Cookie Decorating

Lately we've had our foster children's siblings over to hang out after church on Sundays. I thought it would be fun to decorate cookies with them since it's something they've never done before.

A few weeks before Christmas they all went to town on a ton of cookies that I baked for them.

They had a great time decorating and eating.

Check out these masterpieces.

Some of the cookies lost their limbs and the children decorated them quite appropriately, don't you think? After that day things just started going downhill for us. Stay tuned. . .

i heart faces Dessert Recipes: Wii

While I was doing some blog hopping I came across some Wii cookies. They looked so cool that I really wanted to try them. I’ve never really decorated cookies like this before. Usually it’s just frosting with some sprinkles or something. Our next door neighbor had just invited us over for a Wii birthday party, so it was the perfect time to make them! Start out be making some sugar cookies. I’ve tried a few different sugar cookie recipes, but my friend Kellee definitely has the best one. I will use hers from now on. Cream together your butter and sugar. Next add eggs and vanilla. Mix them well, but do not over mix. Got that? Here in high altitude country, you want to make sure that you don’t over mix things. Bad things can happen when you over mix, like this. Add baking powder. Then add flour one cup at a time. Again do not over mix, but do make sure it’s mixed well. :) Divide the dough into two separate balls. Then you can begin rolling out the dough. No need to chill the dough. Just get to it! To make Wii shaped cookies I used this handy dandy mini pizza cutter. It’s an amazing tool for such a tiny little thing.
Try to keep your lines as straight as possible. This was difficult. Maybe I’ll use a ruler or something next time.Not bad, right? I’m not professional that’s for sure. Lay the cookies out neatly on your cookie sheet. Then stick them in the oven.

While the cookies are baking get your icing ready. Grab your meringue powder.

Combine that with powdered sugar.

Slowly add water until you get your desired consistency. You’ll want it a little thick to pipe the outside of the cookies.

Pull your cookies out of the oven and let them cool. Then carefully pipe around the outer edge of the cookies. Believe it or not, I’ve never decorated cookies like this. Crazy, huh? It was challenging, but fun.Once the outside piping has dried, go ahead and flood the tops of the cookies with the icing. Let those dry awhile. Once they’ve dried, start making the little Wii buttons. Let the buttons dry. While that’s drying get some colors mixed. Now we’re ready to start piping the different colors on the Wii cookies. Are they beginning to look like Wii remotes yet? Don’t forget the power button. I had a little sparkle in my red frosting. Now finish them off by doing the home button and flashing lights!What do you think? I need a little more practice. This was so fun. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

Sugar Cookies:
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 400. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add baking powder and flour, one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. The dough will be stiff. It may be necessary to blend the last flour in by hand. Divide dough into two even balls. Do not chill dough. Roll dough out and cut out cookie shapes.
Bake cookies on top rack of oven for 6-7 minutes until cookies are light brown. Remove from cookie sheet immediately after removing from oven.

Royal Icing:

1 pound powdered sugar
5 tablespoons meringue powder
1/3 cup plus one teaspoon water
few drops almond extract (optional)

Mix powdered sugar, meringue powder. Slowly add water to desired consistency.

Now it’s “Dessert Recipe” week at i heart faces. So join in the fun or check out some of the entries. Looking for more recipes? Here are some others I’ve posted on my blog!

Cookies, Cookies, and More Cookies

This is how things ended.  Now let me show you how it started.

It all began with some innocent little sugar cookies.

Katie brought these awesome sprinkles. We were a little smarter this year.  We put them into muffin liner, cup, thingies.  We didn’t do that last year, but we should have.

I love sprinkles.  I wish I could decorate my house in sprinkles!   I thought Elizabeth might want to do a little decorating, but she was only interested in the eating part.

 

Things aren’t too messy yet.  You can still see the table.Look at these kids hard at work…or is it eating?    David was trying to stay clean as he went.  I don’t think it worked out that way though.    

Rachel was pretty excited about this pink and purple striped cookie.  Right after I took this photo she dropped it and it shattered into a million pieces.  Bummer.  She worked hard on it.Gus was okay as long as he got attention when he wanted it.  Look at those poor tired eyes.  It was a long day for him.I think Thomas has a masterpiece going on here.  Okay, this icing is literally like glue when it dries.  Ouch!  My poor table.  Thankfully Jared just refinished this table a few months ago making clean up a little easier.Do you think the cookies ended up with more decorations or the table? This cookie has some height to it.  Pile it on baby!Katie definitely got to work while she was here.  She made these amazing strawberry cookies as well as chocolate chip meringue cookies.

We had a some more cookies on our list to bake, but didn’t get around to it.  Who knows why?  Oh maybe because we were enjoying each other’s company and never got to it.  We kept the kids busy, but also enjoyed some time to hang out too!