Time for the long overdue Not So Humble Pie Science Cookie Roundup #8! I'm sorting through the blog's bloated email account this morning and I realize we have a great many submissions for this roundup. So let's get down to it!
Showing posts with label Biology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biology. Show all posts
Science Cookie Roundup #8
Time for the long overdue Not So Humble Pie Science Cookie Roundup #8! I'm sorting through the blog's bloated email account this morning and I realize we have a great many submissions for this roundup. So let's get down to it!
Science Cookie Cutter Set Giveaway!
Happy Monday, everyone!
We're giving away a set of cookie cutters today!
You may remember this set from the last science cookie roundup. They're made by scientist Sherry of sciencecookiecutters.com and she has kindly offered to give away a set to one of the blog's readers.
Interested in baking up your own nerdy cookies?
Science Cookie Roundup #3
It's time for this month's Science Cookie Roundup!
I realize now that it has been a while since I've done my own set of science cookies, but don't fret dear reader! I have a large set of science cookies in the works. Joanne of www.joannelovesscience.com and I will be working together on a little edible and educational nerdery. I'll keep you all updated when that comes together.
So, lets get to this month's contributions!
I got an email from Anthony, the president of a club that promotes science at the University of Maryland a few weeks back. He sent me an absolute wealth of goodies from their science themed bake sale.
Petri Dish, Atoms and Jupiter Cookies
Earth, Constellation and Jupiter Cookies
Atoms and Electrophoresis Gel Cookies
Einstein Cupcakes and Golden Ratio Brownies
Cookie Euglenas
More of the supremely clever Einstein Cupcakes
Isn't that an awesome spread!?Next we have Karen and the cookies she made for National Med. Lab Week last year (in Canada). She sent in Neutrophils and Lymphocytes! This year Karen and her co-worker will be making more cell lines. Hopefully we will get to see some of those too! (*hint, hint*)
The next item is a Plant Cell Cake by sleeper713:
"This was a science project that I helped my son with in 8th grade. It's a plant cell complete with its innards ;) We used bubble tape and Nerds candy for the golgi bodies, Tic-Tacs, oval-shaped cookies, and gummi worms. This was a lot of fun! My son came up with the ideas for decorating it."
The next is part of a Flickr set by Kitsunetachi:
"Part of our Mad Science Cookies set.
vacuum tubes, test tube, atoms, periodic table elements, gears, and experimental cookies"
To view the full set: Check out blog.foxdowns.com
Dan's fiance of Molecularfossils.com made these Electrophoresis Gel cookies for a Darwin Day party.
Madilyne made these for her brother-in-law, who just defended his PhD thesis on drosophila research!
Mmmmm yummy bugs!
I'll wrap up this month's roundup with Anna's frighteningly realistic Mice Cookies!"I made these as a Secret Santa gift for my boss and they are a bit hit - my lab mates thought they were delicious and creative! Since we work with C57 BL/6 mice in our lab, this was appropriate."
Despite their looks, no actual mice were harmed in their creation. They were made with a chocolate covered cherry, a Hershey kiss face and little almond ears. Cute!
Cheers!
Oh and if you want to be included in next month's science cookie roundup, just email your pictures to notsohumblepieblog (at) gmail dot com and you'll see them in the next roundup.
(Also, if I missed your submission this month, give me a quick comment/reminder and I'll fix that.)
Science Cookies: Zebrafish
Quick post tonight, because I am up to my elbows in icing trying to whip out several hundred cookies for a holiday party this weekend.
Tonight's cookie is yet another model organism, this time the humble zebrafish.
I finally had an excuse to use some of the edible glitter I have kicking around in my kitchen. However, once I cracked open the little jar and saw the fine powder, I was terrified of it.
Nothing that sparkly should be food safe, it just isn't natural. Granted, it does make the fish shimmer in a semi-realistic--and somewhat menacing--way. Like one of those frogs or insects that use brightly colored markings to indicate (or mimic) toxicity and deter predators from eating them. I found myself reluctant to take a bite.
Of course, I did try them. Two, actually, to see just how edible this 'edible glitter' really is. I expected it to be gritty or to add some texture but I couldn't actually feel or taste anything. They taste so... normal. Which I suppose is a good thing.
The one difference I did note was the absurdly glittery lips that resulted from eating these cookies. A plus I suppose, if you want to adopt that chic Patrick Tribett look.
Science Cookies: Drosophila melanogaster
Science Cookies: Drosophila melanogaster!
A new cutter and a new science cookie. I made roughly 100 Drosophila cookies yesterday, expecting trouble decorating them. I was right. These things are as annoying in cookie form as they are in real life.
While planning my cookies design, I found it hard to balance a realistic look with something you're supposed to want to eat. I iced numerous test cookies trying to get one that actually looked semi-respectable, semi-edible and easy enough to repeat over and over for dozens of little cookies. I think I settled on a happy medium with these flies. Although, I'm certain someone will find something 'wrong' with them, perhaps deciding to school me in the ins and outs of fly sexual dimorphism. While I appreciate free lessons, let me remind the accuracy sticklers:
They are cookies.
Everyone got that? Awesome. Let's move along...
I decided to go with wild type Drosophila. Mostly because I thought they were the most visually interesting of all the cookies I decorated. The others ended up being a little too monochromatic for my tastes. I did try to demonstrate some sexual dimorphism in the banding though, but it was a little tough with my current set of piping tips. I think I need a 0 or 00 sized tip to do a more accurate design on a cookie of this size. I'll pick them up next week...although that means I'll be straining my icing though nylon. Ugh, dealing with small tips is always messy. Anyway, hopefully the difference in sex is vaguely apparent, that was all I was aiming for.
