Carcassonne Cookies

So here are the cookies I made with my first hand-crafted cookie cutter.  The cookies themselves turned out great.  I'm especially happy with the cookie recipe I decided to use.  It's Bridget's (from Bake at 350) Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookie recipe and it is fan-tast-tic!!  I rolled my cookies a little thinner than normal and some of them ended up breaking while icing them, so I will definitely make sure to roll them 1/4" thick next time.  But that aside, they dough was so easy to work with and the taste was out of this world!!!

As for the actual decorating....at least the people that were eating them didn't care what they looked like.  I completely forgot about icing them until the night before we were to leave for our trip.  I knew there wouldn't be enough time for them to dry, so I opted to drag the icing and bottles with me.  In theory, this should have been no problem....but I'm pretty sure leaving tub-fulls of royal icing to swelter in a 90+ degree car for many hours was not one of my brigher ideas.  The icing didn't completely mix smoothly and I kept getting clogs in the bottles...and as usual I made the icing a little too runny and had no extra powdered sugar with me to thicken it back up.  But at that point I just wanted to get the darn things iced...and this is the final result.

DIY Cookie Cutters

I heart Callye over at The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle.  Seriously, her cookies are simply amazing...I could only wish to be half as good as her.  A couple of months ago, she wrote a blog post about how she made her own custom cookie cutter.  I immediately tucked that bit of knowledge in the back of my brain because I knew someday I would need a cookie cutter that I couldn't buy.  Well, today is that day.

While out running errands this afternoon, I stopped by the local cake shop to pick up some things I need for the cookies I'm taking on our beach vacation next week....with the entire family in tow.  Of course, I couldn't just run in and grab what I needed...I had to peruse the cookie cutter section because there just might be something I needed.  The kids were of course touching everything...declaring we needed this cutter or that.  One of the cutters my youngest pointed out made my husband remark that it looked like a Meeple.

Now I know what you are thinking...what in the heck is a Meeple?!  Seriously, only a board game geek would know what one is...it's one of the playing pieces to the game Carcassonne (one of the greatest games out there).  Anyway, when I heard my husband say that, I immediately realized that this was something have to do.  I have to make Meeple cookies to take on our beach vacation where my husband and his friends will spend hours upon hours playing this geeky game.  And what would go better with the game than a nice cold beer and a Meeple cookie?! 

We scoped out all the gingerbread-y shaped cutters and I settled on a small one that had a similar shape to a Meeple.  I figured I could re-bend it a little to get a closer shape.  Yeah...easier said than done.  I think I abandoned that idea in about 2.5 seconds.  And then I remembered Sugarbelle's tutorial on how to make your own cookie cutters and knew that this was the day I would be making my first homemade cutter.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to make the cutter.  Of course, it could have been easier to make if I weren't so much of a perfectionist.  But in the end I'm pretty pleased with how my first DIY cutter turned out.  I can't wait to test it out tomorrow!!

Cookie Decorating Class

I love those Groupon and Living Social deals.  But that's probably because I love me a good deal.  So when Living Social posted a deal for half off a class at the local bake shop, you better believe I was going to take advantage of that.  I considered it a birthday present to myself.

Last night I was able to cash in on the deal.  Along with 3 other friends, I spent 3 wonderful, glorious hours learning how to decorate cookies.  Not that I haven't figured out how to do it...I mean I have spent countless hours in the past several months pouring over blogs on the web and then testing out what I've learned.  But I felt like I needed to take a class so I could actually see things being done...you know, see what good flood icing is supposed to look like, among other things.  Well, I'm so glad I took the class.  Not only did I finally see "real" flood icing, but I finally tried my hand at using other piping skills to decorate cookies.  I'm pretty pleased with how my cookie set turned out...and of course now I'm dying to bake a new batch of cookies to practice.

Next up on my class list....cake balls.  I will learn how to dip those darn things like a pro!!!

