Easter Cookie Cake

Cookie Cakes are the big rage these days 

for birthdays and parties.  You will see 

them all over the internet shaped into a

letter or a number.  

I have wanted to make one for a while and

I decided Easter would be a perfect time if

I made it in the shape of an egg.

I made a template of an Easter Egg using

parchment paper, and then rolled out

half of my dough, and cut around the

template with a paring knife.  You will need

two of your shape.  If you wanted a letter or

number, you could print it off on the computer.  

You will want at least two inches of width

to be able to decorate it with all of your goodies.

Then using a medium round tip (I used a Wilton 2 A),

 pipe on dollops

of frosting.  I will give you the cookie and

frosting recipes, but you can use any that you

love.

Repeat with the second cookie, and place it

gently on top of the first cookie, then place

in fridge for icing to harden.

Then comes the fun part, choosing and making

whatever goodies you want on the cookie cake.

This was some leftover dough I had, so I made

a four inch egg and two three inch bunnies and

repeated the above process.  Of course, one of these

was used for taste testing purposes!

I made French Macarons, meringues, pastel

chocolate dipped strawberries, white chocolate

eggs, and fresh flowers. Embellish everything

with sprinkles and edible gold.  Even the

centers of flowers can be embellished with the

gold.  I used less than one leaf of gold for

all of my goodies.

Edible Gold Leaf  It is pricey for the

whole package, but I have used mine

for years.  Don't use craft gold leaf.

I have seen cookies decorated with

 fondant shapes, chocolate balls, dipped

cookies, and even pink popcorn.  

You only need a few of each item for a large cookie

cake, so I served the macarons, strawberries and

meringues on another couple of platters.

I only made half a batch of meringues

and that was a mistake as the little ones

gobbled those down!

I striped some food coloring down sides

of the piping bag, I also changed the tips

and made some white ones with a 1M tip

and some pink ones with a Russian tip.  The

ones with the Russian tip were kind of hard

to keep small.

My next one is going to be a Mermaid Cookie Cake.

Be sure to bring the cake to room temperature

before decorating so that the goodies will

stick to the frosting.  

Sugar Cookie Recipe

3 C. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 C. butter, softened

1 C. granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 T. flavoring, I love the Princess Cake and

Cookie Emulsion.  I can find mine at Wal Mart,

but almond, or vanilla is good.

Begin by creaming the butter and sugar

in a mixing bowl for about 5 minutes. 

Scrape down the sides a couple of time.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and

salt in a medium bowl.

In a small bowl whisk the egg and flavoring

together.  Then add it to the butter mix and

incorporate it, scraping sides again.

Finally add the flour mix into the butter

mix in three additions.  Remove the dough 

and knead it a few times to make it come

together.

I received this recipe from Amy at

The Bakeaholic.  She said she just got it

off the internet and that it is a pretty basic

recipe, but I think she made it unique

by adding the Princess Cake and Cookie

Emulsion.

Glue together two paint stirring sticks, making

a set of two of these.  Use these as dough rolling

guides to determine the thickness of your dough.

You want thick and evenly rolled cookies.  

Roll half the dough onto a parchment paper

using no flour.  Cut out your cookie shapes

and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment

paper.  Place the pan in the freezer and continue

to roll out dough.  Freeze cookies for about

half an hour.  You want them solid.

(Ok, up to this point, Amy taught us about the

paint stir sticks and rolling it out, but I decided

not to do the first refrigeration because you just 

had to let it come back to room temperature

and do it again, so I tested it with one roll and

a longer freezer time and they hold their shape

perfectly!)

Place in an oven heated to 375 degrees and

bake for 7-8 minutes.  I always take mine

out when they are just dry on the top - the 7 

minute mark.  I think what made Amy's cookies

just melt in your mouth is that she almost underbakes

them.  I am with her on that!  Now I know some

of you like your cookies brown and crisp, so 

make them as you like them, but I don't want

any golden on mine!

Let cool and frost.

I love my variation on a marshmallow cream

frosting, which reminds me of a Swiss Meringue

Frosting. It is so easy and quick and smooth.

 I am naming it:

Imitation Meringue Frosting

1 C. butter at room temperature (I always

use salted butter.  I think it gives baked goods

a better flavor.)

2 - 7 oz jars of marshmallow cream

1 3/4 C. powdered sugar

1 tsp. almond or vanilla flavoring

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl with

a paddle attachment.  On a medium low speed

mix the butter until smooth.  Add in the marshmallow

cream until well blended.  Then mix in the powdered

sugar and flavoring until well blended

With a spatula, push the frosting against

the sides of the bowl to help remove as much

of the air pockets as possible.

I am a fan of almond flavored frosting on sugar cookies,

so I always use almond.  As a matter of fact, Sam's

Club has huge bottles - 16 oz, but I only found them during

the holidays so I stocked up and bought 8 of them.

Hubby wanted to know why we had so many, and I

replied, "Because they didn't have any for months

and months and I don't want to run out!"

