The Maze Runner Cookies

Did you know I have a famous cousin? I do! My cousin, James Dashner, wrote a book called the Maze Runner. On September 19, the movie based on his book was released in theaters!

My son Casey and I got to go to a sneak-peak screening with James down in Utah the night before it’s release.

Some of you might recognize my sister Kristie and her daughter Kira as two of my super-awesome CookieCon staffers. The giant boy in the back is my son, Casey, and the other two boys are Kristie’s. That’s James sandwiched between his proud-as-punch cousins.

I wanted to bring a congratulatory gift, but what do you give a guy whose dreams have literally all come true in the past months and years?

Cookies, that’s what!

That is the magic of cookies, don’t you think? Everyone loves cookies, and the time spent on making them pretty makes them special. Need a gift for the guy who has everything? Cookies! Need a gift for the guy who feels like he still has a long row to hoe in life? Cookies! Both will appreciate their gift equally.  Isn’t that amazing? I love it.

So I made some movie themed cookies. I made some tickets:

I used our Small Plaque cutter and just cut off the rounded parts at the top and bottom to make these tickets. Super easy, and cute. (The ticket numbers are the release date of the movie! You could do a birth-date if you were doing birthday cookies.)

Then I made a clapper:

I couldn’t figure out what shape to use for this, so I just cut it out by hand. It’s pretty easy to hand-cut a mostly-rectangular cookie. If you’ve never tried hand-cutting, that’s a good one to start with.

Some plain shimmery stars:

This is something that took me a while to learn, but I learned it from the best. I think one of Callye’s (Sweet Sugarbelle) strengths is her ability to mix in some easy, plain cookies with her fancier (time consuming!) designs. I used to think every cookie I made had to be detailed and extra-fancy. Then I realized, after watching what Callye does, that mixing in some simple cookies not only saves you buckets of time, but it also adds to the overall presentation. If every cookie is wildly detailed, sometimes it’s just too much to look at. These stars were outlined in black, filled in yellow, and sprinkled lightly with Rainbow Disco Dust. They probably took about a minute a piece! Wish I would have learned this sooner!

Then, what’s a movie without popcorn?

This was also hand-cut, but you could do it on a tombstone, or on the Ice Cream Soda cutter. Or you could just do it on a plain ol’ rectangle. (Remember that post where I was going to make 100 things on rectangle cookies? Haha… yeah. Well there’s another one for ya!) Actually the clapper could be done on a rectangle, too. It would just need to be closed, which would be equally cute.

I also made a cookie that was supposed to look like the cover of The Maze Runner book, but it pretty much looked terrible, so I’m not going to show you an up close and personal picture of it!! 😀 But here’s another lesson about decorating cookies. Even if you make an ugly cookie, when you mix it in with the cute ones, the general look is there! Here they are all together:

If you look closely at the book cookie in the middle, you will see that it looks pretty darned bad. But with the others surrounding it, it passes.

So anyway, congratulations to my cousin, James! I am so happy for all of his success! And for you, Cookie-Decorating-Reader, keep making cookies. They really are the perfect gift for just about any occasion.

Have a happy Wednesday!!