The Red Egg Party Cookies

These photos have been sitting in my computer, all queued up to show you, for months.
MONTHS!!!!
Wanna know why?
I've had a bit of a falling out with my camera. We're not on good terms. We are officially....frenemies.

These cookies I'm about to show you are quite possibly my favorites I've ever made. The background is the prettiest shade of pale ballet pink. The branches are gnarled and bumpy just like I'd hoped. The egg is actually....egg-shaped.
Unfortunately, they are also some of the worst pictures I've ever taken.
After editing them twelve million times....I've got this.

Meh.

Maybe the picture with more cookie and less background...

Nope.  Still....Meh.

(way too yellow...but if I cool down the tone, the cookies look grey)

Okay...less cropping?

Ugh.

That's actually a white platter under those cookies.

(Which I do realize is part of the problem)

Wanna see an original?

I've got all the regular excuses....

It was rainy, and dark, and cold.

I have a white card reader thingy.

Can't figure out how to use the darn thing.

Have a photo box too...

That thing hates me and I knock stuff over every time I get it out.

So, I'm just going to put these out there and get on with my little cookie life.

I've made tons of cookies, TONS!

But I just couldn't get past these.

*sigh*
Hoping the party was lovely. This was a Red-Egg Party for a precious little 30 day old angel named Hannah.
And I'm sure Hannah was gorgeous in all of her pictures!

Easy Swirl Sparkle Cookie Tutorial

Remember those cookies that Jack put his name on?
The swirly sparkly ones?

Here's how I made them, and how your munchkin can help you!

Start with a plain cookie. These have been flooded with white royal icing and dried overnight. Although I've never tried it,  I'm sure this would work the same on fondant, or even a plain cookie!

Cover your work area with parchment or wax paper and gather your supplies.

You'll need cookies, sanding sugar in the color of your choice, and matching royal icing.

I used red 20-second icing (a line drawn through a bowl of this icing with a knife will disappear in 20 seconds), in a piping bag with a #4 tip.

But...the consistency isn't crucial.  

Something between piping and flood is great.

Wilton even sells pre-made cookie icing in a squeeze bottle that would be good for this project.

The tip isn't very important either.  

The icing could be in a disposable piping bag, or even a ziploc.

Just snip about an 1/4 of an inch off of a corner and you're ready to go!

Start from the outside edge and pipe a shrinking spiral, ending in the middle.

The first revolution should follow the outside edge until it almost meets the beginning.

Here's the kids' part!

Dump sugar over the whole thing!

Not sure you covered it all?

Dump a little more on!

Carefully pick up the cookie and knock excess sugar back into the sugar bowl.

You did it!

Hopefully you and the munchkin did it together!!!

Something about seeing all those sparkles stuck exactly where they should be 

is a HUGE feeling of accomplishment.

Not to mention the thrill of dumping sugar all over anything!

 Now, there will be some extra sugar on the parchment.

Which leads to the other best part.....

watching all the sugar pour back into the bowl!

Just pick up and pour!

And start the whole process again!

These are simple and quick, but also charming and sweet. Perfect for kids with short little attention spans  who might not be able to handle a piping bag yet.

I've had a couple of questions about the font on this 'Merry Christmas' plaque as well. It's De Flandre!

Happy Baking!

Christmas Cookie Gifts with the Kids!

A couple times a year my munchkins like to help with the cookie decorating. Christmas is definitely one of them. Except....the fancy cookies that I make on a regular basis aren't exactly kiddo friendly. They end up with icing running off the cookie and all over their hands. Faces they draw with icing look more than a bit 'Dali-esque"
As a mom, I think they are fabulous and take lots of pictures. But the kiddos can get a bit discouraged.
So last year Jack and I came up with a solution....
Mommy would do the hard parts,  but Jack got to do something so that everyone knew he had helped!

He signed them!!!!

(and was beyond proud)

After flooding a round cookie and letting it dry overnight,

I handed Jack a food pen.

These are my favorite at the moment,

AmeriColor Gourmet Writers.

After scrubbing his little seven-year-old hands he got to work.

(We did the sparkly ones together the day before.

I'll show you those pictures next time!)

Something about getting to write on a cookie with a magic marker 

speaks to the little trouble maker inside every little boy.

Each cookie only took a few seconds, we did about 6 or so.

And lets be honest, that's the extent of a seven year old boy's

 cookie decorating span of attention.

So I finished up the ones with the icing letters...

...and he ran off to have another lego battle with his brother.
No tears, no frustration......no mess. Loved it!

I'll show you how he helped with the sparkly cookies next time!!!

Graduation Cookies!

I've noticed a bit of a change in graduation cookies lately.

I used to make a lot of caps and diplomas.

Recently though, its been a lot of school logos.

Kind of a 'where I've been' to 'where I'm going' theme.

This lovely lady was going from a local private school...

To Princeton!

She even has a scholarship...

...playing volleyball!

Congratulations on your fabulous achievement!!

Your family is so very proud!!!

Birthday Birdies and Owl Cookies!

When I moved into my college dorm room many moons ago, (no...I will NOT tell you how many)
I met Sarah.
She was my new roommate and was (is) pretty much perfect.
Super friendly and welcoming. Fun, silly, wicked smart and girlie without being 'mean girlie'.
Completely sensible, but also absolutely the girlfriend you knew  you'd have a great time with all weekend.

Love her.

Plus, she totally introduced me to Joe, who became my super awesome husband.
Because of this I will NOT post the only picture of us I could find.
We are wearing bathrobes and wearing mud masks.



Instead, I will show you the cookies I made for her, for her birthday!

Her Mom wanted to send her some sweet little owls!

I added a loving family tree and some little baby birds  since she has two little birdies of her own.

She let me make them all springtimey and happy.




Which is perfectly appropriate for Sarah.

Because whenever I think of her....

I don't just remember that she is now a wonderful teacher and mom,

and a super brave breast cancer survivor,

but she has always been one of my best examples of who a girlfriend should be.

I wish she lived closer and that we got to see each other often.
But I hope she knows that I think of her all the time,

and always with a smile.



Hope your Birthday was extra Happy!
(Joe says 'Hi' too!)

My Favorite Cookie Font!

It's graduation season all over the country!
All month long munchkins and big people will be wearing those silly little flat hats and graduating!
Which of course means.....lots and lots of cookies!
These are a favorite of mine and I make them using Sugarbelle's tutorial.

Callye (Sugarbelle) is the queen of combining cookie cutters and  changing their shapes to work best for her (and us).


I suck at it am not.


So, I'm always grateful for her posts about cutter shapes and uses.
I do, however, really REALLY like using all different fonts on my cookies.
I LOVE this one!

I love the little sideways 'O's.
And the 'G'!  It's hard to find a G that looks good in sugar.
It's called ENVIEW.....

You can find it for free HERE


I first started using it because it reminded me of the architectural lettering I had to practice 
foreeeevvveeer in college.
Ugh!
My hand hurt for the entire quarter.

It's kind of fitting to use a font that reminded me of college on a college graduation cookie... right?
I didn't over think that or anything, did I?
Hmmmm.



Anywho...

Congratulations Kristin!
You did it!


...and I made it through another graduation season without putting
'Congraduations'
on a single cookie!