You know me, playing in the kitchen for an afternoon

is what I love to do, so this was the perfect project

for me.  If you want to see someone who really

plays in the kitchen (although she probably gets

paid for her goodies) follow 

Thepurplecupcake on Instagram!  I 

want everything she makes, and of course

her name grabbed me right from the start - haha!

You could do a shortcut version by buying macarons,

meringues and chocolates.  As I said,

you only need a few of each item for the whole cake.

It would still be beautiful

and truly a showstopper.  

Thanks for coming to visit.  I am still overwhelmed

that so many would still come to my little blog. 

You are all so appreciated and loved.  

Sugar Cookies Made Easier

All our little reindeer lined up in a row,

ready to go to a party!

I am no expert at royal frosting sugar cookies,

but to my friends - I am pretty good.

Don't ask me to make them for money -

I am not that good, but I have fun with them

and my daughter and her kids love to come

and make them with me.  My daughter in law

at Me Oh My Couture first taught me how

to create royal frosting cookies.  

My sister Joni, my oldest daughter and I went to

Cookie Con a few years ago, and I learned a lot

there, but forgot a lot too!

So although I am no expert, I wanted to share a tip

that made my cookie making a lot easier this year as

I made cookies for four different parties in one

week.

(Printed on icing sheets with a Canon Edible printer -

only about $160 and so so much fun!

I even printed a four pictures of a friend for

his surprise birthday party!  You can print

anything you can create.

Most recipes have you chill your dough for at least an

hour.  I took a cookie making class from The Bakeaholic

locally and she shared a tip from Haniela.com - to glue

two painters sticks together as your guide for

rolling out the dough.  This makes a really nice thick

cookie - which is the kind I want to bite into.

After a batch or two, I decided to take the whole

batch of dough and roll it out to the proper thickness

and then wrap it and chill it!  Wow, what a difference that

made.  I no longer had to wait for the dough to come back

to a room temperature to roll it out.

I know some recipes don't call for chilling the dough

but it does help it keep its shape as it bakes.

After rolling it out, I wrapped it in plastic so that

it could have a little rest in the fridge - about

an hour.

I was making a lot of cookies, so I wrapped and chilled

three batches.

After unwrapping it and placing it on parchment paper,

it took just a few minutes before I could cut the cookies out.

I love thick, moist sugar cookies.

The cookies were then popped into the freezer

for about 12 minutes, until you can't leave a

finger print on them and then into the oven at 375 for

about 8 minutes - just until they look dry on the top!

No brown cookies for me!!

Haniela.com has a lot of cookie tutorials that 

helped me refresh my memory if you want to try

royal frosting cookies.  

I told my daughter one of the tips and she said, 

"Mom, we learned that at Cookie Con!"  I

replied that I forgot a lot of what we learned!!

The videos were a great reminder.  I also use

her recipe for the sugar cookies, which The Bakeaholic

also gave us.  Amy from the Bakeholic recommended

flavoring the dough with 1 T. Princess Cake and Cookie

Emulsion which you can find at Hobby Lobby and most

stores with cake supplies.  I love its flavor and then I

flavor my frosting with Almond flavoring.  The two go

together well.

(Click here for this adorable Angel Wing Cookie Cutter.)

Amy also suggested Satin Ice fondant.

I had always made mine and have a recipe

on the blog for a marshmallow one, but I

tried this and it stores for an amazingly long

time and is so convenient that I keep some on hand.

Rolled fondant that is impressed with a print and

then glued on with a little frosting makes a very

impressive and easy cookie for those who want to

give cookies a try!

I hope this encourages some of you to try making

these fancy cookies!  Haniela will almost hold your

hand as your enter this world of cookie making!

But be careful - your friends will want cookies

for everything - and worst of all -

NO ONE WANTS TO EAT THEM

BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO PRETTY!

I just told them they would be stale if they

just took them home and sat them on the

counter!

Chocolate Bunny Cookies

Has your house been overrun with bunnies yet?

We certainly have but these chocolatey goodies

didn't stay around long.

(Ok, there is one vanilla one hiding in with

it's siblings!)

I have been working on writing my dad's history

and one thing he would laugh about was that

he would always bite the ears off his sister's

chocolate bunny that she was trying to save.

So when I brought this platter of cute bunnies

to my grandkids and my son immediately picked

one up and said he was going to bite the ears

off, it reminded me of my dad.  

I made them both in chocolate and vanilla and

I have to say I am in love with the chocolate sugar

cookies.

This time I made my sugar cookies with a cake mix

using Betty Crocker's Triple Chocolate Chip Cake Mix.

I didn't know if the chocolate chips would be a problem

in a rolled sugar cookie, but they were fine and the

flavor is so chocolatey.  Combine that with a little

almond flavoring in the royal frosting and this is

a super yummy cookie.  I like the cake mix cookies when

I do royal frosting because they are so sweet and the

frosting is not so it balances out to a great tasting,

not just beautiful looking cookie.  

