A Busy Week...

It's been a long and busy baking week for me. I had 5 dozen custom decorated sugar cookies for Friday and a birthday cake for Saturday. I doesn't seem like that much when you type it, but anyone who's ever made this variety of sugar cookie knows, they are a labor of love. You have to make , roll, cut, chill and bake the dough. Then you have to cool, outline and fill the cookies. And then finally after they have been left to dry for hours, (yes, hours. They take hours for the royal icing to completely dry) you can do what is my favorite part...decorate them. It's decorating them to be special for an event or occasion that makes them worth the time and effort. I mean an iced cookie as an iced cookie, but when they're unique to you and/or your event they're...well...special.

This particular order was for a baby shower. They asked for pink, lavender and yellow cookies, with Lily on them. I just love babies, and the mom-to-be is a first timer which is awesome so I was super excited about making these. The colors were really pretty and the sprinkled sugar added just a little bit of sparkle.

I did some with just a letter "L"

and for the first time I used fondant, in the form of tiny flowers.

Here they are on pink on a black background. I'm never quit sure how to take a picture of cookies. So I tried a bunch of different stuff.

And here they are all bagged up and ready to go.

My tips for making sugar cookies is to roll and cut the dough when it's warm. I roll mine between sheets of wax paper. Chill it, then remove scraps and bake the cookies. I outline mine with a medium consistency royal icing and then flood them using thin icing in a squeeze bottle. I outline them again once they're dry and then decorate . They are best kept in the refrigerator and can be stored in the freezer. You can find a good recipe for sugar cookies and royal icing at Fancy Flours

Hope you like.

N.