Baked By Leonardo: DIY: Make your own cookie cutter

January is almost over?! What? I barely even noticed! I feel like my mind is still stuck in December. Well, it sure feels like it. Still bitter and cold as ever here in Providence, but being the cold weather loving being that I am, I LOVE IT!

Let's talk festivities! Chinese New Year is around the corner and I've got a friend ordering some cookies for her party/event. She showed me this picture, very festive, red, and bold which reminds me of the decorations at my grandparent's during Chinese New Year.

Which reminds me that this will be the 5th year that I'm missing the Chinese New Year family gathering at home. I'm missing all the good food and the 红包 (Red Packets/ Envelopes filled with money are usually given by married couples to single people and kids)

Anyway, back to the topic.

The cookies.

Yes.

Here's the picture.

Last February, Sweet Sugar Belle created these Chinese New Year decorated cookies on her blog and it has been circling Pinterest for quite some time. My friend wanted the exact same thing, I find them super cute, and I'm so excited to make these....

But I don't have a pagoda cookie cutter!!!

I've looked everywhere, online and in stores, but I guess it's just not that popular.

So anyway, I've decided to create my own cookie cutter, and it's easy. You will need a few things.

Let me show you!

1. Design.

My awesome friend Sandy helped me sketch out a perfectly sized pagoda outline! Make sure your template is big enough to fit all the design going on the cookie. This was about 5 inches.

2. Aluminium strips (about 1 inch width)

I bought a cookie cutter kit online. It comes with a bunch of other things in it which I don't really find them useful, so I won't recommend you to get them, but you can always buy 1" aluminium strips on Amazon or in a Home Depot type store.

3. Some type of string/yarn

You need this to figure out how much aluminium strip you'll need to use. Just trace the yarn over the outline of your design and add an extra inch or two just in case you run out of material when you're creating your cookie cutter.

4. Tongs/ Bending tool

You can use almost anything to help you bend the aluminium strip. I just happen to find that this tool works good for me. The aluminium strip itself isn't hard to bend, in fact it's pretty bendy and you can even use your hands to shape it!

5. Bend Away

Remember to bend away from you. Keep the long part of the strip away from your body (It might be sharp and I'm sure you don't want to get scratched) Keep on bending, bending. bending. But not too much or the strip will break!!!

6. Glue them tight

I find that it's best to use a quick dry solid adhesive. In this case, I used a 5 minute dry epoxy glue - just mix the 2 substance, glue them in place and secure it with a binder clip.