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Back to School Cookies

I signed up to take treats to Tate's school for the luncheon the PTA was throwing for the teacher's first day back.  I wanted to take treats so I would have a reason to try decorated cookies again.  It might sound silly but I have realized this is my quilting.  My mother, sister-in-law's and friends quilt and you could not pay me to sit there and cut out tiny pieces of fabric just to sew them back together, to then sew them to other pieces of fabric, sew, sew, sew...you get the idea, but I am so glad they do quilt because I have several quilts that I curl up with every night and I love them all!  (Please keep them coming by the way)  But we all have things we like to do or wish we could do if time allowed and one of these things for me is decorating cookies.  Now the disclaimer, I am not very good at this yet.  I am very aware of the flaws especially if you compare my cookies to the cookies on the site I will refer you to but I am taking each one of these lessons and learning from them so I will hopefully get better and better.  The next thing I work on is deciding on the perfect consistency for the flow icing.

So while trying to decide what cookies I wanted to do I stumbled upon this site that had adorable back to school cookies.  I decided I needed to try to make them.  I even used their cookie recipe instead of my favorite orange sugar cookie recipe and I must admit it was pretty good.  Instead of listing the recipe this time I am going to just give you the link to Glorious Treats.    She had lots of great ideas such as put parchment on top of the dough as you roll it out.  This will reduce the amount of flour used and will prevent tough cookies.  She also suggested chilling the shaped cookies in the freezer for 3-5 minutes so they would keep their shape while cooking.  Great tips that I did not know!  So here are the final cookies!


Before I had the lines on this one Tate asked me if he could have one of the Pop Tarts I was making.  I was confused at what he was asking until I looked over to where he was looking and then I just started to laugh.  They really did look like Pop Tarts without the sprinkles!




3-2-1 Cake
We went to Idaho this summer to see my parents and we had a great time.  My nieces and nephews were also there.  We were busy every day with different activities.  The kids had so much fun but we all eventually got worn out.  My mom had a plan for every time one of our kids got a little cranky.  One of my favorites was 3-2-1 Cake.  This is so easy and so much fun and the perfect treat to involve your kids in.  
We put them together in a gallon ziplock baggie and did the shake, shake shake dance.  The boys had fun taking turns.


Now comes the 3-2-1 part.  Put 3 tbls of the mix in a microwaveable container and stir in 2 tbls of water.  Cook in the microwave for 1 minute and you are done.  Easy Peasy!


Add some sprinkles...



 And enjoy!


So I made this chocolate covered strawberry one for Scott and he was a little skeptical.  He had not experienced the greatness of 3-2-1 Cake in Idaho with us so had no idea what I had handed him.  He enjoyed it!  I actually doubled the size on this one so I guess I should call it 6-4-2 Cake!


Christmas Sugar Cookies!
I have a friend who every year hosts a cookie exchange.  She has different categories and we all vie to win one of them.  Here was my year I was going for Best Looking.  It was the first time I tried flow icing.  Still alot to learn but I had so much fun.



On the stockings I added some pearl sugar I purchased from IKEA and the snowflakes have pearl ball sprinkles at each point.  The best part about the cookies is that the recipe for the sugar cookie is also absolutely amazing!  Of course I'll share!

Sugar Cookies
1 1/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
8 tsp milk
2 eggs
4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
Cream butter and sugar together. Add orange zest, vanilla, eggs and milk. Mix until creamy. Add flour, salt and baking powder.  Mix together. Divide dough into two sections. Wrap each section in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Take one section and roll dough out on flour surface until desired thickness ( I make mine thicker so they are softer). Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes. Cool then frost.
The frosting I usually make when not doing flow frosting is a basic plain frosting (1 pound powered sugar, 1 stick of softened butter, a little milk, a little vanilla, and a dash of salt).  The only thing I added to it was 1 tsp of grated orange zest.  That is the secret to its yumminess!


1 comment:

The JL McGregor Family said...

I can totally hear your voice in your writing. I love it! Also, you are amazing and talented. I make something called 90 second cake.... 1/2 c cake mix, 1/3 c water and 90 sec in the microwave. It sounds similar to yours but much bigger.... I will have to try the strawberry one.