Holiday cookies

Well, since school has been out it seems like everything has been a blur. I made cookies for three days, wrapped presents, the holidays were here, then I got sick. Blah. haha But I am feeling better and thought I would post my cookies.

I spent one whole day just making sugar dough, cutting cookies, and baking them. I made 6 dozen! The biggest tip I can give for sugar dough is to roll it out between waxed paper so the roller never touches the dough and to refridgerate it after you have rolled it out. It helps so much! Thanks to these tips from my hand dandy Cookie Craft books! I made snowflakes, peppermint candies, and candy canes. I spent ALL day doing cookies. By the evening I was so exhausted I crashed out on the couch!

The next day I started with the snowflake decorating. It took me over an hour just to make the frosting (royal icing) and organize it all. I realize now I should have taken pictures of the whole process but I am new at this blogging thing!  I followed my friendly blog Bakerella as well as the Cookie Craft books and organized my station and used their tips for using the icing. I used plastic squeeze bottles bought at Michael's and made by Wilton for the flood icing. These worked out great because you can put the lid back on and it is air tight so you don't have to store it in a different container over night. It stays fresh and works very well.

For the piped icing, I put it into different sealable containers to color them. After finding the desired color, I put them in the pastry bags using twist ties to close right above the icing and at the end of the pastry bag to avoid messes (which worked very well). Another tip I learned was to have cups or glasses the size of the pastry bags with wet paper towels in the bottom so when you are done with the color you can place the bag in the glass with the tip down touching the wet paper towel and it keeps the icing from running out and from drying up. This is where pictures would come in really handy! haha The flood color was the easiest because it was in the squeeze bottles.

How decorating cookies works is you pipe a thicker royal icing around the edge and then the flood color is placed inside (a thinner form of the icing and color) to make a smooth surface. The piping can also be used for decoration as well as any kind of sprinkles or candies. I kept mine pretty simple and used only icing and colored sugar.

I unfortunately cannot eat them but I have been told they were yummy! I had fun making them even if it took 3 days to make them all!