Baby Shower Cookies

My project last weekend was making 7 dozen baby shower cookies for sister of two of my favorite people.  I just about gave myself carpel tunnel with all the piping I had to do, and although some of the cookies weren’t as perfect as I’d have liked, the overall impression was cute.  Most importantly they tasted great.

Baby Shower Cookies

I bought these adorable baby shower cookie cutters to try out for a friend’s shower.  I decorated them with some buttercream icing colors that I had left over from some other cookies I’d made.  Buttercream is always much harder to get professional looking results with, but it always tastes so good that I’m prepared to sacrifice looks for taste.
I loved the bear as I have the Wilton bear cake pan and I’ve used it for both my own baby showers, so it brings back happy memories. Whenever you ice anything furry it’s always easier as the icing doesn’t have to be smooth.

The baby’s pram was harder but I just did what they had done on the box.  I feel that it needs a handle to push the pram with, so I may improvise.

The onesie was easy to decorate and I could have make it fancier if I’d had more time.

I thought the rocking horse would have been harder to ice but it was quite straight forward.  With more colors and more time these will be really cute shower cookies, but the bear was definitely my favorite.

Love Heart Cookies

I was asked to make 60 cookies with a Valentine’s theme and I had so much fun!

I got to make the icing in my wonderful new mixer (an early Valentine’s and Birthday present combined from my amazing husband)

The cookies looked really pretty and because they had buttercream icing, they tasted good too.  Poured icing and fondant always looks much neater and more professional but never tastes as good.

Love Heart Cookies on Cupcakes

Writing neatly is not something I’m good at and neither is writing in icing.  I’ve seen such cute love message cookies that I thought I’d have a go making them.

As you can see my piping isn’t very neat, but the overall impression is still cute. I rough iced the heart shaped cookies and then piped the words using a #5 tip from Wilton.


I had some cupcakes left over from making the butterflies so I tried putting the cookie on the cupcakes.

They looked really pretty and children always love the combination of cookies and cupcakes together.

As you can see below, even if each cupcake or cookie isn’t perfect, when you put them all together to display, the overall impression is great.

My Favorite Roll Out Cookie Recipe

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups flour

Preheat the oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar and then beat in the egg and vanilla.  In a separate bowl mix the baking powder and flour.  Add one cup at a time to the sugar mixture, mixing well after each addition.  The dough will be very stiff but blend the last of the flour in using your hand if necessary.  Split the dough into two portions and roll on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick.  Cut the cookies out and place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned. 

The lighter the cookies are, the more they taste like sugar cookies, but if you cook them a couple of minutes longer, so they are light brown rather than cream colored, they taste more like short bread.

This is a great recipe for making with children as the dough doesn’t need refrigerating, and because it’s so stiff it doesn’t stick as easily to the surface you roll on. You can also add food coloring to make the dough different colors or use whole wheat flour instead of plain flour to make them healthier.  They are slightly crunchier but still taste great and my kids can never tell the difference.

These cookie will keep for about 3-4 days in an air tight tin.  They go a bit soggy after that and they don’t freeze well.  They defrost all doughy and taste a bit strange.

These are just a few of the cookies I’ve made recently using this recipe.

Stained Glass Valentine’s Cookies

I found this idea for stained glass cookies ages ago and really wanted to try it.  We’ve made them for Christmas before and they were very pretty.  I used my usual cookie recipe as it’s tried and tested, but I’m sure this recipe would work just as well.

I used the cookie cutters from the Wilton 101 cookie cutter box and I saved the hearts from the center to make other Valentine’s cookie ideas (I’ll post those later).

I put the cookies on a silicone liner as I thought they would be less likely to stick than if I put them straight on the baking sheet.  Then I put a Jolly Ranger in the center of each cookie.

I baked them for about 8 minutes which is how long the cookies usually take to bake, and the candy was melted and bubbling by then.  I left them to cool for about 10 minutes and they peeled easily off the silicone mat.  I did try one on a greased baking sheet and it was OK.  The center had to be completely cool and hard before it would lift off though, so baking on the silicone is definitely better.


As you can see they came out quite well.  The semi circle on the blue cookie is the imprint from the silicone mat, so any imperfection does show up.


I always wonder how many cookies baking websites have to make to get the few perfect ones that they photograph. I’ve never done a blog that anyone other than family sees before this one, so now I feel the pressure to be ‘perfect’. I baked 12 cookies and only 4 were perfect. The rest either weren’t perfect heart shapes or the jolly rancher spilled over the outside of the heart, but the kids still thought they tasted great.

A Giant Cookie

I’d never made a giant cookie before, but my step daughter requested one instead of a Birthday cake this year. 

I used my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and just shaped the whole batch of cookie dough into a circle about 1/2 an inch thick.  I baked the cookie dough on a sheet of baking parchment, rather than just greasing the cookie sheet as I figured the weight of the cookie made it more likely to stick.  I baked it about for 12 minutes (about double the usual time for baking this cookie recipe) and then my step daughter decorated it.

It turned out great and she was very happy with it.  I’d definitely make another giant cookie ‘cake’ as it was much less stressful than baking and decorating a regular Birthday cake!