Hot Air Balloon Cookies for Coachella

My husband goes to CA every year to work security at Coachella and Stagecoach. This year he was put in charge of all deployments and running 2nd man in charge for event security. When he asked me to make cookies for his team, now usually his team is around 30-40 people. This time when I asked he told me 1,400, yup you read that correct! So I told him I'd send 35 lol!

If you're in need or cookies for a party or just to eat, shoot me a msg at SweetPea Cookie Therapy. Thank you! I can now say I've mailed to TN, MA, CA, WI and Alaska!

What you Need:
Airballoon Cookie Cutter (I bought on Amazon)
Royal Icing - Red, Orange, Yellow and Brown (see recipe below) 
AmeriColor Red, Orange, Yellow and Brown Food Gel
Pipping Bags
Black Edible Pen


I piped each cookie first with the basket part of the balloon. I then got to work on the top of the balloons. I tried 2 different balloon designs to figure out what I liked best. I found the color scheme of the Coachella logo and did my best. When the balloon colors finished drying I took a black food pen to write Coachella on each one. I individually wrapped them and sent them to CA to my husband. I have found that Alaska and California take 3 days instead of the 2 days that USPS priority mail usually takes. But with good bubble wrap and packing peanuts they got there with out any breaking!

  

Click HERE to see who I link with.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.