Baseball Cookie Favors

I made these Baseball Cookies for my best friend's son on his first birthday. Her whole family is huge Phillies fans and the baseball themed party was such a fun idea! It was a great day to celebrate with dear friends!

 

5 years and counting, Love sugar cookies

My husband, my best friend, my always helping and fun partner, my favorite person has dealt with me for five fun years of marriage.

 Yep, five years since we said I Do. It's a long time. We have laughed and cried together. And I'm so blessed to go through life with him. He's just the coolest guy in every way.

My husband is "that guy". That guy who holds open doors and cares for everyone. That guy who likes spending time with me as much as possible. He's that guy who cares for my friends and family like they are his own. He's that guy who always wants to help the world and will lend a helping hand to anyone. He's that guy who's can build a wall or fix or a door, but will also helps with fill piping bags and ice cookies (and he's good at both!). He's the guy who reads devotions to me at night even though he's tired and always thinks of my needs above his own. He's that guy who works hard and loves his job and his students.

So yeah, he's pretty awesome.
And I'm pretty lucky.

Here's to many more years together! Happy 5th anniversary Robert!

Our church had it's Valentine's banquet on our five year anniversary and I was making some desserts. So wisely, I made a few extras for us to celebrate with. It was pure genius to get married right after Valentine's day and not at all because it was when we had off for president's day...

 

These sugar cookies were fun to make. And rather simple. Make sugar cookie dough. Roll and cut. Bake. Make icing. Edge and flood. Dot and pull with toothpick. The end.

It may seem like many steps, but it really isn't bad.



 I have been experimenting with a many bakers, bloggers, and other talented individuals' sugar cookie recipes and I have found my favorite. At least for now. The very talented Bridget, from Bake at 350, has a fantastic recipe which I will be sharing with detailed photos soon. Go check out her blog. It's amazing!

And for some royal icing tips and trick, Sugarbelle has opened my eyes to whole new world. Many helpful tricks for decorating with royal icing. My favorite part... NOT SIFTING! I have been sifting sugar like an idiot all this time and guess what?  It made no difference. Perfect Royal Icing without sifting. Thank you Sugarbelle!

Happy belated Valentine's Day and remember to appreciate those in your life worthy of love!

Baby Elephant Sugar Cookies

I had the honor of making favors for my cousin's baby shower.

I am so excited to meet this sweet lil boy in a month!

The baby's room theme will be baby elephants so that's what I made for favors. 

Best wishes to Gaby and Vin and lil peanut!

 

Here are the sugar cookie elephants ready to be baked.

 

 

And here is the final product, all wrapped and ready!

 

 

Onesie Baby Shower Cookie Favors

 

 

I had the honor of making these adorable favors for one of my dearest friends that I have known since elementary school. I used my usual sugar cookie recipe for cutout and royal icing as I did for these onesie cookies, but tried something new for decorating these. Hope you enjoy these new onesie cookies using homemade templates and food color spray. I loved how they came out and had such fun making them!

Lady Bug Sugar Cookies

with some pink girly flare!

Yes, these are pink lady bug cookies, because almost everything is better in pink, is it not? But more importantly, these cookies were made for a special one year old on her birthday! I made these lovely lady bugs for my best friend's adorable little girl. We had the pleasure to visit my wonderful friend and her sweet little girl for the weekend and we had a blast! She is truly the cutest thing since cupcakes and sprinkles!

These cookies are made of lemony vanilla dough and topped with royal icing. The recipe for these cookies has similar flavorings to an earlier sugar cookie I've made on here, but is a very different. As any of you who follow my posts know, I am always on the hunt to perfect my sugar cookies recipe, which means getting the joy to try many other recipes! Whether it's a cookbook, a magazine, a blog, a friend or family's recipe, or whatever, I'll gladly give a new recipe a whirl! And my husband and family don't mind serving the taste testing committee! This particular recipe is one I've heard much positive rumblings about in the cyber world. It's courtesy of the blog, Bake at 350, which posts all things cute, sweet, and colorful! The writer is both witty and incredibly talented with a piping bag! I used her basic sugar cookie recipe, only switching out some flavorings.





Lemon Vanilla Cookies

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 sticks (salted) butter, cold
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp lemon zest

1. Start by combining the flour and baking powder in a bowl; set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand or electric mixer.

3. Add in egg, extracts, and zest beating after each addition.

4. Slowly add in the dry mixture, beating and scraping the bowl down frequently.

5. Be sure to give the dough a quick hand knead before rolling it out.

6. Roll out your dough and grab your favorite round cookie cutter. Transfer the cut cookies onto parchment lined baking sheets.

7. Pop the baking sheet with cookies in the freezer for just a few minutes before placing them into a 350 degree preheated oven. Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes and then allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheets for a few minutes before moving them to cooling racks.

8. Once the cookies are fully cooled, decorate the cookies with your favorite colors for lady bugs following this recipe for royal icing from a previous post on house cookies.
For these cookies, I learned how to make polka dots on flooded icing! (Polka dots are one of my favorite things !) A full post on the how-to for this fun technique will be coming soon!



