The Great Cookie Swap 2013

Last year I was a little late to the party (and had just started my blog a month or so earlier), but this year you better believe I had the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap on my radar months in advance. This was such a fun way to get into the holiday spirit and a great way to try different cookie recipes (not to mention gain a few pounds along the way but whatever. So worth it). Here is what I sent to my matches, Kaitlin, Chrissy, and Kendra, which an adaptation from a Better Homes & Gardens recipe. Hopefully they enjoyed their sweet treats!

Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies
yields 24 cookies

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, cut up
1 tablespoon red food coloring
vanilla Almond Bark
pistachios, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut in butter and red food coloring using a pastry blender until mixture resembles a fine crumb. This is going to take awhile, but hey, it will just make you feel a little better about all the dough and cookies you're about to consume. Who needs a Bowflex or Shake Weight when you have a pastry blender?! Guns of steel here we come!

Once the dough starts to cling together, remove from mixing bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Form mixture into a ball, kneading until smooth. Roll dough to a 1/2 inch thickness and cut out dough with a cookie cutter of your choice. I used a cut little flower about an inch wide. Place cutouts 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Please scraps together and re-roll until all dough has been used.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until centers are set. Transfer cookies to a wire rack or wax paper to cool. While cookies are cooling, chop pistachios until they are a fine crumb. Melt almond bark in the microwave in 30 second increments. Be sure to stir between each round to avoid over cooking. Dip half of each cookie into the melted chocolate and sprinkle with chopped pistachios.

Let stand on wax paper until set then enjoy!

FMS Photo a Day: December 8-14

Another week in pictures! If you like what you see, and want to see my other pictures, you can follow me on Instagram by clicking right here.

December 8: Someone You Love - Whilst everyone else is posting pictures
of their boyfriends, girlfriends, fiances, husbands, wives, and what-have-you,
don't mind me. Crazy Cat Lady right here...and proud! 

December 9: Out + About - Johnna's annual cookie/ornament exchange party.
There were so many amazing treats, and cute ornaments! I picked the
snowman, but then it was stolen by Alex so I ended up with the super cute shoe!

December 10: Under - love my little coffee/tea cup hanger under my cabinets.
I especially love it right now since it is spruced up with some cute X-mas ornaments.

December 11: Sweet - Normally I would have a picture of a cookie or cupcake,
or some other delicious baked good when given the opportunity, but remember
I'm trying to be healthy for the next three weeks!?! So instead you get a
picture of Greek yogurt, granola, blueberries, and walnuts. Borrrrrring.

December 12: Hat - Yes this is really a hat that was part of the Fall 2011
Cold Weather assortment at Payless.

December 13: Lights - Cute lights outside of SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza where
I had an early birthday dinner with my friends Mandy and Alex. Yum!

December 14: Something Green - Chicken Thai Noodle salad at Yard House
at my birthday/holiday lunch with my amazing co-workers. Sorry I'm obsessed
with food (hence the overload of food pictures this week). 

Conquering Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing

Give me a cupcake or cake design to tackle, and I can get it done no problem, but sugar cookies and royal icing? Those were completely uncharted territory for me. That is, until yesterday.

I've been lusting over the fabulous cookies at One Preppy Cookie for months now. Seriously, everything she makes is so adorable. I was having major cookie envy so I decided my friend Johnna's annual cookie/ornament exchange party was the perfect excuse to finally bite the bullet and try it out for myself.

Since I'd never really made sugar cookies before (unless you count the slice and bake variety from Pillsbury) I did a quick Google search for the best recipe. I ultimately decided to use one from allrecipes.com:

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

Playing with cookie cutters is so fun! Although I need a bigger collection...

makes 5 dozen

1 1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

I followed the recipe exactly, but now that I think about it, the cookies would have been even better with a little almond extract. Next time I make them I will substitute 1/2 tsp vanilla for 1/2 tsp almond instead. Also, the recipe said it makes 5 dozen cookies. I must have been baking abnormally large cookies because I only ended up with around 3 dozen. Whatever I'm still pretending mine only have 109 calories like the recipe says! :) 

