STRAWBERRY COOKIES

A little girl's birthday is coming up and she's having a Strawberry Party. Of course we will need cookies for favors.

The flower is from a set of fondant cutters, and it was perfect for this! Notice that I used the complete flower and cut out part of the egg. The seam between the pieces is much more stable this way, especially when the cookie is iced with royal icing, which acts as a great stabilizer once it's dry.

The cookies are baked, decorated, individually bagged and in the freezer, awaiting the special day.

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- posted by Nina



Momsu says - And here are the cookies ready to go home with everyone who came to the party. Good job, Nina!  .

UH OH - LATE VALENTINES!

It's never too late to spread a little love around and this year it didn't happen for Valentine's Day cookie-wise - in this house anyhow. We had lots of chocolate and sugar cookie hearts but no "decorated" cookies. So here are some from a couple of years ago that were never posted. I am ALWAYS behind! At least it's still February! 

Red and pink are always in - chocolate cookies this time.

Polka dots are fun to make and also a favorite.

I had no luck the year I tried to make scallops by piping the icing - it was too runny and wanted to run off the cookie. I haven't tried again but could probably do better with a little more experience. 

The next year I tried dots instead which I liked better -

but then I tried dots on a wet edge and that worked well.  

BE MY VALENTINE?

- posted by Momsu

THE GINGERBREAD GIRL

Our littlest cookie decorator is almost five now and doing fun things with cookies! She wanted to make a gingerbread girl cookie with hair, not a gingerbread boy. And so her mother cut out a girl for her and here she is. (I think she's chocolate but that's okay too.) I love the dress! 

And where are all of our decorated cookies for Christmas? Jill and mine didn't happen and Nina's are still in her computer - which is having a problem. We all made cookies in case you think our family had to do without - just not decorated cookies to post on this blog. I made Lebkuchen (Honey Cakes - from an old German recipe) and Pecan Balls (Mexican Wedding Cakes), Nina made Gingerbread Men and Jill made Spritz. It's what we always do and they are so GOOD! I will post the recipes one day. 

Look under CHRISTMAS for more cookies. 

Happy New Year!

- posted by Momsu

WHERE ARE ALL THOSE CHRISTMAS COOKIES?

THANKS

Thanksgiving means turkey and cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes and best of all - PIE! Not to forget all the things that are happy and wonderful in the world! 

And here are those little letters appearing as ginger cookies again. 

Happy Thanksgiving from The Ginger Cookie

- posted by Momsu

TIME TO THINK ABOUT DECORATING COOKIES FOR THE HOLIDAYS?

With the Holidays coming up it's time to start at least "thinking" about decorating cookies. 

There are all sorts of varieties of cookies to decorate but the best icing to use to decorate them is Royal Icing. 

In the beginning (about thirty-five years ago - more or less) when I started using Royal Icing - every recipe in books and magazines that I saw called for raw egg whites. Three egg whites to a pound of powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and a teaspoon of vanilla and beat it until stiff. It worked just fine. And then people became afraid of raw egg whites and started using meringue powder or powdered egg whites. I realize once in a great while it’s possible for someone to get very sick from eating raw eggs. I've never heard of this happening to anyone I know - thank goodness! I think the other best reason to use meringue powder is that the icing will keep for weeks instead of merely days! My first experience with meringue powder was less than satisfactory. I just didn't like it. For one thing it was powdery after it dried. Now I think I was beating it too much. The other thing was the brand I was using - the popular craft store brand. My favorite brand now is CK - available by mail order and worth the wait If you can't find it locally. By mistake I once ordered CK Royal Icing "Mix" which has sugar already in it. It was so easy and also very good. If you just need a small amount of icing in an emergency it’s perfect - add water and beat. That’s it - it’s done!

There are lots of ways to mix up the meringue powder but the most successful way I've found is the method from Bridget at Bake at 350. (bakeat350.com) It works very well.

Royal Icing

1/2 cup meringue powder

1 scant cup water

2 pounds powdered sugar

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

Flavor with vanilla or other extract if desired. 

In the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the meringue powder and water until foamy and combined.

Sift in the powdered sugar, add the corn syrup, and mix on low spreed until the powdered sugar is incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula, Increase the speed to medium-low and beat for five minutes. 

Increase the speed to medium-high and continue beating, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form. 

Note: Be careful not to over-beat the icing or it might become flaky when applied to the cookie. Keep a close eye on the glossy sheen; over-beating will cause it to go dull. 

Color it with paste food color so not to thin it unintentionally - I like Americolor (find lots of colors online). Thin with a little water to flood. 

There's a LOT of online help if you get into trouble. Cookie decorators are wonderfully generous with their time. Thank you Bridget for your wonderful book titled DECORATING COOKIES and a really good Royal Icing recipe. 

- posted by Momsu 

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

I've found the perfect way to quickly decorate those cookies stored in the freezer that didn't get decorated and it's been so long that you probably wouldn't want to eat them. 

Take a photo of the cookie you want to decorate, load it into your computer and decorate it in Photoshop or one of the draw programs. I like MS Publisher. Virtual cookie decorating?  

I made skull cookies and drew the design for them last fall but they didn't get decorated. I started on the cookies but I didn't seem to be getting my lines fine enough and my hand wasn't steady enough. I thought about using edible marking pens but that wasn't the look I wanted. I put them in the freezer and they are still there! Then I though since they wouldn't be eaten I'd use fine point Sharpies to decorate them. But in the end I wound up doing it on the computer where I had done the original design. I've scanned a cookie cutter and colored it cookie color on the computer and then decorated it but I haven't done it on the photo of an actual cookie before. It sure makes mistakes easy to correct!

My skull cutter started out as a big circle that I already had since I hadn't found one in a shape I liked. It was pretty easy to bend it into the shape of a skull. I used this technique to make the "holes" in the skull. 

- posted by Momsu