Source: Bake at 350

Also featured on: Made from Scratch Tuesday

We finally bought a house!

I apologize for my absence this past week or so, but don't worry it's for good reason... I have an announcement to make.

We are home owners!

Hubby and I bought our first house last week and it has been a crazy few months trying to get everything finished up. We are super excited and ready to tackle the new and fun challenge of owning a home! There is some construction that needs to be done still so we won't be moving in for a little while, but our weekends are happily full of sledge hammers and dumpsters! My hubby teases it's our home away from home since we aren't staying there yet. I can't wait to fully move in ! I'll be sure to keep updating throughout the process. Ah, my very own kitchen... Soon!

Since our attorney is close family friend, I thought I'd make her a treat to say thank you for her hard work with the closing. And what's more appropriate then house cookies! I made these once before when one of my best friends bought her first house. I tried adding some new elements such as keys, moving boxes, and sold signs. I made templates for the cookies by drawing on card stock and then cut the cookies out using a small paring knife.

These cookies were a variation of the usual vanilla and almond version. I've been playing with different flavors recently and trying to new variations of my usual sugar cookie recipe. I truly loved this one! It was different and the lemon was a great addition!


Lemon And Vanilla Cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp Madagascar bourbon pure vanilla powder
Zest of half a lemon (or the zest of a whole lemon, if you love lemon)
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt


1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar on medium until smooth, about 1-2 minutes.

2. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, vanilla powder, and lemon zest until blended.

3. Next, pour in the flour and salt on low speed just until incorporated.

4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough until chilled and firm(about 2 hours).

5. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough out between two lightly floured pieces of wax paper to about ¼-inch thickness.

6. Cut with cookie cutters and transfer to the prepared baking sheets.

7. Bake on 375 for 8-10 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through baking, until fully cooked but not at all browned.

8. Allow to cool on the baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

9. Decorate with royal icing, marshmallow fondant, or any other favorite toppings! I used royal icing from this recipe I used earlier to make house cookies, which was my first attempt to decorate with royal icing and ever since then I've been hooked!

Source: Annie's Eats
Also featured on: Tempt my Tummy Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday

Baby Shower Onesie Cookies

In case you haven't noticed I've been having an addiction to sugar cookies and royal icing. Well, one of my best friends and college roommate is having her first baby girl in a few months! I made these Onesie sugar cookie favors for her baby shower. They were fun to make and came out so cute! Best Wishes to Mommy and Baby!

I used this recipe for the sugar cookies and royal icing, only I added a bit more vanilla and one cup of granulated sugar.

Cookies Make the House a Home

I've been reading a lot about decorating with royal icing and have been dying to try it myself, but I needed a purpose to get myself in gear. Well, it just so happens one of my best friends of over 15 years is getting married next weekend. So I offered to make favors for the rehearsal dinner. I knew I needed to get in some serious practice first though. So I made a batch of cookies, made my "cookie cutters", and made a batch of royal icing and went to town decorating! It was such a fun baking adventure !This same friend of mine and her soon-to-be hubby happened to be buying their first home the same day I was practicing, so I knew just what to do with the extra dough and icing. I first saw this post a few weeks before on Annie's Eats and this was the perfect excuse to make these cookies. I am truly in love with royal icing !

Sugar Cookie Recipe (taken from Annie's Eats)
These cookies were prefect for decorating because they don't spread)

1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour

1. Cream butter on medium. Add powdered sugar.

2. Add in egg, almond extract(I was out of almond so I doubled the vanilla), vanilla, salt and flour. Let chill in fridge until firm.

3. Roll to about ¼” thickness on well-floured surface.

4. Cut with cookie cutters. Or you can do what I did and trace your design on a piece of card stock and cut it out. Then using a paring knife, go around the edge of your design. Place on greased cookie sheets.

5. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown.


Royal Icing Recipe (also taken from Annie's Eats)

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. meringue powder
5 tbsp. water

1. In a stand mixer, mix all ingredients together with a paddle attachment on low for about 10 minutes.

2. Place icing into air-tight containers, depending on how many colors you will need.

3. Add a very small amount of water to each container and stir it in well. When it has reached the consistency desired for piping, you can add food coloring if desired. I used the Wilton gel food coloring, which was wonderful.

4. Fill pastry bags and pipe around the outside edges of each cookie or any area you want to partition off. Let set for about one hour.

5. When finished piping, thin out the rest of your icing for flooding by adding small amounts of water until it reaches the desired consistency. The icing should be able to drop off a spoon and smooth back in with the rest of icing within 10 seconds.

6. Fill plastic squeeze bottles with flooded icing. Fill the desired area with icing and use toothpick to pull icing to the edges and fully cover the entire area.

7. Let set for 12-24 hours. Then decorate or trim with remaining icing. If it is too thin, you can add more powdered sugar to thicken it and pipe on decorations.