What you need:
•Poppy cookie baked onto a thin dowel stick
•Two tints of pink fondant, one darker and one lighter
•Cornstarch
•Rolling pin
•Small paint brush
•Dresden tool*
•Candy eyes
•Black fondant
•Green gum paste
•Blue fondant
•Tiny flower cookie cutter (optional)
*This little tool is what the pros use for texturing fondant icing. We highly recommend! But in a pinch you can totally get by with a toothpick and maybe a small butter knife to do the job.
1. Bake the cookies
Before we can get decorating, we’ve got to have something to decorate. Mix together your desired batter, use the Trolls cookie cutter to shape the cookie, push the dowel halfway into the cookie and bake according to your recipe directions.
Pro tip: to make sure the dough keeps its shape, chill the batter thoroughly in the fridge before cutting out the shapes and baking.
2. Roll out the fondant
Knead the fondant against your workspace to make it soft and workable. Be sure to sprinkle a little bit of cornstarch before kneading so the fondant won’t stick to the surface. Once your fondant is soft and has some stretch, roll it out with a rolling pin until it’s about ⅛-inch thick.
3. Cut out Poppy
Use the same cookie cutter you used on your batter to cut the fondant into the shape of Poppy’s head.
Brush a bit of water over the back side of your fondant cut-out. (Our photo shows a layer of buttercream here, but water does the job just fine.) Check with a finger to see that the fondant is tacky — that’s how you’ll know it’s moist enough. Carefully lay the fondant Poppy on top of the cookie and gently push down with your fingers to make sure it seals on there securely.
4. Give her hair
Crazy hair is a Trolls staple. To make some for your cookie, knead and roll a darker shade of pink fondant just like you did before. Once again, use the Poppy cookie cutter to get your shape. But this time, instead of placing the whole shape onto the cookie, use a dresden or other scoring tool to mark out her hair line and cut it out. An easy way to find the hair line: cut from ear to ear.
Use a small paint brush to apply a little bit of water to the back of her fondant hair piece and secure it to the top of your cookie.
5. Define the hair texture
Pick your dresden tool back up! To add hair-like texture, simply sweep your tool from her hair line to the tip of the cookie to create long indents. Be sure to do this gently so you don’t cut through the fondant.
6. Add her eyes
Now to make her cute face! When adding her eyes, be careful you leave enough room under the hair to place the eyelashes. Make things easy on yourself and use pre-made candy eyes. Press them down into her fondant face and smooth out any wrinkles in the fondant that appear.
Roll tiny pieces of black fondant into a teardrop shape and set them aside for a few minutes to firm up. Once again, use water and a paint brush to wet above her eyes and secure the fondant lashes. Poppy now has her big, beautiful lashes!
7. Finish the face
Using the same color fondant as Poppy’s hair, roll a small (but thick) oblong shape. Place it right below her eyes and use your dresden tool to create two nostrils. With the same tool, draw a smile under her nose, and detail her ears with simple lines.
8. Frame her features
Not all of Poppy’s hair stands up on her head. Roll two pieces of the dark pink fondant into two cones and apply them to each side of her face. Texture these pieces just as you did with her main hair piece.
9. Finish with the headband
As any Trolls fan knows, Poppy loves all things happy and cute — including her flowery headband. Roll a piece of green gum paste into a skinny vine and glue it (yep, using water and a paint brush again!) across the edge of her hairline, cutting off any excess.
Roll out some blue fondant, following the same kneading-and-cornstarch procedure as before, and use a small cookie cutter to cut out tiny flowers. (You can also shape these freehand if you like.) Secure the flowers across her headband with water.
