sorry I didn't see your comment sooner, Sage.
      Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I hope you get a lot of enjoyment from zentangling on your mints, too. No matter how you choose to celebrate your 60th birthday, I hope you have a wonderful day. 🎉🎈🎁
      Myléne

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