End of Summer Party ... Lobster Cookies (Royal Icing)

Another quick break from the Emoji party to show off a fun cookie I made for our End of the Summer Party this past weekend. I had this Lobster Cookie Cutter for watermelon lobsters at a previous summer party. I was trying to find fun cookies to make for our party and then I remembered this cookie cutter. I just LOVE how they turned out. NOW when they got to the party they were a little broken since my pre-teen decided to toss the box into the car! Yes I almost cried after several hours of work on these little guys!

What you Need:

Sugar Cookies cut into Lobsters (see my fav sugar cookie recipe below)

Royal Icing in Red & Black (recipe below)

AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring Red & Black (to dye Icing)

Pipping Bag

Tint your Royal Icing to the perfect shade of red. I use the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do this about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details. I like to do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to harden. I took a plastic piping bag and added the black royal icing and made the eyes.  I have found in the past making this a little thicker than your outlining consistency is best if not they run together and you get a cyclops (which kids think are cool but not the look I was going for). At first I went for just adding eyes, I tested with a few lines of red but wasn't sure. I let that dry and came back and liked it so I went and added that to rest of the lobsters.

Lobsters on the table

(with a few broken arms thanks to my son .. ugh)

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

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.

Firework Cookies

I know this a day late and a dollar short but these cookies turned out so awesome I had to share. Save for next year or other colors for a different season. I've seen where you drag the toothpick one way and then another way to make look like a poinsettia ... hmmm idea!!!!

 

 

I found these awesome idea on Making it with Danielle I've make other cookies she has done and they all amazing!

 

 

What you Need:

 

Sugar Cookies (I use my go to recipe here)

Royal Icing (I use my go to recipe here)

Red Gel Food Coloring (I use AmeriColor)

Blue Gel Food Coloring (I use AmeriColor)

Toothpick

 

NOW most people pipe the white on the cookie, I found a while back on Pinterest the dunk  and tap way. You place the cookie in the royal icing and tap off the extra, I then put on the table and tap again so no bubbles. I colored 2 batches of royal icing with Red and Blue. Pipe rings on the white like a bulls-eye. Red, Blue, Red and then blue dot in the middle. Take a toothpick from the center blue dot pull out to the tip of each cookie. I used a similar cookie cutter of hers that had scallops on the ends. Let the cookies set up and serve, I found the best is to make these a day ahead so they have several hours to harden. NOW I LIKE thick cookies and my royal icing is a bit thicker than the normal person. So it takes longer to dry!

 

 Cookies and Skewers Made!

I know I'm late save for next year .. lol

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Snowman Gingerbread Men

Next on the list to do was a Christmas gift for my best friend. I did the upside down Gingerbread Men as Reindeer's so why not make them into Snowmen! I wanted to do some fun snowman cookies and came across Snowman Gingerbread Men on Created by Diane. NOW technically these are just shaped like gingerbread men, I used a sugar cookie base that is my besties favorite. I took her idea and went with it! I'm still working on my royal icing skills and my black that I used at first for the eyes and mouth was not thick enough and ran all together. Let's just say I had to wipe it off and re-pipe on the white and then do the eyes and mouth all over again!

What you Need:

Gingerbread baked Sugar Cookies

Royal Icing - White

Royal Icing - Black

Royal Icing - Orange

Royal Icing - Red

I wanted to do the gingerbread shape instead of the traditional snowman shape. After my gingerbread man have cooled. I started on the Royal Icing. I've been using Julia M. Usher's Recipe for royal icing, she has the best video's also to help you! I've included the recipe at the bottom of this post also. I color mine with Gel Food Coloring.

I first outlined the gingerbread men in white royal icing (not adding any color), I then flooding technique to fill in the snowman. Let the white dry and harden before doing the rest of the decorating. I found that when I was doing the eyes and mouth my royal icing was too thin and then it all merged together. You need it to be the consistency of the top coat. Do the eyes and mouth and let it set to harden. Then add a dot or if you can make a triangle for the nose in orange royal icing. I then added a little red scarf to make him look complete (and to help hide the line I had after I had to re-ice the heads). 

