Now, since most people reading this are in the USA, let me tell you a little bit about Gdynia. Gdynia is a part of so-called TriCity (altoghether about 1mln pople). It was built in the 1920s, when Poland regained access to the Baltic Sea, but without the port town - Gdańsk (Gdańsk was turned into The Free City of Gdańsk). Between Gdańsk and Gdynia is a small health resort Sopot. A common stereotype says that Gdańsk is the town where you go sightseeing and shopping (it's over 1000 years old and used to be a Hanseatic town), in Sopot you can rest or have fun (somehow all the clubs are there - Gdańsk and Gdynia are practically deserted at night) and the only reason to go to Gdynia is to work. Gdynia has a technology park. And a shipyard. And a port (well, Gdańsk has them too), but Gdynia has no monuments. Zero shopping malls. Zero clubs. Ok, almost zero. Basic economy says, that if there really were no clubs or shopping malls, somebody would build some. And there is only one place worth seeing in Gdynia: the Aquarium.
MIL somehow managed not to see it yet. And after she invented that date, she told me to make her some heart-shaped cookies. She didn't know what she was going to get. Really. She just thought "Asia likes baking, she has some cookie cutters, so she probably will be happy to bake me some plain vanilla or chocolate cookies".
The emblematic exibit is a 3D model of the Baltic Sea. So I just had to make the Baltic Sea into my biggest heart-shaped-cookies. How did I make the Baltic Sea fit so perfectly? First of all, I outlined the cookie cutter, drew some lines showing where I wanted the sea and measured the cookie.Then I found a nice, simple map, which I resized to fit my measurement, printed and copied to my sketch. In a very DIY way and completely forgetting about the single #3 tip that I have (really, here in Poland, if you try, you might find #2 tips, but nothing smaller, so no detail work until my birthday). Transfering the design to cookie was then as easy as outlining a stencil.
And If I ever turn maps into cookies again, I think I will use this technique, after all, the lands are above the seas.
