Bachlorette Party Cookies

 

 

I had the pleasure to make some treats for a sweet friend of mine's bachlorette party last weekend. We had a great time getting pampered and massaged, then having a fantastic Italian dinner, a limo ride, and dancing to end the night. For such an occasion as this, I thought lingerie cookies would be perfect! Best wishes to my lovely Krista and her future husband!

 

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!

 

 

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

Colorful Swirl Cookies

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and is relaxing after a wonderful holiday! I know I am!

If there is any holiday I truly love, it is Christmas. I love the snow, wrapping, baking, and all the decorations. There is a joy that can be felt in the air. Baking for the holidays has always been a favorite Christmas activity. My family has some holiday traditions such as the Feast of Seven Fishes, and My Grandma's Cookies that are must haves. But I like to try something new each holiday just for fun. And this year it was homemade caramels and these swirly sugar cookies.

These are sweet sugar cookies which are surprisingly easy since they are a slice and bake cookie. Yes, aside from making the dough and rolling it together, this is just as easy as going to Shoprite for some Pilsbury's sugar cookie dough, but it's so much better! These Christmas cookies were simple to make and eat!

2 cups flour, plus possibly a few more tbsp (the original recipe called for cake flour, but I just used regular old all-purpose flour since I was all out of a softasilk)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (cut in chunks)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp of food coloring of your choice(and/or 1/2 tsp of any desired extra extracts)
1 1/2 cup holiday sprinkles

1. In a stand mixer, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugars with paddle on medium until well blended.

2. Add butter in, gradually, and continue mixing. Add in vanilla extract. At this point, your dough will form a ball on your paddle.

3. Remove all your dough and divide into two equal parts. Return one portion back in to the mixer and add the food coloring and any extra extracts. I used Wilton gel food coloring in leaf green and vanilla extract for this batch. You could coordinate your colors and flavors, for example green food coloring matched with a mint extract or yellow with a lemon extract, etc. Also, if you are using liquid food coloring, you will need to add a few tbsp of flour to keep the dough from becoming too wet. Mix until the color is spread out evenly.

4. Roll out each portions of your dough, between two sheets a wax paper until is reaches about 11 x 9 inches and is 1/4 inch thick. Slide both unto a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

5. When firm, remove the top sheets of wax paper from both. Brush the uncolored vanilla dough lightly with water using a pastry brush. Then flip the colored dough onto the vanilla uncolored dough so they are stacked atop each other and even. Press the edges lightly with your fingertips to seal them together. Using a small pairing knife, trim the edges of the dough to make straight, even lines.

6. Pour out sprinkles onto a large platter and set aside. Be sure your dough is still cold, but flexible. Once it's ready, begin rolling the long side of dough into a swirl, jelly-roll style. Now, don't get nervous if the outer layer of uncolored dough tears a bit. It's no problem, just pinch and pat those tears and voila, then just keep rolling.

7. Now gently lift your dough log onto the sprinkles and roll away. Cover the log completely with your sprinkles. Wrap the colorfully decorated log in plastic wrap twice. Depending on when you want to bake the cookies, either place the wrapped dough into refrigerator for about 3-4 hours or you can put it the freezer and keep it there for up to 2 months. (If freezing, give yourself time for the dough to defrost in the fridge overnight before cutting.)

8. Slice your dough into 1/4-1/8 inch slices and bake on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes until edges are slightly golden. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then move them to a cookie rack to finish cooling. Enjoy your whimsical Christmas cookies!

This is my entry for the December's What's Baking Challenge: A Holiday/Christmas Colored Baked Good. It has the colors of Christmas and is simple enough to make despite the busy holday season!

Adapted from Sprinkle Bakes.

Cheerleader Cookie Favors

I don't know how many people have the luxury to have their extended family live near them, but I do and it's something I try to not take that for granted. I get the joy of spending time with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents whenever I want. One of my dearest cousins, Deanna, was having her end of the year, cheerleading banquet and I made these cookie favors for the event.

This dough was my favorite so far of all the different sugar cookie recipes I have tried for edible favors. It is very flavorful and sweet, but not so much that it was overpowering when added with the icing. The combination was tasty and easy to use for decorating! I adapted a recipe from Tidy Mom for the dough.


Vanilla Butter Sugar Cookie Dough

5 1/2 cups unbleached flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups butter
1-1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
4 tbsp milk
4 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp pure almond extract ( I didn't have any on hand, but it would be a nice addition)

1. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

2. Cream sugar and butter, then add eggs and extracts.

3. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until combined.

4. Roll out to desired thickness on lightly floured wax paper and cut.

5. For this cookie, I didn't have a cookie cutter for the shape I wanted. So I drew the shape I wanted, traced and cut it out of cardstock. Then I would trace the cardstock shape with a small pairing knife.

6. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes on a parchment lined baking sheet. The cookie should not brown at all; it will remain light in color. Remove from cookie sheets after one minutes and let cool on cooling rack. Then you can begin the decorating!

For the icing of these cookies, I wanted to try a new icing for me. I've decorated with royal icing using meringue powder and I have made my own marshmallow fondant, so for these cookies I used an icing, I've been hoping to try for awhile. It's very similar to a royal icing recipe, but it replaces the meringue powder with more common ingredients. The end result was different, but also great. I'm not sure which I like to use more, but both were great! This recipe is from I am Baker.

Sugar Cookie Icing

1 cup Confectioners Sugar (powder sugar)
1 Tablespoon Milk
1 drop Lemon Juice (fresh or processed)
1 Tablespoon Light Corn Syrup

1. Combine powder sugar, corn syrup, and lemon juice in bowl of stand mixer.

2. Now you want to make one batch for outlining the cookies. For this batch, add less liquid(milk) to keep the icing thick enough to pipe. This is also the same consistency you will want for detailing the cookies after they have been flooded.

3. For the flooding the cookies, you will need a thinner icing, so add more milk/liquid slowly. Also, be aware that liquid food colorings and extracts can change the consistency. I used Wilton Gel Food Coloring in Royal Blue and Wilton Gel Food Coloring in Golden Yellow. This icing has great shine and gloss!

Also featured on :

Bride and Groom Cookie Favors

Once again, I must apologize for the lack of updating, but it was busy past week. One of my best friends got married last weekend and I was making favors for the wedding. My kitchen still has evidence of the wreck that ensued from all the flying powdered sugar to the royal icing drips on the floor. But that's ok with me.


I had made similar cookie favors for the rehearsal dinner of another good friend of mine back in August. The cookies I made this time were very close to the same, but instead of icing the cookie solely in royal icing, I made a marshmallow fondant for the heart shape and then decorated the details with royal icing.


This was my first time using or making marshmallow fondant, but I heard lots of good reviews. Fondant has many advantages and is much more flexible in its uses than royal icing. However, fondant usually does not taste great. I've purchased Wilton brand fondant and it was not very yummy. But homemade marshmallow fondant, is actually pretty tasty. I means it's mostly marshmallow and sugar, so what could be bad about that?


I will be posting a full step by step tutorial of how to make and use marshmallow fondant for some other cookies I am making next month. (I was too busy to get good photos of the process this time.) My only word of advice for now if anyone wants to attempt to make their own marshmallow fondant is you can not have enough powdered sugar or Crisco to grease your surface. Buy two extra bags. Seriously.

Also featured on Real Food Wednesdays and Works for Me Wednesdays.

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.