Welcome and thank you so much for trusting My Kitchen Wand with your information.
Tips & Tricks For Baking Perfect Imprint Cookies should be sitting in your inbox right now. I hope it answers all your questions no matter what style of cookie stamp you end up using. Choosing the right cookie recipe is also helpful and tomorrow you will be receiving, as an additional thank you, two recipes that will ease that part of the process.
Out of respect for your time, let’s dive right in.
Many of the kitchenware products that we create at My Kitchen Wand are made from wood. These cookie stamps are no exception. In this case, Alder and Maple. Original cookie stamp molds were carved by hand. Once the harvest was safe and sound, and winter was upon the land, there was a little extra time for indoor crafts.
The reason these cookie stamps work as well as they do is that the designs are full cut outs as opposed to a narrow relief. You control the depth of the impression and therefore the images can be thicker and will remain more visible once baked.
Did you know cookie stamps were around before cookie cutters? Cookies themselves arrived during the 7th century, once there was stable sugar production in Persia. Then moving through the Muslim world before making their way via the Moors into Europe.
Imprinted food is many centuries old. Lebkuchen, Speculatius and Springerle are Germanic examples of what are now thought of as Christmas cookies.
Beyond Europe, archeological finds in India, Egypt and what used to be Mesopotamia include stone and clay molds thought to have been used in the decorating of flatbreads.
The winter solstice in Northern Europe was celebrated as Julfest with among other things, animal sacrifices, a request to the Gods for a gentle winter and early spring.
Not all families had the wealth for such an offerings and so a tradition of using baked goods in the shape of animals came into being. These cookies acted as tokens and over time came to include other special occasions, such as engagements, weddings and birth. It was common to exchange imprint cookies at these times, a little like the cards that were exchanged in the decades before email.
In England, there is an Easter tradition, started in 1134, associated with Chulkhurst sisters. It continues today in Kent, an honouring of their gift to the local church.
Queen Elizabeth I is said to have gifted special visitors to her court with gingerbread cookies made with images.
The symbols used had specific meaning to the cultures in which the stamps were created.
Our selection includes 20 different designs and can be combined in a multitude of ways for various celebrations. Each design has a story, sometimes more than one depending on when in time the images were being used.
In 2021, bells for example, might connect someone to Jingle Bells, Silver Bells, Coraline, It’s a Wonderful Life or The Polar Express. Hundreds of years ago bells were a call to action; to prayer, to fight, to protect. Symbols have a life of their own that changes with context. Think about the story you would like to tell when checking out the different choices.
Part of the reason for designing these cookie stamps was that while thrilled with the idea of embossed rolling pins, I was less than happy with my results. Yours may work wonderfully but the general feedback from our Facebook page was that dough stuck and images disappeared when baked.
There were also comments about the pricing and the cost of shipping for a heavier item. It is so satisfying to be able to offer four unique designs for less than the price of the average embossed rolling pin with shipping included!
Wood is a natural product and has a grain. Press with care and attention to the thinnest sections of the designs. These stamps are bathed in grape seed oil and beeswax before heading to you. Rubbing a bit of edible oil over the stamp once in a while will help prevent the wood from drying out.
Please wash by hand. They will survive longer when not put in a dishwasher.
When you read through Tips and Tricks For Baking Perfect Imprint Cookies, you will see a suggestion about using edgers to keep the dough at the same height and help with even baking. A set of birch edgers is included with each package purchase.
Would you like a 15% discount? We can do that. Simply purchase any two packages and watch the pricing magically transform!
It may seem early to be thinking about Ostara, Easter & Mother’s Day but the feedback from customers in the last few weeks is that things are taking longer to arrive.
My Kitchen Wand is in Canada so there is automatically a few extra days of customs and travel. Canada Post has just extended its delivery times by one day and U.S.P.S., the most cost efficient way to send your purchase, is dealing with new protocols which have lengthened shipping times as well. A marketer would say, “use this, create tension and immediacy!” For My Kitchen Wand it is about you not being disappointed.
Juanita and Lynn volunteered to share their experience with My Kitchen Wand products if you would like to know more or click on the big, orange bubble and check out the designs.
| Juanita Kitaoka-Nonus | Lynn Gaylard |
| Owner, Cosmos Cafe & Puptown Girls | Amazingly Energetic Wise Woman |