I think the hardest part about making sugar cookies is you have to let the dough chill for at least an hour before you start rolling, cutting, and baking. Otherwise you end up with big, unrecognizable blobs after they've baked. I was working with limited cookie cutters so I made stars, snowflakes, trees, and penguins. I didn't have an oval or Easter egg shaped cookie cutter for the penguins so I got creative and used an oval tupperware. Yes I am unoriginal and copied the penguins that One Preppy Cookie had made, but they were way too cute not to make.  I don't know about you, but I am extremely impatient so once I get started on something I want it to be done right away. Between the chilling, rolling, and cutting, just baking sugar cookies is a pretty big time commitment, but they are worth it when you are finished. Yum!

I was just about baked out after rolling and cutting for several hours
so I called it a night and reconvened the next morning for decorating.

This is why I need a stand mixer. What a mess!

Since I'd also never attempted to make royal icing before, I scoured the Internet for recipes and videos on the best ways to use this icing. I decided on the following recipe from JoyofBaking.com:

Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder

4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
1/2 teaspoon extract
1/2 - 3/4 cup warm water

I used vanilla extract in the frosting too, but I wish I would have used almond. The articles I read online said this icing dried out very quickly so I was a little nervous, but I just covered it with saran wrap when I wasn't using it and I didn't have any issues. I chose to use piping bags to outline my cookies and then I used a spoon to add frosting to the center and "flood" the cookies. This seemed to work out pretty well, but if anyone has any better ideas of how to do it please tell!

Call me crazy, but I find piping to be somewhat therapeutic! 

The stars, snowflakes, and trees were a breeze to decorate since I was only using one color, but the penguins were a little bit trickier. My patience was put to the test yet again because I had to wait for the first layer of icing to dry before I could add the eyes, nose, and feet.I didn't wait quite long enough on some of them and the penguin's eyes bled slightly. Oh well! You live and you learn!

The finished product!

This icing definitely doesn't taste as good as buttercream frosting, but you really can't deny the fact that is makes some pretty cookies! When it dries it has such a smooth, matte finish! I definitely need to keep practicing, but it was fun to try something new for a change!

soirees & sweaters & sweets, oh deer!

I love dressing up, and I love Christmas so it is only natural that I love tacky sweater parties. Lucky for me, I have a couple already planned this season. The first of which is tomorrow afternoon at work. Over the top sweaters. An awkward family photo booth with props. Oh, and did I mention that everyone has to bring their favorite holiday treat?!? I. Can't. Wait.

By now everyone at work is pretty familiar with my baking obsession. I dare say I've set the bar pretty high with some of my past creations for our various treat days so the pressure was really on for me to find something fantastic to make for tomorrow. 

Pumpkin cupcakes for my manager's birthday. Oreo football truffles for a co-worker's
birthday. Watermelon cake balls for our summer barbecue. Oreo cupcakes for Boss's Day.

I'd been perusing Pinterest trying to keep my eye out for cute holiday themed treats, but I just couldn't get over the adorable reindeer cupcakes that I made for a cookie exchange last year. Never one to rest on my laurels, I decided to change them up a bit for the party tomorrow. I didn't have an abundance of time on my hands this evening so I used a boxed chocolate cake mix and store-bought chocolate frosting. Oh the horror! However, if you are feeling like Little Miss Martha Stewart and want to try making these cupcakes from scratch here is my favorite chocolate cake recipe of all time. So good! Seriously people will be knocking down your door for this recipe!

Ready to rock!

After the cupcakes had cooled I started by applying a thin layer of chocolate frosting.

The frosting doesn't have to be perfect since a majority of the cupcake will be covered by a vanilla wafer.

Next add a vanilla wafer and the reindeer's eyes. Last year when I made these cupcakes I used white m&ms as eyes and then added a dot of black frosting for the pupil. This was a little tricky to say the least. Luckily this October when I was killing some time in the seasonal section of Target (my fave!) I came across an amazing invention. Seriously life altering people.

Don't fret! It seems these babies are sold year-round. I saw them at Wal-mart earlier
tonight, and I imagine you can also find them at Hobby Lobby or Michael's as well.

