Duckie Onsie Cookies for Colin

I never miss an opportunity to decorate cookies, especially cute cookies for a baby shower. My niece Ashley is expecting a little boy in April. Since I couldn't fly out to Salt Lake City for the baby shower, I did the next best thing - sent cookies and a present. I layered the bagged cookies between thin sheets of bubble wrap and they all arrived safely.

Now for the decorating tips:  I had seen the romper cookies online and thought they were adorable. I wasn't sure how to get the blue romper over the white shirt and do it in one sitting and without the colors bleeding, so I did it the hard way. I flooded the white and let it dry overnight. Then I piped and flooded the blue over it. Of course I had to let that dry before I made the ducks. Betsy knew just how to add the duckies. First you put an oval squirt of icing where you want the duck. Drag a toothpick through the duck's body, pulling it slightly up. Next add a small drop of icing for the head. A sideways 'V' works for the beak. The eye is really easy. Just put a chocolate chip in a small bowl in the microwave. Once it melts, dip the end of a toothpick in the chocolate and dot the duck's eye. Don't forget to add the buttons!

These cookies are adorable. Now I need to learn how to take pictures.

More Christmas Cookies

Today is December 18 and we're done! Betsy and I got started early this year and our cookies are baked, decorated, wrapped, and almost all delivered. This year we bought ice buckets at Home Goods     as a way to package our cookies. It took several trips to three different stores in the area before we found enough.

When we were planning which cookies to make, Betsy said that we couldn't have more than 6 designs. Of course I smiled and kept my mouth shut. We never counted while we were decorating, but I just did, and we ended up with 7. It's all Walker's fault. At the last minute, Betsy wanted to make some gingerbread men for him. It's pretty hard to resist doing something special for her 2 year old grandson.

The first thing we did was to try a new cookie recipe that we got on www.food.com. We both agreed that these are "The Most Wonderful Gingerbread Cookies" and they're really easy to make. I hate to sift and there's no sifting.

We haven't moved up to the professional level yet, but we think we're getting pretty good at decorating cookies. We tend to learn by trial and error, mainly because we can't remember the mistakes we've made until we repeat them. Here are our tips that we are happy to pass on to others:

     * Don't make too many red cookies. Red icing never tastes great and lemon flavoring doesn't help.

     * It's a lot easier to write words if you use flood icing and a number 1 tip. When you want your
        words to be large, it's probably better to use a larger tip.

     * Your finger works wonders for making the edge of the cookie neater. Of course it only works    
        when the icing is still wet.

     * Don't overfill your icing bags. That's the only way we know to keep the icing from oozing out.
        We always use a clip or one of those special rubber bands, but if you put too much icing in the
        bag, it will come squirting out the top.

     * If you are using two colors that will be touching side-by-side, you only have to let the first color
        dry for a couple of hours before adding the second color.  If the new color is going to be on top
        of the first color, follow the overnight drying rule, otherwise your darker color will bleed into the
        lighter color.

     * Always clean-up as you go along. Royal icing dries like cement on every surface it touches. For
        anyone who decides to postpone the clean-up the way I did, it takes a little more effort and hot  
        water does the trick.

Check out these adorable Christmas cookies. We decided to personalize one of the big cookies for each family. Betsy brought some yellow sugar glitter that made each of the ornament cookies look like the real thing. It has more of a metallic look than the usual grocery store sprinkle sugar.

   

A Candy House

My husband Eugene loves decorating for Christmas. Last year he spotted a two-story candy house that he wanted to buy, but he didn't like the $200 price tag. He's pretty handy with tools and pretty creative too. So he came home and got to work designing his candy house. Of course I thought he would want me, the cookie decorator, to give him some tips and just be generally helpful. Well, that's not what Eugene had in mind. He wanted to do it all by himself. He did let me make the icing, but that was it. When he had finished, he placed the house on a chest in our front hall. Then he surrounded it with our collection of Christmas carolers and covered the scene with snow. I must admit that it was pretty impressive. Now that he's had a bit of practice, this year's house should be even more spectacular.

Snowmen Cookies!

It's always fun to come up with new ideas for cookies. We made snowmen cookies for our friends last Christmas. Each one is a little different. One of our friends isn't wild about our sugar cookies, so we made her a plate of gingerbread reindeer and snowflakes. The things we do for friends........

Finally! Another wedding.

Since none of our children or our friend's children were getting married, there has been a lull in our cookie production. But we have gotten back on track, or I should say Betsy got back on track, with the marriage of my son. Betsy and our young friend Cameron made these lovely cookies for the bridal shower. They tied a tag with each guest's name to the bag and used the cookie as a place card. How clever!

Just so that I can brag about Betsy's flower arranging skills, I'm inserting a picture of the bouquets she put together for the luncheon. Plus, you get to see the cookies one more time.

A Cookie Christmas

Last Christmas we gave our friends a cake plate (from Pier 1) full of decorated cookies. In thinking about this year's cookies we had to dig out our old pictures. We had fun decorating the gingerbread angels and snowflakes and couldn't resist making each one different. This year we're putting the cookies on big serving plates we got at Pier 1.

Cowboy Cookies!

Walker's turning one! That means it's time to make more cookies. Betsy ordered the perfect cookie cutters - a cowboy hat and boot. We wanted the hats and boots to be tan and thought chocolate would taste good. I used at least 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa for one recipe of royal icing. Unfortunately I dissolved the cocoa in water before adding it to the already mixed royal icing, which eventually got the icing a bit thin. It still hardened without making the cookies too soft. After reading other recipes, I realized that I should have dissolved the cocoa in the water with the egg whites. I think the cocoa kept the flood icing from being shiny, but that's alright because cowboys don't wear shiny boots to the rodeo. When it was time to add details to the cookies, I tinted the royal icing with brown and added a little black to make it darker. Cameron came up and helped decorate. She's very creative. Just look at these adorable cookies.