• silicone mat or parchment paper
• perfection strips
• rolling pin
• cookie cutters
• long sucker sticks
• plastic wrap
• decorative container
• candy clay

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS: Chill dough if required in the recipe. Place cookie dough between perfection strips on a silicone baking mat(shown) or parchment paper. Roll over the perfection strips, leveling the dough. Perfection strips are strips of plastic in different thicknesses. They will give your cookies an exact thickness, quickly and automatically! Perfection strips are available at cake and candy supply stores. Rolling pin rings are an alternative to perfection strips. The rings can be added to the rolling pin. Another wonderful product used in baking is a silicone mat (parchment paper may be used the same way). Avoid distorted shaped cookies by rolling out the dough on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper, then transferring the mat or paper to a cookie sheet. Cut out the shapes, keeping all the shapes in the same direction. When cutting, keep in mind where the sticks will be placed so that other cutout cookies will not be in the way of the sticks. Remove excess dough from around the cookies. For each cookie, start at the bottom and gently twist a sucker stick until it reaches to 3/4 of the top, using your pointer finger from the other hand to prevent the sucker stick from breaking through the dough.Transfer silicone baking mat or parchment paper to a cookie sheet and bake according to recipe instructions.

ASSEMBLING INSTRUCTIONS: Bake and cool the cookies on a stick. Decorate as desired. Line the vase with plastic wrap. Mix recipe for candy clay. Place the kneaded candy clay in the lined vase, filling the vase 3/4 full. Arrange cookies. Position sticks in the vase. The sticks should be various lengths. Place the longest sticks in the back, working your way to the shortest sticks in the front. Traditionally, styrofoam is used in the vase to keep stable the cookies on a stick. While that is fine, there are several reasons why candy clay is an excellent alternative. It weighs more than styrofoam, keeping your projects more stable. It is more forgiving if you change your mind where you would like the cookie sticks to be placed. Finally, it is edible and delicious!