Getting things ready for the Autopian Oasis at the Los Angeles Auto Show has been a pretty amazing but hectic experience: amazing because we found ourselves able to create a wonderful little car-lovers haven, and hectic because everything seemed to need to be done yesterday, ideally the day before, to make it all happen. So, when I was told there was a chance we could have the world’s first mass-produced Taillight Cookies, I was thrilled. I made some sketches, thinking they would be turned into actual cookies. I had no idea how right I was.
You see, my sketches got literally turned into delicious cookies via baking tech I had no idea existed, something that seems to be an edible ink-jet printer. I thought I was making quick sketches for some bakers to follow as guides, but it turns out my actual sketches were printed on cookies.
But you know what? It worked!
And as a result, we had the only taillight-themed cookies I’v ever seen, and I’ve looked. I made five different kinds: a ’68 Volkswagen Beetle taillight (Euro-spec, with amber indicator), a ’65 Ford Mustang taillight, a BMW 2002 taillight (round one, of course), a “box” taillight as you’d see on Jeeps and beer trucks and maybe a forklift, and a first-gen Mazda RX-7 taillight.
Look, here’s some video of the cookies, in an Instagram reel with a very unflattering cover image of me:
If you want one, we have some ready to give out if you come by the Autopian Oasis today or this weekend at the show! I’ll be there, along with David and Mercedes and Matt and Stephen! Come play Car Trivia and win an Autopian Certified Car Geek T-Shirt!
Here’s the map from the Shrimpbarrow event, but it still works:
I’m fairly pissed I have a very young child at home and can’t make it to the LA Auto Show this year, but if you guys are going to keep throwing a party like this I can’t not make plans to go next year.
I’d love to see some corrugated Mercedes taillights in their three dimensional glory translated into cookies!
Make Cadillac XLR taillight cookies. Some people might pay you a lot of money for them on eBay.
I would love some Volvo 244 taillight cookies. They’d be enormous.
How about a taillight pair plus heckblende?
The six-panels used from about ’83 through the end in ’93 could double as Porsche 924/944 taillights!
I had no idea! Interesting! So a Volvo 244 is pretty much a Porsche 944…
They aren’t interchangeable, unfortunately – the Porsche taillights are angled forward a bit toward the bottom (as opposed to the vertical edges of the Volvo lights) and they might very well be less French than a Volvo’s Cibies. Same 2×3 pattern, though, with the upper middle being the reverse light and upper outside as the amber turn signal, with the rest being red, specifically the lower middle as a reflector.
This is a real bi-polar situation for me.
I’m super mad I can’t be there to partake of the awesomeness of barrow shrimp perched upon a BMW 2002 taillight cookie like the world’s best and weirdest canape.
But I’m also so happy that this exists. It is truly glorious.
You look like you’re suffering from lack of sleep Jason, which is likely the case. The cookies look great… the 2002 one is my favorite. Though I’m just a subway ride from the Convention Center, sadly I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it to the show (which is doubly sad, since there are so few places I can reach by subway that I actually travel to in LA). The Autopian Oasis looks great though… great job by all involved! 😀
Of course he’s suffering from a lack of sleep. If my calculations are correct, his normal day consists of:
–50% Member birthday sketches
–10% Writing articles on obscure automotive topics
–10% Writing programs for a Holborn 9100
–10% Writing articles on obscure automotive topics on a Holborn 9100
–10% Managing the site
–8% Narrowly avoiding physical injury
–2% Succumbing to bodily functions and/or writing new vehicle reviews
I thought it was supposed to be tail light sushi?
Do you have any problems with people going to eat the cookies, but then they stop, turn, and back away?
You need a cocktail to go with these. I suggest pastis and water. Call it a Foggy Headlight.
I have BMW friends that would pay a mint for a 2002 Round Taillight. I might be one of them.
Oh that is friggin rad.
All you need is some non-toxic blinker fluid to dunk them in!
Purple-dyed milk!
That should be the sign on the coffee
NON-TOXIC BLINKER FLUID
<– REGULAR
DECAF –>
Should I post the recipe for my sugar cookie base? Where it pays off is when I do iced cinnamon roll cookies, with that perfect swirl in the middle. They tend to be a big favorite at car shows, as well as the Frosted Butterfinger Brownies (of Doom).
Though honestly, my cinnamon paste might make for good details within a more complex taillamp assembly. Might be something to try!
‘Tis the season! 😀
How about taillight sandwich cookies? A plain sugar cookie on the bottom, then a layer of cinnamon paste, and a taillight cookie on top. Festive!
Could just do raspberry jam, honestly. With some stencil cutters I could probably make some good jam-filled taillamp cookies.
