We Flunked Cookie Class 101!

We thought we knew exactly how to fix our purple sash wedding cookies. We baked another batch of cookies and promptly flooded them. Having ruined our last batch, we headed to the internet to see how long the flood icing had to dry. Everyone said, "Overnight." Being smart entrepreneur bakers, we decided that it might be best to let our cookies dry in the safe confines of the oven. Wrong. Guess what happens when you put cookies covered with wet icing in an airtight oven. The cookies absorb all the moisture from the icing, plus the icing doesn't harden. Batch number two was a soggy mess. The cookies fell apart when we picked them up. We promptly tossed them in the trash. Once again we have no pictures.

Learning the Hard Way

At this point in our cookie decorating career, we decided to continue with the trial and error method. I guess we like learning things the hard way. With another wedding coming up, we had a chance to practice a new cookie design. The pink bow was cute, but we wanted to expand our horizons. We thought we already new everything about the first layer of icing, called flooding, so we zipped right through that stage and excitedly added the next layer, a purple sash across the cookie with a big purple button on the side. The next day when we went to check on our cookies, we found that the purple icing had spread across our cake in an ugly blur. Our trial and error method had taught us a good lesson: always let the flood icing dry overnight if you plan to decorate with a different color! No pictures this time - these cookies went in the trash.

Our First Batch

It all started with the annual bake sale at our children's school. Every year we would bake and decorate gingerbread men, spreading them all over the kitchen and making a big fat mess. But we had fun and our cookies were sellouts. When our kids outgrew the gingerbread men, we turned to bridal shower cookies. We made 4" wedding cake cookies and decorated them with big pink bows. It took us hours and when they were done we thought they were beautiful. Looking back at those pictures we have to smile. Take a look at our first pride and joy. They look much better bagged.