4thof July Cookies

So I've been meaning to try making a batch of chocolate sugar cookies.  I've never tasted one (I know!) but I figured they can't be bad...I mean they have chocolate in them for goodness sakes!  But as the Fourth crept nearer, I figured I'd have to put them on the back burner.  In my head, it just didn't make sense to make 4th of July cookies using chocolate dough.  But then the chocolate craving started to elbow it's way in and the next thing you know, I'm online, searching through my extensive list of cookie blogs to find the  recipe for chocolate sugar cookies....and of course I couldn't for the life of me remember which blog I found it on.  I finally came across this entry:  The End-All Chocolate Cookie Recipe over at LilaLoa.  I know it wasn't the one I was looking for but a) it was a chocolate cookie recipe, and b) she touted it as the best one ever...the one all the cool kids are doing.  Made me laugh I guess because her enthusiasm reminded me of me.  No need to search any further...this would be the one I tried.  The dough was amazingly easy to make, even easier to work with and with only a 6 minute cook time, I think I might just have to make chocolate sugar cookies all the time!

As for what shapes to cut out, that was a toughie...I have seen SO many different 4th of July cookies this past week out in blog land.  I settled for using my flag cutter (that I bought for another occasion and never got the chance to use), a scalloped round and a small star.

It's funny how the end cookie result isn't always what I pictured in the beginning.  I'm sure a lot of that has to do with procrastinating and then being rushed to finish the cookies.  Of course, this was the case again.  My flags came out okay, but if I had had more time, I would have done them differently and I think they would have looked better.  Still, I can't complain...they don't look that bad.  As for the scalloped rounds, those I envisioned as being fire works.  In the past several days, I saw numerous references to the Martha Steward "firework" cookies that are on the front of this month's Martha Stewart Living, so I figured I'd have to give those a try.  They were pretty easy to make and turned out very nice, but I think I like my version of a firework better.  They look less like a flower and more like what you would seeing bursting in the sky...if you didn't live in Texas where it is drier than the desert and has resulted in the cancellation of all fireworks.  We'll just have to settle for cookies.

As for all the stars I had to decorate, let me start by saying I'm not sure what I was thinking when I cut them all out.  Staring at the pile of undecorated cookies, I started to dread the daunting task before me.  But in the end, it was the stars I enjoyed decorating the best.  I'm not sure which style I like the best, but I like how they look with the tiny hearts on them...especially the ones with the tiny burst of hearts in the middle...again, they kind of remind me of fireworks.

Overall, I'd have to say I am VERY pleased with how my cookies turned out.  I cannot wait for the next holiday...bring on the start of school!!!

A Little Bit of Heaven

After Maddie's cupcake bar at her birthday party, I was left with a bag of toffee bits covered in chocolate.  I knew I needed to find a use for them quick or I would just eat my way through the bag.  Surprisingly, there were not a ton of great recipes on the Hershey's website so I was ready to try my hand at an original recipe when this was posted on one of the blogs I follow:  Coconut Toffee Temptations.  First off, it has the word "temptation" in the title...how can you go wrong with a sinful word like that?  Plus I actually had every single ingredient on hand.  A perfect fit.  Today I took the time to whip up a batch.  I had to keep beating the kids back from the bowl and oven because the smell was just that amazing.  But what came out was even better...a gooey mess that is almost identical to Chili's Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie.  With a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, the kids and I enjoyed a little piece of heaven this afternoon!

I Have a New Love

Who would have ever thought that taking a cake decorating class could end up turning me into a cookie addict, but that's just what happened.  As soon as I figured out that royal icing is what professionals use to make those cute, decorated cookies you see in bakeries, I just knew I had to try my hand at it, so I used some of my leftover icing from one of my classes to make these Easter cookies.

They weren't bad for my first attempt, especially considering that I had not done too much research on all the techniques out there that go along with cookie decorating.  I immediately did an online search for cookie blogs and was amazed at what I found.  The things some people out there can do with icing and a cookie is beyond incredible.  I figured with some more practice, I could pretend to be as good as them.  Up first: Teacher Appreciation Week and cookie bouquets.  I'm slowly understanding the importance icing consistency and dry time.

Next came the end of Lizzie's soccer season and of course, I just had to make soccer cookies for the coaches and her teammates.

Right after that, Lizzie graduated from Preschool so I made graduation cap cookies for everyone in her class.  I was happy with how these cookies turned out.

And then we arrive to Maddie's 7th birthday.  Here theme this year was cupcakes...the first theme in 7 years that didn't actually have me making a themed cake or cupcakes because we set up a do-it-yourself cupcake bar.  But you know me...I couldn't just not do anything, so I made cupcake cookies to put in the goodie bags.  The boys all got cookies like the ones below....the cookies for the girls were pink instead of blue.