You can imagine they were a hit with the kiddies.  They

liked the candy eggs too.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

1 box Chocolate Cake Mix

1 large egg

1/2 C. butter melted

Mix the above ingredients together with the

paddle attachment until thoroughly mixed.  Let

the batter cool about 10 minutes since the butter

was melted.

Roll cookies out on parchment paper and transfer

to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  You don't have

to use any flour to roll it out on parchment paper and

it peels off easily by lifting the paper from the corner.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes or until the tops look

dry.  I don't like my sugar cookies brown.  Let cool

on the pan until you can easily handle them.

Royal Frosting

1 C. water

5 T. meringue powder

Mix this together in a large mixing bowl until no lumps are there.

Add

2 tsp. almond flavoring

1 tsp. cream of tartar

2 lb. powdered sugar (sift if lumpy)

With the paddle attachment, start on low mixing this together

and turn up to medium speed and mix for 10 minutes.  Yes,

10 minutes.  It will thicken and look like marshmallow. 

You may have to thin this to make it flow.  Add 1 T. water at

a time.  When you draw a spoon through the frosting, the line should

disappear in about 10 seconds.  If not, add the water and stir.

Place in small bowls and color if desired.  I prefer the bottles for

the cookies and bags for adding detail like the nose.  The eyes

were dragees.

decorating bag or decorating bottle.  

Flood with royal frosting by outlining the cookie and

then filling in with the frosting.  Let harden or place

in a food dehydrator for about one hour to harden 

enough to write on with an edible marker.  I used

Americolor's black marker.

(I start with a little more water than normal

so I don't have to thin it so much and it works 

well.)

These come together so quickly and are

so fun to make.

They will be hopping over to

Foodie Friday

Pink Saturday

Swig Cookies - A Copy

Swig Cookies

They are the rage here in Utah right

now with Swig stores opening up

all over and copy cat stores opening

up just as fast.

They are a traditional sugar cookie

using a touch of cream of tartar 

and powdered sugar so they melt in

your mouth.  They serve them cold

and frost them right as they come out

of the cold and it hardens the frosting.

Swig also is popular for

Dirty Docs

a Dr. Pepper with added Torani's

Coconut Syrup.

To tell you the truth, the first time

I made them I didn't like them so I

put them on a platter and sent them off

to work with Hubby.  I kept getting texts

from work saying how much they liked them.

Later my daughter made some and I really

liked them.  Alot!  I ate three in one

sitting.  She thought maybe I had used

low fat sour cream in the frosting (and 

that was probably right as I usually have 

that on hand rather than full fat - watching

the fat where I can!!!)

The frosting has sour cream and salt in it.  She only added

1/4 tsp. of salt where the recipe adds 1 tsp.  

I especially

would not want that much salt and I loved hers

so I am going to stick with 1/4 tsp salt in the frosting.

Vintage Revivals has asked that no one

print her recipe on the web so I am going to send

you over to her site to get the cookie and frosting

recipe.  Click here.

I also made them as rolled cookies

and they were good.

I also want to try the basic

cookie with an almond flavored

buttercream - yum!

But if you are looking for a 

Swig Cookie

the experts tell me these are great.

They are supposed to be cold too,

but I prefer mine room temperature,

although with the sour cream frosting

you will need to store them in the fridge.

 Click here for printable recipe.

Bake up a batch and enjoy them!

I will be posting these with

Foodie Friday

Pink Saturday

Chocolate Sugar Cookies - Easter Bunnies

These chocolate bunnies remind me

of my granddaughter's chocolate

colored bunny that she had for a pet.

You can imagine how much fun little 

ones had munching on these and of

course the ears go first.

I found this adorable cookie cutter

and stamp at Wal Mart for $.97

and had too much fun making these

fun Chocolate Bunnies with Pink

royal frosting ears.

You cut the cookie out with

one side of the cookie cutter

and then turn it over and stamp the

other side.  

I found it was easier to stamp and

then cut so that the ear holes didn't

get cut off. 

I left the ear centers in some and 

removed them in others, filling in after

they baked with pale pink royal frosting.

I used the recipe from Allrecipes posted

by KRISTA3

with the only change that I added 1 tsp. almond

flavoring.  They were beautifully chocolate

and yummy and didn't stick around at all.

I love how the chocolate cookies look too.

Chocolate Rolled Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 C. flour

3/4 C. unsweetened cocoa

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 C. softened butter

1 1/4 C. sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. almond flavor (optional)

Sift together the flower, cocoa, baking

powder and salt into a large mixing

bowl.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl cream together the

butter and sugar until smooth.  Then beat

in the egg and flavoring if desired.

Gather the dough into a ball  and flatten

it out and cover it with plastic wrap.  

Refrigerate for 2 hours.

(I rolled mine out on parchment paper

and didn't need to refrigerate it.  They

worked perfectly.

Bake in a preheated oven on

parchment paper for 7 minutes.

Remove and let cool on the pan

for a few minutes then remove to

a cooling rack to cool completely.

Decorate with royal frosting or

regular frosting if desired.

Click here for printable recipe.