I seriously think these candy eyeballs take the difficulty level of these
cupcakes from a 5-7 down to a 3. Ahhh-mazing!

Now it was time to give the little guy a nose and some ears. I used both brown and red m&ms for the nose (obviously you need some Rudolph's thrown into the mix duh) and Milk Duds for the ears. To get the nose to stick, add a dab of frosting to the side of the m&m with the 'm' on it and press lightly to the vanilla wafer. The Milk Duds were a wee bit trickier. When I started to decorate the first cupcake I just stuck the Milk Duds into the frosting as is, but my reindeer totally looked more like a bear than a deer. FAIL.

Definitely not seeing a deer here. 

Since this approach was clearly not going to work, I decided to try squishing the Milk Duds a little bit at the top to make them more pointed. I definitely think the next cupcake turned out more deer-like. Just make sure you don't mold the Milk Duds for too long, or they will start to melt. 

These might be a little too pointy, but certainly an improvement over the bear!

By far the hardest part of these cupcakes was getting the pretzels to break in appropriate "antler-like" fashion. I wasted a lot of pretzels tonight, but I can assure you my dogs are going to bed with full bellies! ;) 

Yikes!

I guess the beauty in making antlers is they are all different so there really isn't a right way to make them.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3, 4, 5....you get the point.

If you don't want to go to war with the pretzels then I would suggest using the smaller sized pretzels like I used last year. 

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

I think these cupcakes turn out adorable either way! Hopefully they are a hit at the party tomorrow! 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

If you know me then you are well aware of the fact that I have a slight obsession with Christmas (and really just the holiday time frame in general). "All I Want for Christmas is You" along with a plethora of other Christmas carols can be heard blasting in my car, my cube at work, and my apartment beginning on November 1st. You can never start too early. Sorry Thanksgiving!  I apologize in advance for the absurd amount of holiday tradition, cooking, and crafting entries that I will undoubtedly post in the coming weeks, but without further ado my first holiday tradition is...

GINGERBREAD HOUSE DECORATING

Every Thanksgiving weekend, my sisters and I decorate a gingerbread house together. When I say my sisters, what this really means is Brooke and I decorate while Mandy pretends to help (she doesn't share the same enthusiasm that Brooke and I do for baking). The past couple years my mom has gotten us a Mini Gingerbread Village kit so we each assembled and decorated our own separate houses (which means dearest Mandy was forced to participate).

Gingerbread House Decorating 2011 - Can you guess which one Mandy made?
(I apologize for the awful picture quality)

This year my mom bought a Pre-Baked and Pre-Assembled Gingerbread House kit which I feel like was cheating slightly . The most challenging part of a gingerbread house is putting it together. It seems like we never get through a year without having at least one massive collapse (usually after we've decorated a good portion of it). Anyways, this year we got to avoid all that and just focus on making it pretty!

This kit came with the pre-assembled house, candy stars, candy canes, gumdrops, and gummy trees. We had some red, green, and white regular and mint m&ms at the house so we threw those into the mix as well.

Usually Brooke and I like to get creative and try to decorate with some other items not included in the kit. This year the selection at our house was pretty slim, but we did have some chocolate chip cookies my grandma had baked, dry roasted peanuts, and the m&ms pictured above. I also stumbled upon some adorable little gingerbread men on Black Friday at Target. If you like decorating, you can find some really awesome seasonal Wilton products in the holiday section there.

Obsessed. These have to be the cutest thing ever.

Mandy conveniently had physics homework to work on (who does homework over Thanksgiving break!?!? Such an overachiever!) so Brooke and I were on our own tackling this house. We decided to make a classy gingerbread house this year so we didn't go overboard with candy and used only a red/white/green color scheme. We used the peanuts for stonework if you will, and crumbled a cookie for the path to the front door. We also used some white sanding sugar to cover the frosting on the cardboard base to make it look more like snow.

Definitely an improvement over last year!

Considering what we had to work with, I think it turned out pretty cute! Maybe next year we will be more adventurous and try assembling one from scratch! If anyone else has any pictures of gingerbread houses they've decorated I would love to see them! Now what to do with my remaining 10 little gingerbread men...