TweeLass

Finally blogging about a few of my Christmas projects—had to keep them quiet pre-holidays, of course. I was apparently in a sewing mood this year, so the embroidered ornaments/mini-frames are for all the ladies in my family and Colin’s, and the candied walnuts are for the guys. (Since I didn’t think they’d be too interested in the embroidery.)

Squirrels because my sister bought me these Ikea cookie cutters for Christmas in honor of Colin’s squirrel cobbler that I was too chicken to eat. Patterned because when you’ve got a box of 12 fabulous icing colors, who wants to make muddy brown cookies? Used the Kitchn’s best sugar cookie recipe and Alton Brown’s royal icing.

I have to say though, my first foray into schmancy decorated sugar cookies will likely be my last—at least for awhile. I liked them a lot, but if you’re going to do fancy piping there are muchos steps, and for a newbie like me they take muchos time: Making the dough. Chilling the dough overnight. Cutting out the cookies and baking them (no small task, I found, when you’re not exactly equipped with baking gear. No rolling pin, no pastry cloth, nor drying racks for me. Wine bottle, counter top, plate. That’s how I roll.) Making the frosting. Piping the frosting around the edges to outline. “Flooding” some watered-down frosting to coat the whole cookie while carefully spreading with a mini cheese fork (no toothpicks either, as it turns out). Waiting for that to dry. Then finally (the fun part!) piping on the designs. Yeesh.

They tasted pretty good, but let’s face it: these show ponies are really all about the decorations. Which is why I’m posting the cookie porn here. Enjoy!