I’m so excited about a new series I’m doing with my bakery. Between orders, I’m pushing myself to try new techniques, creative ideas, and types of sweets. My new challenge is to create a sweet treat to represent each of Taylor Swift’s 12 eras.
I’ve been a casual fan of Taylor Swift since her Debut album. But it was her Eras Tour that really pushed me into a full-fledged Swiftie. Unfortunately, I couldn’t score tickets to her actual concert, but on a whim, I went to see the Eras Tour movie in theaters. I was hooked! Before I knew it, I was watching tour stops on a grainy livestream and guessing surprise songs and outfits on the Swift Alert app. Ha!
I’ve been wanting to make a Taylor Swift cake or cookie for a while. Whenever I make orders, I try to bake some extra cookies/cupcakes or at least some extra icing to test out new techniques or perfect ones I’ve already learned. So this series is going to be a perfect way to do both!
I’m kicking off my series with an ode to 1989. I got the idea when I was making my pool cookies and thinking how a lightened version of that blue would look great for 1989. I decided the best way to kick off this series was with 1989 cookies representing the vibrant, pop feel of this era.
I remember when 1989 came out. It was quite the departure from her previous country roots to a new electric pop feel. While I tend to gravitate to her more emotionally charged albums, there are so many great bangers on this album! And she had great music videos – Wildest Dreams, Shake It Off, Style, Out of the Woods, Bad Blood, New Romantics, and Blank Space?!
Of course, then we also got 1989 TV in 2023! Red and Speak Now were my favorite Taylor’s Version rollouts, but 1989 still had some great vault tracks.
I started out by using an extra pool cookie to recreate my version of her original cover. I wanted to have the seagulls shirt, red lips – all of it. I achieved this work with edible markers. I got a new set at Christmas and have been loving them! One end has a brush tip and the other a thin tip. I’ve used them so much I’m going to need new black ones soon. It’s such an easy way to add details and level up cookies.
Since this was just for fun, I didn’t project the image onto the cookie or use stencils; I just free-handed the design. It’s certainly not perfect, but still exudes the aesthetic of the album cover.
I knew I wanted a cookie with seagulls. They were originally associated with 1989 because of her shirt on the cover. But, they were featured more predominantly on the cover of the 1989 (Taylor’s Version) album. I decided to lighten up the blue icing from my previous project and cover a circular cookie with it.
I created seagull royal icing transfers out of white icing. Once they were dried, I added the black lines and attached to the cookie. I love the simple look, the birds on the album don’t have a ton of detail either.
No 1989 cookie set would be complete without her iconic bob, red lips, and sunglass look from this era. This cookie design took a few tries, I had to scrap a couple of attempts. I used edible markers again for her facial features and bob. I added royal icing transfers for the sunglasses and red lips to add dimension.
It wasn’t popping quite like I wanted on white icing, so I used my blue marker to fill in around her face. With that detail, I was able to pipe on the “1989” and add a couple seagull transfers leftover from the previous cookie. I thought this was a great way to tie in to the other cookie and complete the set!
Buttercream Dreams Bakery 
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