So, to make these cookies, I took my generic sugar cookie recipe and decorated them with royal icing and some edible platinum luster dust.
Since the cookie was small I didn't do any flood work with these. I just piped blobs of semi-thick icing for the head and body background-color. The wings I outlined in white icing and allowed them to dry. I then painted the wings with the platinum luster dust to give them and the cookie beneath a slight shimmer. I denoted the body segments with darker brown icing and added the banding. Lastly, I piped on little blobs of red-orange icing for the eyes.
The previous generations of test cookies all aimed for a little more realism and were far more complicated. In the end, they didn't look as good as these and while I'm not totally happy with them (I need smaller piping tips!) I still think they are cute. I do like the effect the luster dust gives the wings.
Enjoy the bugs. They do taste better than the real thing.
(Oh, and I just finished my zebrafish cookies too. I should have those up within the week.)
Not so Humble Giveaway: Science Cookie Cutter
The science cookies have been such a hit I thought I would do science cookie related blog giveaway.
I have several unused science theme cookie cutters that need to see some baking action. So I've decided to give one of my cutters away to a lucky reader. Besides, I really need to make some room for all the new ones I seem to acquire almost every weekend.
For this week's giveaway I've chosen a brand new lab mouse and a Drosophila cookie cutter (which will be making an appearance on the blog later this week).
So, if you are interested in owning one of these fine examples of baking gone nerdy, just post a comment below indicating which one you prefer. That is all you have to do to be considered. I'll allow people to comment and enter for the next 7 days and then I will announce the winner on my blog next Saturday, the 19th.
Tuesday Cephalopod Cookie
I quickly whipped up a cephalopod cookie tonight just for the folks visiting en masse from a certain popular science blog. I can't tell you how surprised I was by my being linked.
Now generally, I don't take food photos in the evening because the light is terrible (I had to use flash, ew), nor do I rush out cephalopod cookies in a little under two hours. However, I just had to get this up tonight as my little thank-you to all the folks coming to see my cookies.
(Edit: Wow a BoingBoing.net link too. I should make another cookie? The question is though, what would a Boing Boing cookie look like?)
Science Cookies: Gel Electrophoresis
Yet another science cookie, this time Gel Electrophoresis!
These are for fellow blogger Mylifeinbrown, who suggested the idea and I just love how these turned out, so thank you very much. I'm still plotting ways to do gel electrophoresis with gelatin. I just need to figure out a way that both tastes good and looks respectable. Electrophoresis 'jigglers' would be hilarious so I must figure out how to do it.
These are more of Martha Stewart's sugar cookie cut outs, my go-to sugar cookie recipe (you can find the recipe here). Although, I prefer to modify my dough with a half teaspoon of almond extract to give my cookies a little more flavor.
So to make these cookies you need the follwing:
2 dozen square sugar cookies, fully cooled
roughly 2 cups royal icing
pink food coloring
blue food coloring
2 piping bags fitted with small round tips (use an Ateco #2 or #3)
Tint 1/3 of a cup of the icing pink to make the markers and the remaining 1 and 2/3 cups with royal blue and pink to create a background that will vaguely simulate what the gel looks like under ultraviolet light.
Using your purple icing, pipe a square outline on each of the cookies and allowed it to set. Given the consistency of your icing should take at least 10 minutes, probably longer. Then thin the remaining purple icing with a little bit of water and flood each of the squares. Before the purple icing has set, use the pink icing to pipe in the little lines to create the markers.
Allow the cookies to dry overnight.
Thats it!
You've got Gel Electrophoresis Cookies! Now, the markers on my cookies are completely random gibberish of course. I'd love to do these and replicate actual microbiology gels.
Salmonella cookie anyone? Yum!
Biology Cookies: Laboratory Mice
(That mouse cookie isn't really dead, he is just pretending)
So I found this little mouse cookie cutter on Saturday I couldn't resist impulse buying it and adding to my science and biology themed cookies. Mouse cookies! So neat! There isn't anything weird about that... right?
This was my first attempt with the cookie cutter and I'll probably do a better job next time. I had to make a quick little batch to see how they would look finished. The cutter was pretty small and my icing was probably a little too thick for them. Still, the finished cookies amuse me, especially the little cartoonish pretend-dead mice.
By far the best mouse I've ever eaten! Although, this one probably isn't pretending anymore...
Biology Cookies: Petri Dish
This is my second batch of petri dish cookies. Another odd-ball microbiology science themed cookie that I've made to amuse my husband and his coworkers (thank goodness he isn't a proctologist, eh).
I am still not sure if my streaking technique is up to par on cookies, but hey I'm working with royal icing not agar. However, I did improve my counts of isolated colonies by just loading on the nonpareils this time.
Yummy!
And unlike the real thing, licking these won't make you horribly ill.
Gingerbread Scientists Amuse Me
I have recently discovered the tedious fun of icing cookies. Particularly quirky, odd-ball cookies. In this case, cookies that poke a little fun at my husband's job (this being microbiology). I have outfitted gingerbread men in royal icing lab coats. The result wasn't too shabby for my first attempt. I might try again with a smaller gingerbread cutter (these were huge) and go with a smaller piping tip for crisper detail work.
I'll have to think of some other biology-themed cookies soon, as I've had so much fun with these. I've already done cookie 'petri dishes' (apparently my streaking technique is not quite on par with an actual biologist) sprinkled with white nonpareil 'bacteria'.
If I ever find a cookie cutter shaped like E. coli or salmonella, you can be sure I'll be warming up the stand mixer.
These cookies have a PhD in delicious.