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.

Another Wedding

Wedding bells are ringing again. This time we had to make cookies for Anna's daughter. We've learned to stagger the process over a couple of weeks. First we bake the cookies and flood them. After they've dried overnight, we put them in the freezer until we're ready to add the design. We've left them in the freezer for two weeks without getting freezer burn. It only takes a few hours to dry the designs and they're ready to be bagged.

KidZNotes Cookies

After decorating 300 cookies for the KidZNotes gala, I don't think I'll ever forget what the perfect flood icing looks like. We also learned why you should sift the powdered sugar if you don't plan to mix it for 10 minutes. I tried a corn syrup recipe for the icing (against Betsy's advice) and won't do that again. There were visible lumps in the icing. The finished cookies looked pretty cute and even cuter when we tied the bags with musical note ribbon.

That's a Big Bow!

Our first wedding cake cookies had skinny pink bows. We wanted to make a big bow this time. We ended up with very hot pink bow and a touch of lace.

Welcome new neighbors!

More wedding cake cookies!