The "Real" Cookies...

I made practice cookies the other day, and it's a good thing I did, because the real cookies turned out well! If I hadn't practiced, the princesses would have turned out like my practice princesses (which were too awful to photograph!), and instead they turned out like this:

There were SPARKLY wands, too!

And crowns! Don't forget the crowns!

I am convinced I could do better at decorating cookies, but that would take more practice and time and, well, I have other things to do. So I'll just be glad these turned out like they did and enjoy the fact that Eliana got to celebrate her 4th birthday with SPARKLY, GLITTERY cookies!!

Ooh! Pretty Sparkly Snowflakes!

These are what we're using as tags on our gifts this year. Fun!

O, Tannenbaum!

I have to say, I really liked decorating the trees. Didn't think I would, but these are fun!

Ornament Cookies

Though you can't see it very well in the pictures, these cookies have color flow frosting and royal frosting, AND some edible glitter and sparkle dust! They are VERY fun!!

"Gingerbread" Men (and Women)

Well, they're not technically made of gingerbread, but they are in the shape of gingerbread people! I went over to Erika's on Friday and we baked sugar cookies. Then I came home and decorated them that night! It was my first REAL foray into color flow frosting, and I had fun experimenting. I hope to get a lot better - but I thought these guys were pretty cute!

I decorated lots of cookies, so be on the lookout for more cookie posts!!

Wanna see what I've been working on??

Yup... Cookies!! Peppernuts, gingerbread, sugar cookies... and frosting! It's been a LOT of fun!!

Peppernut Day!

Today was Peppernut Day! We have one every year, where I make those little German spiced cookies we just can't have Christmas without! Last night Ellie and I made the dough, then I rolled out the logs and stored them in the garage overnight so they could freeze. That's one step that's different now that I live in Montana! But I do like being able to freeze things without clearing out space in the freezer, that's for sure! This year I made one change to the recipe I always use. Because Eliana can't have milk, I substituted coconut milk for the evaporated milk in the recipe - and you can't tell one bit of difference! I am very excited about this substitution for holiday baking. It's so much more fun when Ellie can eat the treats with us! So for now, she can have as many peppernuts as she wants!

Happy Holidays!

When 20 below is a beautiful thing....

Temperatures at 20 below zero are rarely a beautiful thing. Good for freezing all the bugs and keeping them at bay during the summer, yes, but good for getting out and playing in? No.

Unless you're making peppernuts.

Every year I make peppernut cookies for the holidays. My grandmother always did and I'm happy to carry on the tradition. Our recipe makes a ton of cookies, and if you're going to run the oven for half the day making them, it's best to do it on a cold day when you can enjoy the warmth.

But that's not why 20 below is beautiful on peppernut day. This is:

You see, you have to freeze the ropes of dough after you've formed them so they are solid enough to cut into cookies. I'm usually fighting to find enough space in my freezer for a few cookie sheets full of dough and it takes a long time for them to freeze. When it's 20 below out, though, you can just pop them outside in the snow and they freeze pretty quickly! It's sort of like flash freezing, I'd guess. It's great!

And then it occurred to me (well, actually it occurred to my brother, but he was nice enough to share this thought with me...) that the good German peppernut tradition probably predates the electric freezer. So I'm guessing putting the dough outside in the cold to chill is not something I am the first to do. Perhaps that's why they're winter cookies after all.

Thanksgiving Crafts....

I did a few crafty things last week in preparation for Thanksgiving. Some of them were with my 2 year old daughter, like these:

Ellie and I also decorated some sugar cookies. We made these back when we made our Halloween cookies with Mommom and I froze the leaves for later. I actually remembered they were in the freezer and we enjoyed decorating them together, albeit with canned frosting and Wilton sprinkles instead of homemade goodness, but my energy levels were running low and I decided it was more important to spend time with my daughter decorating the cookies than it was to have them perfect. Ack! I think I'm loosening up in my old age...

And last, but not least, I made this little outfit for Eliana to play dress up in last week. It was an afternoon whim and it took me just a couple hours start to finish. And I love how it turned out!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week!!

Stamped Cookie Tutorial...

I made stamped Jack-O-Lantern cookies for our Halloween party last night and they turned out really cute, so I figured I'd share how it was done. I used the large face pieces from my Spooky Sweets stamp set from PaperTrey Ink.


This was the first time I'd used something other than ink on acrylic stamps, so I wasn't sure how it would work. But it turned out great and I can see all sorts of possibilities for this technique in the future, for birthday parties and baby showers and all sorts of fun events. It's faster than using buttercream frosting to decorate cookies, too, which is a plus. And it's easier on the hands! Here's what I did...

First, make your favorite sugar cookies. Then frost them using a glaze that will dry to a hard shiny finish. The recipe I used is made from powdered sugar, milk, and corn syrup. I pipe a border around the edge of the cookie and then fill it in. Let it set to harden overnight and then stamp the next day. Here are the details on stamping once you have a glazed cookie...

Once you are finished stamping, clean the stamps off with warm soapy water and make sure to get all the corn syrup out of the grooves in the stamp. Dry them off and they're ready to put away for another project!

Peppernuts!

Christmas is just not the same without peppernuts. They're little German spice cookies my grandmother always used to make. They're perfect for dunking in coffee and great by the handful. And Christmas is just not the same without them. So... today is Peppernut Day! I started making them yesterday, let them freeze overnight, and baked them this morning. Well, I baked half of them. The other half will have to wait until later because I have plans in a little over an hour and I don't want to pull out the other pan of frozen dough. There are dozens of recipes for peppernuts, and it seems that every Mennonite family has their own version. I've tried a couple other varieties, but nothing beats what *I* know to be peppernuts: 1 C. shortening 1 C. white sugar 1 C. butter 1 C. evaporated milk 2 C. brown sugar 1 egg Mix ingredients together. Add in: 1 tsp each: salt black pepper cinnamon nutmeg ginger baking powder baking soda 1/2 tsp each: allspice cloves anise oil 6-7 C. flour The dough will be thick, kind of like gingerbread. Refrigerate dough until chilled through. Roll chilled dough into long 3/4 inch diameter ropes. Freeze. Cut ropes into 1/4 inch cookies and place on baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Makes a few hundred cookies... That are perfect for gift giving!! Wrap them up in the cutest way you can think of and hand out to everyone you know!!