2012 - The Icing on the Cookie

Charlie's snowman sweater that I ordered on eBay came today! It's so cute on him. I bought myself some one-piece Christmas jammies too — covered in Santas! 

I made a giant batch of Royal Icing for the Sugar Cookies at about 10:30 a.m. I didn't use the one from Martha Stewart this time because she weighs the powdered sugar and I wanted to measure it in cups. I get so weary with conversions. I just copied something off the Internet — it's a fairly common recipe. 

Before I started, I hauled out all of my decorations and supplies. Then I made a list of each cookie shape and matched them to the colors I wanted to use on them. That way, I can do all of one color in one go, and not waste time or icing. 

So I started with white, obviously. Then did all the red. I outlined first, then did the flooding. I made a bit of a mess with the colored sugars too, as usual! I had to take a break at 4:30 to go to the post office and mail out some eBay stuff (and another Christmas book for my nephew, James). Then I met Charlie on his walk home from school. Once we got home, I made pizzas and called it a day with the cookies. I'll finish up tomorrow.

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It's the last day of November and I spent most of it frosting Sugar Cookies. I started at 10:30 and just finished at 4:30 (it's like a job, with banker's hours!). I finished them all though and now my back is aching a bit. It was worth it though and I'm glad I started with these (technically). I took lots of photos throughout and I hope I can remember to review before I start next year!

I made snowmen with gold buttons and melted chocolate chip eyes; blue, red and green ornaments with edible sugar flakes; red-and-white candy canes; Christmas trees with with sprinkles and dragées; blue stars with edible glitter; yellow stars with edible gold stars; and my favorites: red, white and green JOYs with coordinating sugars. They're all really cute and I'm so proud of them! I can't wait to share them!!

2007 - Party Time! Let's Decorate Cookies!

Charlie had his Gingerbread Party today (Dec 17)! As a bonus, his gingerbread kids ornaments came in the mail too. Every year he gets a new ornament for the tree. The first several years were tied to his age but that stops after about 5 or 6. Subsequently, I've tried to get an ornament that will remind him of that particular Christmas. For instance, he has a scooter ornament from the year that Santa brought a scooter. And this year, I found gingerbread kids. There are two and they're really cute. They have sticky decorations — hats and scarves in red and green.

Back to the party: Naturally, I covered the table and moved the chairs out of the way so everyone could get to the cookies and icing. I gave each of the nine children a dozen Gingerbread Kids cookies to decorate. I had piping bags for each of them and plenty of wet and dry towels on hand. I had oodles of decorations: nonpareils, colored sugars, jimmies, dragées, candies, and more. 

There were nine kids, including Charlie, and it took them about nine minutes to finish! I'm being sarcastic but it didn't take them anywhere as long as it takes me (the perfectionist!). I loved their efforts though and they all enjoyed themselves! When they finished, they left their cookies on plates to dry while they played games and watched videos for the next few hours. 

When the cookies were dry, I put each collection in a treat bag (decorated with gingerbread men, of course) to take home with them. Charlie had a blast and the cookies were delicious! It was great fun and I highly recommend it as a great creative outlet. You don't have to wait till Christmas or restrict yourself to gingerbread either. Why not bake some Sugar Cookie eggs for Easter and invite a crowd of children round to decorate? I promise you won't mind the mess when you see what fun they're having and how proud they are of their tasty creations!