I'm supposed to make 2 dozen ballet slipper cookies for this weekend. I need to be baking these things tonight really. I've got NO cookie cutter and can't find one in the entire city of Houston. What do I do? Is there some other shape that I could start with and then maybe improvise from there? Any thoughts or suggestions would be MOST appreciated. I'm panicking!

Thanks,
Mandy

First, don't panic!! Do you have a heart cutter? You can decorate them to have one slipper laying over the other. Each curve of the heart is the toe of the shoe. The bow will be at the bottom (point). Just pipe a small bow and have the ribbon ends extend up the sides a bit.

Here's a picture that is close to what I'm saying (turn it upside down.)
http://www.writeongifts.com/images/designs/ballet_slipper2.jpg

HTH!

You can easily make one yourself! Just cut one out of a tin foil pie plate or plastic. Then cut around it using a very sharp knife. Two dozen is not that many-it will go fast!

Some examples here: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=ballet%20cookie&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

I did some, just cut them by hand. Make sure your dough is cold. Find a picture of a toe shoe and print it the size you need then cut it out. Place it on the dough press down gently and then cut around it with a sharp knife.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1194454

You all are brilliant! I have cut my own cookies before, but I guess I usually have at least a starting point and it was just one cookie to decorate a cake. But, i think I can do this! Thanks for giving me the idea and the confidence.

how about use an oval or egg shaped cutter and just pipe your design inside of it. This pick is of a baby slipper but i think you can get the idea i'm after. Just pipe on your shoe ribbons...http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1267078

I don't know if this will help you, but I make my own templates all the time. I buy template plastic from Joann's in the quilitng section. There are two weights here and I use the lighter of the two. I trace my design with a Sharpie, cut it out, leaving a bit of the black line still to follow. Once all washed, I place it on top of my chilled, rolled out dough and cut it out with a fine tip paring knife. Once done, it washes right up and stores easily should I need it again. Hope that helps!

Well, I did it! Thanks again for your ideas. I just printed out a ballet slipper cookie cutter pic from the internet (which was great because I was able to use the one I really wanted to) and cut it out of cardstock weight paper. It was a big greasy mess when I was done, but it did the trick. I have 25 (1 extra, just in case) beautiful ballet slipper cookies ready for decorating tonight. Thanks again!

Glad to hear it worked out..now we want to see pictures. ;0) I've purchased a cheap cutting board, ya know the flimsy kind from the dollar store and cut the template out of that before and it's great..it's sturdy enough to not bend around, repels grease and can be washed an used again in the future. Plus for a dollar you can cut alot of templates out of that one sheet of plastic. HTH