Frozen Themed Sugar Cookies

Powdered Sugar Icing 

No Fail Sugar Cookie

Red Egg Sugar Cookie Favors

In the Chinese culture, a child's birth is celebrated after a month with a Red Egg and Ginger party.  As a symbol of happiness and life, the parents hand out red eggs to their guests.  Instead of handing out actual red dyed eggs, my friend requested sugar cookie favors in the shape of red eggs.  I do not have much experience with sugar cookies but I took on the job of making 100 of them thinking it was going to be easy.

I ended up making 3 batches of rolled sugar cookie dough and 2 batches of sugar cookie frosting.  It also took the help of my sister, her boyfriend, and my husband who helped cut the cookies, flood them, and package them.  All of this work and I can't believe I was only making one type of cookie and one color of frosting.  Much respect to the other bloggers I follow that make those sugar cookies with all sorts of colors and designs all the time!

St Patrick's Day Ideas

Looking forward to the upcoming "holiday" as I need an excuse to bake something blog worthy. Below are a few of my past treats that would be fitting if you're looking for some ideas as well for St Patrick's Day.

Guinness Stout Cupcakes with Baileys Irish Cream Frosting


Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Mint Brownies

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes (Stout Cupcakes, Whiskey Ganache, Irish Cream Frosting)

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Happy St Patrick's Day!

I completely forgot to roll these cookies out thicker than 1/4 inch as last time people commented that the powdered sugar icing was a bit overwhelming, but "luckily" that wasn't the case with these cookies.  I used a package of Starbucks Via Ready Brew instant coffee to make these cookies and the chocolate/coffee taste was quite strong which balanced out the sweetness of the icing perfectly. 

Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookies
from Cake Central
Makes about 30 cookies


2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
1 tsp instant ground coffee
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla 

Sift flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt into a bowl.


 Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.


Add egg and vanilla. Mix until blended.


With mixer on low, add the dry mixture in two batches until incorporated.


Chill dough for 1-2 hours.

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes.  Bake on an ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes. 

Powdered Sugar Icing
slightly adapted from I Am Baker

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon water
1-3 drops of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of light corn syrup


Combine powdered sugar, corn syrup, and lemon juice in a bowl.


For a thicker icing (for outlining), add less milk.


For a thinner frosting (for flooding/filling), add more milk.


If using a liquid food coloring, use less milk.  If using gel food coloring, no changes needed.

Birthday Cupcakes and Cookies

Hooray for birthdays!  I could always use an excuse to bake.  This week, I whipped up carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for one friend and sugar cookies (from i am baker) with powdered sugar icing (adapted from i am baker) for another friend.

Given I've already made these exact cupcakes a few times for this one friend as they are her favorite, for her birthday, I personalized them a bit with marshmallow fondant toppers. 


As for the cookies, I found this 4 piece set at Michaels that included a cake, a cupcake, a gift box, and a party hat cutter.  The dough was a lot easier to work with than the dough I used for the Star Wars sugar cookies.  The powdered sugar icing was less fussy than royal icing but still held up really well too.  I could see more sugar cookies in the future with these results.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

 

My goal was to turn a favorite cookie, old-fashioned soft pumpkin cookies (adapted from Very Best Baking), into pumpkin cupcakes (adapted from Cake Central).  The cupcakes were a success.  Moist, not too dense/not too fluffy, delicious.  Perfect with the cinnamon cream cheese frosting. 

Superbowl Cupcakes

Was hoping to make one of those nifty pull away cupcakes cake that looks like a football field but between cleaning, moving furniture, and cooking for the Superbowl party, I was only able to whip up a quick batch of my go to chocolate cupcakes, dye the cream cheese frosting (from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book) green, have my sister roll the top in dyed shredded coconut, and make my boyfriend roll out the fondant footballs which I decorated with a powdered sugar icing (adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book).