Going to manually format this so the editor doesn’t screw me.
Ingredients:
* 5/6 cup (13 tablespoons) softened butter
* 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
* 1 3/4 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoon cinnamon
* 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions:
1. Cream butter, shortening and 1 3/4 cup white sugar until fluffy.
2. Add beaten eggs, vanilla, salt, 2 teaspoons cinnamon and baking powder. Stir until incorporated.
3. Add flour to mixture and still until incorporated. I recommend first adding 2 cups of flour, incorporating, then the remaining 1 1/2 cups.
4. Roll into a sheet about 2 feet (600mm) long by 12-14 inches (300-350 mm) wide. You may wish to do this on a large pan, parchment paper, silicone baking mat, etc. Putting wax paper over the dough will prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin.
5. Chill sheet of dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
6. Roll dough into a tight log. Place the log in the refrigerator to chill for one hour.
7. Remove dough log from refrigerator. Use a pastry cutter (or very sharp knife) to cut the log into 0.33 inch (8.5mm) slices.
8. Bake slices on an UNINSULATED cookie sheet lined with parchment paper at 350F (175-180C) for 13 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack after removing from the oven.
———
For those that want cinnamon roll cookies, the trick is between Steps 5 and 6, you spread a paste which is mostly butter, shortening, brown sugar and cinnamon. You then roll it into a log after it chills, and when you slice it with a pastry cutter you’ll see the perfect swirls.
Shortening is important for the paste because it has a higher melting temperature than butter. If you just use butter, it may melt through.
For areas where you can’t easily get shortening, lard should be a reasonable substitute.
If you want an icing, icing is generally 2 tablespoons of milk per 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar.
COTD!
Oh hell yeah. This sounds incredible.
Fantastic! it looks like there are some Autopian logo cookies in there as well.
The print-edible-pictures thing has been around for a while, and it’s quite nifty. About ten years ago I had a sheet cake made for a celebration. I gave the bakery folks the .jpg of the celebratees and they printed it to cover the cake nearly edge-to-edge. The image quality on the cake was surprisingly high.
Which is why your sketches look like the actual sketches on the cookies. 🙂 You know what, though? I think they have a lot more charm that way, rather than being sort of soulless.
Aw, I already wished I could go to this, but c’mon, TAILLIGHT COOKIES??
A couple of thoughts:
1. Taillight Cookies is a great band name.
2. You need to market these, maybe with the Girl Scouts. Or start your own Car Scouts?
3. You need a Muppets tie-in: the Taillight Cookie Monster.
Did you see that cover image of Torch?!? I would say they already have a taillight cookie monster! Just give him a fuzzy blue hoodie to wear.
The Muppets are going to be very confused when you call them up and ask about licensing a Sesame Street character. 😉
On the plus side, they’ll probably do a hilarious sketch about it so maybe it’s worth a shot!
That is just awesome. Wish I could be there.
Shrimpbarrow II: Watch me spew.
yum!
Wheelbarrow of shrimp? Check.
Taillight cookies? Check.
Shower spaghetti?
Shower spaghetti?
Shower spaghetti?
Bueller?
need a jelly doughnut for the BMW tail light. when the jelly squirts out…that’s the blinker fluid!
Okay, but we need a taste test of these cookies ASAP. Do they taste good, or are they stuck in that weird limbo between taillight and cookie where they don’t perform either function well?
Send some to me, and I’ll get right on that.
The Jeep one tastes like motor oil.
And rust.
And it is sprinkled with trail dust.
So the answer is: yes. They taste delicious.
Rust and trail dust could be cinnamon and brown sugar. Just sayin’.
As for shower spaghetti, get a bathtub, fill it with spaghetti and sauce. Have a few strands hanging from a shower head, and the next show is basically catered.
Can we get confirmation of this from someone whose hands are not covered in motor oil? 😉
this is a huge relief
Fantastic. I’m only sad that I’ll never get to taste one of these.
Now I just want one of those “is it cake?” situations with an ink-jet printer. Could go an extra step and make an edible edible ink-jet printer.
I think “edible ink-jet printer” already means that the ink-jet printer is edible.
That was what I was trying to imply with the first sentence. I guess the second should have included “edible edible-ink jet printer” for clarity
As long as it’s edible, I’m down to clown.
Stop! This is braking my brain!
So, in all seriousness, when do these end up in the Merch section of the site for the rest of us to order?
This.
Hell, just do them as 2d refrigerator magnets so you don’t have to deal with health laws & shipping stale cookie crumbs
—I’m down for the set. Maybe a set of VW taillights down through the years? You could print a very limited run of Brazilian ones too and mix one in randomly like a Golden Ticket?