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

For Royal Icing:

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.

Chewy Sugar Cookies

This weekend I had to go to a memorial service of a young 40 y/o man from high school. He was a young man with a very sweet little girl. I didn't have words to say but I have my gift of baking so I made cookies for the service. These Chewy Sugar Cookies from America's Test Kitchen came out perfect to fill bellies. 

Ingredients

2¼	cups (11¼ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
½	teaspoon baking soda
1	teaspoon baking powder
½	teaspoon table salt
1½	cups (10½ ounces) sugar, plus ⅓ cup for rolling
2	ounces cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces
6	tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
⅓	cup vegetable oil
1	large egg
1	tablespoon milk
2	teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside. Place 1½ cups sugar and cream cheese in large bowl. Place remaining ⅓ cup sugar in shallow baking dish or pie plate and set aside. Pour warm butter over sugar and cream cheese and whisk to combine (some small lumps of cream cheese will remain but will smooth out later). Whisk in oil until incorporated. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; continue to whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture and mix with rubber spatula until soft homogeneous dough forms. Divide dough into 24 equal pieces, about 2 tablespoons each (or use #40 portion scoop). Using hands, roll dough into balls. Working in batches, roll balls in reserved sugar to coat and evenly space on prepared baking sheet, 12 dough balls per sheet. Using bottom of drinking glass, flatten dough balls until 2 inches in diameter. Sprinkle tops evenly with 4 teaspoons of sugar remaining in shallow dish (2 teaspoons per tray), discarding any remaining sugar. Bake, 1 tray at a time, until edges are set and just beginning to brown, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating tray after 7 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

ALEXIS NOTES: I ran out of cream cheese so I used a trick of cottage cheese and milk. I also ran out of oil so I used Olive oil. I found my first batch made cookies that spread and were not the best looking. I made a second batch and added a 1/2 cup of flour, along with putting the batter in fridge for 30 minutes to firm up and bam better!

I sat with a few friends from high school and made them my test subjects and they said they were so most and delicious.

Enjoy I promise these will be a hit!

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

TMNT Cookie's

For Caden's party I wanted to make cookies I had grand ideas of making sugar cookies and then decorating them with royal icing with the different head bands etc. WELL the party date came upon me and I ditched that idea and went for green cookies ... lol.  I found this sandwich cutter on Amazon that worked perfect for cookies.

What you Need:

TMNT Cookie Cutter

Green Gel Paste Food Color

Sugar Cookie Recipe (my fav is below)

Color the sugar cookie recipe to the right shade of green. I like thick cookies which when using a cutter that has lot's of design helps get them out of the cutter! I did have a little problem with the sides of the mask coming out but I just reattached them after I shook them out of the cutter :).

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.

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Graduation Cap Cookies ... Royal Icing

I've been loving those cookie YouTube video's on FB where the girl does the royal icing in time warp. They are beautiful, and I've always wanted to try! A friend from the gym asked if I could make some graduation cap cookies.  I thought this is my time to try out royal icing! NOW this was a big day for her daughter so I didn't want to mess them up OR not have anything for her! I called my best decorating gal and headed to her house with my baked cookies.

I did a Google search to find the best Royal Icing recipe and I found Julie Usher, she had 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

We decided on the outline and then the flooding. This way you make a clean line for the outline then fill in the outline middle with the flooding. 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.

We outlined with dark blue (using AmeriColor Royal Blue Soft Gel Food Color). My friend had a steady hand so she did the outling. I did the flooding. I must say it was easier then I thought. We then outlined with black (using AmeriColor Black Soft Gel Food Color). The one thing I have learned about black is it goes from grey to black. NOW I should have let it rest and turn black our's turned a bit grey in the meantime. 

It was a bit time consuming and I know why people charge like $1.50 to $2 each cookie. They turned out so cool and I have another graduation to go to in 2 weeks that I wanted to make cookies for her gift.

A BIG thanks to my friend for always helping me with my adventures in new baking techniques. 

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.